Organizational learning in development assistance: a comparative analysis of six tree-planting projects in Kenya

Abstract

Most community-level development assistance projects fail to achieve their stated objectives. With frustrating regularity, new projects repeat the mistakes that defeated their predecessors. If development assistance organizations are to become effective, they must develop the capacity to learn from their experiences and the experiences of others. There is evidence that community-level forestry projects sponsored by several national and international organisations in Kenya have begun to develop this capacity. I propose to undertake a comparative analysis of six Kenyan efforts (Kenya Wood fuel Development Program, Kenya Renewable Energy Development Project, Rural Afforestation Extension Scheme, CARE Agro-forestry Extension Project, the Greenbelt Movement, and the Kenya Energy Non-Governmental Organization Association), to determine what, these organizations have learned about the design and implementation of sustainable projects and how they learned it.