Results-focused Project Design and Management » DMF

Staying on the EDGE! A Woman’s Work is Never Done

admin — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:59:12 +0000

Following the launch of the Evidence and Data for Gender Equality (EDGE) initiative during the fourth High-Level Forum in Busan, South Korea, Shaista Hussain shares her thoughts on improving project design to ensure the collection of gender-disaggregated data.

When Maya Angelou set out to write her classic poem on a woman’s work, she probably did not realize the challenges generations ahead would have to deal with, in capturing the woman’s work in empirical data.

When world leaders gathered in Busan in November 2011 for the fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4), it was a chance for them to take stock of how international development dollars are spent, how governments work, and in turn, how development partners contribute to national and global goals. Gender equality was a top priority at HLF-4 with champions of this cause such as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leading the way. There was also a sober acknowledgement that despite all efforts to mainstream gender equality across the world, it has not been achieved in any one country. It is widely accepted that no country, economy, society, or community can thrive when half of its population is marginalized. And yet, we lag behind in delivering on gender results, or at times, underreporting on gender issues.

What gets measured, gets noticed, goes an old saying. At the special session on gender at the HLF-4, Secretary Clinton announced the Evidence and Data for Gender Equality (EDGE) initiative. “EDGE is a new initiative to improve the availability and use of statistics that capture gender gaps in economic activity. It capitalizes on the United States’ call to action at the May 2011 OECD ministerial session on gender and development and builds on recommendations of the U.N. International Agency and Expert Group on Gender and Statistics.” Often, Clinton said, loans are given to small business enterprises without assessing how many of these are owned or run by women. Consequently, she said, “women continue to face difficulties in accessing credit”. The EDGE initiative is a welcome investment to improve the capacity of the governments and institutions to collect and analyze data, disaggregated by gender. This information, as obvious as it may sound and in reality often missing in our reporting, will help feed into public policy, providing decision makers with evidence and insights on how their actions (or inactions) are affecting women and girls differently than they do men and boys. It is an effort to emphasize the ‘power’ in ‘empowerment’.

This brings me to the next question: Are we under reporting our work on gender? “Of course not!” you may dismiss my question upfront. After all, with all the gender focus in the development sector, how can our work go underreported? But a careful look at the project’s Design and Monitoring Framework (DMF) leaves much to be desired. Despite all the hue and cry to focus on gender results, development projects often lack to disaggregate data by gender including gender-disaggregated data in the indicators and baseline. We still see indicators that speak of persons without disaggregating the data. We still note opportunities to have indicators that reflect the work we do to contribute to women’s benefits in our projects but they seem to go unnoticed given the rush with which projects are designed. And that is another reminder for us all to focus more on the design aspect. A project is only as strong as the collaborative efforts that are put in by all stakeholders in the design process to ensure smooth phasing in the implementation phase, ensuring that the project delivers intended results. If we want the projects to deliver effectively on the promised results to stakeholders, the project’s DMF serves as a reminder to reflect on what the project must achieve and a platform where data must be disaggregated to reflect on all the contributions which we hope to achieve.

Shaista Hussain, Project Management Specialist

Visual Facilitators…New Kids on your Block

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:27:00 +0000

Have you ever attended conferences that have lots of: (a) boring Powerpoint presenters; (b) brainstorming but too little documentation; or (c) actions but flat and text-heavy post-conference reports? Well, it’s time to bring-in the Visual Facilitator (VF)!

VFs are the new kids on the block who can work closely with the main conference facilitators like you. They draw and use symbols, images and words to capture the group conversations. They use visual facilitation techniques to build the knowledge, experience and capacity of groups and enable them to reach their desired outcomes. Their results are captivating visual record of the group’s memory about what happened.

Visual facilitation is now part of your facilitation arsenal. It outlines group processes and agendas, captures conversation themes and content, and highlights forward steps and actions. Like it or not, VFs can creatively use flip charts, brown papers on a wall, whiteboards, transparencies, templates and more recently, iPads to do the drawings. They capture ideas, engage participants, clarify the important conversation themes and (more importantly!), illustrate the decisions made. Harvard thought that VFs are here to stay!

VFs understand the power of visuals for boosting group engagement. They use symbols and images that are appealing, powerful, engaging and creatively represent the concepts covered by the group. In short, VFs benefits can be summed up in three words beginning with the letter “i”, VFs can: (a) integrate, (b) include (everyone), and (c) inspire.

