A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING, MANAGING A N D EVALUATING

VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

b PAUL CLEMENTS

Harvard CoNege, Cambridge U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION

Every rural development organization has a philosophy or theoretical orientation. Typically it is much discussed in board meetings and public relations presentations, and it may influence the initial broad strokes of project design. Yet all too often it is abandoned day by day to expediency and individual interests. Conversely, some organizations are powerfully motivated by an urgent ideology at the expense of simple sound manage- ment principles; they lose sight of expediency. This article aims to incor- porate notions of equity and justice into the fiber of development project operations, yet to maintain a balanced organizational perspective. Based on a survey of the literature on project management and research at three projects in India, I have designed a matrix of variables that covers the main choices faced by project managers. The variables are arranged in a concep- tual framework (Figure 1) that serves as a review of the literature and as a management or analytical tool

The three projects discussed below are all inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. The Agrindus Institute in Uttar Pradesh and Gandhi Vichar Parishad (GVP) in West Bengal consider themselves Gandhian, while Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendre (NBJK) in Bihar has no single ideological affiliation. All three projects are staffed entirely by Indians, only a small minority of whom have college degrees. Each project is at least ten years old. They each include both social and economic programs with a focus on organiz- ing village councils, and none extends beyond the borders of a single district. Each has received funds from the Indian Government and from Indian and international funding organizations.

Agrindus is the largest, with over 250 full time employees and a $500,000 annual expenditure. Eighty per cent of the staff are from the project area. Their programs involve agriculture, animal husbandry,

Sociologin Ruralis 1986. Vol. XXVI-2

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village industries, education, health and family planning, and social action campaigns. Gandhi Vichar Parishad has 14 salaried staff from outside the project area and 60 village volunteers who receive a modest stipend. Their annual expenditure is $160,000. Their main work is with irrigation, a demonstration farm, animal husbandry, education and training, and organizing people’s committees. At the time of my research they had recently started a glove making industry. Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendre has 33 staff, about half from the project area. Their annual budget is $60,000 and they work with agriculture, health, education and training, cultural programs, and assisting villagers to gain access to government services.

THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The conceptual framework presented here assumes that project design is constrained by two sorts of requirements, those related to efficient and effective organization and those concerned with strategy, the aims and criteria for programs. For the first sort I suggest four ‘project qualities’ that lead to good organization: action based learning, strong staff commit- ment, efficient resource management and local resource utilization. Each project quality is further defined by a set of underlying variables. Con- cerning strategy I assume that a project has aims consistent with justice and economic growth. This conceptual framework would have less utility for a project aiming for economic growth without justice or for commu- nist revolution. The framework has three project qualities in this second set: local control, appropriate design for local needs and conducive rela- tions with power structures. Each quality directly affects project outcomes. Six of the seven qualities are best viewed as holding a mean between extremes of excess and deficiency. The ‘Tensions’ column on the frame- work chart indicates certain ways a quality could tend toward an extreme. Under ‘Strong Staff Commitment’ the statement is ‘Dedication Without Fanaticism.’ Here fanaticism is one extreme while lack of dedication is the other. Other tension statements similarly indicate extremes by inference. The list of tensions is not exhaustive. The point is that each quality can be under- or over-done in various ways. The exception to this rule is ‘Local Resource Utilization.’ Assuming that project staff come from outside with an intervention into village life, efficiency suggests the maximum use of local human and material resources. The framework adopts John Rawls’ definition of justice. Rawls places a priority on basic liberties. If villagers find their liberties threatened or restricted, staff have some duty to oppose the injustice, or at least not to aid it. Secondly Rawls requires that social and economic inequalities be arranged to everyone’s advantage and with those advantages attached to

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positions open to all (Rawls 1971, p. 60). To be consistent with justice a project must at least assist the poor as much as it does better off villagers. The protection of liberties cannot be compromised for economic gains, and a project that helps the very poor substantially may justify some loss in efficiency.

I . Action Based Learning

The blueprint approach to project design, where detailed plans are worked out ahead of time or from a distance, does not work. Many of the original premises of any plan will prove to be incorrect and unexpected changes in circumstances will occur during its implementation (Korten 1981, p. 220). If staff do not learn from experience and adjust programs accordingly the project will fail. Learning is peculiarly unenforcable, but it has certain prerequisites. The first is flexibility. When staff find them- selves facing one problem after another they need the capacity to redirect resources to further project aims. At NBJK, for example, the staff worked for nine years on social service programs, then shifted to a strategy of organizing villagers to gain access to government resources. Within four years they expanded from 7 to 504 villages.

