ABSTRACT
The strategic management approach could well be used as a diagnostic tool in analysing the ills of programs and as an aid to the search for improving performance. As development programs become more complex, the limitations become more severs and hamper the managers' ability to create and maintain the state of congruence needed for successful program performance. Program leaders as well as policy makers in government ought to give high priority to the strategic interventions if they are committed to a more equitable distribution of the benefits of development. The creation and orchestration of congruence constitute the core of strategic management. There is a danger, of course, that the strategic management approach night become yet another ritual, mechanically adopted and uncritically applied by ill informed persons. The strategic management approach may thus provide some useful guidelines for the design, management, and evaluation of development projects and programs.
