Project

Identification
Aston Aryamanya Blessed
0777-192238
[email protected]

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 Summary
⚫ This session gives introduction and approaches
to project identification. It looks at:
⚫ the context within which projects are developed
including national and sectoral plans
➢ e.g. UPE, District development plans, NGOs, and Donor
initiatives.
⚫ the types of surveys and data available for project
identification purposes.

⚫ It also looks at identification and prioritization of

needs and problems of different stakeholders.
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Introduction
⚫ A project may be seen as an investment
activity where financial resources are
expended to create capital assets that produce
benefits over extended period of time.

⚫ Project identification is the initial phase of the

project development cycle.
➢ It begins with the conceiving of ideas or intentions
to set up a project.
➢ These ideas are then transformed into a project.
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Essential characteristics of projects
For projects to be properly conceived, the
characteristics below must be clearly defined:
⚫ Objectives/ Expected outputs
⚫ Intended beneficiaries
⚫ Life cycle
⚫ Planned lifespan
⚫ Unique
⚫ Uses multiple & multidisciplinary resources
⚫ Dynamic
⚫ Conflict
⚫ Change
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 Project Identification
It is the process of classifying and prioritizing needs and problems
of different stakeholders and suggesting a probable solution.
Project identification or initiation, where an organization identify
projects from an assessment of existing demand for goods or
services based on 3 main sources,
❑ The organization Strategic Plan
❑ The annual consultations where citizens articulate their
needs
❑ Baseline surveys and diagnostic studies to meet special
needs
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Project Identification

❑ Problem Analysis
⚫ Stakeholder consultations
❑ Preliminary feasibility study
⚫ Identification of funding agencies
⚫ Consideration of possible approaches
⚫ Site consultation
❑ Possible Outputs
⚫ Concept note/paper
⚫ Proposal
⚫ Preliminary feasibility report

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Project ideas conceived by:
⚫ Individuals
⚫ Groups of individuals (community)
⚫ Local leaders
⚫ NGOs
⚫ Policy makers
⚫ Planners
⚫ International development agencies
⚫ Government pronouncements

Project ideas may be due to:

⚫ prevailing problems in a given area.
⚫ availability of resources in a given location.
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Project identification
⚫ Clear project identification allows you to
answers questions like:

a) How do the projects come about?

b) Where do projects come from?
c) Why are projects where they are?

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Approaches to project
identification

There are two major approaches to project

identification
(a) Top-down approach
(b) Bottom-up approach

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Top-Down Approach

⚫ Projects are identified based on demands from

beyond the community.
⚫ This may include directives from:
⚫ international conventions (such as Kyoto
Protocol/climate change)
⚫ international institutions or NGOs that have
determined particular priorities and thus
projects
⚫ national policy makers identifying projects that
pertain to party manifestos and/or national 10
plans.
Advantages of Top-Down
Approach
⚫ It may be a rapid response to disasters like
floods, war outbreak because there is limited
time and chance to consult the beneficiaries.
⚫ It can be effective in providing important
services like education, health, water, roads
etc.
⚫ It can contribute to wider national or
international objectives and goals
⚫ and therefore potentially be part of a wider benefit
(as in the case of trans-boundary resources, such as
climate, water or others)
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 Limitations of Top-Down
Approach
⚫ Does not help in modifying strongly established ideas
and beliefs of people.
⚫ Assumes external individuals know better than the
beneficiaries of the service.
⚫ Communities have little say in planning process
rendering approach devoid of human resource
development.
⚫ Community develops dependency syndrome on
outside assistance and does not exploit their own
potential.
⚫ The development workers (change agents) become
stumbling blocks to people-led development
⚫ tendency to impose their own biases, etc. on people.
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Bottom-Up Approach

⚫ In this approach community/beneficiaries

are encouraged to identify and plan the
projects themselves with or without
outsiders.

