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MATCHING VOLUNTEEF SUPPLY TO CHANGING NEEDS: A NEW DIVEFSITY

l) While considering the following reccmrrendations, it should ce kept in mind that the Fa~el thinks that Peace

- i Corps should keep OFen opportunities for "generalists". The

panel understands that tt:e "generalist" fills a vital role in promoting development. The following recomrr~ndations are a response to the changing needs of the host countries in regards to their greater need for more "technically skilled" volunteers . It is hoped that Peace Corps can provide a

sreater number of these skilled volunteers in addition to the more traditional "generalist" type volunteers that

c~rrently make up the Pec:.ce Corps.

2) The panel wishe3 to emphasize that the preservation of t .he "spirit" of the Pe2ce Ccrps (the uniqueness of the Peace Coq:.s which lies in its goals 2 and 3) is of the ctmost importance and should not be comprcmised in tr.e in! f.lE~me· ntatio~ of the following re:~comrr+: ndations.

3) Keeping in mi.nd the above stateme~ts, the Fa~~l

reccntrt:E : ~ds tr:e follcwir.g strategies to recruit, train and ~;t. C!ff a grEc:.ter n un,be·r c·f tE:crmically ex:r:..eri er,ced vol ur.te e rs like s~nicrs or mid-career pecple.

It is rEcorr:n·ended t.r.at. tl':e PectCE Ccrps ree}~ arr:ine: Fr e~:E: nt Peace Cc·rps pol ic ie s that. make it d i ffic ul t tc r Ecr u it mere tect:rd .ca 1 J y tr a inE:Cl volur.,teers a~C'. d e:!v elop altErnate program models.

a) Allow a volunteer who fulfills a scc:.rce

techni ca l need to bri~g his/her dependant(s) provided the },e,c:.lth st.a r;c ards of the cot.:ntry permit.

b) Ccnsider a variable le~gth of service,

e . g . a two tier lengtl': of service program. This le~gtl': of ser·vice El',oul c. be ct ninin,um such that t .he prograrr1 rE:rr.ains

c:o~;t e f f ect.i ve.

c) En cov rage technically tra inE·d RFCV' s to ~.e r ve again in the Peace Cc rps fer a st:crter lengtt: of tj.rne .

d) Im pl err' E~nt strc· nge:~ r ''up frc·r,tu

f.l ogr·cn1nling C•n t.r:e p;:,r t of t.he P<.;a ce Cc·rps to allov\ t.l':e 'iC.•lurtee::r to mc,re effectively utilize his/he·r time. TI1is f.;f!Ould incluce t.l'::e idE:ntificatic'n a~d c:.quisitic·n cf

rEsources needed tc carry ot.:t the vclunteer's job. This v;c•uld prevent. hisr, E.T. ratE:s tf: c:,t cftE:n go alc•ns wit.h [-• rc. grarn~: r E:quirinc:;; h i gr.ly s k illed "-olu nteer s.

e) 1hErE: should b e a greater flexi.tility

r ~ga rding living allow~r;ce ar;d living conditions. (Caution: t.r:e living allcv:c:nc:e E·l'KlUld rE~rr.ain c:(lmpa rctble to tr:e

"

f) 'l'be training cc•rnpc•nent of te·chnical volunteers sl:ould address tl-.e s-pecial nE:eds and issue-s asscciatec \vi.th a tecl-.nical assig~~ent.

a) Better links should be develofed b~t-~een Fe6ce

... J

Ccrr:-s and private professic•nal asf.;Ociat.ions, universities, ar:C: PVO' s in order to facilitate training, recruitmE!r,t, scree:ninq , financing c•.nd re:assinilation of highly

~ echLically traine~ volunteers.

f) Stronger links should be develop~d betwee~

Pe ace Ccrps and specific cc~wunities ~nd con~unity

ir ~; t i tutions which nd ght. wi sr, tc "spow:cr" a vol unt e:er (fer

exa mple the Charr.ber of Comme rce cr churches.)

4} TlJE: panel realizes that. the implementation of the a'CC·'-·e: rec:o.n1rr·er.da tieD s wc•uld re q uire addi tic.na 1 funding and

Huggests the following to rai.s e these additional funds: E:mployees

c-: s a tyf-e training,

a) Work through a fo cnda tion

b) Privat.e "partnership type" funding for

of a partic;ular cc•mpar1y who y,·culd join Peace Coq::-s of sabbat icc: 1 which wculd cover trte cof.;t_ ~, c-f

equipr:E:nt, progrc. It'•mir~s anc recruit.ing.

c) Fc·r acc1itionc:l public fu ndf.; , a grE'ctter e~pl : asis

should te placed on quality as oppcsed to ~u~ntity of

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by Jerry Eckert and David Harpman Presented to the National Seminar on

Future Directions for the Peace Corps

Fort Co111ns, Colorado July 9, 1986

Increasing the Developmental Impact of the Peace Corps

by

Jerry Eckertl and Dave Harpman2

U.S. development assistance flows to the Third World through several institutional channels, each with their own unique characteristics. Among the most important of these are the Peace Corps and the U.S. Agency for

International Development. These two agencies differ markedly in their philosophy, personnel and implementation methods. Both have their strengths and weaknesses in the development context. Our purpose today is to review and contrast selected aspects of these two agencies, drawing from them an

institutional logic for a new program concept which, we suggest, might become an important part of the Peace Corps' second 25 years.

