The machine in the desert: Lessons from the design and implementation of a computer system for the Sudanese Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning

Craig Calhoun, William Drummond, Dale Whittington

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

There is an international mandate for national economic development planning and concomitant maintenance of national accounts. It is implicit in the activities of the World Bank and IMP. Evidence of development planning is sought by both private and public donors, even by the United States which is one of the few countries in the world to lack its own domestic planning agency. Scholars hold up successful cases of planned development as models for other countries, and their words are backed up by agencies' ability to deliver billions of dollars in aid. But most economists and government officials in the Third World are already convinced of the merits of planning and national accounts, even where they reject the specific proposals of the IMP and other international agencies. They are graduates of the same university programmes as the IMP officials, and they have been trained to believe in development planning.' Yet this pursuit of planned development and effective national accounting runs up against severe limits of both political will and bureaucratic capacity (Rondinelli 1983, Robertson 1984). In particular, serious planning efforts and superficial attempts to meet the requirements of international donors and other agencies both require the management of an enormous range and complexity of information and technology. This chapter is about lessons to be learned from an attempt to use microcomputers to help meet the demand for information management in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in the Sudan.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationSudan after Nimeiri
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages184-206
Number of pages23
ISBN (Electronic)9781135077402
ISBN (Print)0415004802, 9780415004800
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2013
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Social Sciences

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