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 Advantages of Bottom-Up
Approach
⚫ Interveners accomplish more with limited resources
since people tend to safeguard what they have
provided for themselves.
⚫ Develops people’s capacity to identify problems
and needs and to seek possible solutions to them.
⚫ Provides opportunities of educating people.
⚫ Helps people to work as a team and develop a
“WE” attitude - makes project progressive and
sustainable.
⚫ Resources are effectively managed; dependence
reduces, there is increased equity, initiative,
accountability, financial and economic discipline.
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 Limitations of Bottom-Up
Approach
⚫ Not always effective for projects that require
urgency to implement
⚫ Time-consuming and requires patience and
tolerance.
⚫ People sometimes dislike approach because
they do not want to take responsibility for action.
⚫ The agency using this approach is never in
control and cannot guarantee the results it
would want.
⚫ The priorities of communities may not fit with
national or international priorities that seek to
have a broader impact 15
Top-down approaches to
project identification
1. The household (socio-economic) survey
⚫ Studies social and economic situations of a given
area
➢ e.g. climate, geographical set-up, economic
activities, political set up, education system,
culture, diet, social services, physical infrastructure
etc.
⚫ Method is popular with the UBOS.
⚫ Uses questionnaires, interviews, documentation,
and direct observation.
⚫ Data is collected, processed and analyzed and
projects are then identified 16
Top-down approaches to
project identification
2. Rapid appraisal
⚫ Called Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) when
carried out in a rural areas, and Rapid Urban
Appraisal (RUA) in an urban area.
⚫ Method collects and assesses data quickly
using any data collection techniques.
⚫ Primary purpose is to acquire the information in
the shortest time possible and it lowers the cost.
⚫ It is rapid because investigation, assessment and
identification of projects are done at the same
time.
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⚫ Rapid appraisal uses the following data
collection techniques:
⚫ Analysis of secondary data sources
⚫ Interviews
⚫ Direct observation at site
⚫ Visualization of Resources like social
organizational maps and time series
maps.

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Top-down approaches to
project identification
3. Needs Assessment Survey
⚫ Also referred to as situation analysis
(SITAN).
It involves:-
⚫ Fact finding about problems or needs in a
given area or community.
⚫ Finding out what is lacking in a given area
or community.
⚫ Investigating a situation in a given area.

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NAS is carried out to:

⚫ find out the problem in a given community so

as to identify the most appropriate solution
(s)/project (s) to solve the problem (s) in
question.
⚫ analyze the causes of the problems and seek
likely solutions to the problems leading to
project identification.

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Bottom-up approaches to
project identification
1. Animation
⚫ Process of stimulating people to become more
aware and conscious of problems they suffer from.
➢ to gain confidence in their ability to deal with these
problems and take initiatives to improve situation.
⚫ Animation makes the community better understand
and be prepared to overcome its problems and
take decisions with full responsibility.
⚫ Carried out by Animators / Helpers / Change
agents.
(Internal Animators if they come from within the
community or External Animators if from outside.)
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Bottom-up approaches to
project identification
2. Facilitation/Community action
⚫ an attempt to assist people to get over
problems by (say) training them in certain
skills, providing them with the needed
information e.g. market information, linking
them up with relevant agencies and
organizations to improve access to the
needed resources etc.

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Bottom-up approaches to
project identification
3. Participatory Appraisal
Project identification should be participatory,
and should involve local communities in
identifying and prioritizing their needs.
The DTPC should consider the views of the
communities during the screening and
selection of various project proposals and
the selection of the preferred proposals for
implementation.

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⚫ PRA (participatory rural appraisal) when carried
out in rural areas; and PUA (participatory urban
appraisal) when carried out in urban areas
⚫ PRA/ PUA can be described as a family of
approaches, methods and behaviours that
enable people to express and analyze the
realities of their lives and conditions, to plan for
themselves what action to take, and to monitor
and evaluate the results.
⚫ The key to PRA/PUA is that the only external
involvement is in facilitation. The communities
themselves determine the issues, priorities and
courses of action. 24
 The problem statement
⚫ The process of project identification ends with
the formulation of a problem statement.
⚫ It takes the form of:
⚫ Listing all the problems/needs in the
community/area/ organization.
⚫ Prioritizing the problems and selecting 1 – 3 core
(major) problems.
⚫ Finding out the root causes of the problems.
⚫ Sitting the likely effects of the problems on the
community.
⚫ Suggesting the probable solutions to the
problems.
⚫ Identifying the (projects) from the solutions. 25
The screening process of projects, inter
alia, responds to the following concerns:
⚫ Is the technology appropriate to the project’s objectives
or local capabilities?
⚫ Is the risk involved manageable?
⚫ Is the demand for the expected outputs adequate, and
does the project actually have a comparative
advantage?
⚫ Will the supply of raw materials or skills be adequate?
⚫ Is the design in agreement with the institutional and
managerial capabilities available?
⚫ Will the recurrent costs be adequately met given the
available financial resources?
⚫ Is there adequate commitment by the intended
beneficiaries and support from District and central
government authorities? 26
The screening process of projects, inter
alia, responds to the following concerns
(cont.):

⚫ Is the project has negative effects on the

environment? And if yes, can the effects be
mitigated?
⚫ Is the project culturally acceptable by the
community
⚫ Is the project sustainable?

