Bureaucracy and the Poor: Closing the Gap.

Abstract

Extensive field examinations of efforts by government bureaucracies to serve the poor in Third World countries are reported. Case studies on these experiences are used to illuminate the dynamic relationships between the various factors with which the development managers concerned have had to contend. Results are reported of a landmark study of 5 Central American countries which in the early 1970s embarked on holistic rural development strategies intended to achieve growth well-being equity and participation. The problems of realigning the structures of 2 major government agencies one in health and the other in irrigation to be more responsive to the needs of rural people are examined. The structural and managerial role requirements of programs which require collaborative inputs from many agencies are studied. The need for reform of the meta-structures providing the framework for rural development policy and action is considered. The biases of policy analysts are examined and it is demonstrated how planners might benefit from being more sensitive to the behavior of the poor as consumers. Finally it is suggested that Third World management institutes may require important changes in their own internal structures no less difficult to achieve than those they are calling for on the part of the governments they are advising.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 82 citations exist upstream.