How to avoid government mega-projects becoming mega-disasters: lessons from the past
How are major decisions on major projects made today? Dr Nicholas Westcott, Director of the Royal African Society, joins us for this event.
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In his new book, Imperialism and Development – the East African groundnut scheme and its legacy, Dr Nicholas Westcott, Director of the Royal African Society, explores one of the most expensive and disastrous development schemes ever undertaken by a British government. What lessons can be learned, more than 70 years on, from the ill-fated launch of a scheme to grow peanuts in Tanganyika (now Tanzania)? How are major decisions on major projects made today? Who is held accountable if they go wrong? How do civil servants and ministers work together to ensure money isn’t wasted on major projects? What has actually changed, since the groundnut scheme was abandoned in 1951, to ensure mega projects don’t become mega disasters?
On our panel to discuss these issues were:
- Dr Nicholas Westcott, Director of the Royal African Society
- Rt Hon Baroness Amos, former UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and former Secretary of State for International Development
- Professor John Kay, economist and former Financial Times columnist
- Giles Wilkes, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government
The event was chaired by Bronwen Maddox, Director at the Institute for Government.
- Position
- Secretary of state
- Publisher
- Institute for Government