The challenges of managing community-based non-formal youth education development projects in developing countries: perceptions of project managers

Abstract: As a result of increasing emphasis in global development agendas on the provision of education to create positive and sustainable change in developing countries, the number of youth education development projects in some of the world’s poorest and remote regions has burgeoned. While the benefits these projects can bestow and the success factors behind them have been studied by many past researchers, knowledge of the everyday challenges faced in their management is surprisingly limited, and is mainly only reflective of those projects run by international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), inter-governmental organisations (IGOs) and national governments in developing countries. The intention of this study is to develop an understanding of the challenges faced by community-based non-formal youth education development project managers in developing countries. It questions the richness of existing knowledge in the field of education development project management, showing that more research is needed into smaller project types due to contextual factors that make them dissimilar to the internationally- and governmentally-affiliated projects that are the focus of past research.