The Management of International Development Projects: Enhancing Sustainable Outcomes with Improved Project Management Education and Training

This paper is focused on the management of international development projects. The primary aim is to put forward innovative new ideas for project management education and training in the light of the current realities of development projects. These are defined as projects funded by international donor organizations that focus on development issues such as poverty alleviation, health, education, agriculture, food security, trade, private sector development and institutional capacity building in developing countries. The paper addresses projects that cover the provision of technical expertise, rather than infrastructural development and supplies, as funded by the European Union, World Bank or bilateral donors such as USAID, the Netherlands Government and DFID. The paper provocatively examines current problems in the field, highlighting some general success and failure factors, and then considers some interesting cases of innovation using new learning technologies and learning designs. The analysis is based on an exploratory research approach through the authors’ hands-on experiences, either as project managers, project management trainers or individual experts, in over 200 donor-funded projects over 18 years in a large and diverse number of developing countries. The current realities of development project management, including education and training, are examined and contrasted with current project management methodologies, especially Project Cycle Management (PCM) and the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) approach regarded as important in that it is as an increasingly emergent industry standard and training provider. The PMI’s ‘Project Management Body of Knowledge’ (PMBOK) provides both a curriculum for training as well as a useful analytical framework for assessing project management performance and is used here to study current issues and problems in development projects: the critical success and failure factors. The PMI, however, is generally better known in the private sector and despite an innovative quality-driven approach using distance education technologies, lacks strong recognition in the institutions of international development. On the other hand, donor-funded project management methodologies, notably PCM, remain de rigueur and there has been little innovation over the last 20 years, especially in the ways project management is taught and trained. A particular issue is distance education and the opportunities provided by electronic learning environments. Drawing on case studies presented, the paper explores how traditional donor project management systems such as PCM can be enhanced by innovative training methods, including e-learning and blended learning; as well as collaboration and sharing with distance education providers such as the PMI and higher education institutions. The paper is also in part intended as a vision and point of departure for a capacity group that will be focused on developing new approaches and materials for project management training that will ultimately contribute to the more effective management of international development projects and promote sustainable outcomes.