A second prerequisite is that primary authority be located fairly close to the ground. It is often necessary for distant officials to hold some ties, but power to change directions needs to be vested in people with access to sensitive local information. For example, at NBJK all staff must consent before a major decision is made.

Thirdly, staff must be receptive to both positive and negative feedback if learning is to take place. Intelligence is also necessary, but this openness, founded on self confidence, is more central to the learning process. Strangely, receptivity as it pertains to project strategy depends more on group norms than on the capacities of individual staff. As Korten (1980, p. 484) states:

There are three characteristic responses to error: to deny it, to externalize it, or to embrace it. Every individual has some tendencies towards each, but organizations develop norms reinforcing one or another tendency until it becomes a dominant characteristic.

These characteristics form patterns, so we find a continuum between the self-deceiving organization (denies error) and the defeated organization (externalizes error) with the learning organization in the middle. Staff will certainly receive negative feedback when they do something against the interests of elite groups, but subtler and more important information is available from women, the poor, and others whose opinions are seldom counted. Staff must actively encourage their criticism or these people will not speak up.

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The challenge is to define clear directions and objectives without allow- ing them to rigidify. Rigidity is common, but indecisiveness, at the other extreme, is just as bad. ‘Nothing is more important in the life of a project than a clear statement of its objectives’ (Weiss et. al. 1977, p 114). Where this tension is held we find dynamic projects.

2. Strong Staff Commitment

Staff commitment is mentioned repeatedly in the development literature, but I have not found it: precisely defined. To clarify the term, there are three areas where commitment is crucial to project success. The first is staying power in the midst of great difficulties, second is commitment to the rural poor, and third is living a committed life in order to win villagers’ respect and cooperation.

Development work is difficult. Satia (1981, p. 84), in his study of India’s district management system, states:

Currently, administrators posted to areas where implementation is difficult devote their major energies to obtaining transfers, with the result that the average duration of stay in such areas is less than a year.

Thus staff commitment first means consistent effort under stable leader- ship. Such commitment may sound like a sort of masochistic martyrdom, but it need not be so. Some people enjoy the challenges of village work. Agrindus, GVP and NBJK have each had the same leaders for at least eight years. At NBJK staff work 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, with no scheduled holidays. Their maximum salary is $50 a month. Yet they appeared to be among the happiest, healthiest people I met in India. Such commitment clearly enhances project efficiency and effectiveness.

Commitment to the rural poor means daily attention to their needs and willingness to confront vested interests. When projects involve scarce and divisible resources programs should be structured to protect the poor’s interests. Even then elites will tend to dominate if staff fail to reinforce program design with continuous attention to the poor. Yet, field staff of many development institutions ally themselves with village elites (Bryant & White 1981, p. 193). These projects will increase disparities, defeating the distributive requirements of justice.

By contrast one of the explicit rules for village committees initiated by GVP is that programs must favor the poorer villagers. Staff have fre- quently intervened to enforce this rule, even to the extent of provoking confrontations among villagers. It is not unusual for traditional elites to use naked aggression to get their way, so open conflict may be necessary to uphold the rights of the poor.

The third type of commitment is defined in terms of the response it elicits from villagers. Most projects require local participation, but

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villagers are often jealous with their time and other resources. They will gradually gain a sense of the staff's motivations. When staff are corrupt, self aggrandizing or vain, villagers set a high price to their cooperation. When staff are trustworthy, sensitive and dedicated, villagers tend to respond in kind. The third commitment is that which leads to a lifestyle that wins respect. Staff at Agrindus and NBJK worked for many years providing basic services before they started organizing campaigns that required substantial voluntary energy. At NBJK and GVP villagers regularly ask project staff for advice to help them solve conflicts unrelated to official programs. Not only are they trusted, they have been granted a sort of moral authority. Such authority is a distinct asset when imple- menting new programs.

Commitment is an inner drive, an intensity of will and direction without which a project will soon stagnate. Yet if it is too strong it can be profoundly destructive. If someone is anxious to sacrifice everything for the cause, if they feel that their analysis is uniquely correct, or if they believe that their ends justify any means they will likely do harm. A milder form of fanaticism is where staff repeatedly make plans far grander than they can achieve. A deeply committed person can appear fanatical in contrast to more self centered, conservative, or weak willed people, so one should hesitate to pass judgement. When convinced of fanaticism, how- ever, take pains to steer clear.

3. Efficient Resource Management

While action based learning adjusts program direction over time, and strong staff commitment provides programs with many person-hours of effort, efficient resource management keeps the engines churning day after day to achieve the most with available resources. It involves the most intuitively obvious aspects of good organization, the nuts, bolts, and paperwork. Certain areas of resource management will be discussed below.

