An Approach to the Evaluation of Rural Development Programs in Colombia: A Pilot Study in Tuchin (Cordoba, Colombia)

Abstract

This pilot study conducts a mixed methods evaluation of the programs developed by FUNDAEC in the town of Tuchín, Córdoba, from February to June 2002. It aims to observe, through internationally validated scales, the existing differences in some indicators such as social mobility, civic commitment, attitude towards violence, cultural distrust, prosocial behavior, etc., between people who graduated from these programs and others who did not. In order to observe qualitatively the posible explanatory mechanisms of the differences between the two groups, qualitative interviews were conducted with people from the region who participated in these programs. The results of this study show that the indicators scales are significantly more favorable in the case of the graduates than in the control group. Through the semi-structured interviews, it was possible to identify which elements may favor such differentiation between groups, although causal attributions cannot be generated due to the type of analysis performed. This pilot study opens the door to replicating this type of evaluation in other regions with the same type of educational programs.