ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the setting and the interviews which constituted a major portion of the study. It provides several suggestions for improving the effectiveness of expert/counterpart working relations. Difficulties grew out of our ignorance of the Thai language and our cultural ignorance, expert and counterpart, each of the other. An important problem in the expert/counterpart relationship was that the Thai staff often considered that the proposed work assignments were inappropriate and represented ignorance of the conditions of life and work in the villages as well as ignorance of Thai culture. The most generally accepted notion of the role of the expert is that the expert passes over to the counterpart the special skills or knowledge which constitute expertise. Almost all the experts and many of the national staff stated that the expert should be a consultant.
