Naomi Rennard

Ask What They Do for the Country: the Need for Evaluations throughout Peace Corps

The international health field values volunteerism and international service is often a global health professional’s first field experience.  At BU’s orientation, Department Chair Jon Simon charged the International Health concentrators to think about serving with Peace Corps (PC).  Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a new culture and work in the development field for two years.   PCVs have the potential to impact the communities in which they serve as well as gain an important new worldview.

The opportunity to work in the developing world attracts many young adults to PC.  At the start of this paper, I hoped to learn the impacts of PCV’s work on their host communities.  After some initial research, however, this goal became secondary to understanding the positive attributes of PC and what changes could be made to the program to generate measurable and potentially lasting impacts within host communities. Currently PC does not have a set regimen for evaluating volunteers, but I believe assessments could not only help PC fulfill its mission more effectively, but also provide volunteers with enhanced field experiences.

According to PCVs, PC is a unique and valuable opportunity to challenge oneself and understand development work (1).  Over 200,000 volunteers have served abroad since PC first began in 1960, and its reputation attracts a variety of people seeking to enhance their understanding of the developing world (2).  While PCVs often indicate their experience was valuable for them and their careers, many volunteers do not know their impact on host communities.

Methods:  What do we know now?

Though most returned PCVs (RPCVs) willingly give first hand accounts of their experiences abroad, published literature regarding PCVs’ successes, struggles, and failures is limited.  Despite the fact that evaluations have been shown to enhance public health programs and their impacts, standardized frameworks for evaluation of international volunteer programs have not been established (3).  Literature has begun to create such frameworks, and these documents are useful for evaluating PCV’s experiences, but no framework has been universally accepted as an evaluation tool (4), (5), (6).  For this paper, I conducted a literature review of databases such as Google Scholar and PubMed to find available literature on international volunteerism.  To add perspective to available literature, I conducted a series of personal interviews with RPCVs.

Literature Review

The available literature is one of two types.  The first addresses the impact international volunteerism has on the careers of volunteers.  Some articles assess health and medical professionals and their past volunteer experiences (7), (8), (9).  Other assessments discuss instilling a desire for volunteerism among youth in order to sustain volunteering and development-focused work throughout adult life (4).  These assessments are important for understanding volunteers and their potential, but not as valuable in assessing the successes of volunteers’ fieldwork.  The second type of literature, which may be more useful in evaluating international volunteer programming, focuses on program attributes and individual characteristics that can affect civil service experiences (4), (5), (6).  In one article, “length of stay” is implicated as being one of the major determinants of volunteers’ fieldwork successes. The paper indicated the longer volunteers serve, the more likely they are to generate sustainable development in a host community.  One study of volunteers from New Zealand discussed impetus to serve, impacts their service experience had on their personality and career, and what volunteers thought were their fieldwork successes (6).  Similar to early reports of PCVs, participants in the study indicated they had to be “open [minded] and flexible” and willing to try new things (6,10).

Much of the available literature, whether about volunteers themselves or the programs in which they participated, disclosed that the dearth of evaluative research in the field led the authors to create new models for assessment.   This indicates a need for standardized evaluations for volunteers, especially in established programs like PC.

Personal Interviews

I initially hoped personal interviews with RPCVs would illustrate the impacts their PC experience had not only on their careers but also on their host communities.  Instead, however, I gained several views of PC and different perspectives regarding some of the limitations of volunteers’ fieldwork (Table 1).

Table 1:  Summary Information of RPCVs Interviewed

Each experience was different, but the RPCV interviews indicated that the experience undoubtedly changed their lives.  They discussed the immeasurable personal growth gained throughout their service, and many indicated that their PC experience led to their decision to work in global health or development.

There was some discrepancy among volunteers regarding the impact of their fieldwork.  One recently returned RPCV explained, “we are all just a small cog in a giant wheel.  The work is important, even if no one remembers” (14).  The RPCV who worked in Chad commented that her work may not have been memorable in her host community, but she now teaches American students the values she learned abroad, and increasing American’s understanding of other communities and cultures is an important aspect of development (11).  On the other hand, one volunteer has looked on Google maps and has been able to find sustained working fisheries in Honduras, like the ones he worked to initiate in his host community (13).  He can recognize that, most likely, the people he worked with are no longer farming, but since the techniques have been sustained in the area, he feels his work was both valuable and sustainable.

Discussion:  What does this mean?

