DAKAR
CONFERENCE -
USAIP/lDEP
26-28 June 1972
FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR ACHIEVING A REGION—TOPE
INDIGENOUS CAPABILITY IN PROJECT PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
IN WEST AFRICA
By
Messrs Morris J, Solomon, Lawrenoe
J„ Sespaniak and John. H. Bragg, University of Ife, Institute of Ad¬
ministration, Ihadan, Nigeria.
JUNE, 1972
IDEP/ET/CS/2438-i
Page 1.
FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS POR ACHIEVING A REGION-WIDE INDIGENOUS CAPABILITY IN PROJECT PLAHITXffG
AND IMPLEMENTATION IH WEST ÁFRICA
By Morris J. Solomon, Lawrence J. Sespaniak and
John H. Bragg! University of Ife
Institute of Administration, Ihadan, Nigeria
It shall he assumed that the end results to he achieved
are !
A capability of indigenous development agencies in West
Africa to plan and carry out social and economic projects
in accordance with the national values and overall goals
of the respective country;
A flow of social and economic projects that would realize
the national values and overall goals of the respective country.
It should he noted that these two end results are supportive of each other. They can he achieved however, only if the means adopted are consistent with the nature and difficulties of project development. Some of the characteristics and difficulties in achiev¬
ing a project development capability are s
1. Organizational Support - There is a need for receptivity
to project preparation and implementation and understand¬
ing by those who run the organization, including the very top.
2. Personnel Specifications For Project Development
a. The team in an organization is the most suitable
unit of transformation rather than the isolated individual. Project analysis is not an activity
that one person can carry off by himself.
"b. Project preparation and. implementation require
the cooperation of persons from different dis- ciplines.
3. Training and Implementation Environment
a. The need for training and orientation of teams in
an organization makes it difficult to train in a distant city or to train on a full time basis.
Pew organizations can afford to tie up a large
number of its people for even two weeks at a time.
b. The nature of project preparation makes time delays inevitable, so that putting together a project tends
to extend over a substantial amount of calendar time, particularly when personnel are inexperienced.
Thus, once a team has learned the principles and techniques, it needs guidance over an extended period of time' on its first project, if it is to
make good use of what it has learned.
c. The nature of the training and its use requires
that training merge into actual application on the job. Training should extend to guidance for pro¬
ject tasks on the job.
A regional effort should be designed to meet the above needs.
To meet requirements for training, it would appear that a regional center should be performing the followings
. Prepare teaching material.
. Train the trainers for individual countries.
. Provide consultation to participating countries
on their individual training needs.
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j.
.IDEP/ET/CS/2438-i
Page 3.
. Provide specialized consultation on projects
to the extent that such services cannot "be provided by the country itself.
Some activities of a regional service might be the following
1. Train trainers for individual countires.
2. Create programmed texts.
3. Make TV tapes or films.
4e Conduct seminars for university professors to help esta¬
blish project development courses in universities
(economics,
engineering,administration.)
5. Establish patterns for in—service train.
6. Furnish technical consultants.
7. Create and support correspondence courses.
8.
9. The promotion of the formation of national societies
of
training for development.
10. Publish a Journal of Project Development, newsletter or Deve1opme nt Digest.
11. Create a central library on project development.
12. Create bilingual teaching materials and training courses
for trainers.
13. Conduct research on project analysis
methodology and
problems of implementation of such methodology.
14. Create a model for a planning factors
manual that could
be developed for each country.
15» Create material for small business creation.
16. Create material for top management orientation.
To provide feedback on its output, the regional center
would carry out the activities of a national center in the host country at least initially.
While at the start the regional center itself would require expatriate personnel, trainers working in individual
countries
should be indigenous to the country. The regional center should
shift to regional personnel completely within five years.
While
one can build in provisions for study abroad, this should constituto
a minor part of the program.
