Or in Developing Countries: a review

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The relevance of Operational Research (OR) in developing countries has increasingly engaged the attention of operational researchers in both the industrialised and less developed countries over the last 50 years. With this, there has been a considerable amount of interest in the potential for using OR in developing countries. One sign of this is the emergence of a number of initiatives to promote OR in developing countries and the number of new societies for OR that have emerged from the developing world. This paper is an attempt at providing an overall picture of the state of OR in the developing countries. In particular, it will look at the coverage in terms of countries and methods. It will also highlight the contribution OR is making towards the theme of poverty, the reduction of which is regarded as the key focus of development policy interventions as reflected in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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One significant initiative worth mentioning was the meeting in December 1992 of the first International Conference on OR for Development (ICORD) held in Ahmedabad, India. The participants emerged with their recommendations on how OR could best be advanced in developing countries. This became known as the Ahmedabad Declaration calling for a range of actions from IFORS (and other OR societies) to support and strengthen OR in developing countries. The declaration contained the conviction that OR can make significant contribution to the process of development in general and to developing countries in particular. Thus, asserting that OR has a broader role than just knowledge brokering or technology transfer was firmly on the map (Rosenhead and Tripathy, 1996).

Other OR societies besides IFORS have also developed similar themes (for example the EURO and IFORS Africa initiative (Rand and Tsoukias, 2002). What is common between these themes is the desire to promote OR in developing countries, while being concerned with addressing the process of development more generally. The main aim of the OR and developing countries initiatives appears to be to promote the increase in the use of OR as a practical tool for problems in developing countries. Some of these initiatives include regional workshops as well as academic exchanges. There has also been a flow of students from the developing countries to Europe and the US for training in OR, which has been viewed as crucial to the prospects for developing countries OR.. Thus, the endeavours appear to have both a business and a moral case.. First, there is a desire to expand the discipline in countries where professional groups or societies have not yet, or have recently been formed. This is often combined with a desire to promote better or more relevant practice through training and through developing the subject. Second, there is the desire to evaluate the possibilities and limitations of OR for developing countries, to better understand the role of OR in developing countries, and in some circumstances to think about the role of OR in light of the process for development or globalisation. The latter is borne out of a continuing trend in OR to recognise the profession’s social responsibility (Rosenhead, 1993). Therefore, to undertake a review of OR in developing countries presents a daunting and complex task. As well as providing an overview of what is happening and what has been the effect of the many initiatives, there are bigger questions hanging in the background that somehow cannot be ignored, particularly whether developing countries OR should focus on the relationship between development and the alleviation and/or the creation of poverty. The risk is that if these questions are not at least acknowledged a review may provide little assistance in understanding the nature of OR in developing countries or even development, or worse that no suggestions can be made for the future of OR in developing countries (see Bornstein & Rosenhead, 1990). The intention, then, for this review will be not only to provide an overview of what OR is being utilised in developing countries but also to address the issue of the relevance of OR for development.

It should be noted that there are very few reviews of OR in developing countries undertaken over the years. Indeed, there are only a handful of special issues of academic journals providing an overview of the application of OR in developing countries in the literature (e.g. Kemball-Cook and Wright, 1981; Bornstein, et al, 1990; Datta and Bandyopadhyay, 1994). However, of the reviews undertaken, their objectives were to examine the extent to which OR applications in these areas are relevant to the development problems of the developing countries and whether the existing techniques and methodologies are relevant to tackle such problems. Which begs the question - would a review be useful? It seems to us that a review would be useful in order to help us think about and tackle the question of OR’s relevance in a complex world.

However, how should a review of OR in developing countries be organised? Should it be organised by developing countries, methods used or otherwise? To organise a review is not straightforward. For example, some authors have pointed out that the concept of OR in developing countries is different from that found in the developed world (Aggarwal, 1994). Others have found that the term ‘‘OR’’ used to describe an approach varies quite markedly from one developing country to the next (Smith 2008). Given this, and the extent of the literature, what counts as OR can be interpreted in many different ways, and so it is impossible for a review to be in any sense comprehensive. For a review to draw any inference there would need to be a clear and consistent definition of OR and some means of evaluating good practice across all applications. There would also need to be a clear definition on what is a developing country or what is meant by development. This will be explored below.

