Organisational Constraints

Abstract

A major contention of this study is that organisational and institutional factors are a key constraint on the implementation of policy change through project change. The changing development priorities of the donor community, which reflect both changing perceptions of development needs and political changes in the donor countries, have led to a variety of pressures on the Bank for project innovation. At the same time, however, the Bank’s organisational concern with efficiently mobilising, committing and disbursing resources has given rise to institutional pressures and operational procedures which constrain rather than encourage project change. While changing development policies in the rural sector have called, for example, for smaller innovative, multi-component projects, with specific target groups and incorporating experimental technologies, the continuously increasing resources at the Bank’s disposal have led the Bank’s management to focus on the efficient — rather than the innovative — commitment of these resources. This, in turn, has led to a tendency towards large-scale, uniform projects with a minimum of implementation difficulties, which has worked counter to many of the operational changes called for in rural lending.