Over the past ten years, both in Europe and developing countries, analysis has shown that the failure rate for projects achieving their stated objectives is extremely high, 60% in some cases. This is primarily due to poor project design in the first instance. Poor project design occurs due to a combination of factors; these are:

• confusion between designing projects and writing project proposals;
• a lack of understanding of the real issues facing potential beneficiaries;
• not taking account of the assumptions on which projects are dependent;
• not appreciating the social, cultural and political framework in which projects have to be implemented;
• generating unrealistic objectives and outputs, time frames and cost schedules;
• having unclear objectives and no practical method for monitoring progress of projects;
• inadequately involving stakeholders at the outset in designing the project and securing their support and commitment.