Here’s a brief explanation.

Your Move. Why not consider inviting a VF in your next facilitation engagement. In the meantime, you can learn more (or even become a VF) by:

(1) Buy and read a book.

(2) Attend a 7-part YouTube e-Learning course.

(3) Join the International Forum of Visual Practitioners.

(4) Attend the Melbourne IAF Building Capacity through Facilitation for Oceania Conference in March.

2012 is Here

admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:52:23 +0000

2012 is here. Will it be the same as 2011?

Well, not if we do a reflection and learned our lessons in 2011. Let us look back, reflect sincerely and move forward.

In looking back, let us consider these personal evaluation questions: (a) what was the most fun I had this past year? (b) what did I learn in 2011? (c) what did I adapt on a personal level (a change in the practice, procedures, and habits) for my own good? and (d) What books or concepts had the biggest impact on me?

In visioning 2012, let us consider: (a) what important projects (organizational or personal) would I like to achieve? (b) How do I see my career grow? (c) what skills and competencies do I like to obtain or sharpen? (d) how can I multiply services and deliver more? (e) how much can I learn?

Do not forget to write your reflections and your vision. This will guarantee that 2012 will be much better than 2011.

Here’s to hoping for a more engaging year with the users of our RfPDM platform. Do share with us your successes (and difficulties as well!) through this blog. We would like to see and hear more from you.

SHAISTA

Nepal’s Blended Courses: A Success!

admin — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:48:37 +0000

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As the year ended, COSO has successfully piloted two back-to-back Results-focused Project Design and Management (RfPDM) courses in Kathmandu, Nepal. 45 participants from various Government departments and Nepal resident mission attended the training courses.

These courses had many firsts! One, it applied the blended-learning method which enabled the participants to go through our e-Learning module for four-weeks with email facilitated mentoring support. Second, the two batches attended 2-day face-to-face courses. These were patterned after ADB’s classic 5-day RfPDM courses. Third, a one-hour DMF clinic that critically diagnosed seven key projects in the NRM’s portfolio. The clinic reviewed: (a) Subregional Transport Enhancement Project, (b) Air Transport Capacity Enhancement Project, (c) SASEC Information Highway Project, (d) DMF of Energy Access and Efficiency Improvement Project, (e) Second Rural Finance, (f) Road Connectivity Sector 1, and (g) Information and Communication Technology Development Project. Relevant NRM staff attended the clinics with their project counterparts.

Training of Facilitators in Hue, Vietnam Completed

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:50:35 +0000

Another Training of Facilitators in Results-focused Project Design and Management has been conducted at the Pilgrimage Village Hotel in Hue, Vietnam. The event ran from 12-20 May and was attended by a good mix of international participants from different backgrounds. The group, composed of individuals from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Laos, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Singapore, and a host of project managers from the Vietnam government, has finally completed the nine-day training workshop which included sessions on the project design tools and facilitation inputs.

Three Softwares for your Job

admin — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:09:02 +0000

In this article, we like to present three Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation Software that you can use in facilitating or supporting PPMS/DMF initiatives in your respective work areas. These are: (a) LogFrame for Windows 1.0, (b) AidProject M+E and (c) (PACPLAN) Solution.

Logframe for Windows 1.0 was developed by the Maizemoor International, whose founder has established some of the most successful and sustainable results based management (RBM) systems in international technical cooperation. Specifically, the company designed and installed the RBM systems for the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) and the British Department for International Development (DfID). It is a simple and flexible way to put the Design and Monitoring Framework (DMF) Approach in the heart of your project design, monitoring and evaluation.

Recently, the LogFrame for Windows 1.0 has been streamlined to focus on just the DMF method, itself. It is designed to help you and your team state, monitor and learn from their commitments to a course of causal action. It guides you to establish the results chain that drives the relationship between your deliverables and the outcomes of your projects or programmes. It consists of the following modules: DMF (sometimes referred to as Logframe), Resource editing, Project information, Export, and Printing. You can get the trial version here.