'Linkages' are the ties between the project and other organizations. Virtually all projects depend on outside support, so establishing and maintaining these ties are among the staff's most important tasks. In relations with funding sources high standards of precision and honesty are necessary, but these are only one sort of crucial linkage. Consider others: Agrindus has had its programs evaluated by the Gandhian Institute of Studies in Varanasi, the Delhi School of Social Work and the Agricultural Finance Corporation of Bombay. NBJK has sent staff for training to the Literacy House Lucknow, the Singhbhum Institute of Technology in Jamshedpur, the Calcutta Oxfam office, the A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies in Patna, and to Agrindus. All three projects have intimate rela- tions with other similar projects. In India, where there are thousands of

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development related institutions, cultivating linkages is complex and sensitive.

Staff education and training is another crucial area of resource manage- ment. There is a debate in progress regarding the comparative merits of formal and informal education. Traditionally university degrees have been highly regarded, but now D.L. Sheth (undated, p. 23) writes:

. . .The university graduates going out to work with the people actually feel the need to de-learn what they have learnt in these institutions. They rely more on trial and error and devising their own experiments for development and transformative action. In the process they are proving themselves far superior in practice to the conventional practitioners of management and social work.

Agrindus pays experienced but uneducated workers equivalent wages to those with formal education. Often they have only one certified doctor on site supervising 15 locally trained village doctors and paramedics and 150 minimally trained health friends. Yet the leaders of all three projects were university educated. Clearly both formal and informal ‘education have merits. There is a consensus that for educational and motivational reasons staff will be more effective when training continues throughout their careers.

Information flow and planning/evaluation systems are other aspects of good organization. Staff at Agrindus and NBJK live beside villages within their project boundaries so they know their areas at first hand. Other sources of information include statistical data, histories of events and trends in local class relations, and records of past achievements compared to goals. There is a fairly strong consensus in the literature that planning and evaluation will work better, other things being equal, the more participatory the process. For example, GVP has both technical and ‘social’ evaluations. Technical evaluations are performed by staff experts, but social evaluations are conducted by teams of local villagers, residents of other project villages, GVP staff, and outside experts or officials. They review the accomplishments of the people’s committees, assessing both a program’s physical impact and its moral impact or influence on com- munity spirit. Each of their 48 project villages should have a social evaluation every two years. This process is highly participatory, but whatever planning and evaluation procedures are used, it is important that staff take a long term time perspective, and that objectives, once stated, are reconsidered along the way.

Good money management is most obviously important and most frequently abused. It means keeping precise accounts and making cost effective choices. These three projects adhere to the Gandhian ethic of simplicity. As a lawyer at Agrindus told me, ‘This Ashram is not a place to earn money. People who understand that will provide better service. Those who want rupees must search elsewhere.’ There is a consensus in

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the literature that private voluntary organizations are usually more finan- cially efficient than centralized government agencies. Both have, however, seen many instances of corruption which is corrosive, especially when it is accepted as the norm. It drains resources, exaggerates inequalities, reduces legitimacy, and demoralizes people. Corruption may be grounds to cease funding a project.

Efficiency means applying the right resources to the right problem in the optimal manner. Every choice has an opportunity cost. Some staff compulsively attempt to curry favor with many development related organizations; others in stubborn independence ignore those contacts they need. Some organizations require detailed reports then hardly use them; others fail to collect even the data for estimating the impact of their own programs. With staff education as with reports, too much or too little is a problem. The efficient manager learns to estimate where the mean lies.

4 . Local Resource Utilization

Many writers stress that villagers’ knowledge, labor, money, physical possessions and management ability are crucial inputs for a project to be efficient (Ralston et a1 1983, p. 125; Uphoff & Esman 1974, p. 16; Cohen & Uphoff 1977, p. ix). But projects often find that except during tempo- rary fits of enthusiasm, villagers guard these resources jealously. They may be willing to assist efforts to gain community amenities (schools, clinics, water supplies), and they are often interested in short term wage labor, but villagers usually want to get as much quick profit from a project as they can. As Ralston et a1 (1983, p. 29) state, ‘If possible the poor will milk these agencies for short term gains without committing any of their own resources.’ This apparent conflict of interests makes local resource utilization different from the other six project qualities discussed here in that it is not susceptible to a mean. Staff have to try to convince villagers of the value of project goals. In this they face a built in constraint, so they need not impose a tension on themselves. Rather strategic effort may be necessary to gain access to local human and material resources. The more of these resources they can use the better, although I see no reason to favor the purchase of local materials when the same goods are available else- where at less cost.

