On the relevance of the concept of management information systems to planning and management of rural development projects

The roles of planning and managing rural development projects have been the subject of many books and articles over the past decade. Some of the literature in this field has been in the domain of information gathering for rural development planning. Most studies, and prescriptions offered, tend to be ad hoc in nature. In this paper, an assessment is made of the prospects for a systematic approach to information gathering for rural development projects in less developed countries, based on the use of management information systems commonly associated with large Western commercial institutions.