The AidProject M+E is a comprehensive and straightforward M&E software for Donor-funded aid projects. It empowers projects and programmes to employ good practices and satisfy your respective donor requirements. Basically, it helps the Project teams in: (a) Customizing the project via its Define Lookup Trees and Branches functions, customising include the DMF, Methods, Purposes, Gatherers (entities that will gather M&E data), Monitors, etc. The DMF/LogFrame will consist of the Impact, Outcome, Output, Activity – up to 10 levels) to define Indicators; (b) Define Performance Indicators together with their Locations and Periods and attaches additional criteria (your customised Trees & Branches) for reporting and analysis; (c) Maintain period targets and actual performance data (dates, text, money, yield, etc.); and (d) Distribute performance reports to Monitors (Donors, Government, Project Management, Stakeholders, etc.) and export spreadsheets to assist Gatherers.

One of the interesting features of the program is the Locations (Country, Constituency, District, Town, Village) for sub-dividing Indicators. It can report the progress of each indicators for every layer of the project. It has Purposes (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability) info that are used to define Indicators. The M+E Methods are pre-configured with 34 methods including Random Sampling, Stakeholder Analysis, etc. The Units of Measure (dates, text, money, tons, etc.) can have user-defined formats. It has a good organization of contacts to record the contact information of members of Gatherers and Monitor Groups. Finally, it has extensive text records consisting of Text Impact (High, Med, Low), Status (Open, Closed, Pending, Suspended), & Type (Achievement, Action, Risk, Issue, Lesson, etc.). A license to use AidProject M+E is absolutely free. You can download the program from here.

Package Planning (PACPLAN)

Solution is an e-governance tool for project and public sector management to improve its policy/program/project measurement that specifically targets gathering, collating, analyzing and disseminating policy/program/project information. It is easy to use software tools and processes combined with various graphics technology, internet technology and modeling tools such as economic analysis without stretching the organization capacity limitation. It enables project organization to implement, in the continuously changing environment, within the short time frame. It enhances management capacity through transparency, accountability, flexibility, adaptability, participation, predictability, continuity and supports the logical framework approach and facilitate stakeholders to appreciate a better M&E process where technology can later be enhanced.

Together with the software, PACPLAN offers a five-day workshop to help build your skill and learn from an experienced M&E system implementing practitioner. You will also be using the pre-developed M&E Software tools to fast track your learning and overcome obstacles in M&E system implementation, as well as ensure sustainability for continuing and improvement of M&E framework. You will become proficient at planning, design and development of M&E System as well as software tools, understanding stake holders and obtaining their consensus and handling difficult situations.

Posted by Ed Canela, guest Blogger

Project Managers: Old and New

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:11:11 +0000

It is difficult to get rid of the “old” and traditional styles of the project manager. The ghosts of these styles still lingers and lives among us, mere mortals. Sometimes, it is almost impossible to know when you are managing using the archaic models or the new ones that have been proven much more effective. Sometimes, the old style masquerades as a new style. Take for example, someone who sits in the computer, use the latest software and continue to fiddle and tweak a project timetable, budgets or resource allocations without the support of anyone specially from the stakeholders. This is an old style with a new mask. Why? The new style is active. The manager is constantly consulting, facilitating, searching, empowering, consolidating, advising, listening, building shared visions, forming consensus and affirming teamwork and team achievements. The secret is really in working with people. Let us get rid of the old style. Let us work together and participate.

PIA and Decision Making for Development Results

admin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:48:29 +0000

How can donors and partner countries assess the intended and unintended consequences of donor interventions? The Poverty-Network of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) proposes ex-ante Poverty Impact Assessment (PIA), which can assist in modifying the design of interventions to improve pro-poor impacts and identifying key areas for monitoring and evaluation (M&E). It can be applied to most modalities of donor support.

PIA is a process which helps policy-makers to understand the intended and unintended consequences of their interventions. This approach considers that good design of an intervention requires governments and their partners to understand the effect of their policies on diverse social groups, actors and institutions, including those not targeted by the policy.

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness stresses the importance of results-oriented frameworks, harmonisation and alignment to improve aid effectiveness and to assure better pro-poor outcomes. Yet, prior analysis of the impacts of policy and investment decisions on poverty reduction is a complex task. It is often built on contentious assumptions and is dependent on data availability. Ex ante PIA helps donors and their partners understand and maximise the poverty reducing impacts of their interventions.

It responds both to the need for accountability to partners’ constituencies and to the importance of transparent evidence-based decision-making. It can identify interventions with high impact on poverty reduction and pro-poor growth as well as mitigating measures to protect the poor. A broad application of ex ante PIA could also provide a basis for a harmonised reporting system on poverty impacts.

