Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T17:18:02.138Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

International assistance policy and development project administration: the impact of imperious rationality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Get access

Abstract

Administration of assistance projects by international lending agencies has come under increasing criticism during the past decade, a period when development projects have become primary instruments of international investment and an important element of public administration in developing nations. As a result international assistance agencies drastically reorganized their lending procedures during the early 1970s, creating complex requirements for project planning, appraisal, and implementation. But the formal procedures have become so complex that they are now beyond the administrative capacity of most developing nations and, perhaps, of the assistance agencies themselves. Evaluation reports reveal serious gaps between prescribed procedures and actual behavior at each stage of the project cycle. International requirements for project planning and implementation not only impose on developing nations a set of “rational” procedures that are often unrelated to political, administrative, and cultural constraints, but the attempts of Third World countries to conform may be adverse to their own interests.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Gittinger, J. Price, Economic Analysis of Agricultural Projects, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972), p. 1Google Scholar.

2 Hirschman, Albert O., Development Projects Observed, (Washington: Brookings Institution, 1967), p. 1Google Scholar.

3 Rondinelli, Dennis A., “Project Identification in Economic Development”, Journal of World Trade Law, Vol. 10, No. 3 (0506 1976)Google Scholar.

4 Hirschman, p. 1.

5 US Agency for International Development, Fiscal Year 1977 Submission to the Congress, (Washington: Department of State, 1976), pp. 35Google Scholar.

6 McNamaia, Robert S., Address to the Board of Governors, (Nairobi, Kenya: World Bank Group, 1973), p. 9Google Scholar.

7 Rondinelli, Dennis A. and Radosevich, H. Raymond, “Administrative Changes in International Assistance: Implications for Asian Cooperation”, The Asian Economic and Social Review, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1976), forthcomingGoogle Scholar.

8 Pearson, Lester B., Partners in Development: Report of the Commission on International Development, (New York: Praeger, 1969), p. 169Google Scholar.

9 SirJackson, Robert, A Study of the Capacity of the United Nations Development System, (Geneva: United Nations, 1969), Vol. 1, p. 9Google Scholar.

10 US Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Deficiencies in the Management and Delivery of UN Technical and Pre-Investment Assistance, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1971), p. 7Google Scholar.

11 United Nations Development Program, Interim Report of the Working Group on Review of Country Programming Experience, (New York: United Nations, 1974)Google Scholar.

12 US Agency for International Development, Report on Project Management Problems, (Washington: USAID, 1969)Google Scholar.

13 US Agency for International Development, “Project Management in A.I.D.”, (Washington: USAID, 1970), mimeographed, p. 2Google Scholar.

14 US Agency for International Development, Report of the PBAR Task Force: An Integrated System for Planning, Budgeting, Accounting and Reporting, (Washington: Department of State, 1974), p. 2Google Scholar.

15 US Agency for International Development, Implementation of “New Directions” in Development Assistance, Report to the Committee on International Relations on Implementation of Legislative Reforms of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1973, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1975), pp. 2526Google Scholar.

16 See, for example, Waterston, Albert, Development Planning: Lessons of Experience, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1965)Google Scholar; Haq, Mahbub ul, “Development Decade: Lessons Learnt by Economic Planners”, in Ghouse, A.M. (ed.), Pakistan in the Development Decade: Problems and Performance, (Lahore: Economic Development Seminar, 1968), pp. 349–60Google Scholar; Wildavsky, Aaron, “Why Planning Fails in Nepal”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 4 (12 1972): 508–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jacoby, Neil H., U.S. Aid to Taiwan, (New York: Praeger, 1966)Google Scholar; and Wynia, Gary W., Politics and Planners: Economic Development Policy in Central America, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1972)Google Scholar.

17 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, World Bank Operations: Sectoral Programs and Policies, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972), p. 19Google Scholar.

18 Caiden, Naomi and Wildavsky, Aaron, Planning and Budgeting in Poor Countries, (New York: Wiley, 1974), p. 17Google Scholar.

19 Powelson, John P., Institutions of Economic Growth, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972), p. 202Google Scholar.

20 Reid, Escott, Strengthening the World Bank, (Chicago: Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs, 1973), p. 74Google Scholar.

21 In a study of nineteen highway projects in five Central American countries sponsored by four international assistance agencies, for instance, Wynia found common patterns of problems and behavior in project implementation. “Despite the widely differing conditions, the behavior of all nineteen highway projects is quite similar. That is, they experienced similar patterns of delay and unexpected cost increases”, notes Wynia. “Or stated another way, the behavior of projects financed by any one international agency differed very little from projects financed by others; large and expensive projects implemented by one government differed little from small ones implemented by other governments”. Wynia, Gary W., Politics and Planners: Economic Development Policy in Central America, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1972), p. 169Google Scholar.

22 See United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Sum maries of Industrial Development Plans, Vol. 3, (Vienna: UNIDO, 1973), pp. 7273Google Scholar.

