Ex-post Evaluation

1-1. Background of the Project

The General Organization for Greater Cairo Water Supply (GOGCWS) is the sole governmental organization of the Arab Republic of Egypt, responsible for the supply of water in the Greater Cairo Area where the resident population now reaches16 million, about 25% of the total population of Egypt, and is still increasing at high rate of 3.3% per year. Hence the improvement of water supply capability of GOGCWS was an urgent and important issue of Egypt. On the other hand, the Government of Egypt had a policy to make GOGCWS a self-supporting organization and was requesting GOGCWS to improve its financial status and service.

GOGCWS decided to achieve such improvement through the training of its personnel and has been developing various training courses. However, due to the shortage of special staff such as instructions, etc. and the lack of practical training equipment, GOGCWS finds difficulty in developing sufficient training courses.

Under such circumstances, the Government of Egypt requested to the Government of Japan a project type technical cooperation for improving the training courses of GOGCWS.
Japanese government dispatched a preliminary survey team in December 1995 and a supplementary study team in December 1996. An implementation study team dispatched in April 1997 signed the R/D with the authorities concerned of the Government of Egypt, and Japanese Technical Cooperation on the Water Supply Technology Training Improvement Project started from June 1997 for the period of five years.

1-2. Project Overview

(1) Overall Goal

Sufficient safe drinking water is supplied in stable conditions to residents of the Greater Cairo Area

(2) Project Purpose

GOGCWS personnel's performance is improved through technical training

(3) Outputs

(1) The needs for training are identified by the survey done on GOGCWS (the needs survey)

(2) Based on the needs survey, programs of the training courses are developed in the fields of;

• Water supply panning
• Water Quality and Service System
• Water Distribution and Service System
• Operation and Maintenance of Mechanical Installations

(3) Facilities, equipment and materials are installed, operated, and utilized by Egyptian trainers for the training courses.

(4) Theoretical training materials are developed according to the needs survey

(5) Training courses are implemented by the training department of GOGCWS as scheduled

(4) Inputs (as of the Project's termination)

Japanese side:

Egypt's Side:

3-1. Summary of Evaluation Results

(1) Impact

The positive impact of the training program is undeniable, as is commented by sector managers. They acknowledge that the training program had increased staffs' ability to take responsibility as well as technical knowledge. Further, training is considered as a very decisive factor throughout its privatization and sectors restructuring. In some opinions the transformation would not have been as successful, effective and smooth had there not been the technical training.

However, the verification source (GCWSC annual report) of two preset indicators for the overall goal, 1) water served population/Total population and 2) water produced/Served population, was not available. GCWSC is not yet published their first annual report, although it is in progress. Their public relations report did not contain such figures to calculate indicators. In order to generate above two indicators from the available information, many assumptions are need to be made, which means that the calculated indicator could be far from the reality. This could indicate an inappropriate design of the project.

(2) Sustainability

Budgetary issues– All top managers interviewed stated that the budgetary situation of the GCWSC has not been considered as a factor restricting the project's sustainability, as the actual cost of training is very small compared to the total budget of the company. In addition to the training cost, it only consists of a relatively small part of the total budget. Further, there is strong support for the training activities by the management. This is also relevant when it comes to expanding the scope of the training into new fields. There is also continuous support for replacing the equipments and materials in the training labs.

Institutional expansion – the success of the training events have raised expectations. If continuous expansion and improvement is not achieved, the view on training become rather negative as a result of unmet expectations by managers and trainees. As expansion of the training is currently considered as a means to introduce new technologies, materials, working methods and raise working standards of the staff, it will lead to further expansion and improvement.

Technical sustainability - The trainees seem to accept the theory courses in the training as long as it is closely linked to practical work and their task, although they consider that theoretical training by itself was the least useful training.

Organizational sustainability – A plan that the training department and the Mostorod training centre to become a regional knowledge centre in the field is in progress. The training centre already provides training for trainees from gulf countries and African countries. This places stress on the fact that there should be a mechanism for continuous improvement and expansion of what the training centre is able to offer.

3-2. Factors that have promoted project

(1) Impact

(a) Practical aspect of the training
Many ex-trainees stated that the practical aspect of the training was most useful, as they gained the knowledge they can utilize immediately. This also increased responsibility and independence in their work environment.

(b) Appropriate facilities and equipment for the training
The machines and facilities used in the training was almost the same type as the ones used in their work environment. The only difference was version type.

(2) Sustainability

(a) Trainees' understanding of the benefit of the training
Trainees consider that the training was very useful, and they are eager to join the training if there is advanced class. Utilization of the training content was very high according to the ex-trainees.

(b) Relatively insignificant cost of training compared to the total budget of the company
Cost of the training is trivial to the total budget of the company, and managerial level consider that cost benefit of the training is very high.

(3) Others

N/A

3-3. Factors that have inhibited project

(1) Impact

(a) Ineffective deployment of the staff after the training
After the training, the staff are located in the sector/department where the contents of the training cannot be utilized much.

(2) Sustainability

(a) Insufficient administration management
There was no tracking systems of the trainees at the administrative level. Appropriate monitoring system of the number of trainees and where they are located/transferred did not exist . This makes the assessment and further development of the training difficult as it is very difficult to see the impact of the training.

3-4. Conclusions

Most of the trainees consider not only they benefited from the training but also the obtained knowledge is utilized at work to the great extent. In order to enhance the impact of the training project, administration of the training has to be more systematic by incorporating a tracking system. Without trainee tracking system, it is difficult to identify the impact of the training and the aspects necessary to be improved. Further, some of the preset indicators in the PDM are not verifiable as the means of verification was not available. This indicates that the preparation was insufficient in the stage of project designating.

3-5. Recommendations

1) Administrative and financial integration of the technical training are equally as important as developing the technical training itself, because there is no systematic trainee tracking system or a channel to reflect ex-trainee's opinion on the training does not exist. It is recommended that GCWSC conduct the assessment of the training needs on the regular basis for annual planning is recommended.

2) The training also has to reflect the needs of the customers for better services. The differences in the higher income area and lower income areas indicated that those who have fewer choices in potable water face more problems. The water distribution, weak pipe line and low water pressure problems are the subjects that could be benefited from the training of the staff. To tackle the problems occurring in each area, GCWSC needs to make an effort in an appropriate placement of the staff after the training could be mutually beneficial for the staff and the customers.

3-6. Lessons Learned

1) Evaluation mechanisms need to be in place as a part of the project from the very start of such programs in order to assess its impact, and success/failures. Although the training facilitated improvement of knowledge of the staff, the training does not have a procedure to reflect the opinion of ex-trainees for further development of the project. In addition, without a system of recoding attendance, it is difficult to assess the impact. This mechanism also facilitates increasing in budgets, replacing with new equipments, distributing incentives, when these are appropriate. It is desirable that this evaluation mechanism should be incorporated in the project framework.

2) The positive impact of the training program is not negligible as enhancing the knowledge and skill had positive impact not only on technical levels but also on the staff's mental level by increasing their responsibility and independence. In order to maintain the project sustainability, the method of course evaluation and tracking the trainees needs to be incorporated as part of the training process. Tracking system will enable easier assessment of the impact and discovering the points of improvement. Personnel transferred after the training should reflect the gains from the training so as not to waste the newly acquired knowledge and skill. Further, pairing with sister companies and research institutions with a regular program of exchange will provide a channel in updated technologies in the field.

3-6. Follow-up Situation

N/A