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Project Development ang Management Defined
The United Nations define a project as a set of activities
organized in response to an identified need, or issue, and that aim to achieve a specific objective within a given period of time and budget.1 European Construction Institute (ECI) says project is the totality of the carrying out of a series of activities aimed at achieving defined objectives. It is time-bound in that there is start and a completion, as opposed to those types of activity which are ongoing and have no defined start or finish. 2 Another definition says project is a temporary, unique and progressive endeavor made to produce a tangible or intangible result (a unique product, service, benefit, competitive advantage, etc.). It usually includes a series of interrelated tasks that are planned for execution over a fixed period of time and within certain requirements and limitations such as cost, quality, performance, others.3
Projects are the basic building blocks of development. Without
successful project identification, preparation and implementation, development plans are no more than wishes and developing nations would remain stagnant or regress. Gittinger claims that projects are the “cutting edge” of development. Hirschman calls them “privileged particles of the development process.” Others note the central role that project management is assuming in the public administration of developing nations. “Programs and projects are increasingly used in developing countries in the process of economic and social development,” the United Nations proclaims. “They represent a crucial element in both the formulation and implementation of development plans.
Most of the administrators are more directly concerned with
program and project administration than with other, more generic aspects of public administration.” For nearly a quarter of a century, projects have also been the primary instruments for grant, credit, loan and technical aid to developing countries by international assistance agencies. The volume of lending and number of projects have increased sharply over the past decade, and aid organizations such as the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are broadly diversifying the sectors in which they will make future investments.4
First, as building blocks of development, projects must be
identified and defined within a larger development context. National plans must be more closely linked to proposals for action, and define specific policy, program, and project activities required to facilitate plan implementation. Some developing countries are experimenting with intermediate-range and short-term planning that more clearly identifies project priorities. Sectoral and annual planning, creation of project identification units, distribution of identification responsibility to regional and provincial governments, creation of sectoral programming offices within the operating ministries, and establishment of project preparation teams are all being tested to improve the project identification process. If policies are to be translated into development activities, however, planning in developing countries must become more project-oriented.4
An area of project management that requires the greatest
improvement is the definition of explicit, realistic, immediate, and long-term development objectives. Designs that relate project components and activities to specific objectives and output targets, and the inputs to specific activities, are only possible when objectives are understood and accepted by all participants in project administration. Perhaps the single most important cause of deviation from planned goals is ambiguity, confusion, or misunderstanding of immediate and long-term project objectives.4
Therefore, project development is the process and the facility
of planning, organizing, coordinating, and controlling the resources to accomplish specific goals, and project management is the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge and experience to achieve specific project objectives according to the project acceptance criteria within agreed parameters. Project management has final deliverables that are constrained to a finite timescale and budget.5
Project Idea
Every project starts with an idea which is provoked by a need
or a problem that has been insufficiently solved or not solved at all. A project developer needs to find out if someone else (preferably from other organization or a neighboring country) has the same (or similar) need. At this point you may not yet approach other people, but it is advisable to know that you are not alone in your need. If possible, try to understand if your need is of a common or joint character.6
Joint needs are problems/needs/opportunities that cross the
boundary/ border and need to be tackled on both sides, or even further afield (in the case of macro- regional strategies) if there is to be an improvement. Positive action on one side of the boundary should automatically have a benefit for the other side of the boundary. Examples: pollution, environmental protection, transport links, improving/securing border crossings, etc.
Common needs are related to similar issues on both sides of
the boundary but actions on one side of the boundary do not necessarily lead to an automatic positive effect on the other side of the boundary. Example: the need to promote economic development may be a priority in towns on both sides, but there is no guarantee that the reasons or the best solutions will be the same.
A project could be profit-oriented or service-oriented. Profit-
oriented projects are focused on financial gain and commercial activities, while service- oriented projects concerned with services and activities for public benefit which do not necessitates income or profits from the project. Characteristics of a project could be demand-driven, relevant, result-oriented and requires cooperation.
Demand-driven project. A project should respond to the
specific needs of target groups. The target groups are end users/beneficiaries of project outcomes (outputs and results) - i.e., people and organizations which will benefit from the project. At the idea stage, project developers need to know if there are beneficiaries interested in using the project results. Project developers often work with their target groups in the framework of their regular jobs, yet their needs need to be verified and demonstrated when presenting a project proposal. The target group’s needs determine the choice of partners, outputs and activities. Involving target groups from this stage is therefore important for the success of the project.
Relevant project. Project developers need to make sure that
the project idea is relevant to the beneficiaries who benefits the project. The project is relevant when it addresses a challenge/concern/issue and contributes to the priorities of the end user. Priorities could be a mixture of top-down thematic strategies, and bottom-up policies such as those reflecting the challenges and needs specific to the communities.
Result-oriented project. The project result is what justifies the
need to carry out the project. Project management monitors activities and expenditure to keep projects on track, while result- oriented management monitors performance measures to keep the results on track. Being clear about the results you are striving to achieve will help get everyone’s energy aligned toward the same achievements. Cooperation is then easier, and so is decision-making when problems or difficult choices arise.
Project requires cooperation. Generally, community projects
are cooperation based. In order for a project idea to be relevant, project developers need to combine the inputs with their own ideas about the best way to address the needs they are interested in.
