Higher Education Programs: USAID/Egypt Could Better Use Information to Set Performance Indicator Targets and Gauge Results

Audit Report
Report Number
8-263-23-002-P

Why We Did This Audit

  • In 2017, Egypt had 2.9 million students enrolled in higher education. To accelerate economic growth and job creation, USAID/Egypt—through its Office of Education and Health (OEH)—implemented educational and workforce development programs to produce graduates with relevant knowledge and skills.
  • We conducted this audit to determine to what extent USAID/Egypt’s higher education program used information from (1) performance indicators to maximize workforce development of graduates and the strength of Egyptian tertiary education institutions and (2) an end-of-project evaluation to design a new scholarship activity.

What We Found

  • USAID/Egypt developed performance indicators to measure progress toward higher education development purposes, but had challenges in documenting targets, tracking performance, and explaining why some targets were not reached.
  • USAID/Egypt incorporated end-of-activity evaluation recommendations into the design of its new scholarship activity.
  • We made three recommendations to evaluate the effectiveness of one activity and improve USAID/Egypt’s use of performance indicators.

Why It Matters

  • Establishing and tracking performance indicators help USAID assess whether programs are meeting their intended objectives.  Documenting how performance indicator targets are set provides the Agency useful information under which to assess program progress and effectiveness.   Proper tracking of performance indicators during implementation gives the Agency information to assess project outputs and outcomes, and provides opportunities for adjusting future programming so to better achieve program results.  
8-263-23-002-P.pdf1.12 MB

Recommendations

Recommendation
1

Assess the Graduate Scholarships for Professionals activity to gauge its effectiveness in developing skilled professionals who can apply and impart the knowledge they gained from participating in the program-the primary purpose of the program.

Questioned Cost
0
Funds for Better Use
0
Close Date
Recommendation
2

USAID/Egypt take the following actions: Implement a mission order requiring activity teams to follow best practices when documenting the rationale they use to set performance indicator targets.

Questioned Cost
0
Funds for Better Use
0
Close Date
Recommendation
3

USAID/Egypt take the following actions: Implement a mission order requiring activity teams to document the reasons for significant differences between performance indicator targets and actual results achieved.

Questioned Cost
0
Funds for Better Use
0
Close Date