Thus, this paper aims to provide an overview of the practice of OR (broadly defined) in the developing countries over the last decade. It cannot be a systematic review, nor is it entirely a critical review along the lines of Bornstein and Rosenhead (1990). Instead it is a snapshot of practice which will hopefully highlight the variety and range of OR practice and help to appraise the relevance of OR for development. A comprehensive search was made of a variety of databases, including the ISI Web of Knowledge, Business Source and the International Abstracts in Operations Research (IAOR) databases. In doing this we are aware that there are a range of places where material on OR in developing countries may appear in print. It has not been possible to access these for this review. The focus of this review is mainly on practical applications of OR rather than theoretical or philosophical debates. However, we have heeded the warning that an appreciation of the contextual aspects of developing countries, their history, politics, and so on cannot be ignored (Datta, 1993; Bornstein and Rosenhead, 1990). Thus, we have structured the paper into three main sections – we begin with the context of OR in developing countries; this is followed by the practice of OR in developing countries; finally, the relationship between development and the alleviation of poverty will be explored through looking at the application of OR to the millennium development goals (MDG). There is inevitably a degree of duplication in doing it this way but we believe that readers may be coming at it either through an interest in a particular country, method or through an application area.

The concept of a developing country is also found, under one term or another, in numerous theoretical systems having diverse orientations —the major theories of development being modernization, dependency, world-systems and globalization. These are the principal theoretical explanations to interpret development efforts carried out in the developing countries and form the basis of more critical reviews of development in developing countries (Rapley, 1996; Willis, 2005). In relation to OR and development, Bornstein and Rosenhead (1990) provide a selective survey, where the central premise is to understand development as underdevelopment which is more or less a set of relationships between developed and less developed countries. The paper discusses the limited extent to which this framework has been incorporated into OR's. Two distinguishable main strands are highlighted.. The first (Modernisation Theory) stresses the need for developing countries to 'modernise', while the second (Dependency Theory) stresses the obstacles in the way of their doing so (Willis, 2005).

Modernization Theory states that the development can be achieved through stages, which is a linear process that every country must go through. This approach is premised on the idea that western societies can provide a developmental model for 'traditional' societies (Rapley, 1996; Willis, 2005). It posits that growth and development arise from the set of values that predominate within any society. Hence, the factors that help or hinder development are seen as largely internal to a society. The main criticism of the theory however, is that the modernization perspective only shows one possible model of development.  Dependency Theory takes a very different perspective (Rapley, 1996; Willis, 2005). It is a view of development and underdevelopment that is relational and claims that for underdeveloped nations to develop, they must break their ties with developed nations and pursue their own path for internal growth (Rapley, 1996; Kingsbury et al., 2004).

One of the main current criticisms of the Dependency Theory (and to some extent the Modernization Theory) is that it continues to base its assumptions and results on the nation-state. It has been also been argued that thinking about development has reached an 'impasse' whereby the conflicting paradigms present irreconcilable accounts of the global order (Schuurman, 1993). Today, there are new activities in the world-economy which can not be explained within the confines of the modernisation nor the dependency perspective.  This created the conditions for the emergence of the world-systems theory (McMichael, 2000; Nederveen, 2001). The idea claims that it is being increasingly recognised that there are worldwide conditions that operate as determinant forces especially for small and underdeveloped nations, and that the nation-state level of analysis is no longer the only useful category for studying development conditions, particularly in the developing countries (McMicheal, 2000).  The factors which have had the greatest impact on the internal development of smaller developing countries are the new systems of global communications, the new world trade mechanisms, the international financial system, and the ease of knowledge transfer and so on.  These factors have created their own dynamic at the international level, and, at the same time, these elements are interacting with the internal aspects of each country (Nederveen, 2001).

In a similar fashion, the "received wisdom" of the last decades has revolved round the idea of free markets, declining government and a transition to a borderless world in which the role of the state becomes ever less important. Globalization is the overarching term given to this process with the evolving global economy based upon the comparative advantage of regions and countries and growing international trade in goods and services (Stiglitz, 2002). Trans-nationalism through the movements of capital, goods, services and labour has revitalised theories of growth. The theory of globalization emerges from a perception of the global mechanisms of greater integration between countries with particular emphasis on economic transactions.  In this sense, this perspective is similar to the world-systems approach (Kingsbury et al., 2004).  However, one of the most important characteristics of the globalization position is its focus and emphasis on cultural aspects and their communication worldwide.  In cultural communication, one of the most important factors is the increasing flexibility of technology to connect people around the world. Through this process nations are interacting much more frequently and easily, not only at the governmental level, but also within the population. Even though the main communications systems are operating among the more developed nations, these mechanisms are also spreading in their use to less developed nations.  This fact, it is claimed, will increase the possibility that marginal groups in poor nations can communicate and interact within a global context using the new technology (Stiglitz, 2002; Wolf, 2004). The interesting thing is that the globalization and world-systems theories take into account the most recent economic changes in world structure and relations that have occurred in the last couple of decades and the current economic downturn has not gone unnoticed (World Bank, 2009 (b)).  

