The Way Ahead: Planning for Implementation

Abstract

The Mirpur experience is representative of circumstances that arise on development projects in all parts of the Third World. Projects which could lead to real improvements in the lives of people are designed, yet in the implementation process, frequently fall short of the high objectives set by government officials, planners and engineers. The in-depth analysis of the Mirpur project has been presented in order to lay bare the various kinds of constraints which retard implementation. Once identified, it was hoped that such impediments could be classified and solutions for overcoming them found so that waste of scarce development resources could be avoided at other projects in the future. Because impediments to successful project implementation occur not just in Bangladesh, but throughout the Third World, it was hoped that prescriptions for improvement might have fairly general applicability. Throughout this analysis, the assumption has been made that if constraints to implementation could be anticipated, the planning process could be designed to take account of them, thereby avoiding many of the kinds of problems which disrupted the Mirpur project.