Project Planning and the Planning Cycle

1. Project Planning and the Planning Cycle PIA 2501

2. 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.

3. Discussion: Authors of the Week • Isabel Allende- Clarrisa” • Jorge Luis Borges, “The Book of Sand”

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

5. Review • Neo-Orthodox View of Planning

6. To what extent is the state planning approach necessary? • Mandated by technical assistance • Expanded government meant specialized planning organizations and the rise of development economics as a discipline

7. To what extent is the state planning approach necessary? • The issue of grass roots participation was raised • There was rhetoric of a command economy as opposed to a market economy with two extremes and the soft state in-between • The Reality is in-between: Public Private Partnerships

8. Limitations of Planning • To what extent is the state planning approach possible? • Issue of growth vs. distribution • Issue of planning vs. ways in which budget priorities are set • Debate about the coordination of planning voluntary vs. hierarchical authority

9. Structural Reforms- Review • The Change: Overemphasized the Anti-State theme • Result • Since 1985, privatization, public sector reform and structural adjustment • New Theories • Neo-orthodoxy based upon Public and Social (Rational Choice) ideas • What was “Developmental” in the 1990s?

10. Contemporary Themes of Development- Review • Except for the Newly Industrializing Countries(NICs), the failure of Development Management as a method • Question: does failure occur as a result of state collapse? (Goran Hyden) • What is the future of Development Planning

11. Level of Analysis Issue & Planning • Public Policy • Overall decisions to take action • Programs • Ongoing areas of activity within a policy area, a nucleus to carry out program • Projects • Discrete time-bound, often sector or spatially based activity

12. Contemporary Themes of Development • Problem of government as a negative; a state centric vs. society centric view • How does that translate into public private partnerships? (Robert Bates, Eleanor Ostrom) • Issue of "implementation," the neglected component of development policy (Pressman)

13. Contemporary Themes of Development • Institution building is a pre-requisite • Development Policy is environmentally bound; • Importance of micro-macro linkages (Kathleen Staudt)

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

15. Project Planning The Blue Print Approach

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

17. The New Orthodoxy The PROJECT as an operational concept • The Problems of Development Management • Project management means loss of control over programs and policy • Project Characteristics: -Discrete tasks -Time Bound -fixed amount of money

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

19. 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

20. 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

21. Blue Print • Secure coordinated action and cooperation • especially in problem of communications • Seek funding for projects • Make Go/No Go Decision • Implementation: • Monitoring and Evaluation

22. 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

23. 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

24. Location, Location, Location • Location of planning Center: Manager of the Blueprint • Use and overuse of inter-departmental committees Afghanistan, 2005- Office of President

25. 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

26. 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

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

28. 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

29. 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

30. BREAK

31. 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

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

33. 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

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

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

36. 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

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

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

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

40. 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

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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

44. 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

45. 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

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

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

48. 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