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[80%]
Bachelor Of Social Sciences Honours Degree In Development Studies
[Block Release 2.2]
Faculty : Humanities And Social Sciences
Department : Development Studies
Student ‘Name : Emmanuel R Marabuka
Student’ Id Number : L0110064t
Module Name : Project Planning and Management
Lecturer : Mr M. Sibanda
Due Date : April 2013
Email Address : emmanuelrems@gmail.com
Question : Asses the causes of project failures
in Zimbabwe’s rural areas use example when possible

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Project is the best way of eliminating poverty. It is defined as a temporary endeavour with a
defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or
deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about
beneficial change or added value (Enterprise 2012). Therefore, a project is considered a
failure when it has not delivered what was required, in line with expectations (Project Smart
2012). If key stakeholders agreed that a project had to exceed its initial budget, the project
may still be considered a success (ibid). Likewise, if a project delivered everything that was
in the detailed project designs, it may still be considered a failure if it didn't include vital
elements that the key stakeholders needed. This doesn't seem fair, but project success and
failure isn't just about the facts, nor is it simply about what was delivered. It's also, crucially,
about how the project is perceived. Therefore, in order to succeed, a project must deliver to
cost, to quality, and on time; and it must deliver the benefits presented in the business case.
Therefore, in Zimbabwean context rural projects are associated with failures because of
many reasons which include, lack of funding, poor project planning, poor governance,
corruption, poor planning, climate changes, poor work force, lack of technology, lack of
communication, lack of consultation to the project beneficiaries, inability to work in triple
constraints, elite capture among others. Therefore this paper seeks to discuss the cause‟s
project failures in Zimbabwe. In addition I will highlight the recommendations to be done to
avoid and minimise project failure.
It may be of paramount importance to first highlight what is project failure, which is
characterised by factors such as inability to meet deadline, inability to meet objectives, in
ability to deliver services and inability to bring positive change. According to Mind tools
(2012) project failure is opposite of project success which it is defined as that, the project
which is delivered "in line with expectations ". allAfrica.com (2011), alludes that, a project
fails when it falls short on meeting its original expectations (be they expressed in terms of
functionality or business edge).Therefore in Zimbabwe rural projects fail because of lack of
funding and corruption. Projects implemented by Zimbabwean government often suffer
financial constraints. For instance the Zambezi Water Project which was started in 1980 with
an objective of being the permanent water source to Matabeleland province. This project lack
funds so it is a failure because it is failed to meet specified objectives and time now is
overdue. In rural areas irrigation schemes projects are failing because of lack of funding. For
instance, the Shavi Dam in Zvishavane was to be constructed in 2000 in order to supply water
at Irrigation Scheme Runde Rural Council (2012). This dam project is still failing even before

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it starts up only preliminary stages were done and nothing more. The main drawback is
financial constraints. In addition road surfacing of Zvishavane-Rutenga road failed because of
lack funding. For now the project is at stagnant position because of financial constraints.
Although lack of financial resources to fund rural project is to blame, also the corruption is
also responsible for failure of other rural projects which are said to have lack funds.
Therefore, corruption and financial constraints also works hand in hand to cause project
failures in rural areas in Zimbabwe. Projects are funded by the government through the
Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and the Members of Parliament divert the funds to
fund their personal projects at the expense of community projects. This causes project failures
in rural areas because funds will be misused at the expense of the project. For example in
Chikomba West constituency in Mashonaland East province people were in arms over the
alleged abuse of constituency development funds provided to the parliamentarian who
represents the district, charging that local lawmaker Michael Bimha has not put the cash to
use to raise living standards in the community (Chiripasi 2011).
Chiripasi (2011) is of the quotation that,
“All 210 House members received $50,000 each last year to spend to improve the
lives of their constituents. But Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Eric Matinenga
recently said only 66 were able to account for the funds, sparking outrage among civil
society activists over the apparent misuse of much of the total of US$10.5 million
dollars.”
This clearly shows corruption is Zimbabwe causes project failures in the sense that, the CDF
funds which were supposed to fund developmental projects will be used at personal level
living community projects unfinished or not started. Therefore, the lack of funding may be
necessitated by corruption and diversion of resources. Corruption comes first reducing project
funds, diverting funds, and then lack of funding to projects becomes an output. However, one
can argue that lack of funds may be accompanied by corruption to cause project failure.
Moreover, poor project planning is also a cause of failure in rural projects. All Africa.com
(2011) is of the notion that, the major problems that are faced by organisations in terms of
management are inconsistent approaches to documenting and managing projects activities,
difficulties in project planning, and too many projects or investing in the wrong projects. All
Africa.com (2011) further postulate that, the project plan is the most common document that