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 Engaging in

Participatory Rural Appraisal

Objectives

⚫ Learn about useful tools for working with

low literacy populations in rural areas
(developing countries) - Participatory
Rural Appraisal tools
⚫ Stimulate your thinking and creativity for
engaging community members in doing
participatory needs assessment
“The best item to pack for any trip to the developing
world or not – is an open mind”
Participatory Rural Appraisal(PRA)

⚫ Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) An

approach (and family of methodologies) for
shared learning between local people and
outsiders to enable development
practitioners, government officials, and local
people to plan together appropriate
interventions
⚫ Also known as Participatory Learning and
Action (PLA)
Key Principles
⚫ Participation – local people serve as partners in data collection and analysis
⚫ Flexibility- not a standardized methodology
⚫ Off-setting biases – anti poverty biases are consciously avoided, more
listening less lecturing
⚫ Teamwork – everyone is involved
⚫ Diversity – attempts made to identify and analyse contradictions and exceptions
⚫ “Optimal Ignorance” – leave out unessential details
⚫ Systematic – to get correct details and conclusions, it is best to cross check
⚫ Local materials - dirt, stones, sticks (or paper), not computers/electronic
devices
PRA Techniques
⚫ Interviewing – Not based on questionnaires but issues
(households, individuals, focus groups)

⚫ Visualization
⚫ Ranking – a means by which they can rank preferences, problems,
wealth
⚫ Mapping - Community members depicting the physical or social
characteristics of their community

⚫ Social mapping
⚫ Time lines
⚫ Impact diagrams
Social mapping with rural,
low literacy participants
⚫ Social Mapping
⚫ A space-related PRA
⚫ Used to depict the habitation pattern of a particular region
⚫ Drawn by local people
⚫ Not drawn to scale but reveals what is believed to be relevant and
important to them
 Time lines with rural, low literacy
participants
⚫ This is a time-related PRA method
⚫ Allows people use their concept of time
⚫ Captures the chronology of events as
recalled by local people
⚫ Flexible in terms of the time scale
⚫ One day, or a lifetime, or history of the community
Time
line
Impact diagrams with rural,
low literacy participants
⚫ A flow diagram , commonly used to identify
and depict the image of an activity,
intervention or event
⚫ Takes into account types of changes as
perceived by the local people
⚫ Helps to identify impacts of certain events -
planned, unplanned, negative or positive
Impact
diagram
SELECTION STRATEGIES

PROJECT SELECTION
NON-NUMERIC METHODOLOGIES
PROJECT SELECTION
NON-NUMERIC METHODOLOGIES

1.1. Introduction

1.2. The Sacred Cow

1.3. The Operating Necessity

1.4. The Competitive Necessity

1.5. The Product Line Extension

NON-NUMERIC METHODOLOGIES

⚫ Non-numeric Project Selection does not use

numbers
⚫ “Easy to dismiss such models as unscientific
(but) they should not be discounted casually.
These models are clearly goal-orientated and
directly reflect the primary concerns of the
organisation"
⚫ Generally used when limited information
available or selection process must be
completed quickly
⚫ Examples
NON-NUMERIC METHODOLOGIES

⚫ Sacred Cow
⚫ projects - idea from top & influential management
⚫ maintained until successfully concluded, or until the boss, personally,
recognises the idea as a failure and terminates it."
⚫ Maybe inappropriate, but supported by top management and this is
“an important contributor to project success
⚫ Operating Necessity

⚫ projects embarked upon with little management discretion

⚫ eg collapsing wall
⚫ Major consideration- is cost justified.? "If yes, costs kept as low as is
consistent with project success, but project will be funded"
NON-NUMERIC METHODOLOGIES

⚫ Competitive Necessity
⚫ project selected to maintain organisation's position &/or
survival eg: upgrade ageing production equipment to
counter developments from its competitors.
⚫ Product Line Extension

⚫ project to develop new product - not be selected based on

profitability but "would be judged on the degree in which it
fits the firm's existing product line, fills a gap, strengthens a
weak link, or extends the line in a new, desirable direction”
NON-NUMERIC METHODOLOGIES

⚫ PEER REVIEW

⚫ Management want unbiased external

assessment of proposed project.
⚫ Peer review = send proposal to experts to
assess technical merits
⚫ Experts submit independent
recommendations, or panel
⚫ Common in scientific areas particularly
government funded R&D project proposals.
Comparative Benefit Model

⚫ used to select between diverse projects not

easily comparable.

