Aid to developing countries: the technology/ecology fit Page: 39
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Bureaucratic procedures that discourage inerdisciplinary col labortion
Interdisciplinary planning seems necessary for improved matching
of technologies to the natural resource, social and economic conditions at
development sites. This depends first on the agency choosing the right
group and writing adequate terms of reference, and secondly on the team
leader's capabilities. Integration of disciplines often is not achieved
because the team leader and project officer have not been trained or lack
experience in techniques of interdisciplinary team management and
analysis (see Append ix F). Wrong consultants are chosen in some cases,
and their interaction is not facilitated; for example, the anthropologist,
the agronomist and the economist of a multidisciplinary team may each
visit the development site separately.
The need to develop interdisciplinary teams applies just as much
to development assistance agency staffs as to consultants. Workloads,
bureaucratic structures, and procedures all discourage integrated analyses
of development problems and projects. Thus, for example, cooperation
between agricultural and environmental personnel largely is inadequate.
This is not just a problem of agriculturalists or economists having
learned to view environmentalists as adversaries. University training in
natural resource and environmental sciences typically produces technical
experts who cannot speak the language of economists and who have only
superficial knowledge of agriculture and engineering issues. Thus,
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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/m1/46/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.