Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    International Development Projects: Peculiarities and Managerial Approaches
    International Development Projects: Peculiarities and Managerial Approaches
    International Development Projects: Peculiarities and Managerial Approaches
    Ebook164 pages1 hour

    International Development Projects: Peculiarities and Managerial Approaches

    By Ruggero Golini and Paolo Landoni

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In International Development Projects: Peculiarities and Managerial Approaches, researchers-practitioners from two of Italy's most prestigious universities provide practical insights into this phenomenon...and how the lessons learned in this high stakes international arena can help anyone managing projects that span companies, cultures and continents. Incorporating the wisdom of almost 500 experienced ID project managers, as well as the latest in academic research, this book provides an unprecedented look at the unique characteristics of ID projects, the methods being used to manage them and the specific tools and processes that most often lead to success.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherProject Management Institute
    Release dateSep 1, 2013
    ISBN9781628251180
    International Development Projects: Peculiarities and Managerial Approaches

    Related to International Development Projects

    Related ebooks

    Project Management For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      How To Get Rid Of A TOXIC CUL TURE

      Nov 25, 2019

      How To Get Rid Of A TOXIC CUL TURE
      3 min read

    • Article

      Getting To Grips With Automation For Your Small Business

      May 9, 2021

      AUTOMATION within a business is a contentious topic and often perceived negatively, as it is associated with replacing people with machines and rendering certain skills obsolete. The unease with automation is heightened within the context of South Af

      2 min read

    • Article

      Build And Organise A Kanban Board

      May 5, 2020

      Project management is a tricky skill. What can start out as a relatively simple task can spiral out of hand when you get underway and discover new angles, fresh requirements and who knows what else. It’s hard enough managing a project on your own, bu

      6 min read

    • Article

      Ppps And Fm

      Mar 28, 2019

      Ppps And Fm
      3 min read

    • Article

      Reality Check: What The New Agri Master Plan Is Really About

      Jun 3, 2022

      Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza, along with several agricultural and agribusiness groupings, signed the Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan in Parliament on 12 May. The process was the culmination of tw

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Better Future For All

      Oct 15, 2020

      Beijing Review: What is going to be the focus of development in the post-novel coronavirus pandemic period? Beate Trankmann: The world that emerges post-novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) will be very different and how we respond and adapt during t

      5 min read

    • Article

      Embracing The Innovation Debate

      May 1, 2022

      Embracing The Innovation Debate
      3 min read

    • Article

      Racing Against Time

      Aug 18, 2023

      EIGHT YEARS AGO, the United Nations set the clock ticking on what then Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called a “people’s agenda”. One-hundred-and-ninety-three countries agreed to meet a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets by

      7 min read

    • Article

      Why the White House’s Justice40 is an Important Tool to Build On

      Apr 25, 2024

      We now are seeing the most comprehensive set of presidential equity and justice actions since the 1960s.

      6 min read

    • Article

      India’s Dpi Goes Global

      Oct 27, 2023

      India’s Dpi Goes Global
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tech Talk

      Jul 31, 2021

      Tech Talk
      2 min read

    • Article

      Global Voices Seeks A Project Editor/coordinator For Our Advox Project

      Nov 16, 2021

      Advox, the digital rights initiative of Global Voices, is seeking a project editor/coordinator to support the implementation of Advox projects and the Advox programme generally.

      1 min read

    • Article

      Global Security Drives Common Development

      Oct 28, 2021

      ‘Competition, yes. Enemies, no.” This was how Carlos Gutierrez, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, characterized relations between the world’s two largest economies during the First Global Economic Development and Security Forum (GEDS) of the Boao Fo

      4 min read

    • Article

      Toward Wider Openness

      Apr 28, 2022

      How will China’s improved business climate help the domestic and global economies supplement and reinforce one another? Representatives of foreign business communities share their insights on CDF Voice, a social media column of the China Development

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for International Development Projects

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      International Development Projects - Ruggero Golini

      LF

      Chapter 1

      Introduction

      Every year, international cooperation provides aid to developing countries. During 2008, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) members of the Development Assistant Committee (DAC) alone contributed around US $510 million (OECD, 2008).

      According to Diallo and Thuillier (2005), most international assistance provided by governmental or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) is provided via projects.

      A project is defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI) as a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. (PMBOK® Guide, 2008) Projects are a special form of work organization aimed at obtaining specific results and objectives.

      International development (ID) projects aim to improve living conditions in emerging countries by, for instance, enhancing agricultural, health, or educational systems.

      ID projects are gaining increasing importance in the field of international aid to developing countries. Differently from emergency projects that have the objective to provide immediate assistance to populations hit by wars or natural disaster, ID projects usually take place in more stable contexts with the aim to improve living conditions in terms of economy, education, or health. For these reasons, ID projects are sometimes less visible to society, but statistics confirm a growing trend of money and human capital employed in ID projects (Diallo & Thuillier, 2005; OECD, 2008, 2009).

      Despite their importance, limited attention has been devoted in the literature to the peculiarities of ID projects and to the best practices, approaches, and techniques of management. Several authors suggest the need for additional research (Youker, 2004), in particular regarding project management tools and approaches (Khang & Moe, 2008).

      Researchers and practitioners agree that project management can be applied to different contexts, but also that some adaptations are necessary industry by industry (Besner & Hobbs, 2008b). As highlighted by Hanisch and Wald (2012), No project can be studied comprehensively without considering its context: the congruence of a project to the external contingencies is considered to be a factor influencing the effectiveness of the temporary organization. This shows the importance of considering the relevant contingencies in the study of best practices for project managers.

