Federal Aid and Economic Development in Nonmetropolitan Communities: The UDAG Program

In 1977 Congress enacted the Urban Development Action Grant(UDAG) program to help distressed communities develop economically.This article draws from case studies of ten nonmetropolitancommunities with Action Grants. It focuses on the factors thataffect the completion and benefits of projects, particularlyrelations with private developers and local management capacity.The studies show that the UDAG program has been flexible inaccommodating differences in economic development needs as perceivedlocally. However, many of the projects have not produced thenumbers of jobs originally proposed. Several communities encounteredproblems with private developers who either abandoned the projectsor failed to produce expected results. Smaller communities inthe sample tended to lack grantsmanship, management, and legalresources.     

Analyzing Rural Local Governments' Financial Condition: An Exploratory Application of Three Tools

Rural local governments frequently lack the capacity to analyze and monitor their financial condition. This article presents three tools that were used in a pilot project to analyze the fiscal health of a rural Minnesota county. The article compares and contrasts these methodologies by pointing out the strengths and weaknesses, the usefulness of the results, and the ease or difficulty of use of the tools.     

Making social science research applicable: The case of agricultural extension research in Egypt

One problem in the management of agricultural research is the integration of research and extension. The links between research and extension are tenuous for many reasons, including institutional and administrative factors that thwart collaboration; geographic isolation of extension staff; differences in status, prestige and educational attainment between extension workers and researchers; and motivational issues impeding stronger ties between extension and research personnel. This article argues that the problem with much research intended for extension audiences is that it is supply driven and not demand driven. Using a social science research unit within the Agricultural Research Center of the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture as a case study, this article analyses the research produced by the unit and assesses its potential usefulness for extension. It then attempts to show why it does not reach this potential. Among the reasons are that the researchers lack experience and background in rural issues and agricultural extension; research results lag behind extension's need for the information; and there is no plan to disseminate the results to the extension community after research is completed. The article offers some suggestions for overcoming such barriers, including involving extension in the design of research projects and holding seminars on research results after projects are completed; changing the incentives for researchers to do more applied research; and diversifying the methods and disciplines used to conduct the research.     

Putting ‘projectized’ development in perspective

The project approach to development assistance has been attacked for its inability to make results self-sustaining. This has been attributed to a short time horizon, an inability to pick up recurrent costs, and a tendency to either by-pass or fragment local institutions and therefore to neglect the need for local capacity building. At the same time, claims have been made that projects are politically advantageous due to quick high visibility results and they are useful instruments for experimentation, social learning and capacity building. This article examines both arguments and concludes that there is a need for radical changes in project development processes, but that there should not be a rush to abandon the project as an instrument for development.