Title:
Why Development Projects Fail: One Size Does Not Fit
All
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
Last week we told you about FAILFaire, an event
where people talk about international development
projects that failed. Many of these projects started
as good ideas. Others had some level of success, but
not enough to have a measurable effect on the lives
of people in developing countries.A nonprofit group
in New York City called MobileActive held the first
FAILFaire earlier this year. MobileActive is made up
of people and organizations that use technology to
try to improve the lives of the poor. Katrin Verclas
came up with the idea for FAILFaire as a way to help
nonprofit groups improve by learning from the
mistakes of others. She says: "The primary goal is
to learn from failure and not to repeat the same
mistakes over and over again."Katrin Verclas says
there are many reasons why projects fail, but one
reason tops all others. She says development
projects are not "one size fits all." Yet many
people try to import ideas as if they were.What they
fail to consider, she says, is the desires of the
local people or their cultural, economic and
political differences. She says the problem for many
nongovernmental organizations and other groups is
simply not knowing their audience.The creator of
FAILFaire says this is true not only with technology
but other projects as well. Ms. Verclas hopes
nonprofits in other industries and fields will
create their own versions of FAILFaire. A second
FAILFaire took place in July in Washington. The
World Bank Institute co-sponsored the event. To
Katrin Verclas, it was a good sign to have the World
Bank support such open discussions about failure.
She says it is not just about products. It is about
people's lives and well-being and livelihoods in
many developing countries. So it is important to be
very honest about what projects are not performing
according to expectations. An award for the best
worst failure story went to Michael Trucano from the
World Bank Institute. What he presented was in fact
a list. It was a list of what he considers the worst
practices in the use of information and
communication technologies in education. Mr. Trucano
gets to keep the award until the next FAILFaire,
which is expected to be held on the West Coast this
fall. You can find a link to his list of the top ten
worst practices at voaspecialenglish.com. For VOA
Special English I'm Alex Villarreal.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
