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Seeing Through the Logical Framework

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Daniel E. Martinez  and
David J. Cooper
Daniel E. Martinez*
Affiliation:
Department of Accounting and Control, HEC Paris, 1 Rue de la Liberation, 78351 Jouy en Josas, France
David J. Cooper
Affiliation:
School of Business, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R6, Canada Edinburgh University Business School, 29 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9JS, UK
*
martinez@hec.fr
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Abstract

In this study, we examine the key management and scientific traditions that inform the logical framework, a project planning and evaluation tool that is central to how many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) manage their projects and provide accounts to funders. Through an analysis of USAID reports from the 1960s and 1970s, interviews with the logical framework’s developers, and a close reading of seminal texts, we identify how systems theory, management by objectives, and scientific theory informed how USAID problematized its project planning and evaluation practices and how they came to be inscribed into the logical framework as a way to address such perceived problems. We argue that these traditions are important for understanding a particular strand of managerialization that informs international development NGOs, and, more generally, for understanding how funding agencies “see” through the logical framework.

Keywords

Logical frameworkManagerialismStateNon-governmental organizations (NGOs)

Information

Type
Research Papers
Information
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations , Volume 31 , Issue 6 , December 2020 , pp. 1239 - 1253
Copyright
Copyright © International Society for Third-Sector Research 2020

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