Evaluation Report 1/2005 Norad Evaluation of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation P.O. Box 8034 Dep, NO-0030 OSLO Evaluation of the Visiting adress: Ruseløkkveien 26, Oslo, Norway Norad Fellowship Programme Norad Fellowship Programme Telehone: +47 22 24 20 30 Telefax: +47 22 24 20 31 [email protected] www.norad.no No of copies: 1600 July 2005 ISBN 82-7548-157-0 Norad Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation P.O. Box 8034 Dep, NO-0030 OSLO Ruseløkkveien 26, Oslo, Norway Phone: +47 22 24 20 30 Fax: +47 22 24 20 31 Design: Agendum See Design Photography: Teresa Grøtan, Laxman Glhimire/IOF, Jarle Simensen, Bjørnulf Remme/Norad Print: Grefslie Kommunikasjon ISBN 82-7548-157-0 Eval_3 korr.qxd 15.07.05 13:09 Side 1 Evaluation of the Norad Fellowship Programme Nordic Consulting Group AS in Association with Nuffic Oslo and The Hague June 2005 Stein Hansen, Nordic Consulting Group AS (NCG), team leader, Ad Boeren, Nuffic, Janne Lexow, NCG/Development Consulting AS (DECO), Anders Wirak, NCG/DECO, Erlend Sigvaldsen, NCG, Mike Fergus, NCG. Eke Mwaipopo, NCG Tanzania, Santa Vusia, NCG Uganda, Iftekhar Hossain, Bangladesh Responsibility for the contents and presentation of findings and recommendations rests with the evaluation team. The views and opinions expressed in the report do not necessarily correspond with those of Norad. Eval_3 korr.qxd 15.07.05 13:09 Side 2 Editorial Note This evaluation report was prepared by a team of consultants from the Nordic Consulting Group AS (NCG), Development Consulting AS (DECO), and Netherlands organization for international cooperation in higher education (Nuffic). The report is the result of desk reviews of available documents, studies and statistics, along with interviews with various stakeholders in Norway. The evaluation team conducted field interviews with university staff and former Norad Fellowship Programme (NFP) fellows and their employers in Bangladesh, Tanzania, the Republic of South Africa and Mozambique. In addition a special consultant, Åsmund Mæhle, was engaged by Norad to interview former NFP fellows in the Kingdom of Nepal. His work is set out in a series of text boxes dealing with issues raised by his interview subjects. Eval_3 korr.qxd 15.07.05 13:09 Side 3 Table of Contents List of Acronyms 5 Executive Summary 7 1 Introduction 10 1.1 Objectives of the Evaluation 10 1.2 Structure of the Report 10 1.3 Methodology 11 2 The Fellowship Programme in Brief 14 2.1 A Short History 14 2.2 Basic Fellowship Characteristics 15 2.3 The Gender Issue 21 3 Contextual Perspectives 23 3.1 A Changing Development Cooperation Agenda 23 3.2 The Role of Higher Education 24 3.3 Changing Framework Conditions 25 3.4 Analysis of Policy and Administrative Arrangements 26 3.5 Features of NFP in a Comparative Perspective 29 4 Some Conceptual Issues 32 4.1 Strategic Competence Development 32 4.2 Value Added 32 4.3 Change Agents 34 5 The Evaluation 35 5.1 Evaluation Framework and Criteria 35 5.2 Relevance 35 5.3 Effectiveness 38 5.4 Efficiency 39 5.5 Impact 45 5.6 Sustainability 48 6 Which Way Forward? 50 6.1 The Present Organization and Administration of North-South Education and Research Cooperation 50 6.2 Quo Vadis; Business as Usual, or...? 50 7 Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations 54 7.1 The Setting 54 7.2 Key Findings 54 7.3 Conclusions 56 7.4 Recommendations 58 Eval_3 korr.qxd 15.07.05 13:09 Side 4 Table of Contents Annexes Annex 1: Terms of Reference 61 Annex 2 : List of People Met 66 Annex 3: List of Documents 69 Annex 4: Tanzania Country Report 77 Annex 5: Report from field visits in South Africa and Mozambique 90 Annex 6: Bangladesh Country Report 108 Annex 7: Strengths and Weaknesses of NFP and the Quota Scheme 120 Annex 8. Evaluation Questionnaires and Some Results. 122 Annex 9: Desk study on other fellowship programmes, evaluation studies and reviews 134 4 Evaluation of The Norad Fellowship Programme Eval_3 korr.qxd 15.07.05 13:09 Side 5 List of Acronyms AIT Asia Institute of Technology BAPEX Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company BC British Council BGD Bangladesh BUET Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology CESO Centre for the Study of Education in Developing Countries CSFP Commonwealth Scholarships and fellowship Plan DAAD German Academic Exchange Service DCI Development Cooperation Ireland DECO Development Consulting AS DFC Danida Fellowship Centre DKK Denmark Kroner ERD Economic Relations Division, Bangladesh GATS General Agreement on Trade in Services GIS Geographic Information Systems GOs Government Organisations HISP Health and Management Information System ICCS International Council for Canadian Studies ICOS Irish Council for International Students IS Information Systems IST Information Systems Track MA Master of Arts MDG