Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi

Past failures to plan rural planning, planners' relative neglect of recurrent resource management, and the underutilised capacity of government field staff all support the case for increased attention to be given to management procedures in rural development. A simple systems presentation is used to set out a rural plan management system with six component systems: Programming and Implementation Management Field Staff Management Local Participation Procedures Evaluation Review Sequence Rural Research and Development Plan Formulation Procedures Management procedures for these six systems either have been or are being developed and tested in the Kenya Government's Special Rural Development Programme. They are described in turn. Choices and principles in system design and in replication both within Kenya and in other countries are discussed. The most important single conclusion is that public sector performance in rural development is most likely to be improved initially through attention to programming, implementation and monitoring, with later gradual extension through evaluation to plan formulation.