Implementation And Feedback Systems ( Maclay, 2015 )

Development in practice: why projects fail and how to address these failures During the last decades, the way Development is managed and how it addresses problems have evolved. As conventional approaches failed to meet objectives, successive actions have tried to make development practice more efficient and participatory. Nonetheless, difficulties persist, with an increasing trade-off between achieving equity through participation and the efficiency of managerialism. Linear, pre-designed implementation models like the blueprint are still the main approaches to put theory into practice (Maclay, 2015). In this context and in line with the material studied in the course, I will argue that development projects face three types of problems: operational, cognitive and power. To enhance project effectiveness, these call for different complementary solutions: more flexibility in implementation and feedback systems (Maclay, 2015); a balance between participation and top-down authority with increased accountability (Brett, 2003); and the empowerment of the local considering the political context (Andrews et al., 2013; Mohan and Stokke, 2000). To be sure, these strategies are no panacea. Nonetheless, they can help overcome some glaring failures in the current approaches, while any new problem should be analysed in an iterative problem-solving process through learning systems that could help design better measures in the future. Additionally, for these measures to succeed, there is a