Globalizing Development in Tanzania

Abstract

This article explores the social processes through which projects and programmes in international development become standardized in the context of global social policies. The striking similarity in development projects in diverse settings occurs despite the introduction of participatory planning methodologies which are intended to constitute the mechanism through which beneficiaries can become involved in the design and implementations of interventions which affect them. An anthropological account of stakeholder workshops in the development sector of Tanzania shows how the workshops facilitated by those defining themselves as development professionals create the social space of projects as envisioned in documentation and how the management models which inform development planning create development, not as failure as other anthropological accounts would have it, but as success in relation to the achievement of their planned objectives.