The Role of Project Managers in Sustainable Development

From an economics perspective, it is simple to posit that the opportunity cost (i.e., the alternative forgone) of accepting a gift from a family is zero. What do I have to lose or give if my brother gifts me a shoe that I can or cannot afford to buy, except a word of appreciation? The gift-giver—whether the recipient finds the gift desirable, useful or not—is satisfied so long as the recipient shows gratitude and affection because of the gift received.

This concept is what makes corporate philanthropy a simple and attractive form of social responsibility for organizations. For instance, a cash gift to victims of a flooding disaster in a local community comes with little or no extra cost to the beneficiary. A fledgling NGO providing education support services with employee size of about 5-10 persons, for instance, has little or nothing to lose by accepting a book donation, hence they will require little or no support from the donor in utilizing the books. But the same NGO will, albeit wantful or needful of the donation, incur some marginal and/or opportunity costs by accepting a fully developed public library infrastructure from a donor organization. Increased overhead costs and freeing up human resources for new roles, if acquisition of personnel would become a cost burden, are but a few considerations that would most likely impact the capacity of the NGO to fully optimize the Library.

Unlike gifts and donations, social investments would have significant opportunity costs to its beneficiary if they are not properly implemented. Although project management, as defined by Project Management Institute and Project DPro, is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result, the purpose or benefits of a development project are fulfilled or enjoyed over a long period of time, and the influence of socio-political or environmental factors post-delivery of the project could portend risks, even as they can add value, to the project and its beneficiaries.

Sometimes such risks may seem negligible or benign, but yet significant enough to result in the failures of many development projects. A simple reason as the lack of expertise or experience in maintaining a borehole project, for instance, could be the reason for the complete abandonment of a project. Chima Okereke cited in his paper that up to $360 million has been spent on constructing boreholes that have failed in Africa because of maintenance challenges. To provide context—from my experience supporting million-dollar water and sanitation projects in Nigeria, that sum would deliver at least 19,680 boreholes in Nigeria, on an exchange rate 410 naira to one US dollar.

For other projects, it could be a lack of, or inadequate, consultations with critical stakeholders in the planning phase of the project, for instance in the conduct of needs assessment of the local communities who are direct beneficiaries of the project. Consider a hypothetical case of constructing sanitation facilities in a community whose preference is water facilities. Such negligence also tells something on the expertise of the project manager in a development setting, and raises the concern of how robust or diverse in skillset a project team is.

Project management has evolved beyond managing the delivery of a project within budget, timeline, and quality controls to ensuring the project delivers on its aim and objectives without increasing the opportunity costs to its beneficiaries. Herein lies the principle of sustainable development, where a project manager must ensure that the deliverables of a project must produce outcomes that meet the needs of society without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The value or benefit of a social investment, hence, is summed up as the social impact less the sum of the cost to the donor and to the present and future beneficiaries of the social investment.

It is the duty of the project manager to ensure that the costs to the beneficiary does not erode the present and future gains to society. For instance, a scholarship opportunity for graduate studies whose selection process is neither free nor fair would, albeit create opportunities for many disadvantaged persons to access higher education, result in a loss of confidence by the victims of nepotistic practices conducted in the scholarship’s selection process. One popular outcome of such an event is brain drain; any gains by the victim’s newly found country of residence is a loss to his/her own country of origin.

In a development context, it is helpful, though arguable, to opine that project managers should assume the title and embrace the responsibilities of a development partner. It should not matter whether they are for-profit organizations or civil service organizations—they are development partners because the services they render provide development assistance in one form or the other. On this basis, for-profit organizations like contractors, sub-contractors, and supplier firms should conform their execution strategies in line with extant standards in a development context. For instance, in providing immediate to medium-term relief to internally displaced persons (IDP) living in a camp, WASH structures are usually designed for temporary use. Hence, the materials purchased are less capital intensive than would be required for constructing a WASH facility in a public market, for instance; this consequently reduces the beneficiaries’ cost of maintaining the facility. It is the project manager’s role in ensuring that the contextual principles and methods guiding the various elements of the development project being implemented are properly understood and adopted by the project team.

Consequentially, the project manager should seek the advice and expertise of organizations that have the requisite experience in coordinating similar projects in similar contexts. In the initial phase of the project development, this support can be sought by reviewing close-out reports of past projects and requesting to participate in after-action reviews of recently concluded similar projects. As the project progresses, the participation of the project manager in seminars, symposiums, or meetings with key stakeholders, where central issues on the projects’ focus areas are discussed is beneficial for building capacity. Forums/conferences organized by government stakeholders, multilateral organizations, or civil service societies on related projects is also helpful to the project manager in evaluating the project’s goals, objectives, and strategies against that of a state, region, or sector. Evaluation of project goals is useful for determining gaps and opportunities for development. Platforms like development workshops are also useful for information and knowledge sharing, access to critical stakeholders, partnership building, and communications towards driving a project’s sustainability.

Communications is, in my opinion, the greatest tool that a project manager can use to implement a project’s sustainability plan. For development projects, storytelling and advocacy are weaponry for stimulating emotional and socio-political interests respectively. From the outset, a project manager must be interested in seeking historical facts surrounding the present conditions of a problem/challenge that the project seeks to solve. Success stories are more appealing and endearing when they are told from historical contexts. It is permissible to fully outsource the creative (storytelling) components of communications to industry professionals, but as a development partner a project manager must be well involved in advocating for more support to the development project.

However, extreme care must be taken when communicating the social impact or outcomes of the project to external parties. A full contextual, situational, or risk analysis of the socio-political environment or, oftentimes, inordinate desires of dangerous stakeholders far or near, is important in the development of a project communications plan/strategy. For instance, an education intervention project intended to support the Federal Government’s rehabilitation effort in Nigeria’s conflict-destabilized North East, where the philosophy of the Boko Haram sect is counteractive to western education, portends danger to the lives of the beneficiaries of the project if communications risk is not well managed. The project manager must be perceptive and proactive enough to identify and curtail such risks.

In all, the critical thing to remember is albeit that social investments create long-term impacts, it is important to ensure that the project manager takes cognizance of the opportunity costs that could result from the delivery of the social responsibility. It is, therefore, the role of the project manager to ensure that such opportunity costs are either nipped in the bud, greatly reduced, or managed to deliver a net positive contribution to society.