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Evaluating Country Programmes
272
Notes
1. This paper uses “USAID” as shorthand for all US Government economic assistance programmes
to Costa Rica. USAID was established only in 1961, and earlier programmes
operated under different names. The largest single project, the Inter-American Highway,
was administered by a US domestic agency, the Bureau of Public Roads.
2. Despite this national security rationale for USAID's presence in Costa Rica, Costa Ricans
interviewed were virtually unanimous in believing that the American USAID employees
were there for altruistic reasons.
3. This figure is based on self-reported education levels for the 1984 population census.
4. These comparisons are based on estimates of purchasing power parity (perhaps better
known as PPP). Exchange rate-based estimates differ significantly, though the relative
standing is not affected. By the more common measure of GDP, using exchange rates,
Costa Rica's per capita GDP in 1995 was approximately USD2 600.
5. The least expensive form of housing, a rancho, was a one-room house with dirt floor and
thatched roof.
6. Take-off refers to the stage at which a society has achieved a certain momentum in the
pace of change, whereby it can soar like an airplane into sustainable growth.
7. Nugent (1974) estimates that the CACM added about 0.6% each year to Central American
GDP (or more than 7% over the period 1960-72), while Cline and Delgado (1978) offer the
somewhat lower estimate of an addition of 3-4% to regional GDP during 1960-72.
8. As noted earlier, many development economists were not convinced that there were any
serious problems with the development strategy being pursued during this period.
Developing-country economic growth had been rapid and sustained for nearly two
decades, and the emerging calamity was seen with much greater clarity in hindsight than
it was at the time.
9. USAID/Costa Rica did not completely ignore such issues. The strategy paper it submitted
to Washington in January 1981 recognised that the Costa Rican Government was making
unreasonable forecasts of macroeconomic trends, but it did not recommend any
action to address the unreality.
10. While there may be general agreement that the outcome was satisfactory, there would
likely be sharp division on the reasons for this. Some would argue that military aid to the
Contras in Nicaragua was an important part of the solution, whereas others would argue
that the right outcome was achieved by congressional action to limit the role of the Contras
and to emphasise peaceful approaches.
11. These estimates are based on exchange rate-based estimates of GDP. Using estimates
based on purchasing power parity, value of the annual addition to production would be
substantially larger.
OECD 1999