Midterm evaluation of the technical assistance and support project, India

Mid-term evaluation covers the period 1988-9/94. The project has been extremely flexible and successful in spanning a period in which the relationship between the Government of India (GOI) and the USAID has improved and the GOI has embarked upon a series of far-reaching economic reforms. It has funded 21 diverse activities, most of which were related to economic growth; there were also activities related to the environment, food policy and food relief, public administration, and scientific and educational exchanges. These activities included policy analysis and research, TA, training seminars, dissemination conferences, and participant training. Funding levels ranged from $9,000 to $3 million, and duration from 1 week to 6 years. Because of the broad range of activities and implementation methods the project's impact was difficult to evaluate. Another factor impeding evaluation was the project design, which contained vague goals and objectives and which therefore did not lend itself to identification with any one USAID strategic component or implementation method. However, some trends have emerged. High-impact activities have been those related to technical redirection leading to economic growth, while activities that tried to use the project as an implementation mechanism (possibly because they lacked an individual or technical office that had ownership of or interest in them from conception through implementation) have had a lower impact, as have small, short-term activities involving seminars and dissemination. Due in part to the GOI's economic liberalization policy and USAID/India's project portfolio, which now features an economic growth component through 2000, the project was redirected in 1991 toward the goal of promoting economic growth. However, it still needs to establish a strategy for achieving this goal, as well as specific technical objectives. Brief descriptions of the 20 grants funded so far under the project are included among the appendices.