Results-focused Project Design and Management

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

M&E Systems & Your Cellphones

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:20:35 +0000

You guessed it! Project management is discovering more and more uses of the power of the ever present cellphones. Like the internet, cellphones reached the remote rural areas much faster than refrigerators, TV, radio and even electricity did.

Now monitoring and evaluation (M&E) has invaded the cellphone space and is now gaining traction among development facilitators. They are joining the bandwagon for cost effectiveness and the fun of using a technology for the usually tiring and boring ME chores. In this method, the beneficiary-respondents use GMS-enabled phones as point of interest (POI) input devices that feed to a central data server via a database template for aggregation, visualization and even re-dissemination of the processed data over the internet. PMUs can do the four simple steps: (a) create an account, (b) download and install a software, (c) collect location data and (d) upload, and view and analyze over the web portal. The process is simple, paperless, and guarantees real time data monitoring. It allows for instantaneous response and actions from the field.

POIMapper® is one such system. PoiMapper is a mobile POI data collection and sharing solution. It is suitable for development projects focusing on: health, education, agriculture, forestry, mining, governance, land use management, climate change, disaster management and for commercial applications like installation and maintenance of telecommunications equipment. It is offered with a complete cost-effective SaaS (software-as-service) model and is provided by Pajat Management and global partners, who also provide related services such as training, on-site support and organization/sector-specific customization.

With Plan International, POIMapper has three installations: Thailand, India and Kenya. You can download a full description in this site.

For a limited time, individuals and organizations can avail of a free POIMapper installation starting here.

Development, iPad and You!

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:41:02 +0000

The internet revolution continue to influence the speed and directions of development. Last year saw its potentials in starting and sustaining deep transformations, not only in organizations but in countries as well. It affected everyone including the way we do our development practice. Last year, IPad gradually move-in to our domains. Not only did we see iPad’s with our participants, but other facilitators as well. As an information collection point, the iPad can be a powerful space for disseminating (and reporting) development results. The World Bank is a case in point. Since it began as a thick, analytical, data-full and graphics intensive publication in 1978, WB’s World Development Report (WDR) moved from print to PDFs to web 2.0 channels. The new edition is about gender equality. It argues that gender equality is a core development issue and departs from the contemporary view of expanding freedoms equally for men and women. Before iPad, the WDR readers’ internet experience consisted of multiple channels (text, video, galleries, slideshows, downloads, etc.) and use of interactive elements like commentaries, discussion, chats and telephony. This year, WB aims to make reading analytical reports even more accessible, fun, intimate, and truly engaging experience.

In this edition, WB is offering the WDR 2012 as a free iPad application (called WDR 2012 App for iPad). It allows you to easily find the analysis, data, and policy recommendations of the report by key message, region, topic, and dozens of keywords such as “employment opportunities,” “property rights,” “infant mortality,” and “domestic violence.” It has more materials than any printed version can handle. Moreover, it has social sharing and “favorites” features. Released last December 05, 2011, the App can be downloaded from the AppStore on your iPad or web. More information is available here. In case you’re wondering, it is not available for iPhone 4s just yet! But could soon be! Is this the beginning of a new reporting trend? Write us!

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.

The Power of Facilitation

admin — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:02:44 +0000

The representatives from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), Government of Vietnam, illustrated the struggle to generate concensus on a Project Design presented during the Training of Facilitators workshop, held in Manila, Philippines (27 June – 6 July 2011).

Quality of Development Assistance: How Donors Stack Up?

admin — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 01:17:46 +0000

Which is better: Bilateral or Multilateral Aid? Who among the donors deliver “good” aid? Who are the worst performers? These and many other related questions were the reasons for the Center for Global Development and the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development program to do the Quality of Official Development Assistance (QuODA) assessment. QuODA is a new tool that tracks and compares donor programs against four dimensions of aid quality. Aid quality is assessed using 30 indicators grouped in four dimensions that reflect the international consensus of what constitutes high-quality aid. The four dimensions are: maximizing efficiency, fostering institutions, reducing burden, and transparency and learning.

You can use the Quality of Aid Diamond to compare rankings across the four dimensions of aid quality. Zero is the average score: values outside the diamond are better-than-average and those within are worse. Explore Quality by Dimension or Quality by Donors to learn more. Current data were provided by 23 donor countries and more than 150 aid agencies.

