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Project Assistance Completion Report (PACR)
Public Awareness of Education Reform
Contract OUT-HNE-I-809-97-00029-00, Improving Educational Quality (IEQ II)
Task Order No. 809 
I. PROJECT SUMMARY
Date of Authorization: December 13, 1999
Project Assistance Completion Date: March 31, 2001
Implementing Agencies: American Institute of Research
Juárez and Associates
Total Amount Authorized: $ 140,036
Total Amount Obligated and Expended: $ 140,036
Counterpart Contribution: N/A
II. PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Introduction
The Public Awareness Activity, referred to as Social Communications for 
Reform Support, was a fourteen-month effort in support of USAID/G-CAP’s 
initiatives in education reform support, specifically Education Strategic Objective, 
Intermediate Result #3: Education policies and strategies that enhance gender 
equity and cultural pluralism are implemented. The Activity built on USAID’s 
Strategic Plan 1997-2001 and bilateral agreement with the Government of 
Guatemala (GOG), previous work in policy dialogue carried out under the 
USAID-funded Basic Education Strengthening Project (BEST), and a Task Order 
to the Improving of Educational Quality II (Project # 536-5858).
The overall result of the Social Communication Activity was to design, 
produce, disseminate, and train key opinion leaders in the use of communication 
tools to increase support of the education reform in terms of improving quality 
and enhancing cultural pluralism and gender equity in Guatemala. It was 
expected that the strategic design and use of these tools would increase 
awareness, discussion, and support for education reform particularly among two 
principal audiences: national opinion leaders and national and local education 
leaders. The Activity was to support and enhance the ongoing efforts of the 
Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Consultative Commission for Education 
Reform (CCRE) to inform selected audiences and motivate social participation in 
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education reform. By working closely with these and other civil society 
organizations (CSOs), including the private sector, the Activity was to enhance 
the capacity of Guatemalan education partners to plan and carry out future social 
communication efforts in support of education reform.
The key tasks to meet the overall result included:
1. Rapid assessment of perspectives of key members of the two main 
audience groups regarding education reform;
2. Identification of key users of communication tools and assessment of 
what they need and would use in terms of content and form for
effective dissemination;
3. Development and production of a core set of social communication 
tools based on audience assessment and identification of key users;
4. Dissemination plan for use and application of communication tools by 
key audience;
5. Monitoring of Activity.
All activities and communication tools were designed to be coordinated 
closely with other components of USAID/G’s efforts in education, particularly 
other policy reform support efforts.
Status of Completion
The Activity is complete and the terms and conditions of the Task Order
have been met. All tasks listed in the Task Order Statement of Work have been 
completed, technical assistance was provided to partners, deliverables have
been received by USAID/G, and the overall result has been met.
Assessment of Achievement of Purpose
Accomplishments and Contributions
The greatest accomplishment and contribution of the Activity was the
production and dissemination of a CD-Rom with the PowerPoint presentation
titled: “Educación para Todos: ¿Llegaremos a Donde Queremos Llegar?” This 
presentation represents the update and expansion of a PowerPoint presentation 
titled, “Aprendiendo, Desarrollamos Nuestra Guatemala” that was originally
produced in diskettes and overheads under the Policy Dialogue component of
USAID/G’s BEST Project in 1997. The expanded and updated version produced 
by the Activity is contained in a CD-Rom along with several prefabricated
presentations designed for specific audiences such as educators, researchers,
NGO leaders, press corps, elected officials in the executive and legislative
branches of government, or private sector leaders. The presentations are all
based on a master that contains 92 slides. The presentations vary in their length 
and focus depending on the primary audience. Each presentation is
programmed with automation effects and speakers’ notes. Users have the option 
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of using the presentation as it appears on the CD or of personalizing it to fit the
presenter’s specific needs. Dissemination of the CD was broad and included
national, international, public, private, and NGO leaders. 
Tangible, immediate contributions of the communication tool include
several examples of increased awareness, discussion, and support for education 
reform: effective use by commercial sector leaders to persuade the National
Advertising Council to focus a national 20-year campaign on education as the
number one priority in Guatemala; use by leading CSO alliance (Gran Campaña 
por la Educación) to lobby for increased financing for education sector; use of
data by education leaders, GOG/MOE, and CSOs resulting in increased press
coverage; use by the USAID/MSI Policy Reform Support Activity in training
sessions on policy and stakeholder analysis among selected CSOs.
