Despite the role that non-government organisations, including community development organisations, play in social transformation, their approach to managing projects has received little attention. Employing a processual approach and participatory methodology, this paper investigates how a small, distributed, community-based organisation negotiates the challenges associated with managing its geographically dispersed development projects. It examines lessons that this organisation’s project management approach offers for managing projects at a distance in ways that encourage community ownership, partnership with project beneficiaries and their maximum participation in the process. The paper underlines the need for positioning people’s participation in development projects as a key component of development, rather than as a tool for project implementation. It concludes by advocating a blend of participation and empowerment with technical assistance for recipient communities.

尽管包括社区发展组织在内的非政府组织在社会转型中发挥了作用，但他们管理项目的方法却很少受到关注。本文采用过程方法和参与式方法，研究了小型、分布式、基于社区的组织如何应对与管理其地理分散的开发项目相关的挑战。它审查了该组织的项目管理方法为远程管理项目提供的经验教训，这些方法鼓励社区所有权、与项目受益者的合作以及他们最大程度地参与该过程。该文件强调需要将人们对发展项目的参与定位为发展的关键组成部分，而不是作为项目实施的工具。最后，它倡导将参与和赋权与对受援社区的技术援助相结合。