Francophone Africa's experience with development projects included a large number of complete or partial failures. These failures have generally been seen and interpreted by theoreticians and practitioners of the holistic, determinist paradigm of development as manifestations of African "résistance to change" or "attachment to age-old traditions". However, the application of the paradigm of perverse effects, or particular type of the Weberian interactionist paradigm to the study of development projects chosen for their exemplary qualities show that the project findings must be interpreted and understood as the outcome of the behaviours of social forces within a specific social context. In term of practical use, the study suggest that the interactionist approach to the process of implementing development projects in Africa could reduce the number of failures or perverse effects.