Operational Strengths and Weaknesses

The U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer program has traditionally placed young volunteers with Bachelors degrees in field positions. These volunteers are highly regarded for their attitude, abilities, and desire to facilitate field level projects. For the most part Peace Corps Volunteers project a very favorable image in the third world, are highly visible in rural areas, and excel in one-on-one, training environments. Their lack of family obligations,

idealism, and physical energy make them perfectly suited to small scale, "grass roots" projects in remote and difficult locations.

The program does have a number of weaknesses, however. One concern is that the average volunteer has only lindted professional training and

1Professor of Development Economics and Director, Gambian Mixed Farming Project, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.

2RPCV and Ph.D. candidate, Department of Agricultural and Natural Resou rce Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.

experience. Recruitment of older and more skilled Volunteers continues to be a perennial problem for the Peace Corps (1, p. 1). Second, volunteers are often posted individually and stationed in remote locations, thus pre-empting chances for on-the-job training, exchange of ideas and cross fertilization with the resultant synergism one often finds in team efforts.

Third, Volunteer efforts suffer from a lack of operational support. The Peace Corps implementation philosophy precludes heavy infusions of operational and logistic support from U.S. sources. And since Volunteers are sometimes assigned to activities outside the mainstream of host country development priorities, host country support and interest can be constrained as well.

In the USAID arena, the contracted professional is the individual most similarly charged with day to day involvement with host country nationals in development projects. These individuals are drawn largely from private contracting firms an d from Title XII universities. A Masters degree an d 2-4 years applied exper ience constitute an ap proximate minimum set of credentials. Title XII faculty more often will possess Doctoral degrees while contracting firm personnel are likely to offer significantly higher years of overseas experience. These professional skills an d experience constitute valuab l e assets to the development effort.

Contract professionals are most often clustered aroun d proj ect foc i , where, together with their counterparts, a great deal of professional

interaction occurs. These projects are amply supported with commodities, operating budgets, management attention, short term s pecialized consultancies and participant training. This level of support is drawn not only from USAID but also from the host country, sometimes at great expense in terms of other l ocal government programs which l anguish f or lack of resources.

3

0

Yet there are inherent weaknesses in th~ USAID contract mpde of

development assistance as well. Senior contract personnel, with dependents and an accustomed urban lifestyle, are occasionally reticent to devote large

.amounts of time to field work, especially in remote, poorer regions. Their advanced training sometimes imbues them with an academic orientation that does not synch well with practical development needs. Title XII personnel often operate overseas with refereed publication as a hidden agenda, either through their own volition or forced on them by their institutions.

Currently PCVs average just over 28 years of age (2, p. 16) while USAID contractor employees average very nearly 50 years. This single factor lies, in part, behind two significant differences affecting the programs of both

agencies. At the tangible level is the cost factor, discussed more fully below.

Less tangible, but no less important, is the implicit effect of age on the structure of communications with host country nationals. Contract

professionals are in a position to communicate directly with senior scientists and administrators in the host government. This access is invaluable for certain project needs such as obtaining operating support or suggesting

required changes in policy or institutional functioning. Relationships between contractor employees and local junior staff or field technicians are more

likely to be that of teacher:student under good circumstances and authority:underl1ng at the other end of the spectrum.

Peace Corps Volunteers, on the other hand, have little access to decision makers in the host government. Their strength lies in their capacity for a peer relationship with local nationals at the intermediate and junior levels of government. Ideally, a peer relationship makes development a shared experience

and the training and attitudes imparted in the process are more wholly

internalized. In the longer run, this dynamic can have an enormous impact on economic and social growth.

Other subtle considerations are associated with age. For one, PCVs are much less likely to be impeded by their expectations of deference to a self-assumed status. And in the extreme, the "more grey is better" school of

thought virtually guarantees that some contract professionals will be unable to withstand the long hours and physical demands of sustained field operations. The Cost Factor

One of the more important comparisons in the present era of shrinking budgets lies in the average cost per person year of overseas service. Such comparisons are difficult due to the widely varying bases on which costs are tabulated. However, our analysis has attempted to develop estimates portraying the direct costs of the working professional or volunteer overseas. "Overhead" costs have been excluded, such as the Washington bureaucracies , the in-country USAID Mission or Peace Corps Director and the Peace Corps office, centrally provided medical personnel, commissaries, etc. Remaining are in-country salaries and attendant cost loadings, readjustment allowances, travel, other allowances and institutional indirect costs where applicable. All training costs for Volunteers are included since they are considered essential to

performance and are directly allocable to individuals.

