Project Planning and the Planning Cycle

1. Project Planning and the Planning Cycle PIA 2501

2. Project Planning The Blue Print Approach

3. What is “Developmental” in the 1990s? The PROJECT as an operational concept

4. Project Management Defined Setting of priorities for the use of a limited amount of scarce resources and a limited amount of time.

5. Triumph of the Donor • Need for the "Blueprint" approach • Donors vs. the Learning Process • The Blue Print problem and Project Management

6. The Blueprint Approach Defined by a series of steps: • Identification of available resources and setting of financial priorities • Need to distinguish incremental budgeting from capital or development budgets • Capital or Development Budgets are one time investments • Key: Built-in (sunken) costs and problem of maintenance and recurrent implications

7. The Blueprint Approach • Defined by a series of steps: • Identification of or selection of appropriate means (Funding) • Formulation of specific activities • Provision for plan's implementation • Secure coordinated action and cooperation • especially in problem of communications • Seek funding for projects • Make Go/No Go Decision • Implementation: Monitoring • Evaluation

8. Location, Location, Location Location of planning Center: Manager of the Blueprints • Ultimately a political question- Central Control • President or Prime Minister’s Office • Ministry of Finance and Development Planning

9. Location, Location, Location • Location of planning Center: Manager of the Blueprints • Separate Departments or Commissions for Development and Planning Exercises • Depends upon International Technical Assistance • Private or NGO Contractor • Regional and local government • Social Funds

10. Location, Location, Location • Location of planning Center: Manager of the Blueprint • Use and overuse of inter-departmental committees

11. Controversy over the nature of planner • Cadre of Economists, budget specialists and project analysts • Informal ties with planner/economists in other ministries • Special issue of foreign international expatriate planners • Planning as shopping list for donors (pork barrel projects) • Politicos emphasis on physical planning infrastructure--problem of maintenance

12. The Project Cycle • By 1990, largely a donor-driven process • Overview: • Projects discrete time bound • Sector or spatially based activity • Responsibility for generating specific results within time specific space

13. The Project Cycle • Types of Projects • Nationally sponsored • paid by country or private foundations • Donor projects • Local level community based • village development activities • District or regional level sectoral projects • integrated rural development • NGO/PVO projects

14. The Project Cycle • Role of Technical Assistance* • Grants • Contracts • Cooperative Agreements • Sub-grants managed by non-profits *For Further Information on Technical Assistance and Contracts see presentations of PIA 2490--Skills in Development Management: Privatization and Contracting Out

15. Interaction of Major Agency Processes Planning Budgeting Ongoing Projects Office of Management And Budget (OMB) Design Approval Legis- lation Foreign Policy Implementation Evaluation LDC Needs Reporting Budget Submissions Congressional Presentation (CP) Appropriation Operational Year Budget (OYB) Host Country Agency Policy Global Sector Strategies Regional Strategies Research Strategy Management Objectives Project Identification Document (PID) Project Review Paper (PRP) Project Paper (PP) Pre- Implementa- tion Implementa- tion Evaluation Country Program Strategy (DAPI) Field of Concentration Strategy (DAPII) Project Reporting Project Performance Tracking (PPT); Financial Reporting Ex-Post Facto Evaluation Prior Evaluation Financial MANAGEMENT Programming INFORMATION Management Reports Implementation SYSTEM External Needs Program Support Data Bank (CPDB, PAIS, DIS, ESDB) Personnel Administration Support Database for Future Decisions, Policy Lessons Learned Evaluation Criteria

16. The Project Cycle • The Management Model • The Blueprint model • Process information and define projects • National plan leads to programs • Programs lead to projects funded by donors

17. The Project Cycle • Design • Identifying nature of problem and possible solutions--specific needs and desired changes • Appraisal • (Mandatory) data needed to prepare project plan

18. The Project Cycle • Analysis--collection of data: • Social Analysis targeted groups: women, minorities, indigenous peoples • Economic Analysis--Cost Benefit • Institutional Analysis • Sustainability • Organizational Requirements • Recurrent Cost Implications • Human Skills Needed • Social Acceptance

19. The Project Cycle • Analysis--collection of alternatives: • Prediction • Selection of preferred alternatives • The Logical Framework: (LOGFRAME) • If-then conditions • The Cycle and the Documents BREAK

20. 1. Design Project Objectives Achieved 3. Evaluation 2. Execution The Project Cycle Source: Project Management System, Practical Concepts, Inc., Washington, DC 1979.

