DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
Development projects are defined as the visual outcome of
comprehensive development plans and strategies. Such plans and
strategies are formulated based on extensive assessments of
development indicators, e.g., GNI, life expectancy at birth, educational
enrolment, access to safe water and sanitation, Child mortality, disease
incidence, poverty index, energy consumption etc.
Development Projects may also be considered as the final testing
ground for extensively devoted development theories and approaches:
y whether economic growth will be achieved;
y how appropriate technology will be adopted;
y whether basic needs will be addressed;
y how community participation and empowerment will be realized; and
y how capacity building and institutional development will lead to a
better quality of life.
DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
More importantly, every development project becomes a multi‐
dimensional exercise in the world wide issue of poverty alleviation
and ending human misery thereby improving the quality of life.
The stage of development projects is the stage when all planning,
design, and numerous decisions culminate in physical
implementation in the field.
Every country, particularly the developing countries with scarce
resources, need proper planning to guide their efforts for effective
development. The plans are then converted into programs and
projects.
Cycle of Plans and Projects
y Projects are the pivots of a sectoral program, and
y the sectoral programs in turn constitute a well‐concieved national
plan
y On the other hand, project formulation needs national plans and
sectoral programs.
DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
¾ Projects are the king‐pins of development planning.
Different authors have referred projects as
9 "the excellent organized efforts"
9 "the basic blocks of development"
9 "the cutting edge of development"
9 “the privileged particles of development process"
¾ All however, confirmed the importance of project generation,
planning and management in the development process of a
country.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
y Often projects form a clear and distinct portion of a
larger, less precisely identified program.
y In general, a project is an activity for which money will
be spent in expectation of returns and which logically
seems to lend itself to planning, financing, and
implementing as a unit.
y It is the operational element prepared and implemented
as a separate entity in a national plan or program of
sectoral development.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
y It is a specific activity, with a specific starting point and a specific ending
point, intended to accomplish specific objectives.
y It will have a well‐defined sequence of investment and production
activity and a specific group of benefits that can be identified and
quantified.
y If development can be pictured as a progression with many dimensions‐
temporal, spatial, socio‐cultural, financial, economic‐ projects can be
seen as the temporal and spatial units, each with a financial and
economic value and a social impact, that make up the continuum.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
y Virtually every developing country has a systematically elaborated
national plan to hasten economic growth and further a range of
social objectives. Projects provide an important means by which
investment and other development expenditures foreseen in plans
can be realized.
y Sound development plans therefore, require good projects, just as
good projects require sound planning. The two are thus,
interdependent.
Important Analyses
y Important analyses to be made throughout various
stages of project cycle:
y General considerations for project design
y Information analyses
y Technical analyses
y Social analyses
y Financial analyses
y Institutional analyses
y Economic analyses
y Environmental analyses
General Considerations for Project Design
Each project should be designed using a frame work to
ensure a logical relationship and hierarchy between the
projects activities, outputs, and inputs.
¾ Project design should clearly identify –
y Problems or issues the project intends to address;
y Long and short term objectives of the project;
y Target groups or main project beneficiaries;
y Activities required to achieve the objectives;
y Financial and human resources required to achieve the set
objectives;
y Management responsibility and structure;
y Implementation modalities;
Replicability
Project should be designed to ensure replicability –
y Within the country or region where it is implemented, and in
other countries with similar socio‐economic and environmental
conditions.
y Replication could be in any of the following forms:
y Technology,
y Administrative setup (management)
y Processes and styles, or
y Experience
Flexibility
The project should be designed to allow flexibility‐‐
y in the modification of objectives of activities to attain set objectives,
y in the modification of objectives to reflect the changes in government policies,
and in the priorities of the government and the local population.
Flexibility is also required to allow for delays in the implementation of project
activities that could be attributed to one or more of the following factors:
y withdrawal of one or more of the project sponsors,
y delay in delivery of imported equipment and materials required,
y delay in delivery of local inputs,
y shortage of local materials, equipments, and spare parts needed,
y change in government leadership or structures, and
y local commotions and disturbances
The project design should provide for suspension if it becomes apparent that
unforeseen negative impacts and environmental damage are impacts and
environmental damages are resulting from project implementation.
Information Analysis
Important purposes of background information analyses:
y Show the relation of proposed projects to the broad national
development, its replicability.
y Ensure complementarity of activities and avoid duplication.
y Enable identification of potential project beneficiaries.
y Identify possible funding agencies.
y Provide an understanding of govt. priorities to environmental
concerns.
y Establish possible interlinkages between previous activities and
ongoing and planned activities.