Actual costs per Peace Corps Volunteer year for fiscal 1985 were provided by the Office of the Associate Director for International Operations .

Excluding medical support, these costs can be summarized as follows . The bottom line is a cost of $12,846 per volunteer year.

Volunteer support w/o medical U.S. preservice training In-field preservice training In-field inservice training

Total 5 Dollars HQ 3791 839 1190 _..5.a 5878

per Volunteer Ye~

fJili

I2:W.

4,845 8,636 1,720 _!0.1 6,968 839 2,910 ___A.Q_l 12,846

By contrast we have estimated costs for university contract employees using the assumption of one wife and two dependent children, one over .12 and one under 12 years of age. We estimate the direct cost of a contract

individual at $135,000 per year of service, more than 10 times the cost of a Volunteer year. Completely annotated estimates appear in the appendix for those who wish to adjust the many assumptions involved. However, revising our assumptions in various ways makes little difference in the magnitude of this comparison.

It might be argued that greater than 80 percent of these contract expenditures accrue directly to the U.S. economy. This seems to us an

irrelevant argument. The more significant consideration ought to involve the number of contact days per million dollars or some other cost effectiveness measure of the interaction between Americans and Third World nationals. One must ask, in a period of budget stringency, how long can Americqn foreign assistance continue to rely on conventional contracting modes for services abroad.

We have recently passed through a period in which host country contracts were in vogue with USAID. Many nations had a first-hand, eye opening look at the distribution of dollar costs within their foreign assistance. Whether this emphasis continues or not, it is instructive to place ourselves in the aid

recipients place for a moment, rather than the donors', and consider one of their views on alternative resource uses.

Perhaps the most universal development need, certainly in Africa and undoubtedly in many other countries as well, is higher education. USAID participant training in the U.S., with a full academic program and USDA/OICD overhead at 25 percent, currently runs $25,000 per calendar year. If one accepts this figure as the opportunity cost, e.g. the next best expenditure of foreign assistance money, then the comparison is daunting. A two-year, senior professional under a university contract utilizes the same resources as would ten years or more of participant training. At current rates of completion for foreign students, that adds up to three, perhaps four, Bachelors degrees or four or five Masters degrees. By contrast, a two year PCV costs little more than two semesters of study.

It is tempting to suggest comparing the discounted present value of the long term benefit stream from a two-year expatriate versus three or four B.S. degrees for local nationals. Perhaps fortunately, productivity figures for both cases are miss i ng, making such analysis impossible. Nevertheless, the question is obvious and the probable conclusion inescapable. One can

understand, given these costs, why African government officials, most of whom make less than a half-ti me graduate research assistant in a U.S. university, insist on very senior, very experienced expatriates on the i r contract t eams. With no control over costs, they can at l east try to maxi mi ze t he exper ience "purchased" per dollar.

II. The Professional Volunteer Corps

Foreign assistance relationships in coming decades will occur i n an environment characterized by at least three significant differences from t he

past. First is a heightened awareness of cost factors of the type discussed above. Second, t he gradual accumul ation of education and skills by Third World

7

nationals obviates much of the need for expatriates with only B.S. degrees. This transition is well advanced in much of Asia and moving rapidly in Latin and Central America. Third, the days of pat answers and transplantable models drawn from the developed countries'· experience are gone, if, indeed, they ever existed. This factor obviates the utility of at least some of the experience of senior expatriate technicians. Foreign assistance in the future must be staffed by individuals who can recognize host country leadership, constraints and needs, and can be effective within an institutional framework that

expresses Third World, not First World cultures.

Within this environment, and building on the analysis above, it is

possible to suggest characteristics of an ideal project. Our vision calls for a project that captures the Peace Corps Volunteers' enthusiasm and commitment as well as their ability to work at grass roots levels under difficult village conditions.

To these basically personal characteristics we would add advanced

professional training, coupled with a professionally demanding job description.-We would ensure that project leadership possessed demonstrated skills in team building an d interdisciplinarity. Further, at the team l eader level, t he project should link effectively with decision making levels within both the host country government and t he U.S. foreign assistance program.

This concept ion may not be as idealistic as one mi ght think. We both currently work on a project with most of these characteristics; CSU's domestic f arming systems project in the San Lui s Valley of Colorado.

The program needs and concerns developed above coalesce, in our min ds, to suggest a new component to the American presence abroad. One mi ght consi der it

as something of a post-graduate Peace Corps. The essence of the idea is captured in our proposed program name; the Professional Volunteer Corps.

