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IV POLICY REGARDING THE BASIC NEEDS STRATEGY
48. The basic needs strategy is now a fundamental part of UK aid policy. In part 1 we described our progress so far in implementing it. Projects aimed at helping the poorest people present special difficulties, very different from those associated with traditional infrastructure projects such as roads, power stations or large dams with which donors, including the UK, have often been associated with in the past. Problems arise at all stages of projects: identification, appraisal, design and implementation Further details are set out below, with an indication of how we are
solving them.
49. Project identification. Poverty focused projects are not as easy to identify as infrastructure projects such as a dam or a power station. They often have no obvious boundaries, and may involve a variety of different economic and social components. Governments do not usually have a list of poverty focused projects to offer donors, as they often do of other projects, and we have found ourselves drawn much more closely into looking for and in preparing projects than has been the case in the past. This means a more active role for the aid sections of British Embassies and High Commissions and for the five UK Development Divisions in Amman, Barbados, Lilongwe, Nairobi and Bangkok whose job
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it is to find, prepare and oversee aid projects in the countries for which they are responsible. We are making more use of project identification missions staffed with specialists of different disciplines to go to a country for about three weeks to establish a dialogue with the government so as to identify projects which fit in with their development plans and with our priorities.
50.
Project Appraisal.
Sophisticated cost-benefit techniques are not always the best way of appraising poverty-focused projects. We are therefore adapting our procedures in two ways. First, where a cost benefit analysis is appropriate we are now paying more attention to the distribution of benefits. Second, when a cost-benefit analysis is not appropriate we are relying instead on an appraisal consisting of four criteria: cost effectiveness; satisfactory distribution of the benefits of the project; satisfactory development plans for the sector as a whole; and a guarantee of recurrent costs.
51.
Project desim. We are increasingly conscious of the problems we face in ensuring that the benefits of poverty-focused projects which we
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