Aid to developing countries: the technology/ecology fit Page: 7
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development site often is tropical. Further, the recipient culture and
economy tend to differ substantially from those of the project designers,
making it difficult to predict what types of projects are likely to be
adopted, Most development projects, then, are at least in part
experiments and must be designed to accommodate unidentified changes.
Risks to natural resource systems and development assistance
recipients may be reduced where projects include an extended technical
planning phase, a gradual phasing in period for adaptation of technology
to the site's ecological and social conditions, and have a length
commensurate with achievement of results despite likely mid term project
realignmen t. However, internal organization goals, to keep funds moving
and to achieve measurable results quickly, operate against these
approaches. Further, short project duration makes it difficult to
introduce technologies or implement projects gradually, and presents a
serious obstacle to making mid term corrections in response to monitoring
and evaluations. Instead of today's common three to five year AID
projects, durations of 10 to perhaps 20 years seem more appropriate.
Improved use of project evaluations: Midterm and final project
evaluations are little used to improve AID and World Bank technology
decisions. Even when evaluations are broad enough to observe external
effects, and are conducted long enough after project completion to
determine ecological sustainability, evaluations seldom address faults with
the original problem identification and project design. Yet, this is the
time when, with the benefit of hind sight sharpened by project
experience, important lessons can be learned.
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United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment. Aid to developing countries: the technology/ecology fit, report, June 1987; [Washington D.C.]. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc39872/m1/13/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.