To elaborate, we envision a program 1n which projects are staffed largely with Volunteers holding graduate degrees or the equivalent in experience. To ensure a professional experience, PVC Volunteers should be assigned to clearly defined positions with substantive responsibilities, well defined output

expectations and responsive to some point of leadership and supervision. One obvious use for the PVC volunteer could be to serve in a line position in a given Ministry, freeing the local incumbent to pursue degree training abroad.

But of greater potential would be grouping PVC personnel around an organized project activity. In this way, a critical mass (often

in~erd1sciplinary) can be achieved with respect to ideas, energy and

performance. Furthe rmore, the project format provides a structuring of activities and rel ationships designed to generate clear development impacts •

. Cl ustering PVC personnel into projects or coherent programs woul d

contribute in several additional ways. First, a project has an identi ty which commands attention in Ministerial affairs, much more so than the same number of

people scattered about on individual assi gnments. Second, a project is an institutional entity to which program support f unding, commodities and

partici pant training facilitites can be attached. With good management t hese components can mul t i ply t he i mpact of pe rsonal services si gnif icantly. Third, the project format brings several young Americans and their counterparts

together facing common problems and sharing work experiences. One would expect a signif icant amount of i nfecti ous enthusiasm among t he grou p, much more so than with mi d-, or l~te caree r uni versity faculty. Thi s enthusiasm can l ead to

9

performance. The prospect of this dynamic is not good with either dispersed volunteers or with older, institution bound employees.

We would suggest one senior, experienced individual be considered as team leader, largely to ensure effective project representation with higher

officials of the host country and other donors. Given the potential that we foresee for PVC projects, it is essential to have an effective point of influence that links a project directly to the decision making levels in a nation's development effort. Unfortunately, seniority is an expected credential 1n most Third World nations if this role is to be filled well.

We propose that team members receive salaries, but at paraprofessional levels, thus preserving the concept of voluntarism. Furthermore, benefits would be strictly limited to those truly essential to well being, including modest allowances for children's education, medical care, housing and

unaccompanied baggage. Further, there seems no legitimate reason why these limits should not also apply to the team leader. The appendix estimates a cost of $26,000 per person year under these assumptions.

The program both suggests a need and provides the vehicle for much closer collaboration between the Peace Corps and USAID. We envision jointly designed projects, fully integrated within USAID's Country Development Support

Strategies. Project fun di ng would be provided by USAID consistent with

established practices. Staffing and management of PVC projects would fall to the Peace Corps.

A Professional Volunteer Corps offers several possible contributions to the overall U.S. foreign assistance effort. First is the chance for much more cost effective technical assistance. Second, an increased capacity for field work and village contact should result. Third, the Peace Corps should find its

> ability to attract and place professionally skilled individuals greatly enhanced. Fourth, by providing a post-graduate opportunity for substantive overseas assignments, the program should contribute to the supply of entry level professionals that will sustain the foreign assistance community in the long run. Fifth, give the younger structure of field teams that the PVC would

/

offer, the bureaucratic level of influence of their efforts, of their

\

interpersonal contacts with counterparts, will likely be lower in the host '\

country bureaucracy and with younger counterparts. Thus, the values and \

concepts transferred will likely remain in active use for longer periods. Si xth, the Peace Corps would find their programs to be central to developing countries' needs and their output to be considerably more substantive.

In summary, the Professional Volunteer Corps offers a novel blend of Peace Corps commitment and USAID project clout. Taken together, the two suggest a new, hig hly effective and much less expensive foreign assistance thrust with a wide array of possible benefits. The i dea was born while evaluating the exceptionally productive tours of Peace Corps Volunteers assigned to USAID/Title XII projects in Lesotho, Gambia, and elsewhere. Several of the program ideas proposed here are presently being tested in the f i eld under t he Peace Corps African Food Systems Initiative. Early readings have been quite positive. We suggest that the concept be formally consi dered as a new, an d maj or, directi on for the Peace Corps. We are conf ident t hat the response will be enthusiastic and that the Professional Vol unteer Corps can play a significant role in the Peace Corps' next 25 years.

REFERNEh Es _ll/

1. Peace Corps, 1984. Peace Corps Forward Plan 1985-1987, Washington, D.C.

11

Appendix: Estimated Annual Comparative Costs1 Item Salary Overseas IncentiveS Fringe Benefits Post differential SUBTOTAL: Remuneration A---:

Travel to/from Poft9 R&RIH.L. Travel Emergency Travell2 Education Allowance HHE Shipping

HHE Storage in U.S. Unaccompanied Baggage Shipping of POV

Housing Utilities

TOTAL: Direct Costs Indirect Costsl8 GRAND TOTAL

AID

Contractor2 4s,ooo4 2,250 9,4506 7,0888 63,925 7,200 2,9oo10 720 4,ooo13 6,000 1,800 3,000 5,000 7,20015 2,4oo16 104,145 31.245 135,390 Professional Volunte5r Corps 15,000 16,072 3,600 1,ooo11 240 20014 2,000 3,ooo17 26,112 26,112

Sources and Assumptions Used in theAppendix 1. Personnel direct costs only, not including Peace Corps or AID

administrative or support offices in Washington or in-country. 2. Spouse and two children, one aged below 12.

