As governments have grown more aware of the interdependence of development efforts, their projects and programmes have become increasingly integrated. They often involve many institutions and functions, posing challenging and sometimes overwhelming problems of interagency coordination. These problems have been widespread in the complex "new-style" projects favoured by the foreign development agencies from the early 1970s.Between agencies, coordination poses the same managerial problem as people-centred development: how to involve those outside a manager's direct control. Where effective coordination cannot be assured, complex programmes can often be simplified by delinking them, or reducing the number of components.