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most project managers usually rush to sponsors to table without consideration of the two
preliminary stages that give birth to the planning which are problem analysis and objective
analysis. This means project managers tend to omit the important preliminary stages which
enable project success. Therefore this is mainly done by government when government
officials want to do problem analysis they do the so called rural tourism in rural areas and
held the rapid rural appraisal. Therefore rural tourism is the visit of rural areas by urban
professional in search of rural problems. This is mainly done at areas which are accessible for
example peri-urban areas. Therefore, since other rural areas are more marginalised other
professional do not reach such areas. These cause project failures in the sense that, project are
implemented without people‟s full participation during the planning stage. Because of this
one can say poor planning is the cause of project failures.
Poor project planning can cause project failure in the sense that, one can implement project
which does not address people‟s problems and leading to failure to meet the objectives.
Herald online (2011) postulate that, one of the major causes of project failures is poor
planning. Most of the time the problem is due to inadequate or no planning. The team simply
tries to "wing it", to do the work without doing any planning at all ibid. Therefore, many
development practitioners are task-oriented, and they see planning as a waste of time and
resources, so they would rather just get on with the work. Herald online (2011) further
postulate that, failing to develop a plan means that there can be no actual control of the
project. Without a plan, everything is a deviation. Therefore, since project failure is also
characterised by lack of sustainability of the project many project which are implemented in
rural areas often lack sustainability. This is mainly caused by poor planning; the development
practitioners tend to consult the beneficiaries at the implementation stage whilst they do the
preliminary stages alone without the beneficiaries. This causes lack of ownership to the
projects by beneficiaries which leads to project failure and lack continuation. For example the
Christian Care in Zvishavane gave people vouchers as a way of poverty alleviation, people
supposed to spend the money buying small livestock. Therefore, people spent money buying
things beyond the project scope and this was necessitated by poor planning also when they
gave people vouchers they didn‟t involve people in their planning stage they only consult
their beneficiaries at the implementation Zvishavane Development Report (2012). Therefore,
this project was a failure in the sense that it was not sustainable because people were not
aware of the objective of the project. Moreover, people sell the sell the goats buying food and
others paying school fees for their children. In this essence one can argue that, lack of

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beneficiary participation during planning stage cause project failure to attain the intended
objectives.
Therefore, lack of participation cause project failure in the sense that, project planners may
implement projects which are not culturally acceptable which causes project failures. For
example a project of sanitation was implemented in Binga where toilets were constructed and
people closed squatting holes and putt their grains. In toilets the reason behind was that, it
was not culturally acceptable for the whole family to use one toilet. Moreover, people wanted
granaries not toilets so the project was neglects people participation. This project was a
failure because it failed to meet its objectives of improving sanitation.
Therefore, climatic changes which are prevailing are other causes of project failures
especially agricultural projects. Therefore an NGO project may come intending to improve
food security to the community through input distribution therefore because of poor rainfall
the project will be a failure because of prevailing climatic changes. Therefore climatic
changes may cause floods or drought therefore, drought cause water shortages which
compromise water sources and agriculture at large. For example in Mberengwa West, people
were given seeds by the NGOs and there was massive destruction by rain storm. This causes
this project to fail to achieve its aim.
Employment of unqualified people structure is another cause of project failure. Therefore
poor administration entails inefficiency in a project necessitated by lack. Therefore, other
organisation employs people which are not qualified with intention of reducing employment
costs this cause project failure because the of poor project implantation strategies. Therefore,
poor quality of employees also causes poor project output because in most cases they will be
incompetent.
Furthermore failure to work in triple constraints is another cause of project failure. The some
managers do not consider the issue of scope (quality), cost (resources) and schedule time.
Therefore, the scope of a project (often called the Scope of Work) is a clear, specific
statement as to what has been agreed to be performed/achieved in a particular project
(Enterprise 2012). In other words, the scope expressly lays out the functions, features, data,
content, etc. that will be included in the project at hand. You could also say that the scope
clearly expresses the desired final result of a project. If the project manager fails to keep the
project in scope there is high possibility of failure. For example if a project is focusing on
food security issues it must remain focusing on such issues. If it diversifies looking at

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education it there will be high possibility of it to fail. Enterprise (2012) argues that, a project
must have one scope which is not too broad in order for it to be successful.
In triple constraints there is an issue of cost or resources. Therefore, resources always cost
money so the two are interchangeable in many ways. Cost of a project, we are needs to be
applied or assigned to the project in terms of money and effort in order to make things
happen. This can be resources like manpower/labour, it can be materials needed for the job,
resources for risk management and assessment or any third party resources that might need to
be secured. Failure to recognise the project cost may lead to project failure in the sense that
the project the project may run out of money before completion which is a failure. Therefore
in Zimbabwe many project government projects do not recognise this for instance the rural
electrification which suffers financial constraints before reaching its objectives.
Also in the triple constraints there is an issue of time or schedule which is amount of time
required to complete each and every component of a project (Enterprise 2012). Therefore,
lack of realisation of the issuer of time in triple constraints can cause project because the
more time spent on the project is the higher the cost. Mind tools (2011) alludes that, 'time is
money', a commodity that slips away too easily. Most projects have a deadline date for
delivery. Therefore, when time is reduced, there will be either increase in cost or reduction of
the project scope. Moreover, other projects are implemented in rain season because of not
considering the issues of triple constraints for instance in Zvishavane, the community Share
ownership trust implemented a block construction project at Oret Primary School in October
2012 towards the rain season and it took too long to be finished and the expenses were high
than budgeted for Runde Rural Council (2012). In addition the block which was constructed
was of law quality. Therefore, the triple constraints are interrelated in causing project success
if realised or failures if not realised or considered by the project planners. However the triple
constraints fall under the managerial issues because according to Mind Tools (2011), it is the
role of the project manager to carefully consider the limitations and find a working balance to
ensure project success.
Therefore, conflict among beneficiaries or employees cause project failures, in support to this
view, Dcosta (2011) alludes that, every project has both internal politics and external politics.
The internal politics like team jealousies, cohesive projects, and personal interests occur in all
projects and must be considered and managed by stakeholders. In addition, every project
needs to have a good communication plan in order for it to succeed. If your projects