You can visit the QuODA site (http://www.cgdev.org/section/topics/aid_effectiveness/quoda) to view the results online or you can download the file (http://www.cgdev.org/files/1424481_file_CGDQuODAprepub_final3.pdf). The file also explains how scores were calculated.

Now, where in the list did your current aid provider belong?

Contributors Notes: Ed Canela is a COSO consultant and one of our website’s active contributors. He builds aid management systems, perform evaluation and impact analysis. He likes e-Learning and e-procurement.

Developing capacities for country Monitoring & Evaluation system

admin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 08:47:21 +0000

UNICEF, IOCE and DevInfo, in partnership with UNDP, WFP, UNIFEM and ILO are pleased to announce a series of live webinars on “Developing capacities for country M&E systems”. Authors of the newly published book on this subject (available at http://www.mymande.org/?q=virtual ) will present their contributions and will be available to respond to your questions.

Webinars are free and open to interested people. You may attend virtually from your personal or work computer anywhere in the world. In addition to watching live presentations, you will have the option to ask questions and provide comments.

This conference will enable the sharing of good practices and lessons learned. Global-level speakers will contribute international perspectives.

Specific invitation – with detailed instructions – for each of the Monthly event will be sent out the week before the event. For additional information, please contact Marco Segone, UNICEF Evaluation Office, msegone@unicef.org

Contributor’s Note: Ed Canela is a COSO consultant and one of our website’s active contributors. He builds aid management systems, perform evaluation and impact analysis. He likes e-Learning and e-procurement.

Visualizing Stakeholders’ Stakes

admin — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 05:40:46 +0000

One of the important factors that can make or break projects is the stakeholders’ involvement. So are they really important as most planning exercises claim? As an observer, trainer and evaluator of development projects, I believe that the stakeholders’ participation has always been an enigma. They are visible in the beginning and at the end of a project…but nowhere to be seen in the middle! This should never be allowed to happen. Even for small projects. As a group, stakeholders is the nexus between projects and policies.

As an evaluation expert, how would you evaluate the relations between the stakeholders and the project? How would you assess their impacts on project management? Can we visualize their contributions? Fortunately, the answer to all the question is yes! One such tool was borrowed by the M&E practitioners from the ICT is the ONA. It examines how the stakeholders relate with one another as they eventually build participation, commitment, and ownership.

Organizational network analysis (ONA) is a set of tools that provide managers and evaluators with a visual map of the connections between and among stakeholders and the ley actors of development projects. It also provides quantitative data (measures (http://www.orgnet.com/sna.html) including centrality, betweeness, closeness, centrality, etc.) that substantiate the maps and their underlying patterns. Interviews conducted before and after the data gathering analysis ensure that the data are positioned in the context of the project and will not be misinterpreted or misused.

How? Stakeholders of a project respond to a questionnaire containing questions like:

(a) How often do you receive information from each of the others in this project that you need to do to your work?

(b) How well do you understand the knowledge, skills, and experience of each of the other stakeholders in this project?

Software analysis of the responses results in visual and quantitative views that provide the basis for organizational intervention and individual action.

Network analysis can be an effective diagnostic and planning tool for the development of communities of practice and relationships among the key actors in the project context.

The data gathering and analysis provide a baseline against which you can plan and prioritize the appropriate changes and interventions to increase the social connections within the organization, thus effectively building social capital.

You can read more here (http://networkweaver.blogspot.com/).

Vietnamese Results-focused Project Design and Management Workshop Wraps up With 27 New Graduates

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:04:07 +0000

A training workshop in Results-focused Project Design and Management has been delivered for 27 Vietnamese participants from various provinces and various government oversight and executing agencies. The training was fronted by a 3-man team of facilitators, namely Do Minh Hoai, Hong Anh Chu, and Hong Anh Nguyen, all graduates of the PPMS Training of Facilitators in various occasions: Do Minh Hoai (TOF Hue 2009), Hong Anh Chu (TOF Hua Hin 2007), Hong Anh Nguyen (TOF Luang Prabang, 2009).

The participants were trained in different tools used in the conduct of participatory planning and management, including stakeholders analysis, problem and objectives tree analysis, and the results chain. The active participation by the trainees showed their keen interest to truly learn and practically apply the processes in their respective projects.

The workshop successfully closes today with 25 Vietnamese public servants earning not just certificates but more importantly, valuable knowledge and skills they can use to ensure good project design and ultimately project success.