Project Management

What is a project and why project management is important in the social sector

Hi, professionals of the social sector. You have been hearing the terms ‘project’ and ‘project management’ since you enrolled for your graduation. Some of you may have worked on projects on health, education, water and sanitation, livelihoods, and skilling. What are they? They are all domain areas, right? Why do we call projects with their domain names? Let’s take a look at the finer things that we should know about project and project management ….

In the early days, enthusiastic individuals with passion and commitment towards society were addressing social problems. Solving social problems systematically and professionally through a project management process didn’t exist. However, the situation is rapidly changing with more and more social organizations adopting modern ways of project management.

What is a project?

PMI ® defines a project as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.”

A project is a problem scheduled for solution – By Joseph M. Juran (author and management consultant)

A project is a set of interdependent activities with a common goal, that are carried out to reach specific outcome(s)

Social sector projects always aim to address a social problem that is having a negative impact on the communities like lack of sanitation, poor education system, inefficient health care system, growing unemployment leading to poverty, and gender-based violence against women.

Project features

1. Clearly defined objectives

Each project has to have a clearly defined objective(s) which in turn describe the outcome of the project. A well-defined project objective is key to a project’s success.

Then how do projects define their objective?

Use the SMART method where it stands for S-Specific, M-Measurable, A-Attainable, R-Relevant, and T-Time bound

Can a project have more than one objective? Yes, it can. Ideally, 1 to 3 objectives that are well defined and are SMART. Let’s take a look at how a social project can define its objective(s)

To increase annual household income by 10% through the promotion of diversified livelihood activities in the current financial year
To increase access of women farmers to micro-credit by 15% in next 2 years
To increase awareness and knowledge among the communities on the impact of natural disasters on economic sustainability by the end of year 2025

2. Product or Service or Result

Every project aims to either produce a product as an outcome, provide a service, or achieve a result. Let’s look at how it is relevant to social sector project(s)

A. Product

It’s an article or substance in physical form or virtual form.

Some of the examples for a product are like pen, software, a school or hospital building, equipment, Some of the social organizations work with communities like women’s groups or farmers to produce products.

An NGO working with farmers promotes organic farming under their project; Farmer produce organization collects produce like millet, and cereals and markets them with a brand name.
Another NGO working with tribal/rural communities helps them procure raw materials from nearby forests, upskill the communities to make handicrafts and help them sell those in the market.

In both cases project helped communities produce a product, the sale of which helps the project’s goal of providing livelihood

B. Service

Service could be in the form of doing some work, giving advice or information which shall lead to helping the other party

Social organizations provide services to different vulnerable communities.

An organization in a project under its health initiatives provides awareness to adolescent girls on menstrual health and hygiene.
Organizations working with communities identified as Below Poverty Line (BPL) and helping them to access existing government schemes
Women subjected to domestic violence, work place sexual harassment getting advice and legal support

In the above scenarios, organizations provided services to the needy communities

C. Result

It is an occurrence as a consequence of doing something; something obtained by investigation

Most social organizations conduct a needs assessment with the communities in the geography they wish to engage with. The findings or results help them design an intervention. It gives an insight into the social problem communities face and helps social organizations plan for an intervention

When a project is launched depending on the duration of the project, a baseline survey, a midline survey, and an end-line survey or conducted. Baseline findings help to determine the state of a problem before intervening. Midline and end-line findings help to ascertain the progress made.

In the above scenarios, we witnessed a deliverable as the outcome of a project, be it a unique product or a service, or a result.

However, some projects may deliver more than one. It could be a combination of any of two or all of the three … product, service or result

Lets look at the scenarios where an organization under its skilling project, identifies unemployed youth, provides them with required skills in a particular trade, and helps them secure employment through its placement services.

Through skilling, skilled professionals are the products and placements are a service

A project can either produce a product, service, or result; It can also produce a combination of product, service, and result

One project can be handled by a team of people within one organization or could be managed by multiple teams from multiple organizations depending on the geographical, technological, and other requirements
Projects could contain repetitive elements with similar activities and deliverables. For example, a team that is engaged in school education with government schools in a particular geography may start implementing a similar project in another geography. However, both are unique projects as the people served, location, and environment are different in both cases

3. The Project is temporary in nature

Every project has a clear beginning and ending as well. Temporary doesn’t mean the project is short-lived. In the social sector, we can see short, medium, and long-term project duration which varies.

Short term	Medium-term	Long term
A few weeks to a few months; less than a year	1 to 3 years	3 to 5 years or more

In general duration of the project is determined at the time of the contract between the donor agency and the implementing agency. However, the end of the project is determined by the following:

The project’s objectives are achieved
The project could not achieve its objectives
Existing funding has ended and no new funding options available
The funder decides against the project and asks to close it
Changes in regulatory or legal scenarios force the project to close
Approvals from major stakeholders like the government couldn’t be obtained (where required) and the project had to be closed

In a few scenarios, projects get a no-cost extension if the allocated funds are unutilized during the proposed project period. The project may or may not have achieved its objectives though…..

Even when the project is closed the deliverables shall remain.

Scenario(s) : The project has built a hospital or school as a deliverable, shall remain even beyond the project period

In a skill development project, youth were given orientation on various skills. Even after the end of the project, the youth remain trained, carry the certification and retain the knowledge using which they can earn their livelihood

Under women empowerment project, few Self Help Groups of women are formed and sustained. Even after the project is closed, these groups carry on their work

4. The business value generated

PMI ® defines business value as the net quantifiable benefit derived from a business endeavour. It is the returns that a project has produced.

How does a social project create business value? It could be tangible, intangible, or both. Let’s look at a few case scenarios:

The project has helped raise the income of households they worked with ranging from 5% to 15% in a year – It’s a tangible result
The project has created awareness among adolescent girls on menstrual health and hygiene – its intangible result. However, there is a change in their practices during menstruation, resulting in good health – A tangible result
One project has developed a curriculum for use by counsellor(s) – it’s a tangible result

We all have witnessed that social project(s) aim to solve social problems and benefit the communities. These project(s) need to be handled professionally by having a proper ‘project management’ approach

Why Project Management is essential for the success of a social project

Project management is the process where project manager and the team initiate, plan, execute, monitor and control and close the project to achieve the goal or outcome. These 5 steps (initiate, plan, execute, monitor and control and close) are also known as project process groups or project life cycle. We have seen above that the project consists of a series of activities. One needs to apply knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to ensure the project gives the expected results. So, the project manager and the project team should be competent enough and well versed with project management skills.

Effective project management helps a social organization to:

Accomplish the project objectives and reach the set goals. Example: X number of youth were skilled and provided self-employment opportunity that led to increased standard of living of those many families
Meet the stakeholder expectations like communities are satisfied with the benefits they got, the government is happy that their facilities are being accessed by needy communities and the donor is happy that there is an improvement in the living standards of vulnerable communities
Optimal utilization of human and other resources towards achieving the goals
Efficient management of Risk, improved quality of service or product, timely response through better schedule management, well-managed budgets, human and other resources
Increased organizational reputation

Poorly managed projects will lead to:

Failure to achieve results
Cost overruns
Poor quality in the delivery of product or service
Unsatisfied stakeholders
Loss of reputation for the organization

The world is changing faster with advancements in technology and business environment which is demanding social projects be managed with lower budgets and shorter timelines not compromising with quality. Stakeholder expectations are ever-increasing and there is growing competition among social sector organizations.

The only way of survival for social organizations is to shift to professional ways of ‘project management’ if already not done