Peace Corps: Meeting the Challenges of the 1990s

Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Peace Corps' operations and activities.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Peace Corps	The Director, Peace Corps, should redesign the Corps' recruitment strategies and programs to attract volunteers with scarce skills.	Closed – Implemented The Peace Corps has redesigned recruitment strategies to attract volunteers with scarce skills.
Peace Corps	The Director, Peace Corps, should provide recruitment personnel with demographic and market studies to help recruiters to better understand their availability markets and allow them to define and target their recruitment and advertising efforts, particularly for scarce-skill recruits.	Closed – Implemented Funds for demographic data were appropriated, advertising was increased for scarce skills, and staff only recruit for scarce skills.
Peace Corps	The Director, Peace Corps, should provide recruiters with incentives and rewards for meeting or exceeding their targeted scarce-skill recruitment goals.	Closed – Implemented Incentives included promotion, cash awards, and staff only recruit for skilled volunteers.
Peace Corps	The Director, Peace Corps, should follow through on his efforts to develop a long-term strategy to attract more minorities. This strategy should include realistic minority goals for volunteers and staff, a concerted effort to deal with the perception of minorities that the Peace Corps is a white, middle-class institution, the provision of better demographic information to recruiters, better training, and targeted advertising and recruitment campaigns to attract minorities.	Closed – Implemented The GAO January 1992 report, NSIAD-92-76, reported that the Peace Corps has strengthened its commitment to attracting minorities and has increased minority representation among volunteers from 7 percent in May 1990 to 12 percent in July 1991. The Peace Corps now targets predominantly minority colleges and universities and has awarded a contract to attrack minorities to join the Peace Corps.
Peace Corps	The Director, Peace Corps, should require that systematic procedures are put in place to ensure that each country post develops periodic, comprehensive program plans that, at a minimum, provide for clear, workable contributions to the countries' continuing development.	Closed – Implemented The Peace Corps implemented the programming and training system (PATS). All projects should be converted to PATS by early fiscal year (FY) 1993.
Peace Corps	The Director, Peace Corps, should require that systematic procedures are put in place to ensure that each country post develops periodic, comprehensive program plans that, at a minimum, provide for well-developed assignment plans for the utilization of volunteers upon their arrival in country.	Closed – Implemented The Peace Corps initiated PATS to improve the utilization of volunteers.
Peace Corps	The Director, Peace Corps, should require that systematic procedures are put in place to ensure that each country post develops periodic, comprehensive program plans that, at a minimum, provide for adequate oversight of the volunteers' projects.	Closed – Implemented The Peace Corps began IPBS Stage II project assessments in September 1990, and is providing training in evaluation, including volunteer performance.
Peace Corps	The Director, Peace Corps, should require that systematic procedures are put in place to ensure that each country post develops periodic, comprehensive program plans that, at a minimum, provide for a host government commitment to support continuation of the work.	Closed – Implemented The Peace Corps will reemphasize host government commitment to continuation of work.
Peace Corps	The Director, Peace Corps, should require that systematic procedures are put in place to ensure that each country post develops periodic, comprehensive program plans that, at a minimum, provide for data upon which to evaluate the posts' and their volunteers' contributions.	Closed – Implemented The Peace Corps implemented PATS. All projects should be converted to PATS by early FY 1993.

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