Management of community distribution programs in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, five high- and five low-performing nongovernmental organization-supported community distribution projects were studied to determine which management, supervisory, and field activities differed between the better and poorer performers. A total of 37 variables were studied, and differences between the higher- and lower-performing projects were noted for nearly all of the variables. In general, project effectiveness was associated with higher service quality, more proactive field supervision, and greater organizational clarity. No project performed all of the 37 activities well. No one or two variables predicted project success, and none of them was found to be a necessary condition for project success. Higher performance was associated with doing well on many of these variables.