for Civil Society for Civil Society - The Foundation for Civil Society

| BIG Question |
Why too many
projects but
handful results?
Fridah Mwakasyuka
There are many
development
projects being
implemented in
various sectors
throughout the
country. The aim
is to contributing
to the overall
fmwakasyuka@thefoundation-tz.org goal of poverty
reduction. The
government and civil society sector are some
of the main players involved in designing,
implementing and managing development
projects. It is disheartening to note, the pace
of change as a result of implementation of
projects is minute in comparison to the inputs.
The main reason is that we have projects
implemented without having the end result
in mind. Writes Fridah Mwakasyuka
Some of such projects have proved to have
negative or no impact to the community.
Instead of reducing poverty they perpetuate
deprivation. No wonder, more people
are becoming more and more vulnerable to
poverty each day. Many projects by CSOs
begin and end with workshops for awareness
creation on this policy or that law.
There is no linkage as to what local or central
government should do differently. No
wonder then, a big question remains what
next after awareness?
This kind of scenario has promoted me to
discuss development project planning and
management as at the end of the day, the
| 20 |
| www.thefoundation.tz.org |
two values are among determining factors
for a project to be able to alleviate poverty
to the expected degree.
Many development projects aim at solving
certain problems in the society. That is why,
the idea of a project should be well thought
of- that is, it should address specific problems
facing specified target.
The overall aim of any development project
is to bring positive change to the specified
target. This calls for projects then to be developed
taking into consideration the views
of stakeholders, particularly the beneficiaries.
Another issue that needs a lot of consideration
is – factors contributing to the problem.
This calls for assessment of the needs of a
people so as to correctly identify a project.
Then assessment should be done to gain insight
about the problem that an institution
(CSO) intends to address.
It is of uttermost importance to involve expected
beneficiaries of a project at its formulation
stage as they are the ones who
knows better the problems they face. This
can be done at communal meetings and
focus groups discussions (FGD). Other techniques
which can be used to assess community
needs are community mapping and
participatory appraisal.
The Foundation Newsletter
What does it take to have a project
become successful?
It should be noted that if the whole process
of planning and management is open and
transparent and is geared to enabling beneficiaries
own the processes and results of the
project, it’s more likely to become successful.
After all, the outcome of the project is
measured as a noticeable change which can
be sustained by the project beneficiaries.
Can the project really be able to make
use of all the diverse stakeholders?
This is not feasible. This calls for the need to
identify stakeholders to involve. This is done
through undertaking stakeholders’ analysis,
which will help to identifying primary and
secondary stakeholders. The first are those
who directly will be affecting or be affected
by the project while the latter are those who
indirectly will be affecting or be affected by
the project.
During the project planning stage, the identified
problems should be carefully and
critically analyzed by all stakeholders. The
analysis of the problem to be solved by
the project should include identifying root
causes and effects of the snag. If not well
analyzed, the problem will be only partially
solved.
After the analysis of the problem, then objectives
should be set, describing the desired
positive outcome, the situation of the problem,
root causes and effects.
Other things to consider
There are many other things that should be
embraced while planning a project. This
includes the development of the Theory of
Change for the project. I am right to say
that many projects do not start with the end
in mind. The question is the epitaph. This
mean what the project will bring and leave
to the members of the community once the
project is over. To answer this question you
will have set you a benchmark that you will
use to measure and see if the project has
achieved the intended goal. Remember to
set only one main objective. And at least 3
specific objectives (too many objectives and