Old Ways or New? Same or Different?

Different words for more or less the same thing i.e. Accelerated/Stimulus, Rural/Economic and Programme/Package. The government’s preference for the word ‘economic’ instead of ‘rural’ is worth chewing on. ARDP is, of course, long forgotten by today’s planners which is a pity because much might have been learnt from its undoubted successes. The two crash development programmes have/had a shared objective - get a stagnant economy moving – both leaning  heavily on employment creation via the construction of classrooms, teachers’ houses and clinics. ARDP was led with great capability by James Leach and Peter Molosi in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and pushed forward with enormous drive by Brian Egner in Local Government. 

Egner demanded results from his new cadre of volunteer District Development Officers, refusing to listen to descriptions of all the difficulties they encountered. But that kind of leadership is rare. But then the situation in the 1970s was different.