Project assistance completion report (PACR) : FUNDAZUCAR [Fundacion del Azucar] girls' education component of the Basic Education Strengthening (BEST) project (no. 520-0374)

FUNDAZUCAR implemented the project interventions as designed, although the objective to establish matching arrangements for contributions of funds, services, or resources from other entities was dropped in 12/94. Specific results were as follows: (1) The scholarship package was the most effective of the incentives for keeping girls in school and completing primary grades, especially grades 1-3 and most of all the first grade, in which the dropout rate for girls in rural schools is over 40%. (2) The educational materials package showed some potential for increasing attendance and overall completion rates, although promotion rates were lower in the intervention group for girls in upper grades and especially for girls in first grade. (3) The outreach package (visits by outreach personnel to work with parent committees on the importance of keeping girls in school) was not an effective incentive, especially in terms of first grade promotion, where project girls were 10% below the comparison group. (4) None of the intervention packages appears to have had an impact on classroom interaction and participation patterns, most likely because the scholarship and outreach packages were focused more on the school level than the classroom level. (5) Of the three packages, the scholarship package was the most cost-effective. Institutionalization and sustainability objectives were partially met. Although FUNDAZUCAR determined that it would not continue to implement girls' education programs in the six Departments where the pilot project had focused, the Ministry of Education (MOE) was so convinced of the need to expand the scholarship program that it financed 4,000 girls' scholarships in 1996 and over 35,000 scholarships in 1997, establishing an agreement with a different NGO (FUNRURAL) to manage the program with a strong focus on the predominantly indigenous areas. A 1997-98 Center for Development Information and Evaluation (CDIE) assessment found that the program achieved numerous successes, including: making basic education for girls a pressing issue; promoting a strong interest in girls' education among some leading business firms and other private sector groups; conducting an experimental pilot project that produced substantive evidence of the impact of scholarships on girls' attendance and retention in school; creating interest in the MOE in girls' education; producing more gender-friendly classroom and teacher materials; and increasing student self-esteem by highlighting the importance of girls and by using indigenous languages. On the negative side, the CDIE study found that the program was marked by: an inability to affect substantial system-wide change in the MOE regarding gender; weak integration and institutionalization of gender-sensitive curriculum and teacher training into MOE plans; uneven investment and performance of the private sector in favor of girls' education; and the exclusion of important voices of civil society, particularly Mayan and women's groups, in the effort to promote girls' education. USAID/Guatemala made a strategic choice to establish a small pilot program to test interventions through a private sector NGO rather than pursue system-wide sustainable impacts through the MOE. The CDIE study criticized that choice, arguing that the project neglected the post-experimental phase of scaling up the effort. It further argued that USAID should have considered incorporating the girls' component into other BEST components, such as the One Room School (NEU) component, where it could have had a greater possibility of expansion. Another lesson generated from this project is that separation of girls' education issues from other women in development issues is not productive. Within a democracy, women are an increasingly strong political force and, potentially, a voice for girls' needs and interests. The USAID project missed the opportunity for this type of engagement by focusing efforts within the MOE and the elite business sector.