Country Impact Studies available online

The Peace Corps Performance and Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2012  Annual Report (PAR) FY 2012 is as ponderous to read as any government report.  However, it does have some gems.  Here is one:

Over the last four years, Peace Corps has conducted a series of Host Country Impact Studies that contribute to Peace Corps’ ability to measure the impact of its Volunteers. The studies are unique in that they focus on learning about the Volunteers’ impact from the host country nationals who lived and worked with the Volunteers. The in-country field work is conducted by local research teams. The studies demonstrate the Volunteers’ ability to build local capacity and illustrate the transformation in host country nationals’ understanding of Americans after working with a Volunteer. The reports and summary information sheets for each study are posted below.

Armenia (PDF) / Armenia Summary (PDF)

Bulgaria (PDF) / Bulgaria Summary (PDF)

Burkina Faso (PDF) / Burkina Faso Summary (PDF)

Cameroon (PDF) / Cameroon Summary (PDF)

Dominican Republic (PDF) / Dominican Republic Summary (PDF)

Guatemala (PDF) / Guatemala Summary (PDF)

Jamaica (PDF) / Jamaica Summary (PDF)

Mali (PDF) / Mali Summary (PDF)

Morocco (PDF) / Morocco Summary (PDF)

Peru (PDF) / Peru Summary (PDF)

Philippines (PDF) / Philippines Summary (PDF)

Romania (PDF) / Romania Summary (PDF)

Tanzania (PDF) / Tanzania Summary (PDF)

Ukraine (PDF) / Ukraine Summary (PDF)

The Impact of Peace Corps Service on Host Communities and Host Country Perceptions of Americans (PDF)

The link: http://www.peacecorps.gov/open/evaluations/ (Note: Through a miracle that I do not understand, the above highlighted country names provide an actual link to the pdf form of the report.)

This current  effort resulted in 18 countries evaluated in four years.  In contrast, Charlie Peter’s famous Evaluation Division apparently evaluated all programs in six years from 1961 to 1967.  These reports are not available online, but rather are archived at the National Archive at College Park, Maryland.  There is no online index, so it is not possible to count the actual number of evaluations done during those six years.  However, the reports are in hard copy and they fill 26 letter size Archive boxes.  The files take up 11 linear feet in the stacks.

(See: “Charlie Peter’s Excellent Adventurers and their Peace Corps Evaluation Reports 1961 – 1967” on this website in Peace Corps: Public Records, categorized under NARA)

The current 18 country reports are critically important and distinct  from previous evaluations done by Peace Corps because: “The studies are unique in that they focus on learning about the Volunteers’ impact from the host country nationals who lived and worked with the Volunteers. The in-country field work is conducted by local research teams.”