A useful tactic is to get resource commitments from villagers even before a program is started. GVP went about this in a straightforward way. They required the formation of people’s committees before they would discuss assisting community programs, and they would not permit these committees to begin until they had 100 per cent adult male atten- dance. They channelled all programs through these committees, and established operating principles which required sustained participation and attention to the poorest villagers’ needs.

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If the human resources in an area are to be utilized, local organizations have to be engaged. Where strong indigenous organizations exist, staff may want to establish relations with them rather than forming new organizations. However, organizations which can evoke loyalty are likely to be based on religious, ethnic, or other long term affiliations (Ralston et af 1983, p. 51). They tend to mirror village class relations or exclude some caste groups. Better to move more slowly, establishing new organizations, if that is what it takes to achieve a just distribution of benefits.

5. Local Control

What people do for themselves tends to be cheaper, more aligned with their needs, and more satisfying than what others do for them. Also if villagers do not partially control the economic and social institutions that provide their basic needs, their interests will never be secure. Hence development projects should aim for a time when villagers control all programs and have a vocal demand structure for services they receive from government. In just this sense, Agrindus and GVP have explicit intentions to work themselves out of their jobs.

In their definition of rural development participation, Cohen and Up- hoff distinguish among participation in planning, implementation, bene- fits and evaluation. Their thesis is that each form is important for project success (Cohen & Uphoff 1977, pp. ix, 7,306). Among existingprojects, it appears that a minority have participation in planning, and participation in evaluation is rare (ibid, pp. 55, 217). Therefore, GVP’s evaluation procedure (described above) is remarkable. Agrindus, GVP and NBJK each have unusually strong local participation which clearly enhances their programs. In fact, at Agrindus 80 per cent and at NBJK over half of the staff are from the districts where they are located.

An account from one of GVP’s reports illustrates the significance of participation. Regarding an irrigation tank under construction, it was found that the beneficiaries were knowledgeable about amounts of money spent and owed, and had been involved in plan formation from the start. The report continues:

To quote Mr. Panchanan M u m u of village Dinergao who said, breathing confidence and happiness and pointing to a newly excavated dug tank, ‘This will give irrigation support of our Kharif, Rabi and other crops’ and we have done it in two months time. BSRIY gave us living wage and we have worked round the clock to complete it before the monsoon sets in. We have selected the site, removed the earth, and have seen to it that all of us work hard and not a single pie is spent wastefully.’

There is another tank abandoned about 100 yards east of this one, a state govern- ment project executed directly by the Block Development Department. The scheme ran for 3 years, the budgeted amount exhausted including two supplementary budgets and then left unfinished. The same Dinergao people worked also in this

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thank with other labourers of the area but they worked only as wage earners as Mr. Murmu further stated. ‘We were then not concerned except earning wages, the site was not suitable for irrigation of our lands. We also did not know what amount had been sanctioned and how much of it had been spent. We tried to earn maximum, with minimum labour sometimes even duping the supervisors whose interests were no better than ours.’ (Sanyd 1981, p. 7).

In this case, local control enhanced planning (better site selected) and implementation (greater effort, more careful management).

But local control may not be enough. As Peterson (1982, p. 125) points out, ‘Unhappily for the rural poor, community-wide, inclusive local organizations usually do not protect their economic interests.’ Ralston, et. al. (1983, pp. 62-3) find that in Thailand village organizations tend to be egalitarian, but ‘In India, some monitoring component may be required to ensure that caste and class differentiation is nor grossly reflected in receipt of benefits.’ Some authors suggest that when income and wealth differentials are great and factionalism is intense, no attempt at all-inclu- sive organization should be made. However, Agrindus, GVP, and many other groups feel an ideological imperative to work with whole village units. In these cases, a strong bias in favor of the poor will be necessary to avoid elite domination. There are cases when local elites are typically willing to help the poor, such as when benefits are indivisible or when they are linked to a resource which rich and poor share (Leonard & Marshall 1982, pp. 12-13). Specific decisions about how to structure a program must take into account its vulnerability to inequality.

Local control requires organizations which require leaders. As Lassen (1979, p. 7) points out, one of the staff‘s main jobs is to:

. . . recruit and train ‘cadre’, i.e. local leaders. The catalyst agent identifies persons who have LNL (landless and near landless people’s) confidence, encourages them to see larger issues and development possibilities, and assists rhem in working out strategies of local improvement.

Although staff should favor poorer villagers, they need not restrict well off villagers from leadership positions. Leonard (1982, pp. 14, 24) notes that leadership is an art and leaders are atypical. Upper class individuals who are concerned with the plight of the poor may be found and they are more likely to possess adequate technical and leadership skills. However, it is safer to assume that rich and poor villagers have opposing interests, until evidence proves otherwise.

