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

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.