LIMITATIONS OF DEVELOPMENT PLANNING IN LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

"Developing countries" - a term widely used in the literature - comprise over 80 per cent of the
nations of the world and include the most populous countries, such as China, India, and
Indonesia, and account, therefore, for most of humanity. It has been found convenient to group
under one term all these countries in spite of the fact that they are at different stages of
development and demonstrate important differences in cultural, political, and social
environments and traditions. We should, therefore, be fully conscious of the limitations of such a
generalization

These obstacles and problems constitute an impressive list that is well known to the
organizations involved in international cooperation. They include :

• inter alia language difficulties;

• the high cost of acquiring new technologies as well as
• primary literature and of linking to international systems;
• the emphasis on the supply of information rather than demand;
• legal and administrative barriers;
• low salaries,
• lack of trained personnel, and
• the brain-drain problem;
• minor relevance of available information to local problems;
• frequent personnel changes that occur with every government change; and the
• lack of adequate government support. According to Saracevic [21], "many reports
perceive that if there is any one factor to be isolated as the greatest internal
and external obstacle to the beneficial

One of the serious problems in many developing countries is a lack of coordination among the
information systems and services operating at the national level. Many so-called "focal points"
are established to cooperate with diverse international information systems or programmes (e.g.
focal points for AGRIS, UNEP, INIS, UNISIST, etc.). The situation is particularly dramatic
when human and financial resources are scarce, as is too often the case. Better coordination is
needed among them, at the country level, and among the supporting programmes at the
international level.

To the above obstacles we should add the cultural environment; it is generally agreed that
internationally available information products and sources are insufficiently attuned to local
cultures and practices. Information technology may be alien to local perceptions and may cause
resistance to change. Difficulties of a psychological or an intellectual nature that relate to the
presentation of information cannot be neglected. In many cases there is a lack among potential
users of a real information-seeking mentality and tradition, which are not conferred by the
education system.