Development management in Africa : the case of the land conservation and range development project in Lesotho

To date, LCRD: (1) has established a prototype range management area (RMA) for applying improved livestock/range management methods; (2) is making a concerted effort within the RMA to introduce rotational grazing, controlled breeding, culling of less desirable animals, disease control, and marketing of livestock and livestock products; and (3) has established a livestock owners' grazing association (GA) to enforce RMA grazing regulations. LCRD offers several lessons for development project management. (1) Training should be extended beyond government counterparts to participants - in LCRD, livestock owners and their herdboys - who can sustain project interventions. (2) Rigorous financial management may not be an important determinant of project success. LCRD is meeting planned targets despite elementary bookkeeping. USAID is imposing rigorous financial management procedures on itself rather than on the project. (3) A project that introduces new resource management techniques must co-opt local authorities and yet relieve local organizations of responsibility for unpopular decisions. LCRD imposes such decisions on the GA but blames failures on the U.S. technical team. (4) Local organizations established to control resource allocation must have supportive linkages to pre-existing legitimate institutions - in LCRD, the hierarchy of chiefs. (5) Integration of a project into an existing institution - in LCRD, the Ministry of Agriculture - can strengthen a country's institutional capacity. (6) Different project components, levels of focus, and implementation periods may require different management styles. Early on, some U.S. technicians located in Maseru held line positions while their counterparts studied in the United States. Upon the latter's return, the technicians have become advisors to the Ministry. Within the RMA, on the other hand, U.S. technicians are not merely advisors, but must tell the RMA what to do. (Author abstract, modified).