The objective of this section was to explore some of the problems in defining what is a developing country and difficulties inherent in the concept of 'development'. It can be seen that the nature of development is illusionary. What is obvious is that to account for OR in developing countries an understanding of the backdrop to development is vital. Some aspects of these theories have a clear relevance to understanding what kind operational research practice is being conducted in the developing countries and, to some extent, they should be able to help in our understanding of what kind of OR is relevant. One of the main arguments over the years is that OR is a technology that should be transferred to the developing countries. The next section will look at this.

Finally, rather than seen as essentially a failure of development, technology and knowledge transfer is now increasingly being considered to be an integral part of the development process itself and one that can lead to poverty alleviation rather than poverty creation. We will pick this up further (and other issues) later in this review.

The development of OR in this region has been highlighted recently in a comprehensive review by Smith (2008), with emphasis on areas of application. It also discusses the challenges to OR in the context of development problems in Africa, and includes exploring the potential for OR (both as a profession and practice) in the region. This review should be seen in light of EURO and IFORS initiatives for development, including supporting OR Practice for Africa initiative (ORPA). The main reviews are: (Smith, 2008; Stewart, 1995; Rand and Tsoukias, 2004)

The most comprehensive review of OR in this region is provided by Chang and Hsieh (2008). The paper reviews articles published by Asian authors in Operations Research and Management Science (OR/MS) journals from 1968 to 2006. The research highlights trends and scope for OR in region through comparing work with the USA (Chang & Hsieh, 2008). The contribution of different countries/regions is as follows: Japan 3.7%, Taiwan 3.2%, India 2.3%, Hong Kong 2.2%, South Korea 2.1%, People's Republic of China (PRC) 1.9%, and Singapore 1.2%. There are other reviews that take a particular focus on China (Bartholdi, 1986; Lasdon, 1980; Li, Wang and Xu, 2000) and Taiwan (Chen and Wei, 2002)).

Operational research has been firmly established in India since the early 1950s. The Operational Research Society of India (ORSI) was the first operational research society founded in a developing country. It was established in 1957 and predated many similar societies in developed countries. While there has not been a major review of OR in India, details of OR activities in India are provided by a number of articles in the publication: “OR in India: A Retrospective” (Raghuram, 1992), particularly, Datta (1992), Jaiswal (1992) and Gupta (1992). In relation to development, the proceedings from the International Conference on Operational Research (ICORD) held in Ahmedabad in 1992, published in 1996, included a number of contributions on Indian OR (Rosenhead and Tripathy, 1996) and Tripathy‘s paper submitted for the IFORS development Prize in 1993outlined practical application of OR in India (Tripathy, 1993). Operational research in India also flourished in industry and the corporate sector, and there is also a broad based academic community. In the review by Chang & Hsieh (2008) it was highlighted that the Indian Institute of Technology was one the five most productive institutions in relation to OR published articles in Asia.

There has not been an extensive review of OR in this region. Particular overviews of national planning and industrial development can be found in Sagasti (1974), Iachan (2009) and Ferrelli et al. (1997).

In sum, there appears to be a dearth of reviews of OR and development by countries. This may not be a surprise given the breadth of what might count as OR and the worry that a review might provide some worrying over generalisations. However, given that each country is potentially unique in terms of its history, culture, social structure, economic development, there is a case that a review of OR may be invaluable in understanding the potential for using OR in individual developing countries. For example, even the UN definition of a developing country discussed earlier, we see that there is a great range of developing countries and as many commentators have pointed this out, there is a great variety within a region. India is different from its neighbours and the countries of East Africa differ from those in West Africa. We should also point out that we have provided very little reference to O.R. in North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Indeed a review of the current state of management science/OR in the Arab countries may provide a useful point of reference for those interested in OR in developing countries (see for example Yousef, 2009)