If villagers are going to take over project activities, their organizations must develop mature foundations. Uphoff and Esman (1974, p. 92) call this process ‘institutionalization.’ They say organizations should be regu- larized and predictable and that villagers must have a strong commitment to their aims. But villagers’ commitment can be trusted only after it has been tested. Although enthusiasm may be high at the start of a project,

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staff can reasonably anticipate much frustration. The point is to be prepared for it.

In learning to control a project, villagers often need to develop a demand structure for government services. In India, the major source of development resources is the government. Yet these services are often poorly administered. As villagers learn to assert their interests through the bureaucracy they may be able to claim the assistance that is rightfully theirs. NBJK devotes great energies to developing these capacities. They teach villagers to fill out forms to get loans, and watch block and district officials to make sure they deliver services properly. In 1980 they learned that of $75,000 sanctioned for block development in the previous fiscal year only $20,000 had been spent. They organized a procession to protest about non-utilization of government funds, and in subsequent years the full allotment has been spent. NBJK also helps their people’s committees to fight individual instances of corruption. In many of these efforts they have been assisted by the Deputy Commissioner of Hazaribagh District. In fact, one of their leaders told me that, ‘Generally higher officials in government are our sympathizers but the local authorities are a little annoyed with us.’

Helping villagers to help themselves requires local participation, and conflicts may be necessary to right injustices. However development work requires some stability. Too much participation can lead to over politicization, exacerbating conflicts unnecessarly (Uphoff & Esman 1974, p. 81). Too many meetings with not enough action dulls the body and the mind.

6. Appropriate Design for Local Needs

Project staff have a moral responsibility for programs they help to initiate. Each one intervenes into a complex web of relationships, with effects spreading in many directions. For example, when initiating an economic development program, staff need entrepreneurial skills to ensure that the factors of production and marketing channels are reasonably reliable. But, unlike entrepreneurs, they need also to favor the poor, and to bear in mind effects on nearby populations and regional ecology. They do villagers a disservice if they fail to view their work in a long term, inclusive perspec- tive. Some of the factors involved in this perspective will be discussed below.

Strategies need to be plausible in terms of local economic and welfare needs, levels of education, and other conditions. Again we see the need for flexibility, as sensitive adjustments are made in reference to gradually perceived local constraints. Strategists may also consider the trends identi- fied in development studies. For instance, Johnston and Clark (1982, p. 149) suggest that health programs giving priority to infants, small child-

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ren, and their mothers may be exceptionally cost effective, as these groups are usually highly vulnerable. Judith Tendler (1982, p. 140) notes that community construction projects are relatively easy to organize but difficult to maintain, and that private voluntary organizations tend to have trouble starting viable income earning ventures. At Agrindus, GVP and NBJK villagers are employed as teacher-cum-social workers, demonstra- ting the pliability of such roles. However, the Indian government’s village level workers are usually ineffective partly because they are given too many tasks without adequate support.

Another consideration at the planning stage is the appropriateness of knowledge and technology that is introduced. Machines which displace much labor should not be brought in unless alternative employment is available. Techniques need to be efficient and sustainable; usually this means simple. For example, preventative health care and village parame- dics backed up by a single doctor are usually more efficient than urban style curative health programs. Before making major investments staff should research available techniques and perform micro codbenefit analyses.

To be consistent with justice, the program array needs to show an emphasis on benefits for poorer families. First the degrees of poverty of different groups must be distinguished, determining who controls what, and who is dependent on whom or what (Korten 1981, p. 203). Then appropriate programs can be designed. Agricultural works tend to help families with more land the most while small industries can be designed to aid landless laborers. Tendler (1982, p. 53) writes that:

In many areas, the poorest are more proportionately represented or more readily assisted in activities like small trading, crafts, fishing, small livestock, women- controlled production, charcoal peddling, and a variety of gathering or extractive industries not requiring land ownership.

NBJK deals with these complexities in the simplest way, by choosing to work only with poor families.

Presuppositions held by project staff will strongly influence the plan- ning process. Is it fair to invest great resources to make one area much better off while an equally poor or poorer area remains destitute? Is there a minimum standard which should be reached before aid to a community is stopped? How important is the often proclaimed ‘demonstration ef- fect’, the idea that visible and significant improvements in one area wilr encourage similar efforts elsewhere? Funders and project staff may want to discuss these questions to arrive at a policy which balances cost effectiveness with meaningful change.