A second contribution that the Activity has made is the Audience 
Assessment. This adds to the relatively small pool of secondary audience 
research available for the design, implementation, and monitoring of future efforts 
to raise public awareness and support for education reform issues, particularly 
cultural pluralism and gender equity. Key findings were disseminated to partners 
including the MOE and CCRE via formal presentations of study results and the 
Executive Summary of the final report were forwarded by the Activity to all 
respondents. Key findings include:
· Consensus among interviewees that the current state of education is poor 
and that the sector requires “investment” in order to improve;
· A general perception that reform of the education system is urgently needed 
but there is not consensus on the Parity Commission’s Education Reform 
Design – on the “how-to”;
· The public needs information on what education reform actually is and how it 
relates to citizens’ daily lives before attitudes about it will improve -
participants emphasized the need for information dissemination, dialogue, 
and consensus before society at large will endorse reform and participate;
· Informational material should be mostly visual with little text, be distributed 
locally, use testimonials as a medium, and be culturally appropriate;
· The CCRE is believed to be capable of leading a communications strategy 
directed at decision-makers and is well-suited because it is at the margins of 
political interests;
· More information is needed as to what intercultural education is and how it 
works;
· Achieving gender equity is believed to be important though more conservative 
respondents felt it is less important than other aspects of reform.
Activity staff contributed technical assistance to the formatting of the 
MOE/CCRE’s Diálogo y Consenso social mobilization materials, including a 
poster and an informational booklet used with the 331 municipal education 
council groups. The Activity also financed the printing of these materials.
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Lessons Learned
Replicability and Sustainability
In terms of replicating the CD-Rom containing important and unique data
and information on education in Guatemala, there has been enough interest
generated by the Activity among individual and organization leaders that
USAID/G is programming funds to provide for at least one more update of the
key slides of the Power Point presentation.
The use of the communication tool by commercial sector leaders to
persuade a national advertising coalition to adopt education as its focus for a 20-
year long public awareness campaign signals steps for sustainability of using
communications to generate active support for education reform.
The quality data/information on education that both this Activity and the
policy dialogue component under BEST provided in the form of attractive, user￾friendly social communication tools such as PowerPoints, overheads, and
booklets has been met with overwhelming requests for more and in a wider
variety of forms. People ranging in positions from Social Cabinet Ministers to 
NGO directors, to local education officials, parents, and students have requested 
copies of the social communication tools as well as regular updating of the
data/information provided through USAID/G activities. This interest and
motivation to obtain and use data/information will hopefully lead to sustainability
among national organizations and alliances in using, generating and
disseminating information needed to propel policy reform forward.
The Activity could have gone farther in the communications process had it 
included full-time marketing communications expertise on its team. For instance, 
the Audience Assessment required a significant amount of time from the Activity 
and a more streamlined, rapid study design would have left more time for the
remaining elements of the communications process to be attended. Also, the
use of the primary research to complement secondary research would have led 
to working with a representative group of partners and other stakeholders to
develop a Creative Brief for a communications strategy, as was originally
planned but not achieved. Communications expertise would also have allowed
for the development of a full set of complementary communications tools using
the CD-Rom as the base for materials that could have been replicated by other
sectors such as press, advertising, and public relations and would have been
more user-friendly for CSO partners than is the CD alone.
The Public Awareness of Education Reform Activity was to enhance the
capacity of Guatemalan education partners to plan and carry out future social
communication efforts in support of education reform. Given constraints in both 
time and lack of specific operational links between Activity and partners’ staff,
this was not achieved as fully as it might have been.
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Design and Implementation of New Related Activities
USAID/G technical and limited financial support to the growing
Guatemalan CSO initiative to generate policy dialogue and public awareness
over several years represents an opportunity for USAID/G to “do more with less”. 
The CSO initiative needs technical assistance in the areas of customer research, 
data/information analysis and generation, and the design and use of dialogue
and advocacy materials. This support is expected by leading CSOs to increase 
public and individual commitment to improving the education system so that
quality basic education becomes more accessible to Guatemalan children and
youth.
Lessons learned from this Activity suggest that new related USAID/G
activities would benefit greatly from having expertise in communications
marketing for development throughout the Life of Activity. 
The impact of all education reform efforts and the work of individual and
organization leaders that promote specific policy changes will increase 
significantly when the society is cognizant of the state of education in Guatemala. 
Public awareness of the state if education: its implications for each family and
community, the most significant factors that produce it, and the feasible solutions 
are necessary before the education reform can expect enough support to be able 
to make significant progress. A large-scale, multi-level and integrated public
awareness campaign to get public opinion behind reform efforts is needed. 
USAID can facilitate this effort with its global expertise in social marketing and
education reform support in partnership with different alliances that are moving in 
this direction. USAID/G could work with partners to carry out a strategic,
comprehensive plan to integrate education policy analysis with education policy
dialogue, advocacy, awareness, political salesmanship, and to build institutional
capacity that can strategically use this integration to effect purposeful reform. 
New activities should be designed to link technical work with local partners 
so that the capacity of Guatemalan education partners to plan and carry out
future social communication efforts in support of education reform is enhanced. 
III. CLOSE OUT VOUCHERS AND END-USE MONITORING
See Attachments A and B.
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Drafter: WS DuFlon _________________ Date: __________
Clearance: JB Richards ________________ Date: __________
M Anderson ________________ Date: __________
G Cordón __________________ Date: __________
R Morales __________________ Date: __________