USAID/Jakarta's strategic use of empirical information

Missions comply with the A.I.D. policy that management decisions be based on hard, empirical evidence varies greatly from Mission to Mission. This paper describes the exemplary performance of USAID/Jakarta in this area. The paper sketches and exemplifies the three stages in the evolution of the Mission's strategy for using empirical information - developing problem-oriented evaluations, coordinating information activities for project, program, and policy purposes, and disseminating information to potential users - and delineates the central roles played in this evolution by the Mission Director, the Project and Program Support Office and the Evaluation Section, and Mission technical offices. The report also specifies problems limiting the Mission's further improvement and greater use of its information system. A review of the lessons which other Missions can learn from USAID/Jakarta's experience stresses the need for a clear commitment to information activities by senior Mission managers and active involvement therein by the Mission Director; insights for developing a Mission information strategy are also provided. A concluding section suggests that in the face of the low priority accorded within the Agency to information activities (in fact, if not in policy), A.I.D. focus on developing regional information services rather than in-house Mission capabilities.