Weekly Digest with ERA

Programme and Project Management Part II?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Issue # 13

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Welcome to another mid-week with ERA, I hope the last series on programme and project management was useful. Today, I will complete this series. Last week I walked you through the differences between the terms and the components of programme and project management.

Let’s take a look at some common programme management challenges to avoid:

• Avoid making important programmatic or financial decisions without checking the donors’ guidelines or your contract, as this could lead to financial disallowances down the line.
• Lack of coordination between departments would lead to tasks being missed. Every department in your organization is important, so coordinating and putting all hands on deck will ensure that every detail or task is efficiently implemented.
• Avoid lingering processes in the programme that take longer than expected. This will avoid unnecessary delays during implementation. When planning, consider the time needed for internal reviews and approvals for every process.
• Not addressing programme delays and any other changes needed to the programme plan as a result in time
• Not communicating necessary changes in the implementation and budget plan to the donor leading to disallowances or poor performance down the line.

All these may seem minute, but they can cost you a fortune or even mar your programme and relationship with your donors, it is important to follow due process when it comes to managing donor resources, this will also make you accountable to your organization and your donors.

Programme Management Process

• The first step is the design and contracting phase. This is the period where you need to understand what you want to do or achieve, if the project is about addressing violent conflict, you need to understand the issues around the conflict well enough.
• The next is to understand what needs to change about the issue(s)
• Design your programme towards achieving the desired changes.
• Your prorgramme should be designed in such a way that the desired change will be endured even after your programme has ended.

The second phase is the contract and compliance process. Make sure to check your contract or ask the relevant people in your organization responsible for ensuring compliance with donor’s rules and regulations for support and guidance. This is why you need to understand the contract your organization has signed with the donor, it’s a lot of documents yes, but it is also important to know all the important details and clauses covered in the contract.

In programme management, you manage multiple projects, so it is important to know each project contract your organization signs with donors, the projects’ start and end dates, the total amount for each project in its original currency, and funding schedules which are usually in tranches, know the reporting requirements and other requirements for each project, understand the key project indicators if any of the projects have a sub-granting component then, understand the conditions for the sub-grant awardee, and most importantly know the budget flexibility of each project as each donor have their budget flexibility, you wouldn't want to mix that up, you will land your organization in a big mess.

In setting up your programming you need to have a good setup. So let’s understand what good planning and poor planning entail:

Good Planning

In good planning, you have a structured plan, you implement your plans as scheduled, and minimize the risk of mismanagement.

Poor Planning

In poor planning, you don’t have a plan, you implement but forget many important steps and your risk of mismanagement is high.

I believe every organization has tools they developed for effective planning and implementation, it will be wise to utilize such tools and collaborate with other teams to ensure you are using the tools effectively, these tools should serve as your manual to a successful implementation of your programme, and if your organization does not have any, it is advised that you design one for the effectiveness of your programming.

Here are some essentials for good planning:

• Your planning is realistic
• Planning takes into account the processes and procedures
• Your plan is detailed until the end of the project (you can develop a yearly plan and trickle it down to a monthly and quarterly plan and constantly update it)
• Your plan is flexible and updated as suited
• Your plan integrates programmatic, financial, operational, and monitoring and evaluation aspects.
• It looks at both the actual and projected expenses

See some minimum standard checklists for good planning:

• Ensure a project folder is created on Google Drive for all relevant staff to have access to, this is for effective collaboration and coordination.
• Ensure all projects’ startup protocols are successfully implemented
• Ensure key project/contract information is entered into the organization's information system
• The inception workshop/meeting should be conveyed with both staff and partners
• Partnerships are formalized in line with the organizations’ sub-award policies
• Each project management tool is created and utilized by the different teams.
• The close-out protocols for every project are reviewed and well-understood by the teams.

Start-up Process

• All pre-start-up activity planning should be done accordingly
• All recruitment and procurement should be completed
• The baseline evaluation, security assessment, etc. for each project should be completed within the first three months.

Why is Start-up Needed?

• To ensure each project team member is clear about what they are expected to do when starting a new project
• To allow for good decisions to be made in the start-up phase to avoid management challenges during the implementation

Why is it useful?

• It provides you with a ready-to-use list of tasks that you may otherwise not think of maybe later on in the implementation phase.

Why are close-out protocols important at the startup stage?

• You need to know what to plan for the close-out
• It should be included in the startup work plan and reviewed 6 months and 3 months before the close of the project

Activity start-up includes:

• The zero phase: This is the premobilization phase, this should commence a month before the project starts
• Phase 1: The project start-up phase is where you set up all the document tools to be used during the project (set up Google Drive etc.)
• Phase 2: The project planning should be done within the first two weeks of the project start dates.
• Phase 3: The Project Launch should happen at the beginning of the 3rd month and every other activity follows according to the plan and timeframe.

Inception Workshops

The purpose of inception workshops is to:

• Ensure a sound understanding of each project’s objectives, results, and activities by the project staff and partners
• Review start-up protocols with the projects’ staff and define roles and responsibilities for their implementation
• Establish clear partnership principles between your organization and the partner's organization
• Design a detailed work plan for the first year of implementation, defining roles and responsibilities as well as resources that will be necessary.

This few processes are not exhaustive in programme management, this is just a bit of it, there are other steps I did not touch on, and I encourage you to read more resources on this topic to have a more holistic approach to it. Again this is not a one-size-fits-all approach, organizations have different approaches to programming, so work with what works for you. But if you find this tips useful, feel free to adapt. I hope you found these useful.

Do not hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected]. See you next week and look out for a fresh new topic to be shared.

Remember! You are because I am!