Merit and Needs-Based Scholarship Program (MNBSP) Evaluation Report

In 2004 the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Pakistan's Higher Education Commission (HEC) developed the Merit and Needs-based Scholarship Program (MNBSP). The objectives of MNBSP are: 

• To enable the academically qualified, yet financially needy, Pakistani students to continue university studies in selected private and public universities of Pakistan in the fields of agriculture and business administration. 
• To enhance the institutional capacity of the HEC of the Government of Pakistan and local public and private sector universities in designing and implementing need and merit based scholarship projects. 

The purpose of this evaluation of MNBSP is to provide USAID/Pakistan with an independent performance-cum-process evaluation to help improve the performance of MNBSP and its contribution to USAID/Pakistan’s development objectives. The scope of the evaluation was defined through twelve specific questions, which are listed in the next section that outlines overall conclusions. The evaluation used a mixed methods approach to collecting and analyzing data. A number of instruments were adopted to gather primary information from stakeholders and MNBSP beneficiaries. Secondary data was captured from program documentation and other relevant sources. All sources are defined in the body of the report.