Social progress indicators, El Salvador : project evaluation

Special evaluation covers the period 5/79-12/80 and is based on document review and discussions with project personnel. Five of seven planned SPI"s have been developed and are being incorporated into Salvadorean Government (SG) policymaking. The existence of a system for periodic socioeconomic data collection has been helpful in that most of the survey data is basic and useful. However, the survey questionnaire was hastily patterned after models not particularly well-suited to developing nations (e.g., it excludes housewives" economic activity and masks underemployment). The quality of the indicators themselves is uneven. The employment SPI has through its simplicity improved upon previous SG employment indicators. The education SPI, measuring literacy and schooling, is straightforward but would be improved by inclusion of an overage variable. The health SPI includes morbidity, medical attention, hospitalization, disability, vaccination, and alcoholism, but does not address mental health status and is based on data which is infrequently gathered. The validity of the food consumption SPI, based on a 7-day food recall survey and the National Household Consumption Survey, has not been fully documented, and in fact results from this indicator are at odds with other studies. The housing SPI is unfinished but appears weakened by attempting to describe housing conditions both by sector and over time and by the grouping of unrelated variables. Regarding the general variables upon which all the SPI"s are based, the sociological control variables are clear, but the economic control variables do not reflect the informal and rural sectors of the economy. The evaluators present specific recommendations regarding each SPI and conclude that the Salvadorean SPI"s are applicable to other Central American countries, but that some countries, lacking systems for periodic data collection, may not find the SPI"s cost-effective. In addition, SPI"s can only signal changes and needs; decisionmakers must determine the causes and the appropriate remedial actions.