IORs in development assistance: USAID's agricultural project in Bosnia

We employ the case of USAID's Linking Agricultural Markets with Producers (LAMP) project to address opportunities and obstacles to development assistance. Framed within LAMP's identification of constraints to growth within Bosnia's agricultural market, we explore the complex interorganizational linkages required for success. We identify three distinct linkage types inherent to development situations. Relationships exist (1) within the international community, (2) within the local Bosnian community and (3) between international and local organizations.

The interorganizational challenge of agricultural reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The case study reported below examines USAID's "Linking Agricultural Markets with Producers" program. This program complemented Bosnia and Herzegovina's overall sustainable agriculture policies. Implementing organizations quickly recognized that sustainability must be achieved not only from an environmental perspective, but in the interorganizational domain as well. Public, private and nonprofit players had to develop the social, economic and political infrastructure required for sustainable agricultural projects to succeed. These institutional changes were at times more difficult than the sustainable agriculture policies and practices they supported. Framed within LAMP's identification of constraints and proposed solutions for agricultural reform, we explored the interorganizational linkages required for success. We identified three distinct types: 1) those within the international community, 2) those within the local community and 3) those between international and local organizations. The case illustrates the institutional and managerial obstacles to and opportunities for implementing sustainable development reforms in transition settings.