“The research study Goodbye to Projects? grew out of the increasing interest in sustainable livelihoods approaches (SLA) and growing disillusionment with projects as mechanisms for addressing the development needs of poor people. Its aim was to investigate the implication of the adoption of SLA on the management of development interventions, and in particular on the future of development projects. The underpinning research questions were:
How are elements of the sustainable livelihoods principles being applied in practice?
What are the problems and challenges for managing livelihoods-oriented development interventions?
What is the future for development projects, given the increase in direct budget and sectoral assistance?
The research was carried out by a partnership of development institutions in the UK, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda over the period 2001-03, with funding from DFID. It was conducted in two phases. The first phase consisted of reviews of the use of sustainable livelihoods approaches and the format of development interventions generally in Southern Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. The second phase comprised the selection and detailed analysis of ten case studies, four each in Tanzania and Southern Africa, and two in Uganda. The case studies were chosen to represent a range of scales of development assistance in four broad sectors (HIV/AIDS, community based planning, agriculture/rural development and natural resources).”
