Project assistance completion report : data collection and analysis project (263-0142)

All training activities for staff of the Agricultural Economics Research Institute (AERI) and the Undersecretary for Agricultural Economics and Statistics (U/AES) were accomplished. The project funded four Ph.D. candidates, all of whom are expected to return to Egypt by 10/89, as well as U.S. short-term training or observational tours for some 140 persons, all of whom have returned, with the majority making use of skills and knowledge gained. Trainees acquired technical skills in such areas as objective yield forecasting, cost of production estimation, farm income estimation, farm labor data estimation, poultry production data estimation, dairy production data estimation, channel data marketing for horticultural crops, list frame construction, and data processing. Additionally, the project sponsored over 35 seminars, workshops, and conferences, the most impressive of which was an agricultural economic policy reform seminar attended by senior government officials and representatives of 9 Arab countries and several international organizations. In addition, considerable TA was provided, and substantial progress made in tailoring methodologies to the Egyptian context. The project also issued more than 20 commodity and input reports, along with 5 policy studies and other papers, and established a computer center at U/AES. Despite these achievements, only limited progress was made in developing institutional systems for generating data on a nationwide basis, due mainly to lack of cooperation and coordination between AERI and U/AES. This failure is in turn related to the traditional bureaucratic context in Eqypt, which is not conducive to the sharing of authority. Progress was also hindered by the apparent lack of demand for improved statistics, and by USAID/E's lack of attention to the project. Lessons learned include the following. (1) The acquisition of new technical skills and sophisticated equipment is not sufficient to increase the output of a recipient organization. In addition, there must be an organizational capability and the desire to use those skills. (2) Policy studies must be an integral part of project activities and they must also be desired by senior host government officials. (3) More attention must be given to the selection of candidates and their English language skills. Ph.D. training in this project had to be extended due to poorly prepared candidates.