Rural development projects in LDCs: Appraisal, participation and sustainability
| Author | Luca Tacconi,Clem Tisdell |
| Published date | 01 August 1992 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230120305 |
| Date | 01 August 1992 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL. 12,267-278 (1992)
Rural development projects in
LDCs:
appraisal, participation
and sustainability
LUCA TACCONI and CLEM TISDELL
University
of
Queensland, Australia
SUMMARY
Evidence on the performance of development projects shows that sustainability is seldom
achieved. Project sustainability is influenced by ecological, social, political and economic sys-
tems. However, the blueprint approach to project choice tends to incorporate sustainability
into the project cycle by considering only economic and environmental systems. This is done
by adopting elaborate methodologies such as expanded
CBA
and
EIA.
This approach is
unlikely to lead to sustainable projects. The ‘participation approach’ is more sensitive to
the social and political systems than the blueprint approach. It involves people in decision-
making and sees the achievement of sustainable projects as the result
of
people’s empowerment
and self-reliance. However, under certain circumstances, this approach can lead to environmen-
tally unsustainable projects. Smaller scale projects tend to bring about sustainability, but
government control might be needed to ensure this. Social obstacles exist in implementing
participation but occur for top-down projects as well. Problems exist in combining the bottom-
up and top-down approaches.
INTRODUCTION
Over the last four decades, the impact of foreign assistance on the economic perform-
ance of developing countries has been less than satisfactory. Economic, environmen-
tal and social disruptions brought about by development activities have led some
to question whether active development policies are even worthwhile adopting at
all (e.g. Latouche, 1986).
In
the wake of the rising concern about environmental degradation across the
world and the mounting poverty and social disruption in the Third World, the concept
of sustainable development has been popularized by several congresses and enquiries
(e.g. IUCN: International
Union
for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources,
1980; WCED: World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987).
Two approaches for including sustainability features in project aid will be con-
sidered. It will be argued that both approaches involve shortcomings that need to
be overcome if sustainable benefits from projects are to be achieved. To do
so,
integration of the different approaches to project aid is required. This is by
no
means
an easy task as the right balance between ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ strategies
and the adequate scale of the project will vary from situation to situation.
It could be argued that achieving sustainability of benefits requires the abandon-
Luca Tacconi is a Research Scholar in the Department of Economics, and Clem Tisdell is Professor
of Economics and Head, Department of Economics
at
the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland
4072, Australia
027
1-2075l92lO30267-12$06.00
0
1992
by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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