The Peace Corps and the Private Sector: The Failure of a Partnership

Abstract

The Peace Corps began with the publicly an nounced intention to have an appreciable portion of its activities carried out in partnership with private institutions and organ izations. However, the speed and effectiveness with which the Washington headquarters developed and the character of its staff made it at first difficult and ultimately unnecessary for the Peace Corps to rely on any great amount of outside assistance. Many of the resources that might have been used were lost to the Peace Corps with the decision to exclude religious organi zations and with the failure of the universities to step into the gap. Private institutions began by managing Peace Corps projects almost in their entirety. But the growth of the Peace Corps headquarters, bureaucratic resistance, and the weaknesses of many of the private agencies themselves grad ually eroded this role to the point where most agencies simply provided professional guidance to some of the Volunteers. The Peace Corps can still use them, however, to help provide needed guidance in project planning, in experimental recruiting pro grams, and in overseas administration. It is still important to bring in new and fresh ideas and to rebuild the public support for the Peace Corps provided by these agencies.