3. Spouse only. 4. Approximate 1985 average. 5. Conventional 10% X 0.5 probability. 6. Average of 20 percent. 7. FICA only. 8. Average of 15 percent.

9. Average one way ticket at $1,800.

10. Average round trip to designated R+R point at $1,000. 11. $500 in-country vacation allowance per person.

12. Average roun d tri p to central U.S. at $2,400. Weighted by assumi ng emergency travel taken by 1 in 10 volunteers and 3 in 10 AID contractors annually.

13. Approximated at $2,000/child year. Seat-of-the-pants guess to capture chil dren below school age, primary tuitions at ca. $1,000, secondary tuitions at cs. $2,500 and a few boarding school chil dren at $12,500. 14. Pri mary tuit i on at $1,000 X assumpt i on of one school chi ld for every f ive

volunteers.

15. $600/month.

16. $200/month.

17. $250/month allowance for Volunteer style housing.

18 . Approximate we ig hted average of on-campus and off-campus rates at 30 percent.

Increasing the Develop.ental l111pact of the Peace Corps

by Jerry Eckert and David Harpllilll Presented to the National S.inar on

Future Directions for the Peace Corps

Fort Collins, Colorado

by

Jerry Eckertl and Dave Harpman2

u.s.

development assistance flows to the Third World through several

institutional channels, each with their own unique characteristics. Among the most important of these are the Peace Corps and the U.S. Agency for

International Development. These two agencies differ markedly in their philosophy, personnel and implementation methods. Both have their strengths and weaknesses in the development context. Our purpose today is to review and contrast selected aspects of these two agencies, drawing from them an

institutional logic for a new program concept which, we suggest, might become an important part of the Peace Corps' second 25 years.

Operational Strengths and Weaknesses

The U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer program has traditionally placed young volunteers with Bachelors degrees in field positions. These volunteers are highly regarded for their attitude, abilities, and desire to facilitate field level projects. For the most part Peace Corps Volunteers project a very favorable image 1n the third world, are highly visible 1n rural areas, and excel in one-on-one, training environments. Their lack of family obligations, idealism, and physical energy make them perfectly suited to small scale, "grass roots" projects in remote and difficult locations.

The program does have a number of weaknesses, however. One concern is

---that the average volunteer has only limited professional training and

1_{Professor of Development Economics and Director, Gambian Mixed Farming}

Project, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.

2RPCV and Ph.D. candidate, Department of Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado.

2

experience. Recruitment of older and more skilled Volunteers continues to be a perennial problem for the Peace Corps (1, p. 1). Second, volunteers are often posted individually and stationed in remote locations, thus pre-empting chances for on-the-job training, ~change of ideas and cross ferjjl1~ation with the

resultant synergism one often finds in team efforts.

Third, Volunteer efforts suffer from a lack of[operational

suppor~

The Peace Corps implementation philosophy precludes heavy infusions of operational and logistic support from U.S. sources. And since Volunteers are sometimes assigned to activities outside the mainstream of host country development priorities, host country support and interest can be constrained as well.

In

the~rena,

the contracted _professional is the individual most

similarly charged with day to day involvement with host country nationals in development projects. These individuals are drawn largely from private

contracting firms and from Title XII universities. A Masters degree and~

years applied experience constitute an approximate minimum set of

--

credenti~ls.

-..:..---

---Title XII faculty more often will possess Doctoral degrees while contracting firm personnel are likely to offer significantly higher years of overseas experience. These professional skills and experience constitute valuable assets to the development effort.

Contract professionals are most often clustered around project foci, where, together with their counterparts, a great deal of professional

interaction occurs. These projects are amply supported with commodities,

~

operating budgets, management attention, short term specialized consultancies and participant training, This level of support is drawn not only from USAID but also from the host country, sometimes at great expense in terms of other

Yet there are inherent weaknesses in the USAID contract mode of

development assistance as well. Senior contract personnel, with dependents and an accustomed urban lifestyle, are occasionally ~cent to devote large

amounts of time to field work, especially in remote, poorer regions. Their advanced training sometimes imbues them with an academic orientation that does not synch well with practical development needs. Title XII personnel often operate overseas with refereed publication as a hidden agenda, either through their own volition or forced on them by their institutions.

Currently PCVs average just over 28 years of age (2, p. 16) while USAID contractor employees average very nearly 50 years. This single factor lies, in part, behind two significant differences affecting the programs of both

agencies. At the tangible level is the cost factor, discussed more fully below.

