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Home > Degree Programs > Teaching & Courses > 2009-2010 Course Listing > Foreign Aid and the Management of Development Assistance Projects
PED-202: Foreign Aid and the Management of Development Assistance Projects
Faculty: Stephen Peterson
Schedule
| Day | Time | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Day | 9/3 | ||
| Meet Day | T/Th | 11:40 AM - 1:00 PM | L382 |
| Review | F | 10:10 AM - 11:30 AM | L382 |
Description
This course locates the management challenge of working in an aid dependent country and delivering an effective project that has sustainable benefits. The dynamics of foreign aid are presented along with the current debates over strategy (Millennium Development Goals) and modalities (direct budget support). With an understanding of context, the course then focuses on the nitty gritty of project management. Projects often under perform and frequently fail. Managers need to get something moving (hopefully in the right direction) that is sustainable (defined in terms of endogenous capacity) which requires steering between the rocks of inertia and the ideal. Managers of development assistance projects often face a perfect storm: turbulent environments, unrealistic expectations of funders and clients, incoherent foreign aid, fickle support, inadequate and unreliable resources, and staff who lack appropriate knowledge, skills (but most of all commitment). This course is a forum to share the experiences of the students and the resource persons using frameworks and a set of cases that allow us to collectively reflect on international development from a project perspective.