Navigation by judgment : why and when top down management of foreign aid doesn't work / Dan Honig.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Honig, Dan, 1981- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic assistance--Developing countries.

Economic assistance.

Economic development projects.

Management.

Developing countries.

Economic development projects--Developing countries--Management.

Economic development projects--Management.

Physical Description:

xx, 263 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2018]

Summary:

Foreign aid organizations collectively spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually, with mixed results. Part of the problem in these endeavors lies in their execution. In Navigation by Judgment, Dan Honig argues that high-quality implementation of foreign aid programs often requires contextual information that cannot be seen by those in distant headquarters. Drawing on a novel database of over 14,000 discrete development projects across nine aid agencies and eight paired case studies of development projects, Honig shows that aid agencies will often benefit from giving field agents the authority to use their own judgments to guide aid delivery. This "navigation by judgment" is particularly valuable when environments are unpredictable and when accomplishing an aid program's goals is hard to accurately measure. Highlighting a crucial obstacle for effective global aid, Navigation by Judgment shows that the management of aid projects matters for aid effectiveness.

Contents:

Part I The What, Why, and When of Navigation by Judgment

1 Introduction: The Management of Foreign Aid p. 3

2 When to Let Go: The Costs and Benefits of Navigation by Judgment p. 14

3 Agents: Who Does the Judging? p. 30

4 Authorizing Environments and the Perils of Legitimacy Seeking p. 41

Part II How Does Navigation by Judgment Fare in Practice?

5 How to Know What Works Better, When: Data, Methods, and Empirical Operationalization p. 55

6 Journey without Maps: Environmental Unpredictability and Navigation Strategy p. 76

7 Tailoring Management to Suit the Task: Project Verifiability and Navigation Strategy p. 105

8 Delegation and Control Revisited p. 139

9 Conclusion: Implications for the Aid Industry and Beyond p. 151.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780190672454

0190672455

OCLC:

1007502074