Less tangible, but no less important, is the implicit effect of age on the structure of communications with host country nationals. Contract

professionals are in a position to communicate directly with senior scientists

~ ,..., ,-- __..4!!!5

and administrators in the host government. This access is invaluable for

-certain project needs such as obtaining operating support or suggesting

required changes in policy or institutional functioning. Relationships between contractor employees and local junior staff or field technicians are more

likely to be that of teacher:student under good circumstances and authority:underling at the other end of the spectrum.

Peace Corps Volunteers, on the other hand, have little access to decision makers in the host government.

----

Their strength lies in their capacity for a

peer relationship with local nationals at the intermediate and junior levels of government. Ideally, a peer relationship makes development a shared experience

4

and the training and attitudes imparted in the process are more wholly

internalized. In the longer run, this dynamic can have an enormous impact on economic and social growth.

Other subtle considerations are associated with age. For one, PCVs are much less likely to be impeded by their expectations of deference to a self-assumed status. And in the extreme, the "more grey is better" school of

thought virtually guarantees that some contract professionals will be unable to withstand the long hours and physical demands of sustained field operations. The Cost Factor

One of the more important comparisons in the present era of shrinking budgets lies in the average cost per person~ear of overseas service. Such

comparisons are difficult due to the widely varying bases on which costs are tabulated. However, our analysis has attempted to develop estimates portraying the direct costs of the working professional or volunteer overseas. "Overhead" costs have been excluded, such as the Washington bureaucracies, the in-country USAID Mission or Peace Corps Director and the Peace Corps office, centrally provided medical personnel, commissaries, etc. Remaining are in-country salaries and attendant cost loadings, readjustment allowances, travel, other allowances and institutional indirect costs where applicable. All training costs for Volunteers are included since they are considered essential to

performance and are directly allocable to individuals.

Actual costs per Peace Corps Volunteer year for fiscal 1985 were provided by the Office of the Associate Director for International Operations.

Excluding medical support, these costs can be summarized as follows. The bottom line is a cost of $12,846 per volunteer year.

Volunteer support w/o medical

u.s.

preservice training

In-field preservice training In-field inservice training

Total Dollars Hg 3791 839 1190 ~ 5878

per Volunteer Year fJ.JWI.

I2W

4,845 8,636 1,720 __4Ql 6,968 839 2,910 __!Ql 12,846

By contrast we have estimated costs for university contract employees using the assumption of one wife and two dependent children, one over 12 and one under 12 years of age. We estimate the direct cost of a contract

individual

a~135,oOO} per

year of service, more than 10 times the cost of a Volunteer year. Completely annotated estimates appear in the appendix for those who wish to adjust the many assumptions involved. However, revising our assumptions in various ways makes little difference in the magnitude of this comparison.

It might be argued that greater than 80 percent of these contract expenditures accrue directly to the U.S. economy. This seems to us an

irrelevant argument. The more significant consideration ought to involve the number of contact days per million dollars or some other cost effectiveness measure. of the interaction between Americans and Third World nationals. One ,-must ask, in a period of budget stringency, how long can American foreign assistance continue to rely on conventional contracting modes for services abroad.

We have recently passed through a period in which host country contracts were in vogue with USAID. Many nations had a first-hand, eye opening look at the distribution of dollar costs within their foreign assistance. Whether this emphasis continues or not, it is instructive to place ourselves in the aid

recipients place for a moment, rather than the donors', and consider one of their views on alternative resource uses.

6

Perhaps the most universal development need, certainly in Africa and undoubtedly in many other countries as well, is higher education. USAID participant training in the U.S., with a full academic program and USOA/OICD _I overhead at 25 percent, currently runs\ !?s,ooQ\per calendar year. If one accepts this figure as the opportunity cost, e.g. the next best expenditure of foreign assistance money, then the comparison is daunting. A two-year, senior professional under a university contract utilizes the same resources as would ten years or more of participant training. At current rates of completion for foreign students, that adds up to three, perhaps four, Bachelors degrees or four or five Masters degrees. By contrast, a two year PCV costs little more than two semesters of study.

It is tempting to suggest comparing the discounted present value of the long term benefit stream from a two-year expatriate versus three or four B.S. degrees for local nationals. Perhaps fortunately, productivity figures for both cases are missing, making such analysis impossible. Nevertheless, the question is obvious and the probable conclusion inescapable. One can

understand, given these costs, why African government officials, most of whom make less than a half-time graduate research assistant in a U.S. university, insist on very senior, very experienced expatriates on their contract teams. With no control over costs, they can at least try to maximize the experience "purchased" per dollar.

