PVO co-financing II project

The evaluation, which focused on the project"s institution-building aspects, covered the period 1985-87, and was based on document review, site visits, and interviews with IPVO, Thai government, and Mission officials. The 10 subprojects (SP"s) funded to date represent a variety of innovative activities and have effectively addressed the needs of the poor. The role played by IPVO"s in SP"s is increasing. Project TA has been very effective in providing hands-on consultation and encouraging newer, development-oriented groups to seek project assistance; training workshops, however, were less successful as they were formal and academic and took a very narrow view of the the kind of assistance that IPVO"s needed. As IPVO"s have a comparative advantage in reaching the poor and thus fulfilling A.I.D. development goals, the project should continue its institution-building activities, especially those directed at increasing project sustainability, and IPVO monitoring, evaluation, and information dissemination capacities. A broader group of IPVO"s should be targetted and a coordinated approach to training and assisting IPVO"s should be developed in consultation with other donors and with U.S. PVO"s; the project should also survey the many indigenous organizations capable of providing TA. Workshops should be designed to provide a forum for disseminating and comparing SP experiences, to explore different strategies for establishing local organizations to sustain project activities, and to encourage self-help efforts. Finally, the Mission should continue to review its procedures to further simplify them, and shorten the processing time for proposals. The major lessons are: first, USAID/T should become more informed about similar activities by other donors and by U.S. PVO"s, and should encourage more collaboration among the variety of groups with an interest in and capacity for assisting IPVO"s; and second, effectively provided, hands-on TA can improve the capacity of IPVO"s. (Author abstract, modified)