Because PC does not uniformly assess PCV’s fieldwork, the impact of their work is often unknown. The PC Chief of Staff agrees that while evaluations are important, they are difficult to implement in many cases because PC service is not just an international development position (15). If evaluations are too rigorous, volunteers may be too concerned about their fieldwork’s progress and they may not take the opportunity to learn and live a new culture.  One RPCV explained, “PC is more than just a job,” and by not focusing on evaluations, the volunteers have an ability to fully immerse themselves into another culture (13).

Evaluation of PCVs could, however, enhance some volunteers’ experiences.  In fact, some RPCVs indicated midterm assessments might help to handle challenges in the field.  One RPCV described feeling lost and unsure about her work; had someone assessed her progress, she may have been able to change her work to make it more applicable to the community (12). One RPCV explained that some people simply need structure to thrive, and potentially great volunteers often flounder in PC because of a lack of guidance (1).  Additionally, evaluations could ensure that all of the volunteers are being held accountable.  “No one checked up on you, so if you were at the embassy everyday, no one would know,” one RPCV explained (1).

Recommendation:  Need for Evaluations of Peace Corps Volunteers

While it is unclear how PC should structure evaluation of volunteers, evaluations could increase the successes of PCVs.  Evaluations could be as simple as periodic self-assessments, which are not currently required of all PCVs.  Evaluations could inform future volunteers in similar positions and ensure their training and allocated resources are sufficient to complete their work and gain the most from their experience abroad.  PCVs have traditionally responded well to short periods of training, and an understanding of the work of other PCVs could make volunteers more prepared for their international service.  One way to implement this would be to allocate the final months of a PCV’s service to assisting in the training of new PCVs.  This training of incoming PCVs could act as a final assessment of an outgoing PCV’s understanding of the community’s needs.

PC will continue to be an important player in the international development community.  To enhance volunteer experiences, and the host communities in which they serve, PC should begin a system of evaluations.  It would only take simple evaluations to ensure that the potential of PCVs is fully realized. Ensuring their potential will in turn result in programs that are sustainable and applicable to the developing world, and thus impact host communities as much as the volunteers.

References:

(1)  Personal Interview.  RPCV Liberia, 1987-1989.

(2)  Peace Corps Website.  www.peacecorps.gov.  14 December 2009.  Accessed 10 March 2010.

(3)  Owen, John M.  Program Evaluation:  forms and approaches. New York:  Guilford Press, 2007.

(4)  Marta, E., & Pozzi, M. (2008). Young People and Volunteerism: A Model of Sustained Volunteerism During the Transition to Adulthood. Journal of Adult Development, 15(1), 35-46. doi: 10.1007/s10804-007-9033-4.

(5)  Sherraden, M. S., Lough, B., & McBride, A. M. (2008). Effects of International Volunteering and Service: Individual and Institutional Predictors. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 19(4), 395-421. doi: 10.1007/s11266-008-9072-x.

(6)  Hudson, Sheena.  Inkson, Kerr.  “Volunteer overseas development workers:  the hero’s adventure and personal transformation.”  Career Development International 11(4), 2006.

(7)  Powell, A. C., Mueller, C., Kingham, P., Berman, R., Pachter, H. L., & Hopkins, M. A. (2007). International Experience, Electives, and Volunteerism in Surgical Training: A Survey of Resident Interest. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 205(1), 162-168. doi: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2007.02.049.

(8)  Laleman, G., Kegels, G., Marchal, B., Van der Roost, D., Bogaert, I., & Van Damme, W. (2007). The contribution of international health volunteers to the health workforce in sub-Saharan Africa. Human Resources for Health, 5(1), 19. doi: 10.1186/1478-4491-5-19.

(9)  Gupta, A., Wells, C., Horwitz, R., Bia, F., & Barry, M. (1999). The International Health Program: the fifteen-year experience with Yale University’s Internal Medicine Residency Program. Am J Trop Med Hyg, 61(6), 1019-1023.

(10)  Harris, J. G. (1973). A science of the South Pacific: Analysis of the character structure of the Peace Corps volunteer. American Psychologist, 28(3), 232-247. doi: 10.1037/h0034709.

(11)  Personal Interview.  RPCV Burkina Faso, 1985-1987.

(12)  Personal Interview.  RPCV Honduras, 1985-1988.

(13)  Personal Interview.  RPCV Lesotho, 2006-2008.

(14)  Personal Interview.  RPCV Chad, 1970-1972.

(15)  Informal conversation.  Peace Corps Chief of Staff, William Stacy Rhodes, March 25, 2010.