21. Project Management System Provides Management Toolsto Support all Stages of the Project Cycle Logical Framework Performance Networks 1. Design Networks display performance plans over time Project Objectives Achieved 3. Evaluation 2. Execution Evaluation System Reporting System ACHIEVEMENT EXCEPTION Evaluations assess performance against plans and analyze causal linkages Progress indicators and formats for communicating project information Practical Concepts, Incorporated

22. Preparation of Documents: Donor - USAID • Country Strategy Paper • Concept Paper • Project Identification Document (PID)

23. Program Agreement (Donor) PP (USAID) (PP = Project Paper) Technical Proposal (Contractor to Donor) Country Context (Contractor to Country) Implementation Documents

24. The Project Cycle • Implementation • The Go/No Go Decision • Carrying out actions planned • Personnel • local (and foreign) • Physical and organizational Needs

25. The Project Cycle • Monitoring and Evaluation • Understanding what has happened and assessing changes and quality of change • Issue: sustainability regarding follow-on within the country and replicability from one country to another

26. Monitoring and Evaluation • Nature of Data: • Interview vs. survey • Seat of the pants observation • "the old quick and dirty" • The problem of project goals: • Goals are to be limited and bounded • Specific activities are to be clearly defined and achieved • Short run success leads to successful evaluation • Short-term loop is five years

27. Monitoring and Evaluation • Nature of Data: • Judgment: Evaluation vs. Assessment • Two views: • a. Learn from experience • b. Judge performance • Problem: judgment requires clear goals, in contradiction with learning • Problem: power of the expert

28. Monitoring and Evaluation • Nature of Data: • Evaluation is a donor requirement • External activity • Targets blueprint activity (CPA) • Critical path analysis (Time based action) • PERT chart (Project Evaluation Review Technique) very technical, programmed • Evaluation often the need for more action

29. Monitoring and Evaluation • Nature of Data: • Evaluation as an end product: • Separate from implementation • Action pre-determined in design prior to evaluation • Separates evaluation from the on-going activity

30. Monitoring and Evaluation • Nature of Data: • Problem with Evaluation concept • Implementation suggests a finished product • Bureaucratic action is ongoing • Part of larger system with ambiguous boundaries • Assessment • Ongoing, part of implementation process • Inter-American Development Bank- Advocates On-going Evaluation as part of Monitoring Exercises

31. The Problem • Incrementalism: Planning vs. Implementation • Planning challenges incremental behavior • Organizations • Problem of innovation • incrementalism is the operational reality

32. The Goal • Goal: Bottom Up Participation Planning vs. politics: myths of participation

33. The Goal • Learning Process Model--“incrementalism“- theoretical alternatige • Bottom up and interactive • Village development committees vs. local planning officers • Paternalism of the district officer vs. patronage of local level minor networks • Street level bureaucrats vs. agents from center

35. Discussion: Authors of the Week • In Our Image • Is assimilation the answer? • In the Philippines, South East Asia, Middle East / Africa? • Progress? (Joyce Cary) • Is progress the answer? • Violence? (Fuentes and Singh) • Is development the answer?

36. The Problems of Development Management: Next Week • Quote of the Week: • Discussion "The Human Condition being what it was, let them fight, let them love, let them murder, I would not be involved."  Graham Greene

37. Graham GreeneThe Quiet American • Themes • The US Mission • The Third Force • The Advantage of the Revolutionaries • The French View?

38. Graham GreeneThe Quiet American • Characters • The American and the American’s theory of development • The British Journalist--Engage? • The Vietnamese Woman (Passive?) • Conclusions about Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy?

39. Author of the Week:Next Week: Arturo Escobar • What Does Escobar say about the concepts Development Economics and Planning? • How does he "Deconstruct" development? • What does that mean? • "What Is To Be Done?" according to Escobar.