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7. Conducive Relations with Power Structures

Village development can be a highly charged political process. Local elites and government officials often profit from the powerlessness of the poor, so they are unlikely to appreciate participatory organizations. Some writers suggest that organizations of the poor are likely to encounter brutal opposition if unaided by outsiders (Ralston et al 1983, p. 23); apparently such outsiders counter the propensity to brutality. None of the workers at projects I visited have ever been assaulted, but NBJK staff have heard repeated rumors of murder threats. During one conflict with local political parties the staff found their pumpset destroyed and the house of one of their supporters burned. Agrindus staff also have heard repeated threats of violence, and many rumors have been spread against them. One story had it that they were providing tribal girls to foreign visitors. An accusation that the director is a CIA agent went all the way to national newspapers and the Parliamentary Assembly. A local church wrote letters to a donor charging them of attempting to liquidate the church, while Hindus said Agrindus was converting children to Christia- nity (Prem Bhai, Interview, 1983). Development work rouses strong reactions.

Corruption and oppression are widespread but they are not universal, and even in the midst of corruption, projects would be naive not to seek some cooperation with the government administration and local elites. Agrindus has launched many campaigns against instances of corruption, yet they have close relations with local notables. Ragini Bahen, one of their directors, describes their approach:

We fight the wrong thing, not the person. . . . We do not use a political way of showing resentment. We discuss schemes with relevant government officials very practically, so we have a free and frank exchange of ideas. Anyone doing good, in the right cause, can expect cooperation from us.

When working to halt injustices, some form of conflict is inevitable. Project staff need to select their battles wisely and attempt to determine the terms of the conflict themselves.

Staff cannot go far wrong if they make a policy of advocating the legal rights of the poor, especially in a country like India where most cases of purposeful injustice are illegal. This advocacy can take the form of protest against specific acts of corruption, pressure on the government to imple- ment aid programs that have been legislated, or legal action against individual offenders. For example, NBJK staff found that a block agricul- tural officer had taken a $10 bribe to sanction a pumpset loan. They had the officer’s superior force him to return the bribe (Satish, Interview, 1983). Such actions create a climate in which villagers gain confidence and self respect.

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To maintain linkages, especially resource flows, to ensure support when conflicts arise, and to acquire advice and feedback, it is helpful for staff to develop a network of friends and allies outside the project area. These relationships require some political fence tending (Esman & Mont- gomery 1980, p. 203). i.e. keeping friends updated on programs of their concern, visiting them occasionally, respecting their constraints and inter- ests, and maintaining expected standards. The members of an organiza- tion’s board of directors often play these roles and help cultivate these relationships.

With these strategies and others, it is desirable to aim for maximum cooperation with least collusion. Both gradual strategy and a certain opportunism are necessary to cultivate these relationships.

Ideology

Seven qualities are described above that directly influence a project’s success or failure. Ideology, by contrast, may not have a direct effect upon any particular aspect of project functioning, yet can have a profound influence overall.

The term ‘ideology’ is often used to refer to total development styles, such as the ‘top-down’ bureaucratic approach, the ‘outside-in’ commer- cialization approach, the ‘bottom-up’ participation approach and the ‘inside-out’ mobilization approach (Moris 1981, p. 89). Taking the per- spective of an individual project, I employ an interpretation of ideology closer to Webster’s ‘visionary theorizing.’ By ideology I mean the set of beliefs and value judgements generally shared among members of an organization, that guide its work.

Elements of ideology, for example, are NBJK staff‘s convictions that providing water to fields and similar services are not ‘true development’ and that rich farmers do not need organizing. These beliefs and judge- ments lead to patterns of actions or reactions which can effect each of the seven qualities in regular and predictable ways. Agrindus, GVP and NBJK have roughly Gandhian ideologies, although they have each been influenced by other ideas.

An ideology can perform two important functions. The first is to convey to villagers a vision of a more developed future. Such a vision can be awakened in potential leaders through a combination of informal education, discussion, and personal example as well as by creating oppor- tunities for unanalyzed expectations and opinions to become explicit. People need something to hope for.

A second function for ideologies is to increase villagers’ awareness of common interests. Just as staff need linkages and allies, so people’s organizations should not isolate themselves unnecessarily. O n the other hand, nor should villagers be deluded into imagining that government

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officials and large landowners are likely to be friendly. Ideologies need to distinguish between allies and potential enemies. Since one wants as many allies as possible without compromising one’s position, and cooperation can be psychologically rewarding, ideologies will help villagers and staff when they encourage active pursuit of any common interest.

Ideologies can be powerfully motivating but they can also lead to destructive excesses. There is clearly a tension between visionary dream- ing and realistic skepticism. Each has its place; too much of the former is likely to lead to cynicism while too much of the latter may result in timid and unambitious plans. At best an ideology will combine motivation with objectivity, presenting real challenges and conceivable hopes without being evasive about difficult constraints. When staff present a vision of a better future it helps if they have a reasonable conception of what it will take to achieve it.

