Foreign Aid

Questions on the Central American Regional Program Need To Be Resolved Gao ID: NSIAD-86-209 September 8, 1986

In response to a congressional request, GAO discussed the evolution, status, and viability of the Agency for International Development's (AID) regional economic assistance programs for Central America.

GAO found that: (1) according to AID views, studies, and funding actions, extensive regional programs may not be viable; (2) Central American economic and political conditions were not conducive to regional assistance programs, in part because those countries were focusing on domestic issues; and (3) fundamental policy questions on the priority of regional assistance and the need to maintain the AID Regional Office for Central America and Panama (ROCAP) remained unanswered. GAO also found that: (1) AID obligations and expenditures for regional programs were less than planned, primarily due to cancellations or delays in major economic assistance projects the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America recommended; and (2) AID has used over half of its regional program funds for projects its Washington office, rather than ROCAP, managed; and (3) ROCAP is currently taking actions to improve coordination with the bilateral missions to enhance the impact of its existing projects and to better complement AID bilateral programs. GAO believes that the success of ROCAP programs to promote economic growth will depend in part on host country economic and political conditions, and external source flows and credit arrangements.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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