      On the contrary, so far limited insights have been provided about how much project management standards are diffused among companies and other organizations (Ahlemann, Teuteberg, & Vogelsang, 2009), especially among those not belonging to project-based businesses like manufacturing and construction. This represents a gap that researchers and practitioners are trying to fill and that, over time, has brought extensions of project management standards adapted to specific contexts (Besner & Hobbs, 2008a). In fact, despite the universalistic nature of project management methodologies, different contexts show different approaches toward project management (Hanisch & Wald, 2012).

      This could be particularly true for ID projects that present very peculiar characteristics (e.g., not-for-profit nature, high stakeholders involvement) (e.g. Youker, 2004).

      As Youker (2004) suggests, These projects are different from other types of projects for many reasons and the approach to implementation must also be different from standard project management approaches that are embodied in the knowledge and practice guides of professional institutions. ID projects involve a large number of different stakeholders (e.g., donor agencies, government organizations, civil society, and local beneficiaries) (Diallo & Thuillier, 2004), and these participants usually have different perspectives due to national values and culture (e.g., a different concept of time) (Muriithi & Crawford, 2003). In addition to the complex relationship of the stakeholders involved, these projects are peculiar due to their social and not-for-profit nature and the intangibility of the developmental results (Khang & Moe, 2008). Moreover, project environments in developing countries are often difficult due to poor infrastructures and a lack of resources, which add to the complexity of these projects.

      Given these peculiarities, in 1970, Baum introduced a specific approach for ID projects based on the project cycle (Baum, 1970) and specific tools (e.g., logical framework) have been developed in the following years (e.g., Baccarini, 1999). In recent decades, the project cycle approach has been adopted by development agencies because it offers a structured pattern of techniques that allow people to work together while bringing into focus the project’s objectives (Landoni & Corti, 2011). However, so far, limited attention has been devoted to the peculiarities of ID projects and the need for specific methodologies. Furthermore, few works have analyzed the standards used to manage ID projects and their diffusion.

      Finally, a recent research by McKinsey and Devex (Lovegrove, Gebre, Lee, & Kumar, 2011) confirms that ID projects often lack efficiency and effectiveness and, as previously noted, it would not be enough to diffuse and foster the application of standard project management techniques in ID projects. Analyzing 100 ID projects sponsored by the Asian Development Bank and hosted by several Asian countries, Ahsan and Gunawan (2010) found that there are several specific causes of delay or cost overrun, and project managers have to be aware of these and trained to address them in the best way. Ika (2012) is more specific about this problem and identifies three problem areas in managing ID projects (structural/contextual problems, institutional/sustainability problems, managerial/organizational problems) that are not correctly addressed by project managers because of four traps (one-size-fits all trap, accountability for result trap, lack of project management capacity trap, cultural trap).

      Considering these difficulties in managing ID projects, in this work we aim at answering the following questions:

      What are the peculiarities of ID projects?

      How do these peculiarities translate in specific methodologies and tools?

      Do development agencies work with the same standard or use different ones?

      How significant are the differences between them and how can they learn from each other?

      Are these standards adopted in NGOs?

      To answer these questions, we rely on the results of a three-year research program already published in scientific journals and conferences and on an original research that has taken place in 2011–2012, thanks to a PMI grant. Furthermore, we rely on our own experience as volunteers in small NGOs devoted to international development.

      In particular, thanks to the research grant, we engaged in an effort to understand the peculiarities of ID projects with a survey of the existing literature and interviews with project managers in NGOs and relevant institutions and organizations.

      Then we examined and compared the guidelines developed both in the private and public sector regarding the management of ID projects.

      Furthermore, we were able to conduct an extensive survey of project managers in NGOs to understand the diffusion of the methodologies and tools.

      The book has been written to present the results of these analyses and to support the development of the field. The authors assume that the reader has a basic knowledge of the fundamentals of project management; basic information regarding the tools and concepts used in ID projects are reported. This work is thus suited for project managers willing to enter in the international development field and for project managers and other actors working in the this field interested in deepening their knowledge of specific project management methodologies and tools.

      We therefore frame this book as both an academic publication (reporting on cutting-edge research into project management) and a work that we hope many practitioners in the international development field and in other fields can find useful.

      The book is organized into four parts.

      Chapter 2 presents the context and the peculiarities of international development projects. It introduces the fundamental definitions and explains the role of international development activities and organizations such as international organizations, governmental agencies and NGOs. Furthermore, in this chapter we define international development projects and identify and describe their five peculiarities through a literature review and interviews to experts.

      Chapter 3 presents the history and the characteristics of specific methods and tools developed for ID projects. In particular we focus on i) the project-cycle management (PCM) introduced by Baum (1970) that has become a standard practice for development agencies (Biggs & Smith, 2003 p. 1743); and ii) its core tool (i.e., the logical framework). The logical framework is widespread nowadays among ID project managers and it is often considered as a stand-alone tool (Couillard, Garon and Riznic, 2009). In this chapter, we also discuss the limitations of these tools and briefly introduce some of the new tools proposed in the literature.

      Chapter 4 presents the governmental and private guidelines that have been developed to support the diffusion and the adoption of specific methodologies and tools in ID projects. In the first part of this chapter, we compare the project management standards adopted by five of the main worldwide governmental

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1