ABSTRACT
This chapter examines why projects are failing. Without the active participation and goodwill of the recipients, projects will inevitably fail. The chapter discusses different kinds of project design in detail: A 'top-down service delivery project' provides ongoing intervention to alleviate food security problems. The project is delivered like a medical service, with paid officers appointed by government. A 'managed business project' is more likely to be run by an Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). The NGO pays professional staff to run a business employing poor people. In demonstration projects a technology is implemented on land owned by the government or an NGO. A paid worker shows how the technology can work for villagers. The community entrepreneurial group model for projects is only one possible strategy. Its constant failure should not be ignored. The problem is not laziness, pointless conflicts or human nature. The social strategy of this project model does not fit with the cultural, social and economic realities of the communities.
