Designing Successful International Development Projects: A Study of Sanitation Development Projects in sub-Saharan Africa

Projects are policy implementation tools and form a major part of the tactical process of development. Many development projects in sub-Saharan Africa are usually targeted at addressing poverty, but numerous of them have been assessed as failing to address poverty effectively. A primary reason for this failure is the project design, which often relies on the classic top-down supply-driven planning approaches that focus on technical fixes rather than the specific poverty dimensions the local communities and households face. This research aimed to design sanitation development projects targeted at addressing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). A conceptual framework was developed and used to evaluate 12 World Bank sanitation projects using a multiple case study design to achieve this aim. The findings revealed certain weaknesses in the design of the projects to address poverty: a weak baseline study leading to weak targeting of beneficiaries; project scope not specifically designed to address poverty; procurement plans weak at addressing poverty; and M&E plan lacking indicators to monitor and evaluate the outcome and impact of the project on poverty dimensions. Thus, poverty was not properly captured through the project lifecycle leading to poor project outcomes. The modified framework that emerged from the research considers poverty-linked sanitation issues and ensures that the project-level objectives are linked to the strategic objectives. The major contribution of this research is the developed conceptual framework. The framework presents a means of designing sanitation projects to address poverty in SSA. From a critical perspective, by focusing on addressing poverty in SSA, the framework helps fill the knowledge gap in this important project management application area as there is no such comprehensive project management framework that addresses poverty by linking project-level objectives to the policy objectives. This research contributes to filling this gap by considering the importance of capturing poverty issues through the different linkages and interactions between the project activities, project success criteria, and critical success factors at each of the project life cycle phases. The framework has practical applications, including tailoring sanitation projects towards poverty reduction, assessing project progress and predicting poverty reduction outcomes, and providing valuable insights to inform future project selection. Conclusions drawn from the research are that projects targeted at reducing poverty are more successful when poverty is addressed holistically through the project lifecycle. Understanding the links between sanitation and poverty aids in designing strategies suitable for addressing poverty dimensions through sanitation projects.