Guidelines for the design of agricultural investment projects

This publication presents guidelines originally published in 1985 as FAO Investment Technical Paper No. 1 and revised in 1995 as Technical Paper No. 7. This 2005 web PDF version generally follows the 1995 print edition, but includes several updated sections. These guidelines have been prepared to help in the design of agricultural investment projects in developing countries. The intended users are FAO Investment Centre staff, trainees and consultants, but much of the material may also be useful to staff in governments, financing agencies and consulting firms who are responsible for designing or appraising such projects. The guidelines address the need for projects to be conceptually coherent, relevant to national needs and capabilities, technically sound, viable in economic and financial terms, attractive to the participants, socially acceptable, and environmentally and fiscally sustainable. The publication is divided into three main parts: the first covers the principles and processes of project design, the second provides more detail on the analysis and reporting of project proposals and the third consists of a comprehensive outline for a project preparation report. A separate file contains the sample figures and tables published in the 1995 print edition.