Paper short abstract:

The project is a form of technocratic management that defines much of how contemporary aid work is delivered, whose forms and tools shape what aid workers do. This paper explores the effects on practitioners of the project's short time frames and demanding systems of technical compliance.

Paper long abstract:

The project is a key technocratic form of management that defines much of how contemporary aid work is both conceptualised and delivered. It is also an instrument of governance whose abundance of forms and tools both orchestrate and delineate the possibilities of what aid workers do. This paper explores how practitioners contend with the project's combination of short time frames and demanding systems of technical compliance, in a context where donor exigencies are primary. It examines their views of the demands on their time that the project system produces, as well as how their wider work, including job contracts, are limited by funding tied to project cycles. In their discussions of what tools they use and how they grapple with operationalising these within the constraints of their bureaucratic environments, the project technologies can dominate their daily working lives. The standards in the use of these tools and processes, such as provision of complex series of indicators and evaluations that prove their effectiveness, are related to the demands from donors to demonstrate efficacy. The paper concludes that the spread of standardised project processes and what these entail for the daily work of aid constitute demanding forms of governance and pose significant obstacles to progressive or transformational development.