II. The Professional Volunteer Corps

Foreign assistance relationships in coming decades will occur in an environment characterized by at least three significant differences from the past. First is a heightened awareness of cost factors of the type discussed

-nationals obviates much of the need for expatriates with only B.S. degrees. This transition is well advanced in much of Asia and moving rapidly in Latin and Central America. Third, the days of pat answers and transplantable models _{___,} drawn from the developed countries' experience are gone, if, indeed, they ever existed. This factor obviates the utility of at least some of the experience of senior expatriate technicians. Foreign assistance in the future must be

~ ~

staffed by individuals who can recognize host country leadership, constraints

and ~s, and can be e~tive w1th1 Q_A nstitutional framework that

expresses Third World, not First World cultures.

Within this environment, and building on the analysis above, it is

possible to su eristics of an ideal project. Our vision calls for

a project that captures the Peace Corps Volunteers' enthusiasm and commitment as well as their ability to work at grass roots levels under difficult

- -

vi ~e

conditions.

-To these basically personal characteristics we would add advanced

professional training, coupled with a professionally demanding Job descriptio~ .

We would ensure

that ~oject leade ~

possessed demonstrated skills in

-

tea~

building and interdisciplinarity. Further, at the team leader level, the

~

project should link

effective]~

with decision making levels within both tbe

host country goveJnwent and the U.S. foreign assistance program •

_...

~ ' "

This conception may not be as idealistic as one might think. We both currently work on a project with most of these characteristics; CSU's domestic farming systems project in the San Luis Valley of Colorado.

The program needs and concerns developed above coalesce, in our minds, to suggest a new component to the American presence abroad. One might consider it

8

as something of a post-graduate Peace Corps. The essence of the idea is

captured in our proposed program name; the Professional Volunteer

Cores~ ~f'VC:~

To

elabo~ate,

we envision a program in

whic~ojects

are staffedJ largely with Volunteers holding graduate degrees or the equivalent in experience . To ensure a professional experience, PVC Volunteers should be assigned to clearly defined positions with substantive responsibilities, well defined output

expectations and responsive to some point of leadership and supervision. One obvious use for the PVC volunteer could be to serve in a line position in a given Ministry, freeing the local incumbent to pursue degree training abroad.

But of greater potential would be grouping PVC personnel around an organized project activit~. In this way, a c__ritical m~ (often

...

interdisciplinary) can be achieved with respect to ideas, energy and performance. Furthermore, the project format provides a structuring of

activities and relationships designed to generate

clear ~evelopment impac~

Clustering PVC personnel into projects or coherent programs would

contribute in several additional ways. First, a project has an identitJ which commands attention in Ministerial affairs, much more so than the same number of people scattered about on individual assignments. Second, a project is an

...

-:i:n:st:i:t=u=t~i=o=n=al~e~~~tity to which program support funding, commodities and

~art1;£!fant tra~ facflftftes

can be attached, Wfth good management these

components can multiply the impact of personal services significantly. Third, the project format brings several young Americans and their counterparts

together facing common problems and sharing work experiences. One would expect a significant amount of infectious enthusiasm among the group, much more so than with mid-, or late career university faculty. This enthusiasm can lead to very high levels of commitment which can, in turn, result in exceptional

performance. The prospect of this dynamic is not good with either dispers~

~ Szazq

volunteers or with older, institution bound employees.

~ ... > _____., - •

We would suggest one senior, experienced individual be considered as team

-

-~ largely

to ensure effective project representation with

hig~er

officials of the host country and other

-

donor~ Given the potential that we

foresee for PVC projects, it is essential to have an effective point of influence that links a project directly to the decision making levels in a nation's development effort. Unfortunately, seniority is an expected credential in most Third World nations if this role is to be filled well.

We propose that team members receive salaries, but at paraprofessional levels, thus preserving the concept of voluntarism. Furthermore, benefits would be strictly limited to those truly essential to well being, including modest allowances for children's education, medical care, housing and

unaccompanied baggage. Further, there seems no legitimate reason why these limits should not also apply to the team leader. The appendix estimates a cost of $26,000 per person year under these assumptions.

The program both suggests a need and pr~es the vehicle for much ~r

collaboration between the Peace Corps and USAID~ We envision jointly designed

projects, fully integrated within USAID's Country Development Support Strategies. Project funding would be provided by USAID consistent with

established practices. Staffing and management of PVC projects would fall to the Peace Corps.

A Professional Volunteer Corps offers several possible contributions to the overall U.S. foreign assistance effort. First is the chance for much more

-cost effective technical assistance. Se~ an increased capacity for f1ejj

---10

ability to attract and place professionally skilleg_jndividuals greatly

---enhanced. Fourth, by providing a post-graduate opportunity for substant1y~

,..._ •t

overseas assignments, the program should contribute to the supply of entry level professionals that will sustain the foreign assistance community in the long run. Fifth, give the younger structure of field teams that the PVC would offer, the bureaucratic level of influence of their efforts, of their

interpersonal contacts with counterparts, will likely be lower in the host country bureaucracy and with younger counterparts. Thus, the values and concepts transferred will 11kely remain in active use for longer periods. Sixth, the Peace Corps would find their programs to be central to developing countries' needs and their output to be considerably more substantive.