APPLICATIONS O F THE FRAMEWORK

This conceptual framework can be used in evaluating, managing and analyzing projects. A funding organization might use it in tandem with their established evaluation criteria in the following manner. Suppose an experienced evaluator spent five days at a project talking with staff, villagers and outsiders, reading reports, observing activities, and follo- wing their standard evaluation procedure, but keeping the seven qualities and their respective variables in mind. At the end of that time they might give the project a rating of strong, adequate or weak for each of the seven qualities, then write a few paragraphs for each describing the objective and subjective data behind the ratings. This approach would add breadth and depth to the total evaluation and permit more sensitive comparisons between projects.

Project staff could use the framework as a checklist for occasional self evaluations. These could be done in open group discussions or through private reflection. Managers and other staff could consider from time to time where the project stands on each variable, noting areas of confidence or uncertainty, watching for danger signals and considering strategies for improvements. During periods when the workload is low the framework could help them identify tactics to aid the general health of the project. The practice of these exercises would promote the development of a mental matrix of interrelated variables. It would help staff gain an intuitive feel for the comparative merits of different tactics, and for the nature of causes and effects over time. Each variable on the framework chart refers to an abstract goal. To state corresponding practical goals, i.e. to use the framework as a management tool, one must consider the content of the current array of programs, the project environment, and the theoretical orientations of the staff. The whole picture will determine the relative

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weights and emphases to apply to each variable. Still, for each quality there will be many points of uncertainty, with various sound reasons suggesting incompatible actions. Here the theoretical ‘Tensions’ on the chart correspond to real tensions in a person’s experience, and uncertainty and anxiety. Thus in a sense the framework can help staff understand these feelings.

Finally, as an analytical tool the framework is best seen as a matrix of variables pointing to determinants of project outcomes, consistent with the requirements of efficiency, justice and economic growth. To analyze a report or project evaluation one may determine which variables they include, which they ignore, and where their emphases lie.

The list of variables is certainly not exhaustive; one may wish to add or rearrange. Further research will reveal other generalizations about project management. Much current literature was not available to this author. Nevertheless, the framework as it stands has clear utility for evaluating, managing, and analyzing rural developments projects.

NOTES

1. Kharif means winter crop, and Rabi means spring crop. 2. ‘BSRD’ stands for Bankura Society for Rural Development, an arm of Gandhi Vichar

Parishad.

REFERENCES

BRYANT, C. & L.G. WHITE (1982), Managing Development in The Third World (Boulder: Wesrview Press)

COHEN, J. & N. UPHOFF (1977), Rural Development Participation: Concepts and Measurer for Project Design, Implementation, and €walnution (Ithaca: Rural Development Committee, Cornell University)

ESMAN, M. & J. MONTGOMERY (1980), The Administration of Humun Development, in P. KNIGHT, ed., 183-234.

JOHNSTON, B.F. & W.C. CLARK (1982), Redesigning Humun Development A Strategic Perspectiwe (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press)

KNIGHT, P., ed. (1980), Implementing Programs of Human Development (Washington: World Bank Suff Working Paper No. 403)

KORTEN, D.C. (1980), Community Organization and Rural Development: A Learning Process Approach, Public Adminutratidn Revieru, X L (S), 480-51 1.

KORTEN, D.C. (1981) Social development: putting people first, in D.C. KORTEN & F.B. ALMNSO, eds., 201-221.

KORTEN, D.C. & F.B. ALMNSO, eds. (1981), Bureaumacy and the Poor; Closing the Gap (Singapore; N e w York: McGraw-Hill)

LASSEN, C.A. (1979), Reaching the Assetless Rural Poor, Development Digest, XVII, 1,

LEONARD, D.K. (1982). Analyzing the Organizational Requirements for Serving the Rural

LEONARD, D.K. & D.R. MARSHALL (1982), Institutions of Rural Development for the Poor

3-26.

Poor, in D.K. LEONARD & D.R. MARSHALL. eds., 1-39.

(Berkeley: Berkeley Institute of International Studies)

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MORIS, J.R. (1981), Managing Induced Rural Dcwefopment (Bloomington: International Development Institute)

PETERSON, S.B. (1982), Alternative Local Organizations Supporting the Agricultural Devel- opment of the Poor, in D.K. LEONARD & D.R. MARSHALL, eds., 125-150.

