Rural Development Planning in northern Sumatra

Abstract

This is a brief account of two five day strategic choice workshops conducted in 1989 in Aceh Province in the north of the large island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Their aim was to explore possible development strategies for four relatively remote agricultural districts of the province. The approach was introduced by a planning consultant from the Netherlands who has since been active in several other developing countries, especially in the field of water and sanitation planning. Here he reflects a decade later on this first experience, at which time he had recently become aware of the approach through access to the first edition of the book Planning under Pressure. .