AbstractOne of the most significant problems developing nations have faced in recent years has been finding effective ways of implementing development plans and programmes. This is in large part due to the dearth of knowledge about programme implementation, and the lack of attention given to the design of implementation strategies by planners and administrators in third world nations.But, implementation is now becoming a central concern of governments in developing countries and of officials in international funding institutions. Also, development administration theory in the 1980s is likely to have as its dominant focus the improvement of implementation management of development programmes and projects.One way to improve the management of development programmes and projects is to analyse those development projects that have succeeded, identify the factors that appear to influence successful implementation, and disseminate this information as broadly and quickly as possible to relevant administrators and administrative theorists. It is revealing that relatively few studies of this type have been completed.This article outlines the lessons learned from a programme that the Government of the Bahamas is successfully implementing‐the encouragement of foreign private sector investment in the Bahamas. The article (a) briefly outlines th'e plan for encouraging foreign investment, (b) describes the basic approaches and techniques the Bahamian Government has learned to use to improve the prospects of implementing this programme, and (c) indicates how this experience may be potentially useful in guiding the implementation of similar programmes in other developing countrie