Navigation by Judgement

Argues that tight controls and narrow focus on reaching pre-set targets can prevent frontline workers from using their skills and creativity to solve problems on the ground, undermining the performance of foreign aid projects

Draws on a novel database of over 14,000 discrete development projects across nine agencies and eight qualitative studies in making his argument

Pressure to demonstrate results can undermine performance, particularly when environments are unpredictable and task performance hard to reliably and accurately measure