ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a broader background to professionalism and technical sophistication and considers some of the more obvious criticisms of the Jackson Report. It examines professionalism and technical sophistication in actual practice. The chapter considers what changes in Australia’s aid practice must accompany the Jackson Report’s professionalism and technical sophistication emphasis. In important respects, the Jackson Report reflects the resurgence of neo-classical, structural adjustment policies in international agencies like the World Bank and the move from the ‘basic human needs’ strategy of the mid to late 1970s. The chapter illustrates how the authoritarian tendency is manifested in actual practice. Professionalism is juxtaposed with increasingly sophisticated techniques of project management; from programming and project identification to evaluation. The Jackson Report gives particular attention to cost-benefit analysis which is seen as vital to improved effectiveness. Professionalism and technical sophistication are logical extensions of the managerial view of development.
