ABSTRACT
In its everyday use, a project is a plan, design or scheme for doing something in the future. Within this array, the term is more tightly defined for specific purposes. To the Major Projects Association (Morris & Hough 1987:3) “a project is an undertaking to achieve a specified objective, defined usually in terms of technical performance, budget and schedule. There are basically two kinds of project: those that are complete in themselves, like an oil platform or a tunnel, those that represent a series, or programme, of products or projects, like an aircraft or an aid programme”. To the World Bank, in their financing programmes since around 1950 (Baum & Tolbert 1985:8) “…a project is taken to be a discrete package of investments, policy measures, and institutional and other actions, designed to achieve a specific development objective (or set of objectives) within the designated period”. Within this concept they also see a range of project types, such as (op. cit.: 8): “capital investment in civil works, equipment, or both (the so called bricks and mortar of the project); provision of services for design and engineering, supervision of construction, and improvement of operations and maintenance; strengthening of local institutions concerned with implementing and operating the project, including the training of local managers and staff; improvements in policies-such as those on pricing, subsidies, and cost recovery-that affect project performance and the relationship of the project both to the sector in which it falls and to broader national development objectives; a plan for implementing the above activities to achieve a project’s objectives within a given time”.
