Social services training project : mid-point evaluation report (final)

Special mid-term evaluation covers the period through 3/83 and is based on interviews with project and Moroccan personnel, document review, and site visits. Most activities are behind schedule. Although the National Institute of Social Action (INAS) has been established and has provided short- (2-4 week) and long-term (2-year) training to, respectively, 159 and 103 midlevel MAAS personnel, the INAS still lacks legal status, students have no libraries or textbooks, no placement assistance will be provided to the first (6/83) graduating class (43 persons), and lack of information on the jobs these students will perform indicates that INAS curricula cannot be revised to reflect relevant skills. None of the five planned pilot skills-training centers for women are yet operative, nor, due to project design ambiguities, have students been identified. There is discussion of training monitrices, or alternatively, of training poor local women and foregoing replication of the pilot centers throughout the country. Participant training is also behind schedule. Of 14 persons targeted, 3 have received training in France and are now teaching at INAS, 1 is completing studies in France, 1 has dropped out, and 5 are preparing to depart for the United States; no plans have been made for the remaining 4 slots. Delays in participant training have partially affected the planned establishment of a MAAS evaluation unit, still far from developed. The 13 vocational training centers run by PCV's, on the other hand, are well on target; some 900 young men will have been trained by Summer 1983. With PCV's due to depart soon, replacement Moroccan teachers must be appointed immediately. Project experience shows the need for: increased care during the design phase in order to avoid inaccuracies and discrepancies that might complicate implementation; tangible evidence on the potential of each party to meet their commitments to the project; and more frequent monitoring and evaluation. Specific recommendations address project deficiencies.