Regional export management training project

Evaluation covered the period FY86-6/88. Overall project performance has been good to excellent. Under the export management training component, INCAE is providing good case studies and excellent competitiveness seminars; the MBA summer internship program is also functioning fairly well. Major concerns are (1) the use of ROCAP scholarship funds as an entry fee subsidy to INCAE for the competitiveness seminars, and (2) INCAE"s lack of a focused, export-oriented approach to these seminars and its toleration of project-funded open admissions. Under the component to strengthen export management training at other institutions, INCAE has conducted two good university professor training programs and is also providing consulting assistance to groups of university faculty and staff with reasonable success. However, the university professor scholarship program is not likely to have a discernible impact on university departments. In the third component, INCAE"s Center for Policy Studies and Applied Economics has made major advances in establishing policy dialogue seminars, although there are several administrative issues between INCAE and ROCAP that need working out. Finally, the INCAE institution-building component is functioning smoothly - library acquisitions are being made, physical construction is complete, and the low-income scholarship program is functioning well; the faculty renewal program needs revision, however. There was some evidence that certain project activities were not sufficiently emphasizing nontraditional exports, but this has been addressed and corrected wherever possible. While it has not been possible to verify increases of nontraditional exports, it should be noted that more than 2,000 Central American managers have been trained at INCAE over the past 3 years, about half of them directly or indirectly involved in export promotion. Also, project-generated policy dialogue has enhanced the political climate for nontraditional exports, although no specific policies or legislation can be traced to the project. Principal recommendations are to: (1) improve integration of the four project components so they work together toward export-oriented outputs; (2) plan realistically for sustainability; and (3) develop a coordinated system for tracking project impacts. ROCAP praises the evaluation and agrees with most of its recommendations, many of which have either been completed or at least initiated. Lessons learned include the need for large projects to address the issue of central leadership and coordination, as well as the need for long-term sustainability planning by counterpart institutions.