Eustache Akpane has an MPhil (DESS) in auditing and control and has been running a project management consultancy firm operating in Africa for the past fifteen years. He is also works as an expert in organisation and capacity building for several international organisations.
In September 2021, he defended his Executive Doctorate in Business Administration (Executive DBA) on the topic of ‘Management of development projects on the Ivory Coast: stakeholder coordination and the use of funds’ under the supervision of Professor Julien HUSSON, Director of Metz School of Management (IAE) at Lorraine University.
Thesis Direction
Pr Julien Husson
Thesis Title
Management of development projects in Ivory Coast: stakeholder coordination and absorption
Abstract
The funds absorption is one of the key indicators for measuring the development projects performance. In Côte d’Ivoire, an African developing country, most of development projects face challenges in absorbing development aid resources. Despite the abundance of literature on the subject, the situation is struggling to improve, This is why we have taken an interest in this subject. This indicator has been approached by several authors from various angles. However, the stakeholder angle has been less scrutinized to understand and explain the low absorption of funds on development projects in this country. For us, it is about identifying the stakeholders and their interests, understanding the coordination mechanisms of these stakeholders, making intelligible the influence of project management instruments in funds absorption of development projects. This thesis falls within the broad field of project management, using development projects as a research context and backing up to stakeholder theory. The diversity of actors and their real or perceived interests confined us to a positivist epistemological posture using ontological hypotheses, qualitative and quantitative analyzes through three projects case study in an attempt to explain the identified challenge.