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constantly fail to consider how well teams, key personnel, and stakeholders are
communicating it will most likely to fail (Carlos 2011). These cause project failure in the
sense that, poor coordination among workers lead to poor outputs. The external politics refer
to those which the stakeholders do not control. These events include all political events like
employment laws, trade restrictions, trade reforms, environmental regulations, political
stability, tariffs, etc. the project manager must realise this and address in order for success in
implemented projects.
To avoid project failures, in Zimbabwe, government and organisations must employ people
who are competent and qualified to improve efficiency. Moreover the project managers must
use other project analysis tool such as the „pestle analysis‟ which is, is a tool that is used to
identify and analyse the key drivers of change in the strategic or business environment
(Dcosta 2011). The abbreviation stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal,
and Environmental factors. The tool allows the assessment of the current environment and
potential changes. The idea is, if the project is better placed than its competitors, it would be
able to respond to changes more effectively. Therefore if the project manager uses this tool,
projects will be most likely to achieve its objectives because this tool includes critical factors
which may cause project failure if not addressed accordingly.
Moreover the project, planning tools such as logframe approach must be used in order to have
sustainable projects. Moreover, such frameworks needs people who are qualified and who are
familiar with them. In addition, the development practitioners must mainly focus on the
vulnerable groups. Also they must embark on participatory rural appraisal which encourages
people participation also people‟s participation enables the project to be culturally acceptable.
Also rural project must be community based. Furthermore the project planners must always
include the triple constraints when planning. Also they must avoid implementing projects
which are discordant to the season as well as in line with the objectives.
More so, the project planners must also include the knowledge areas which is a collection of
processes and knowledge areas generally accepted as best practice within the project
management discipline (Project Smart 2012) Project Integration Management This process
coordinates the other areas to work together throughout the project.it consist of Project Scope
Management which is a set of processes used to ensure that the project includes all of the
requirements and no new requirements are added in a way that could harm the project; Time
Management which involves processes which ensure that the project is completed on

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schedule; Cost Management which involves processes which ensure that the project is
completed on budget; Quality Management which; ensures that the project meets its
requirements, or does what it is expected to do; Human Resource Management which
includes all of the processes used to develop, manage and put the project team together;
Communication Management determines what information is needed, how that information
will be sent and managed, and how project performance will be reported; Risk Management
involves identifying, managing and controlling risk of a project; Procurement Management is
the group of processes used to acquire the materials and services needed to complete the
project. Therefore these Knowledge areas if they are considered they can result in project
success.
However, in order, among all causes of project failures discussed above poor planning and
management is the major cause of rural project in Zimbabwe. Therefore, proper planning can
lead to project success. One can acknowledge other causes of project failure by the major
causes are brought by development practitioners. Poor planning entails implementing project
which does not address people‟s problems. Moreover, in ability to work in triple constraints
is a symbol of poor planning. One may argue that, among human causes of project failures in
Zimbabwe, poor planning plays and management plays a central role. Therefore, proper
planning is needed to achieve project successes. Moreover in government there must be
monitoring and evaluation on the utilisation of government funds.

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References
allAfrica.com (2011) Fundamentals of project management. Online available at:
http://allafrica.com/governance/?aa_source=main-nav-t1 (Accessed on 20/03/2013)
Carlos, T (2013). Reasons Why Projects Fail. Online Available at:
http://www.carlosconsulting.com/ (Accessed on 20/03/2013)
Chiripasi, T. (2011), Residents of Chikomba, Zimbabwe, Allege Abuses of Constituency
Funds Available at: http://www.voazimbabwe.com/archive/news/latest/3152/3152.html
Dcosta, A. (2011) Components of a PESTLE Analysis Online available at:
http://www.brighthubpm.com/project-planning/51754-components-of-a-pestle-analysis/
(Accessed on 20/03/2013)
Enterprise (2012) The Triple Constraints of Projects: Quality, Cost and Schedule Online
available at: http://www.enterprise-pm.com/pmbasics/triple-constraint (Accessed on
20/03/2013)
Herald Online (2011) Tracking the life cycle of a project. Online available at:
http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?view=article&catid=41%3Abusiness&id=7935%3Atrack
ing-the-life-cycle-of-a-project&format=pdf&option=com_content&Itemid=133 (Accessed on
20/03/2013)
Mind tools (2012) Why Do Projects Fail? Learning How to Avoid Project Failure Online
available at: http://www.mindtools.com/ (Accessed on 20/03/2013)
Runde Rural District Council (2012). Zvishavane Rural Development Report.