Project Analysis For Local Development


Book Description

The increasing importance of local-level planning in developing countries and disillusionment with highly theoretical, sophisticated methodologies have prompted the creation of this simple-to-use manual for planners and administrators seeking to identify, evaluate, and select local-level development projects. This book outlines information required for thorough project evaluation, sources of that information (including alternative approaches to data collection), methods of analysis (with detailed explanations of their strengths and weaknesses), and techniques for organizing the results for purposes of decision making. Unlike many abstract procedural guides for development that require substantial data and technical manpower --two resources usually unavailable at local levels—this book is meant for planners and administrators who have had little or no formal training in project analysis and planning. Mr. Mathur supplements his step-by-step methodology with explanations of how and when to make appropriate and effective use of the techniques







Social Capital and Local Development


Book Description

This book addresses the role of social capital in promoting rural and local development. The recent financial and economic crises have exposed the European Union (EU) to an increased risk of social exclusion and poverty, which are now at the heart of its economic, employment and social agenda with explicit reference to rural and marginal areas (Europe 2020). The authors' work from the notion that rural development is not imposed from the ‘outside’, but depends also on endogenous factors, namely local cultural and ecological amenities, eco-system services, and economic links with urban areas which expand rural opportunities for innovation, competitiveness, employment and sustainable development. Social capital is of paramount importance because it helps build networks and trusting relations among local stakeholders in the public and private spheres, and supporting the enhancement of governance of natural resources in rural areas




Design, Analysis, and Implementation of Development Projects


Book Description

The book offers important guidelines in analyzing the technical, economic, financial, administrative and organizational, environmental, commercial, and institutional aspects of development projects. It also suggests a format for organizing these aspects into one comprehensive design as it emphasizes the need for analyzing investments in their entirety as opposed to analyzing them in separate segments. Managers and technicians from national and local governments, business corporations, parastatals or public enterprises, non-governmental organizations, development and commercial banks, and national and international aid funding institutions who are directly or indirectly involved in planning and implementing development activities will find this book useful. Teachers and students in project management, finance, banking, economic analysis, and development management will also find valuable learning gains from the book. The concepts and procedure in designing and analyzing development projects are illustrated using hypothetical case studies. The discussions and illustrations will serve as important guidelines in the implementation of development projects.




Local Economic Development


Book Description

A comprehensive introduction to the economics of local economic development. The approach is people centered and recognizes contributions from other social sciences.













Benefit-cost Analysis


Book Description

Choice is the name of the game. Government sets the size of the public budget and decides which public projects it will invest in and which transfers and regulations it will implement. To do this systematically the government must have a procedure that displays the consequences of the alternatives. This book is an exposition of benefit-cost analysis (BCA), an analytic framework for organizing thoughts, listing the pros and cons of alternatives, and determining values for all relevant factors so that the alternatives can be ranked. A major question illuminated by this text is whether the results of such an analysis can instruct government--in the sense of telling it what it must do to avoid being labelled stupid, corrupt, irrational, and/or inefficient. How and when, we will ask, can the benefit-cost analyst label a particular governmental investment, policy, or regulation as political (in the pejorative sense) as opposed to economic (in the laudatory sense of being economically justified)? This book will argue that BCA is much like a consumer information system. Consumer information neither tells consumers what to do nor tells them what they should want. However, it does tell them which products will perform in selected ways and at what costs. And this information, together with the independently arrived at wants, helps the consumer make intelligent choices.