Community Development and Family Planning: An Egyptian Experiment

Program evaluation is not among the most popular of exercises, since it carries risks for all associated with it. Because every important program has friends and enemies anxious for its prosperity or demise, the investigators and their findings will normally be attacked from at least one side and not infrequently from both. But this is an occupational hazard, dutifully accepted by its practitioners; for some it even adds a zestful touch of danger. However, the program’s sponsors and its participants require an unusual degree of courage, since negative or indifferent results are not infrequently used to impugn their wisdom or dedication. We applaud the courage of all those who, in the interest of improving policies and programs to further their clients’ well-being, assumed the risks of introducing scientific program evaluation: Primary credit goes to the sponsor of the current research, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), in particular the Mediterranean and Middle East Branch and its chief, Roushdi El Henedi. Special thanks go to Dr. Habib Siddiqui for his stimulus in launching the study. His efforts were followed by those of M.A. Abu-Nuwar, whose bureaucratic and diplomatic skills were much appreciated, and Sylvia Rhodes, who was of assistance near the close of the project. UNFPA staff in Egypt, in particular Hamed Fahmy, were most helpful in the field. Needless to say, neither these individuals nor the UNFPA necessarily agree with the conclusions reached in this book.