Poverty Impact Assessment helps decision makers determine strategic choices for public actions so as to have the greatest impact on reducing poverty and achieving pro-poor growth. PIA provides a better understanding about potential winners and losers of an intervention and thus strengthens a results-oriented approach. PIA helps to understand stakeholders and institutions that influence and are influenced by an intervention and
to understand the importance and inter-relationship of specific transmission channels through which changes are transmitted to the stakeholders assess the likely positive and negative outcomes for stakeholders taking into account multi-dimensionality of poverty assess the reliability of data/information and knowledge gaps.

Using PIA, policy-makers can estimate the likely quantitative and qualitative outcomes of the policy for poor groups, identify potential risks and assess the reliability of available data. Through involving people with different interests and approaches, ex-ante Impact Assessment helps to design interventions to be better targeted to achieve their goals and avoid unintended harmful consequences. Thus it also contributes to strengthening the transparency and accountability of democratically elected governments, and encourages consistency of policy-making across policy areas.

PIA is not just another new approach to assess the distributional impacts of interventions. It deliberately draws on existing approaches and their terminology, in particular on the Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA). While PSIA is more suitable for structural policy reforms and involves rigorous in depth analysis, including specific data collection for thorough social, political and economic analysis and comprising a whole range of quantitative and qualitative tools including micro and macroeconomic modeling. PIA is a ‘lighter’ approach, drawing predominantly on existing data and analyses. It provides an estimation of effects and a quick overview and focuses more on subsector or program levels. But it can also help at the initial phase of sector or policy reforms to identify requirements for a full-fledged PSIA. PIA is thus less resource demanding. While a complete PSIA requires more than 100 000 Euro, the estimated cost of PIA is less than 20 000 Euro.
See the PIA Concept Note: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/13/9/38878575.pdf
For more information on Poverty Impact Assessment and POVNET’s work:
http://www.oecd.org/dac/poverty
UNDP: Poverty in Focus 14: P(S)IA: http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/IPCPovertyInFocus14.pdf

Originally published in http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AGEG-eco/ Photo from www.ethicalleadership.org/programs/the-confluence

PPMS Survey Launched

admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:37:08 +0000

The ADB COSO has launched a series of surveys to track the outcomes and results of its courses, notably: Business Opportunities Seminar, Development of National Consultants Seminar, Project Implementation and Administration Seminar and the Results-focused Project Design and Management Training, and Training of Facilitators in RFPDM. The survey aims to capture as much impressions as possible from the former participants in order to refine COSO’s future offerings. Part of the package will be the reconstruction of the database of the former participants. It took sometime even if the survey will cover only the courses implemented during the period 2006 to 2008, a three year period in total.

For the TOF, the Survey will cover about 300 former participants scattered throughout the ADB member countries. The participants could have participated in the five or nine days courses. It should be noted that a survey of similar nature has already been implemented by COSO’s RfPDM unit. The report has been circulated and can be downloaded from this site.

The current survey will focus on several aspects of the Facilitators roles and tasks in the implementation of participatory planning and design of monitoring framework. Basically it will focus on the application and use of the concepts and principles learned in their jobs and careers.

The survey will be administered via this site. The questionnaires will be collected by Survey Gizmo and will eventually be processed via SPSS 15. COSO will use the results mainly in preparing the design of the new versions of the courses in the near future.

We wish you all to collaborate with us in this important endeavor.

Bali TOF Completed Successfully

admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:00:32 +0000

The first Training of Facilitators in Results-focused Project Design and Management for 2009 was held in Ubud, Bali from 3-11 March 2009. It was attended by 22 participants from in and out of the southeast asian region who were all enthusiastic in learning and practicing the tools and skills in results-focused participatory project planning and management.

As in previous TOF’s conducted by ADB, a big challenge faced by the participants is with absorbing and familiarizing themselves with the project design and management tools, as well as with the intermittent inputs on facilitation skills. These tools are introduced and delivered in an intensive 12-hour workday session for four straight days. However, what comes next is an even bigger challenge of applying the facilitation skills they learned through practice sessions using the participatory project design tools.

But if one is in a phenomenal and enchanting place like Ubud, with all that scenery and culture, who cares about working hard from time to time? All 22 participants surely did not mind.

The following clip was taken during the recent Training of Facilitators in Ubud.