In general terms, when projects respond to easily-identifiable
reasons for cooperation, like in the case of joint reasons, the scope, content and partnership structure of the project often develop directly out of the reasons identified. In other cases, the precise scope and content of cooperation are less clear at the start of the project, and are defined during the development phase. This is often the case in projects addressing common reasons where partner organizations/sectors will be aware of the challenges they face, but often much less clear about what action to take (this is the main thing they want to learn from their partners). More preparation work is normally required for this kind of project. 6 The Community Development Approach in Project Development and Management
The community development approach, designed to create
conditions of economic and social progress for target communities, emphasizes the significance of people’s participation, needs orientation, self-reliance, consciousness-raising, bottom-up approach to development, and empowerment of communities. Integration and sustainability are essential to this approach. Community development approach is based on the assumption that development starts at the grassroots level and the initiative, creativity and energies of the people can be utilized to improve their own lives using democratic process and voluntary efforts. It implies that through consciousness-raising, people at the grassroots level become awakened to realize their own potentials. In an ideal situation, the members of the community organize themselves in a democratic manner to: a. Define their needs, problems and issues; b. Develop plans and strategies to meet these needs; and c. Implement such plans with maximum community participation to reap the benefits.
Project Development Cycle (3 Basic Phases)
Identification & Planning
Evaluation Implementation
Planning Phase
I. Understanding the Community
A systematic understanding of the current situation in a given
community sets the stage and provides the basis for community project development process. Hence, the first step that a community development worker has to take in their efforts is to clearly understand the community they are serving. This process of understanding the community is often referred to us situational analysis. Understanding the community enables community practitioners to gain useful insights regarding the prevailing circumstances and helps them to consider how changes could be made to achieve certain goals and ideals. The analysis may cover many areas or aspects in a community, such as:
1. Political/administrative structure 2. Demographic features and population characteristics 3. Economic activities 4. Social stratification and power relations 5. Organizations and their functions and activities 6. Leadership pattern and its influence 7. Cultural facets or traditions 8. Health, sanitation, and nutritional levels 9. Education 10. Critical issues and problems
Even though this understanding of the community or situational
analysis usually undertaken at an early stage in planning process, it need not confined only to that stage. It could be a continuous activity, depending on the context, as it helps to uncover more and more information required for project implementation. However, carrying it out in the beginning of a project activity yields pertinent and specific information that could serve as a database for the project.
The rationale for this initial situational analysis can be as follows:
1. The situational analysis sets the stage for the project development process. 2. It provides an opportunity to understand the dynamics of a community. 3. It helps to clarify social, economic, cultural and political conditions in a community. 4. It enables the community group to define the problems affecting the people and understand the need to effect the desired changes. 5. It provides an initial opportunity for involving people from the community in defining the problems and issues to be addressed. 6. It provides data needed to determine objectives, develop projects, and implement them. 7. It provides a database for monitoring projects in order to achieve objectives. 8. It serves as a base for evaluating the ultimate impact of projects completed.
Sources of Data
1. Primary data. These are information from survey or research
conducted firsthand by the project developers or development practitioners. 2. Secondary data. These are information from published reports, records, and articles usually available in the office of the stakeholders or partner organizations. 3. Ocular observation. Physical community observations conducted through field visits, and attendance and participation to community meetings and seminars.
II. Needs assessment
Needs assessment is one of the critical stages in the project development process. Systematic needs assessment is comparatively a new phenomenon in the development scene. Generally, needs are considered to be wants, aspirations, interests and wishes of people. In development literature, needs are defines as the discrepancies between “what is” (current set of circumstances) and “what should be” (desirable set of circumstance). There is a growing consensus among development practitioners to consider needs assessments as a process to identify and measure gaps between “what is” and what should be”, prioritize the gaps, and determine ways of bridging them.
Development projects require accurate, reliable, and usable
information that reflect the needs of a specific community. The planning and implementation of projects should not be left entirely to guesses, hunches, views of experts or opinion of leaders guided by the consideration, “it is the right thing to do.” Needs should emerge directly from ideas articulated by representative groups of the target population and other stakeholders in a community. Project ideas and objectives should be based on such needs.
Needs assessment conducted with the participation of the target
population strengthen community commitment and enthusiasm for a project. Besides igniting project ideas, it generates data to develop indicators for evaluation. Above all, needs assessment helps to create community ownership in a project. It is an effective system of inquiry that provides information to help decision makers.
Needs assessment should answer the basic question, who needs
what as defined by whom?
Who means categories of people who have needs. In other
words, the “needers.” What means the kind of need the needers have. Whom means categories of people who are qualified or have the knowledge or the responsibility to define the needers’ need.
Even though there may be many categories of needs definers,
the needers themselves are the best qualified group to identify their own needs. However, there are instances where the needers cannot identify their real needs, just as the needs of a patient can be best identified by a doctor and not by the patient themselves. In such cases, expert view will be important.
There are many techniques of needs assessment ranging from
the very informal to those which are formal and highly specialized. Selection of a technique or a combination of techniques has to be guided by contextual factors in a particular community.
Here is a list of techniques for identifying needs:
1. Surveys 2. Observations 3. Questionnaires 4. Listening to people 5. Participating in meetings of community organizations and listening to the discussions 6. Community seminars with the participation of community members and formal and informal leaders 7. Obtaining views from organizations 8. Conducting inquiries from government officers 9. Interviews – structured and unstructured 10. Requests from the community, petition, etc. 11. Displaying of posters and initiating discussions on community needs 12. Getting the community to listen to a talk by a development specialist and initiating a discussion on needs 13. Identifying needs after a documentary film shown as a discussion starter. 14. Brainstorming sessions on problem situations 15. Records, reports, and studies on issues in the community 16. Recommendation of members of parliament or local legislature.
A systematic needs assessment consists of the following steps:
1. Identification of needs 2. Prioritization of needs 3. Levelling of needs 4. Considering what needs (that come out of the above filtering process) could be addressed.