Information Analysis
Background information should include:
y Data on the country in question
y Demographic structure
y Economic situation
y National development plan
y Debt structure
y Political system
Information Analysis
General environmental situation
y Climatic conditions
y Topography
y Natural resource base
y Dependence of development on this base, its degradation and
depletion.
y Major environmental and resource constraint
y Existing govt. institutional structures dealing on the environment
¾ Related projects and activities undertaken by IDAs, UN agencies,
GOs and NGOs.
Social Analysis
y Social analysis should begin at the outset of project
identification and continue through the various stages of
project cycle.
y Projects that ignore the traditions, values, and social
organization of people have little chance of success.
Social Analysis
People's Participation
¾ People's participation in all phases of project formulation
and design, and in the various stages of project cycle is
extremely important.
9 ensures that needs and problems of the population
concerned are addressed.
9 people's support in project activities are secured.
9 local people gradually take over management
9 capabilities of local population for self reliance improve
9 minimizes opposition
9 mobilizes support
9 increases the impact and sustainability of projects
9 helps gather relevant information for projects design.
Important information that many be easily gathered thorough
people's participation:
y Main economic activities of the population
y Mayor ecological zones in the project area
y Size of the population in the project area
y Project beneficiaries or target groups
y Structure of local community, existing leadership and its influence
y Local systems governing access to and control of natural resources, e.g.,
land tenure system, water rights etc.
y Gender roles in the local society
y Basic infrastructure available, e.g., roads, schools, hospitals etc.
y Socio‐cultural and demographic characteristics including ethnic, tribal
and class composition
y Environmental and development problems
y Effective local groups, their setups, types of activities
¾ These information are vital in formulating project frame work,
modalities of implementation and a strategy to secure people's
commitment throughout the project cycle.
Technical Analysis
¾ Broad technical issues in the project design include:
Size
Location
Timing
Technology
¾ Size: Project size and scope depend on:
9 market demand
9 administration capacity of the implementing agency
9 economic considerations
9 financial considerations
Technical Analysis
¾Location: Factors to be considered in determining
project location:
y type of project
y proximity of sources of raw materials
y markets
y infrastructure facilities
y access to labour market
y geographical conditions
y socio‐economic and environmental conditions
y major economic activities of local population
y location of areas with high conservation significance.
y Govt. priority
Technical Analysis
¾ Timing:
y Project duration
y Appropriate time to start a project
y Realistic planning and scheduling of activities
y Reasonable lead period at the beginning of a project.
Technical Analysis
¾ Technology:
y Appropriate technologies should be used in the implementation of
project activities
y Appropriate technologies are those that suit local condition, use
available skills and training; and within the financial means of people
y Use of traditional technologies and material would reduce dependence
on outside technologies that are responsive and require hard foreign
currencies in short supply in developing countries
y Only fully tested new technologies that are acceptable to local people
should be used.
y Transfer of environmentally sound technologies should be made
available.
y Labour intensive and less capital intensive technologies should be used
y Technologies that use local equipment local skills should be used.
Environmental Analysis
To avoid or reduce environmental damage in order to ensure that
development initiatives and their benefits are sustainable.
Main steps of EIA/EA
y Project description
y Environmental baseline study
y Impact identification
y Impact prediction
y Impact evaluation and assessment
y Environmental management planning
y Decision making
y Environmental monitoring
y Environmental audits
Criteria for Environmentally sound, sustainable Projects
y Be designed to meet the needs of the present generations without
compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own
needs. Projects should focus on intergenerational equity. Should
ensure that they do not result in a net capital loss for future
generation.
y Ensure that their activities are compatible with sustainable
environmental management
y Involve activities which at least leave the level of environmental
quality intact.
y Not disrupt ecological systems through our exploitation of natural
resources
Criteria for Environmentally sound, sustainable Projects
y Where applicable, lead to conservation of natural habitats,
forests, and species; reverse deforestation; introduce sustainable
water management; reduce hazardous wastes; develop
environmentally safe industrial processes.
y Incorporate the costs of mitigating negative or detrimental
environmental effects. This is referred to as anticipatory approach
and is preferable to reactive one.
y Be designed to introduce or increase the understanding of the
local population and their participation in activities leading to
conservation and protection of the environment
Criteria for Environmentally sound, sustainable Projects
y Restrict use of substances that are detrimental to the environment
use of CFCs, pesticides, chemical fertilizers should be restricted as
they have negative environmental effects. Encourage use of
environmentally benign substitutes.
y Be supportive of and consistent with an acceptable environmental
strategy or program adopted in the country as well as with global
and regional environmental conventions and protocols. e.g.,
9 Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer;
9 Viena convention for the protection of ozone layer
9 Convention on bio‐diversity
9 Convention on climate change.