In summary, the Professional Volunteer Corps offers a novel blend of Peace Corps commitment and USAID project clout. Taken together, the two suggest a new, highly effective and much less expensive foreign assistance thrust with a wide array of possible benefits. The idea was born while evaluating the exceptionally productive tours of Peace Corps Volunteers assigned to USAID/Title XII projects in Lesotho, Gambia, and elsewhere. Several of the program ideas proposed here are presently being tested in the field under the Peace Corps African Food Systems Initiative. Early readings have been quite positive. We suggest that the concept be formally considered as a new, and major, direction for the Peace Corps. We are confident that the response will be enthusiastic and that the Professional Volunteer Corps can play a significant role in the Peace Corps' next 25 years.

REFERENCES

1. Peace Corps, 1984. Peace Corps forward Plan 1985-1987, Washington, D.C. 2. Peace Corps, n.d. Peace Corps Annual Report. 1984, Washington, D.C.

Appendix: Estimated Annual Item Salary Overseas Incentive5 Fringe Benefits Post differential SUBTOTAL: Remuneration Travel to/from Post9 R&RIH.L. Travel Emergency Travel12 Education Allowance HHE Shipping

HHE Storage in

u.s.

Unaccompanied Baggage Shipping of POV

Housing Utilities

TOTAL: Direct Costs Indirect Costs18 GRAND TOTAL

Comparative Costs1

Professional AID

Contractor2 Volunte~r Corps

4S,ooo4 15,000 2,250 9,4506 1,0727 7.0888 63,925 16,072 7,200 3,600 2,9oo10 1,ooo11 720 240 4,ooo13 20014 6,000 1,800 3,000 2,000 s,ooo 7,2oo15 3,ooo17 2,4oo16 104,145 26,112 31.245 135,390 26,112

12

Sources and Assumptions Used in theAppendix 1. Personnel direct costs only, not including Peace Corps or AID

administrative or support offices in Washington or in-country. 2. Spouse and two children, one aged below 12.

3. Spouse only. 4. Approximate 1985 average. 5. Conventional 10% X 0.5 probability. 6. Average of 20 percent. 7. FICA only. 8. Average of 15 percent.

9. Average one way ticket at $1,800.

10. Average round trip to designated R+R point at $1,000. 11. $500 in-country vacation allowance per person.

12. Average round trip to central U.S. at $2,400. Weighted by assuming emergency travel taken by 1 1n 10 volunteers and 3 in 10 AID contractors annually.

13. Approximated at $2,000/child year. Seat-of-the-pants guess to capture children below school age, primary tuitions at ca. $1,000, secondary tuitions at cs. $2,500 and a few boarding school children at $12,500. 14. Primary tuition at $1,000 X assumption of one school ch1ld for every five

volunteers. 15. $600/month. 16. $200/month.

17. $250/month allowance for Volunteer style housing.

18. Approximate weighted average of on-campus and off-campus rates at 30 percent.

Fort Collins, Colorado July 8 - 12, 1986

FOR PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS: A NEW DIVERSITY

National Seminar on Future Directions for

the Peace Corps

David Burgess Director,

Office of Planning &

Policy Analysis Peace Corps

NOTE : The views presented in this paper are thos e of the author, and do not necessarily

One of the crucial issues facing the Peace Corps is the question of matching the supply of available Volunteers with the needs of the host

countries we serve. This challenge is probably as great today as at any time in the past, and it is likely to become more difficult in the future. While Peace Corps has always been concerned with matching host country de-mands against available PCV supply, a number of factors may make this a more unsettled issue for the future.

I would like to address several of these factors, and to suggest for further discussion a number of important questions. The ideas which evolve from these discussions will greatly help the Peace Corps to prepare for the future and look ahead towards the year 2000.

The first poi nt I want to make is that the Peace Corps' ability to ac-complish its legislated goals is subject to four basic factors:

The number and t ypes of Americans who are willing to serve as Peace Corps Volunteers.

The kinds of assistance requested by each host country .

The extent to which Peace Corps can skill-train those who are willing to serve as PCVs but who do not have the skills needed by the host country.

The ex tent to which i n-country programming and prerequisite skill levels represent meaningful qualifications, and not simply subjective preferences.

A. The Number and Types of Applicants

Let me begin by suggesting that the supply and demand aspects of the Peace Corps are quite similar to those that confront any college or university . Al-though we may expend a great deal of time, energy , money , effort and goodwill in recruiting the most talented applicants, we are --in the final analysis--very much a product of those who voluntarily choose to apply.