A better way to manage development

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7475.1192

BMJ 2004;329:1192 (13 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7475.1192

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PERSONAL VIEWS

A better way to manage development

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

I worked for the first time on a development project in 1978—amultistate agricultural project in India. After travelling aroundrural India for two months I came to realise how much poor peoplewere able to do with very little. But the project also raisedthe question of what it was that kept people so poor. A shortageof resources was part of the problem—but only part.

Some time before, while I was working on a project to establishproduction facilities in Nigeria, I was directly confrontedwith the crisis of dying children in a country with huge oilwealth. Money was not the whole solution, by a long shot. Thecountry was newly rich, but the people were getting poorer.

Something else also became obvious to me during my years ofworking in relief and development. Systems and organisationthat worked well in the world's developed countries (the "North"). . . [Full text of this article]

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Peter Burgess, co-founder and chief executive officer

Afrifund Group, New York peterb@afrifund.com