RALSTON, L., J. ANDERSON & E. COLSON (1983) Voluntary Efforts in Decentralized Mana- gement Opporrunities and Consmints in Rural Development (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies)

RAu’Ls, J. (1971), A Theory ofJustice (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press)

RONDINELLI, D.A. ed., (1977), Planning Development Projeds (Stroudsburg: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc.)

SANYAL, S. (1981), Bankura Society for Rural Development Report of Activities: January 1980 to September 1981 (Bankura, India)

SATIA, J.K. (1981), Developmental tasks and middle management roles in rural development, in KORTEN, D.C. & F.B. ALFONSO, eds., 76-85.

SHETH, D.L. (undated), Movements and the Future of Politics (New Delhi: Lokayan, Center for the Study of Developing Societies), Quick Draft for Discussion Only.

TENDLER, J. (1982), Turning Private Voluntary Orgunizutbnr Into Dwelopment Agencies: Questlons for Evaluation, (Washington: A.I.D. Program Evaluation Discussion Paper No. 12)

UPHOFF, N.T. & M.J. ESMAN (1974). Local Organizutwn for Rural Development: Analysis of Asian Experience (Ithaca: Rural Development Committee, Cornell University)

WEISS, W., A. WATERSTON & J. WILSON (1977), The Design of Agricultural and Rural Development Projects, in D.A. RONDINELL1 ed., 95-139.

ABSTRACT

The growing literature on Third World rural development project management has begun to reach some tentative consensus. Based on a survey of this literature and research at three Gandhian projects in India, this article presents and discusses a matrix of variables that influence project outcomes. The variables are arranged in a conceptual framework with the assumption that the factors leading to an efficient and well organized project can be distinguished from those involved in long term strategy decisions. The framework is designed to apply to projects with aims consistent with both justice and economic growth. Since the Gandhian projects studied &ch work with 500 villages o r fewer and include social and economic programs, the framework is most applicable to similar efforts coordinated by other private voluntary organizations, but it is intended to have a broader scope. The article concludes with a discussion of the utility of the framework for project evaluation, manage- ment and analysis.

RESUME

Les h i t s concernant la gestion des projeu de developpement dins le Tiers Monde rural sont de plus en plus nombreux, et un certain consensus semble se dessiner. A parrir de cette littirature et sur base de recherches a propos de trois projets en Inde, cet article propose une matrice des variables determinantes. Celles-ci sont organisies sur base de I’hypothhse selon laquelle on peut separer les facteurs qui conditionnent I’efficacite et I’organisation correcte du projet des facteurs qui determinent les stratigies du long terme. Le rnodele propose esr formule de maniere i convenir a des projets orientis a la fois vers des objcctifs de croissance Cconomique et de justice sociale. Sachant que les projets etudiisconcernent des entitis de 500 villages ou moins et incluent des programmes tant sociaux qu’konomiques, le modhle est le mieux adapt6 i des projets comparables mis en oeuvre par des organismes volontaires, mais il

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est congu pour s’appliquer aussi i une plus grande ichelle. En conclusion I’article dirnontre la pertinence d’un tel rnodile pour la gestion et I’andyse d’un projet, ainsi que pour son ivaluation.

KURZFASSUNG

In der anwachsenden Literatur uber das Management von lindlichen Entwicklungsprojek- ten steht das Erreichen eines vorliufigen Konsenses bevor. Gestiitzt auf eine Andyse dieser Literatur und Forschungen in drei Gandhiprojekten in Indien wird in dern Beiuag eine Matrix von Variablen vorgeschhgen und diskutiert, die rndgeblich sind fur den Erfolg von Projekten. Die Variablen werden in einen konzeprionellen Bezugsrahmen eingeordnet unter der Annahme, d 4 Faktoren, die zu einern effizienten und gut organisienen Projekt fiihren von solchen untcrschieden werden konnen, die bei langfristigen strategischen Entscheidung- en einbezogen sind. Der Bezugsrahmen ist auf Projekte rnit Zielen ausgerichtet, die sowohl mit Vorstellungen iibcr Gerechtigkeit wie wirtschaftlichem Wachsturn konsistent sind. Da die untersuchten Gandhiprojekte jeweils rnit 500 oder weniger DBrfern arbeiten und soziale und okonomische Programme einschliefien. ist der Bezugsrahrnen gut geeignet fur hnliche Anstrengungen, die von anderen Freiwilligenorgvlisauonen auf privater Basis koordinien werden; es wird jedoch eine grBdere Reichweite angestrebt. Der Artikel schlieSt rnit einer Diskussion iiber die Niitzlichkeit des Bezugsrahrnens f i r die Projektevaluierung, das Pro- jektmanagernent und die Analyse von Projekten.