23 United Nations Public Administration Division, “Some Aspects of Administration of Projects within the Context of Development Planning”, in Administrative Aspects of Planning, (New York: United Nations, 1969), pp. 384402Google Scholar; quote at p. 402.

24 Bainbridge, J. and Sapirie, S., Health Project Management, (Geneva: World Health Organization, 1974)Google Scholar.

25 See Rondinelli, “Project Identification in Economic Development”.

26 See, for example, Melnick, Julio, Manual on Economic Development Projects, (New York: United Nations, 1958)Google Scholar; United Nations, Economic Commission for Latin America, Cost Estimation of Water Resource Projects, (New York: United Nations, 1973)Google Scholar; Ewing, A.F., “Pre-Investment”, Journal of World Trade Law, Vol. 8 (1974): 316–28Google Scholar; International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Environmental, Health and Human Ecologic Considerations in Economic Development Projects, (Washington: World Bank Group, 1974)Google Scholar.

27 Jalal, Ferhang, The Role of Government in the Industrialization of Iraq 1950–1965, (London: Frank Cass, 1972), p. 129Google Scholar.

28 United Nations, Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, “Criteria for Allocating Investment Resources Among Various Fields of Development in Under-Developed Countries”, Economic Bulletin for Asia and the Far East, (June 1961): 30–45; Lai, Deepak, Methods of Project Analysis: A Review (Washington: World Bank, 1974), Staff Occasional Paper No. 16Google Scholar: and Little, I. M. D. and Mirlees, J. A., Manual of Industrial Project Analysis in Developing Nations, (Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1968)Google Scholar.

29 United Nations Public Administration Division, p. 394.

30 Ibid., p. 391.

31 Ibid., p. 400.

32 Hayes, Samuel P. Jr, Evaluating Development Projects, (Paris: UNESCO, 1966), 2nd Edition, pp. 2224Google Scholar.

33 Chambers, Robert and Belshaw, Deryke, Managing Rural Development: Lessons and Methods from Eastern Africa, (Brighton, England: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 1973), p. 6.3Google Scholar.

34 Idem.

35 Husain, I., “Mechanics of Development Planning in Pakistan: A Suggested Framework”, Pakistan Economic and Social Review, Vol. 11, No. 4 (12 1973): 454463Google Scholar; quote at p. 455.

36 Rana, P. S. J. B., “The Nepalese Economy: Problems and Prospects”, Asian Survey, Vol. 14, No. 7 (06 1974): 651–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 US Agency for International Development, Mission, to Brazil, , Brazil-Education Sector Loan IT, (Washington: USAID, 1970), p. 6Google Scholar.

38 US Agency for International Development, Mission, to Bolivia, , Education in Bolivia-A Preliminary Sector Assessment, (Washington: USAID. 1974), p. IV99Google Scholar.

39 See, for instance, Wildavsky, Aaron, “Rescuing Policy Analysis from PPBS”, Public Administration Review, Vol. 29, No. 2 (03/04yy, 1969): 189202CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schick, Allen, “A Death in the Bureaucracy: The Demise of Federal PPB”, Public Administration Review, Vol. 33, No. 2 (03/04 1973): 146–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schlesinger, J.R., “Systems Analysis and the Political Process”, Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 11 (10 1968): 281–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hoos, Ida R., Systems Analysis in Public Policy: A Critique, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972Google Scholar.

40 Sapolski, Harvey M., The Polaris Missile System (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972) p. 130CrossRefGoogle Scholar, notes that the Navy's Special Projects Office, which advocated project management systems techniques, “much to its own discomfort is now often required by fiat and reputation to apply management practices that it would happily abandon for the sake of efficiency. And the techniques that actually guided the Polaris program are ignored because they do not conform to the theories which had their origins supposedly in the very same program”.

41 Murphy, D.C., Baker, B.N. and Fisher, D., Determinants of Project Success (Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Boston College Institute of Management, 1974), quote at pp. 89Google Scholar.

42 Ahmad, Yusuf J., “Project Identification, Analysis and Preparation in Developing Countries: A Discursive Commentary”, Development and Change, Vol. 6, No. 3, (07 1975): 8390; quote at p. 85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 World Bank Group, Policies and Operations, pp. 4647Google Scholar.

44 Thomas, John Woodward, “Development Institutions, Projects and Aid: A Case Study of the Water Development Programme in East Pakistan”, Pakistan Economic and Social Review, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Spring 1974): 87103Google Scholar; quote at page 80–81.

45 See Thomas, ibid; Robert Repetto, “Economic Aspects of Irrigation Project Design in East Pakistan”, in Falcon, W. P. and Papanek, G. F. (eds.) Development Policy II-The Pakistan Experience, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971) pp. 134–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Vepa, Ram K., “Implementation The Problem of Achieving Results”, The Indian Journal of Public Administration, Vol. 20, No. 2 (0406 1974): 257–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sharkansky, Ira and Dresang, Dennis L., “International Assistance: Its Variety, Coordination and Impact Among Public Corporations in Kenya and the East African Community”, International Organization, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Spring 1974): 207–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.