Millennium Development Goals MZM Mozambique Metical MFA Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs MKDP Master Programme for Key Personnel in Developing Countries (Sweden) MNRSA Management of Natural Resources and Sustainable Agriculture MOER Royal Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research MoEs Ministry of Establishment, Bangladesh MPH Master of Public Health MPhil Master of Philosophy MSc Master of Science MScIS Master of Science in Information Systems NCG Nordic Consulting Group AS NEMC National Environmental Management Council NetFP The Netherlands Fellowship Programmes NFP The Norad fellowship Programme NGO Non-Government Organisation NOK Norwegian Kroner N-S North-South NTH Trondheim Institute of Technology (Norges Tekniske Høyskole) NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norges Tekniske og Naturvitenskapelige Universitet) Nuffic Netherlands organization for international cooperation in higher education NUFU Norwegian Council of Universities’ Committee for Development Research and Education OECD Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper SELF Norway’s State Education Loan Fund Sida Swedish International Development Agency SIU The Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Higher Education (Senter for internasjonalisering av høyere utdanning), Bergen SUA Sokoine University of Agriculture TAN Tanzania TANESCO Tanzania Electric Supply Company 5 Evaluation of The Norad Fellowship Programme Eval_3 korr.qxd 15.07.05 13:09 Side 6 List of Acronyms Tk Bangladesh Taka TOR Terms of Reference TPDC Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation TZS Tanzania Shilling UCB University College of Bergen UCS University College of Stavanger UEM Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique UHR Norwegian Council for Higher Education (Universitets og Høgskolerådet) UiB University of Bergen UiNs Norwegian universities and university colleges UiO University of Oslo UiSs Universities in the South UiT University of Tromsø ULS University of Life Sciences UNESCO United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation URL Uniform Resource Locator – The World Wide Web address of a site on the Internet USD US Dollar UWC University of Western Cape UWC-SPH University of Western Cape-School of Public Health VLIR Flemish Inter-university Council WTO World Trade Organisation 6 Evaluation of The Norad Fellowship Programme Eval_3 korr.qxd 15.07.05 13:09 Side 7 Executive Summary Since the Norad Fellowship Programme (NFP) was established 40 years ago it has provided fellowships in Norway to several thousand students from developing countries. At the same time higher education in Norway has become much more internationalised. An evaluation team comprised of consultants from NCG AS, DECO AS and Nuffic was selected through an international competition to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the entire programme, emphasising the period after 1998. The evaluation is based on desk studies, assessments of questionnaires from key stakeholders, interviews, meetings and field visits to Bangladesh, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa. Key Findings Clearly demarcated objectives and indicators for measuring results have never been defined for NFP. This makes impact measurement a priori an impossible undertaking. There is little formal evidence of the impact of training programmes on poverty alleviation, or improvements to the economy or society. The impact of training depends on the degree of rigidity, inefficiency, openness to reform, transparency and good governance in the civil service and education sectors. In cases where training is not embedded in manpower development plans, and a critical mass of persons trained is not achieved, development impacts are modest, as observed in the case of the Bangladeshi civil service. In contrast, the Tanzanian energy supply sector offers a good example of the impact of a long-term, focused training scheme. The completion rates of fellows are usually high in scholarship and fellowship programmes. The vast majority of candidates return to their home countries and employers when these are committed to providing positions to returning fellows. Compared to other international fellowship programmes, NFP is fairly small. Institutions of higher education in Norway are satisfied with the programme and the opportunities it offers to attract foreign students. However, they would welcome an expansion of the programme to include not only master’s but also PhD level courses. Parallel to NFP, Norway operates a relatively large undergraduate-, master’s- and PhD stipend scheme called the Quota Programme, supporting a total of 1100 students per year from 77 countries in 2003/04, including developing countries as well as Central- and Eastern Europe and Central