⚫ Allows a ranking to be obtained, even though

it may not be possible to evaluate the
projects against every project-selection factor

⚫ Examples:
⚫ Q-sorting.
Q-SORTING
⚫ Structured group process. Each person given
set of project cards.
⚫ Steps:
⚫ Each person sorts cards into HIGH or LOW
priority– based on criteria
⚫ Cards reviewed & MEDIUM-priority projects
extracted
⚫ HIGHs = HIGH or VERY HIGH. LOWs =
LOW or VERY LOW.
⚫ Results from all group members grouped &
 Original Deck
Q-SORTING
High level low level

High level Medium low level

level

V. High level High level Medium low level V. Low level

level
FORCED COMPARISON
⚫ Each department ranks projects they wish to take to selection
board,
⚫ Each department’s top-ranked project is compared to every
other department’s top-ranked project.
⚫ Board “selects one project based on their collective opinion as
to the overall value of the project obtaining the organisation’s
objectives”
⚫ As 1 project selected, that department introduces next project
which is then compared to top-listed projects of other
departments.
⚫ Process continues until all projects have been ranked.
⚫ Number of projects selected for approval will be based upon
the availability of organisational resources
 Forced Comparison Process

Departmental Rankings

Dept. A Dept. B Dept C

Project A1 Project B1 Project C1

Project A2 Project B2 Project C2
Project A3 Project B3
Project A4 Project B4

Initial projects being compared

Project A1 Project B1 Project C1

First project ranked –project B1

Projects actively compared after first selection

Project A1 Project B2 Project C1

PROFILE MODEL
⚫ Rates projects qualitatively. No numerical
assessments are made

⚫ Easy to read and quickly understood presentation.

⚫ Disadvantage - fails to inform whether a project

scoring HIGH in certain criteria outweighs its
MEDIUM & LOW scores in other criteria.

⚫ "Thus, there is no way to get a single overall score

or rating for each project"
 PROFILE MODEL

Criteria Extent to which project meets criteria

Project X Project Y

Reliability High Low

Maintainability Medium High
Safety Medium Low
Cost-effectiveness High Medium
Durability High Low

Project X has better profile and is preferred to Project Y

 GRID PROFILING
Based on 4 PS criteria most effective for selection purposes:
A. financial benefits,
B. technical benefits
C. enhancement of core competencies
D. harmony with corporate culture
⚫ Grid A - financial benefits - each project placed in cell to reflect its
expected level of costs and financial benefits.
⚫ Process is followed for Grids B, C, D.

⚫ Then overall assessment made by selection team .

⚫ Not too analytical - trust collective insights. “Spent substantial time

reviewing proposals and now know each project intimately”
⚫ Final step - allocate each proposal in a generic ‘super’ benefit-coat
grid. - “when all is said and done, which cell does each belong in?
 GRID PROFILING
low
costs
med.

•technical benefits high

•enhancement of core
competencies

•harmony with corporate high med. low

culture

Financial benefits
 low low

costs
med costs med
. .
high
high

high med low high med low

. .
Financial benefits Technical benefits

low
low

costs med
costs med .
.
high
high
high med low
high med low .
. Harmony with
Enhancement of Core Corporate Culture
Competencies
 MURDER BOARD
⚫ = panel of people from different parts of organisation
who strongly scrutinise project proposals.
⚫ “they should tear it apart and try to show how it is not
workable”
⚫ Proposer must present & defend project before the
panel.
⚫ Purpose - “not to punish & humiliate project champion
but rather to distinguish between solid and shaky
propositions ... the murder board serves the function
of ‘reality check’ ”
⚫ Usually used in conjunction with other selection
methodologies, such as a profile model, grid
PROJECT SELECTION
NON-NUMERIC METHODOLOGIES
⚫ The Sacred Cow
⚫ The Operating Necessity
⚫ The Competitive Necessity
⚫ The Product Line Extension
⚫ Comparative Benefit Model:
⚫ Q-Sorting

⚫ Forced Comparision

⚫ Profiling

⚫ Grid profiling

⚫ Murder board