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DEVELOPMENT PROCESS IN THE PEACE CORPS: CHOICES AND DEC IS IOI'-m
lrJed. July 9
Jack Burgess, Chris Bryan t, Suzanne Brown, and Kathryn Larson
The present trend is Peace Corps targeting certain areas and sending in t eams of people to ana lyz e causes and
solution s to problems. E.G. a ret urn to basic causes of
why food i s n' t being produced.
In t he Caribbean basin they have developed the business sector, cooperati ves , marketing, sales, productive thing s .
Initi ative for Central Amer ica - h ave Peace Corps play a greater role (respon se in 4 countries mai nly).
Originally in P.C . the idea was to keep the staff small, but f arm out some of the work.
c urrent di rec tor feels simi lar
-many joint p roject s with other agencies
-more integr ati on with l ocal in-country groups
Then.'? i s mot-e ~-~ei:?d ·few 1non~ highl y skilled people as
countries devel op.
They are asking for so many more different skills .
Needs: 2 / 3 cross-cultural , 1 /3 gener a list
We have more requests t h a n we can fill. Do ~--Je leave
s ome successful programs and move int o new a reas? ACTION RECOMMENDATIONS:
(
1. Decent r· ~di::ation
overseas d1rectors,
of deci s ion making - planning more by countries , r e gions, field directors .
\ 2. Intel·-nal.i::ation o ·f decision me:1king
-bo.::u-d
-memb e r sh ip - host n .::~t i c1nal ~:.
3 . Mark e t -driven d ecisions
- force d to li sten to the p ub lic if p a rt of money came from s our ces other th an government
4. Partnersh ip with local non -g overnmen ta l organizat i on s 5.Integration of act ivities
"---
- pl acemen t-proj e ct s
- public e ducation
A b asic issue is the n eed for more informat ion in deve l opi ng
countri es , especial ly in f ormation on women. Th e F'eace Corps
h as a strat egic a d vant age to gatheri ng inf or matio n.
r·r:'iCT I ON F;:ECm·lt'lEN DA f I m .l:
Pe ace Corps could be used to gath e r bas i c researc h dat a.
O ec i ~~ i ons about th E! ~·Jot-k of th e vo lunt eer- s s l-1ould b e 1T1 i:lde by
t h e vo lunteer, not by ad mini s tr a tors.
Th e und erstanding o f wome n's ro l es in various societ i es h as d eep i mp l i c ati o n s f o r t e chnology d e v e lopment .
Add i ti ona l fu n d s f r om A.I.D. in c lud es a n evaluti o n
A.F\..: Al though th ere i s a n In for mati on , Co ll ec tion and
Exc h a ng e De pt ., mo st volunteer s f e el a d ef inite lack of infor mat i o n about pr og rams th a t h ave h appen e d bef o re th ey a r r i ve and wh at h as worked and what h as not .
A.R .: Don ' t just abo li s h pr ograms th at have n 't worked when ,
I mpact can b e measur ed, bu t s hou ld i t b e?
( A. R.: Eva luation s h o ul dn't take o n so much str u c ture as to
I b e a detriment to the vo lunteers' work .
-..
Th e innovat i on of the Peace Corp s volun teer has been
hi s/het-· ~;ucc:r.~s s . It's dan gerous to try to quan tify ,
esp ec i a ll y in c r oss-c ul tural s i tuat i ons b8cau se it starts to
le c:-\ Vf? out thF.~ peopl E? elernent. .
/
' Pt.FL :
i n showing impact .
Ptl .l t-:-c::cJut. F~s s·"c·eio to be mot- e e ·Ffecti v e
The i d ea of a program being s u cce ssful is a western
A. R.: A contr ac t could b e drawn up between each individua l volunt eer and th e host country n at ional . This could b e used as th e b as i s for eva luat ion.
A. R.: Ne e d d ecentr a liz at ion wh e r e evaluation st ays in
j
country. What stays in country i s th e LOCAL PEOPLE. Loca l( str uctur es are sometimes not d eve loped enough to e v a luat e in
~ qua ntitati\;e way. " l.>J a lk at th e pac e tt·le country is go ing ."
In Canada, th e Canad i a n s and host country n ation a l s were brought togeth e r to PLAN the pr ogram. This ~rmrk~:; well.
If th ey choos e not to work tog ether , at l east they know that.
( A. R. : Shouldn ' t send a volLu·d: eer to an area i f U1ere i s no
~
:rogra m or no :o:tcoun :~y nat~on a l ~oun:erp:rt~
There· "" tl o u l d be 1. e •. j:,t-,•cted te~1 g e t g1· oup, e~n d ..::. .
e.,.,
pe1_ t edbenr-:?f i c i ar y .
A. R . : Th e r e oug ht to b e some trai nin g together of t h e vo lun t ee r a nd the count e rp a rt .
...__
In C.U. S . O. th e gov e rnme nt of th e ho s t country pa ys t h e v o l unteer, or th e loc a l p eopl e pay s o th ey want to know wh a t t h at person is d oi n g . I f t h e peopl e have a s t ake i n i t, th1"'?y ~-.Ji 11 rna ke sur f:? ~-=; orTr et hin iJ 1]et s d on E:.
{A .R. Make t h e Peace Corps an i n t e r nat i o n a l g r o up .
,
Counterparts don't work if it's two people doing onejob on an equal footing. But it does work if it's more a teacher-learner set-up.
(
A.R~
It' s hel pful~ou
re going into.to kn ow the hi s tory of the programs
When we go into a country we can't h ave the an s wer s before we know the questions.
You can' t wa i t until you h a ve a ll the i n formatio n, but you sometimes need s ome information.
In ?H r i c:c:~., if you a re t,:::d king about ltJ att:~r s upp 1 y anc~
distribution , you are tal k ing about women 's i ssues .
Studies sho w that wi t h incr eased income , women have
l ess interest in having more children. So income g e n erating
programs for women lower the numb er of c hil dren.
