Project assistance completion report : grant no. 522-ESF-0258, International Executive Service Corps

Most project objectives were accomplished. The project provided assistance to 186 businesses (against a target of 100) and in the last year had a higher level of activity (112 agreements signed) than IESC efforts in any other country. Assistance was provided in diverse sectors of the economy and in a wide variety of skill areas. IESC"s effectiveness in terms of employment generation, productivity, sales improvement, and profit management was evident from interviews and anecdotal evidence. Client satisfaction was high and the overwhelming majority of clients believed they received much more assistance than they had specifically contracted. Four major lessons were learned. (1) Guidelines for selecting and charging IESC clients need to be established. (2) IESC"s marketing efforts must be more focused and expanded, with target numbers for projects and an advertising budget. (3) The establishment of field offices is necessary to expand the number of projects and sectors served. (4) Achievement indicators need to be developed to measure project impact.