Why a Top-Down Approach to Development Projects Will Always Fail

Hubris.

- By Jesse Szeto

That is why there are over 900 kilometres of fibre optic cable laid in rural Wisconsin—one of the Midwestern states of the United States—that remain mostly dark while many rural residents still lack access to broadband internet. Laid at a cost of USD 32.3 million with support from the federal and state governments, this project was meant to connect Wisconsin's rural areas to high-speed internet. Yet more than a decade after construction was completed, one-third of rural households lack access.

That is also the reason why less than 20% of USD 80.1 million that had been given to the California state government to strengthen public health responses to bioterrorism had been spent, while at the same time, the project did manage to purchase Segway personal transporters that were wholly inadequate and inappropriate for navigating the freeway systems of the Golden State during an emergency.

What ties both examples together is the fact that the organisation that was implementing the project failed to consult or work with the affected communities in a meaningful way. Like many development efforts—whether led by donor agencies or government bodies from outside the community, these projects were funded, planned and implemented from a top-down perspective, where outsiders arrived with ready-made plans and good intentions to make life better for a particular target group. This approach often overlooks what truly matters to the target group—whether it be the rural residents in Wisconsin or IT workers in Silicon Valley.