The Role of Social Sciences in Rural Development Planning: The Case of Ethiopia

Abstract

Recent literature on rural development planning emphasizes the importance of a multidisciplinary approach in the preparation, formulation, and execution of development plans (Chambers, 1974; Whyte, 1975). This argument has been based on the assumption that for development planning to be successful, there needs to be an integrated knowledge of ideas of various disciplines, such as the physical and biological sciences (agriculture, engineering, etc.) and the social sciences (sociology, political science, economics, anthropology). However, for the last few years, social scientists, with the exception of economists, have played a peripheral role in agricultural development planning. Program design and the implementation of development plans have been conducted mainly by technical scientists. In most cases, social scientists have been invited to justify the decisions of the technical scientists after the selection and the designing of the projects. Such development projects have usually had unanticipated consequences because of this lack of input from social scientists. At present there is a growing concern by international funding agencies and other research institutes to involve social scientists not only in the evaluation and appraisal of development projects, but also in the planning and formulation of these projects. The rationale behind this is that social scientists can contribute to the understanding of social, political, and economic problems in a society and help to plan development projects in such a way that they address basic developmental needs.