ABSTRACT
One of the very complex problems with which we, as planners and administrators in the developing countries, are currently faced is how to plan, prepare, and select projects that will help in accomplishing the various development goals and objectives. The concern for improved project planning—this phrase being used generically to include various project planning stages 1 —has assumed a new urgency in most developing countries. Three decades of planning and development efforts have not been able to bring about any noticeable improvement in the living conditions of the people. Poverty, unemployment, rising disparities of various sorts, economic and social divisiveness, marginalization of various sections of the population, and a deteriorating quality of life can be seen spreading their tentacles in most parts of the developing world. Little change is reported to have taken place in the consumption standards of the people living in the developing countries. Nearly 750 million people, or 33 percent of the total population in developing countries (excluding China), are said to be living in absolute poverty. 2 One has only to glance at the numerous reports of the World Bank, the United Nations, and the plan documents of the developing countries to see how large the gap between the dreams of the planners and ground realities has grown in recent years. In countries such as Bangladesh, the incidence of poverty has engulfed over 80 percent of the population, who live in a state of acute malnutrition, illiteracy and unemployment. 3
