Project Planning and Management in Health Promotion by Tulani Francis L. Matenga - Department of Health Promotion and Education - Health Promotion_unza

Health Promotion Implementation: Planning health promotion interventions Tulani Francis L. Matenga Department of Health Promotion and Education Development Management Projects: Cycles, Elements and Logic This section aims to discuss the concept of a project. It looks at the project cycle, its elements and most important the logic. It further looks at the planning processes in development management. The project concept Defining a project is difficult. Numerous scholars and social commentators defined projects differently. Thus, there is no universally applicable definition of a project. The Project Management Book of Knowledge defines a project as a ‘temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or a service. The project concept Cont’d ‘Temporary’ since every project has a definite end and ‘unique’ in that the product is different in from all similar services. A project is ‘an endeavor in which human material and financial resources are organized in a novel way to undertake a unique scope of work of a given specification within a constraint of cost and time so as to deliver beneficial change defined as Quantitative and Qualitative objectives (Rodney Turner, 1990). The project concept Cont’d A project is a clearly scheduled group of actions carried out to attain specific objectives implemented by an organization established or appointed particularly for it. It is a task that has specific purpose or goal or a unique task directed at causing change. In other words, projects are tools used to implement health promotion plans. In achieving HPE plans, we can look at projects to be coordinated sets of activities and tasks designed to achieve given stated objectives. Some of the key features of an HPE project include having start time and end time (life cycle); associated with a cash flow; essentially unique activities and non-repetitive; having a single point of responsibility and many more others. The project concept Cont’d Project features in brief A project has a unique purpose A project is temporary A project requires resources, often from various sources A project involves a certain level of uncertainty A project should have a primary sponsor or customers Project cycle Broadly, there exist two ways of looking at lifecycles that work in conjunction with one another throughout the course of every project. First, a project lifecycle describes the tasks that must be completed in order to produce a product or service e.g a project lifecycle followed to build a house. On the other hand, what they call project management lifecycle defines how to manage a project. An understanding of these two concepts is important as one of project managers’ challenges is to comprehend how to align the specific project lifecycle with the project management lifecycle. Project cycle Cont’d While different and diverse and unique, projects tend to follow a set of defined steps from project identification to project end. That is, projects consists of various activities whose relations are sequentially defined by scope, schedule, budget and ultimate performance. Thus, development projects are usually performed in stages forming a logical cycle. Basically project cycle might involve assessment and planning, implementation, monitoring, review, and evaluation. Project cycle Cont’d Project Identification/Assessment Project Design Project Appraisal Project Implementation Project Evaluation & Learning Project cycle Cont’d Elements of the project cycle i. Project need identification This is the conceptualisation and initial stage. Development project needs identification starts by examining [with different stakeholders] existing social projects and priority areas. It is this identified problem need (s) that translates into project goals, purposes, outputs and activities. ii. Design Once the need is identifies, project preparation and analysis follows. The scope of the project will have to be determined (coverage of the project). Good project designs should have objectives that are: clearly and realistically stated; reflect, from the point of view of the beneficiaries, the desired improvement; allow main results, resources and implementation approach to be derived from them; Project cycle Cont’d specific and measurable indicators are attached for each objective in order to enable quantitative and qualitative monitoring of the project The time-schedule is clear, realistic, covers its whole lifetime The project has a clear and efficient management structure and organisation The monitoring and reporting system should enable effective project management and incorporate feedback to work planning Resources are specified and …