Development management in Africa : the case of the North Shaba rural development project in Zaire

Major findings are that: (1) the number of new and rebuilt roads and bridges were on target; (2) production and marketing of maize exceeded targets; (3) the general economic condition of beneficiaries improved after the commencement of project activities; and (4) pressure by the project helped achieve a higher farm gate price which, while not a stated project goal, contributed to the project's success. Findings on the project's management strategy were both positive and negative. On the positive side, the project established an effective management unit under the direction of qualified Zairois and achieved a high level of local participation; also, the Government of Zaire provided project cadre who were motivated, capable, and well trained as managers. On the negative side, the project had a shifting objective and goal, which were never fully understood by the stakeholders; inadequate attention was given, especially early on, to project sustainability, and only partial solutions were found in the final years to sustain the project's institutional, personnel, and financial interventions. Lessons learned are that: (1) an in-depth understanding of the local socioeconomic and technical environment is a sine qua non for project design and effective project management; (2) a development project tends to be more successful if its design is administratively simple and its management interventions are integrated into local social and production systems; (3) more complicated projects should devote greater time and money to management issues and need a long timeframe to achieve project goals; (4) where a project's larger context is administratively difficult, it may be more appropriate to design a project that works around, and is not a part of, the established system; and (5) although short-term accomplishments fostered by expatriates can help convince beneficiaries to accept long-term solutions, it is more important in the long run to train local personnel at all levels to implement project activities, even if this temporarily slows implementation. (Author abstract, modified)