Project review workshop

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Project review workshop

• Saturday, June 19, 2004
• AID-Austin

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Agenda

• Project selection
• Selecting Partners
• Who are our partners?
• What do we want to know about them?
• Reviewing projects
• The review process
• The different kinds of models for projects
• Outcome of the review
• Administrative tasks

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Project review procedure
Initiate site visit
Vote in CSH
Post approval phase
Initiate contact with NGO
Research on project
Review in CSH
Clarify with NGO
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Two components to project review

• Learning about the organisation
• Learn about their work
• Understand their philosophy priorities
• Make sure this is the kind of organisation AID
  wants to work with.
• Understanding and critically reviewing the
  project proposal

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What do we want to learn about our partners?

• Credibility of the group
• Motivation
• Long term plans
• Other activities
• Details about the project

6
Who are our partners?

• New NGOs or individuals
• Established NGOs
• NGOs AID has worked with before and has good
  relationship
• Movements and struggles
• Depending on the maturity and focus of the group
  and the relationship AID already has with them,
  the nature of questions we want to ask changes

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New NGOs

• Few motivated individuals wanting to make a
  difference.
• Plans might be both idealistic and realistic.
• Budget might have gaps.
• E.g. 4-5 fresh graduates want to work with dalit
  women and eventually start income generation
  activities with them

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New NGOs

• E.g. 4-5 fresh graduates want to work with dalit
  women and eventually start income generation
  activities with them
• Their background
• Agenda
• Their plans full-time
• Why did want to take this up
• Contact and foothold in the area
• Experience and guidance
• What they think the pitfalls, risks involved in
  the project
• Registered organisation
• References we can get about them and from them

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New NGOs

• We cannot be sure if the group will survive. So,
  we should try to assess that.
• Questions of credibility of the NGO
• Background of the founders and volunteers
• Objectives and philosophy
• Questions on motivation of the NGO
• Why did they want to start the group?
• Long term plans
• Where does the staff come from ? What is their
  background ?
• How do they plan to involve the community?

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Established NGOs

• Credibility of the NGO
• Background of the founders and volunteers
• Objectives and philosophy
• Other projects and the success
• Community outreach
• Sustainability of their projects
• Other organisations they work with
• Other sources of funding
• Accept innovative ideas
• Beneficiaries from their projects
• Motivation of the NGO
• Why did want to start the group?
• Long term plans
• Where does the staff come from ? What is their
  background ?
• How do they plan to involve the community?
• What else???

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Established NGOs

• Questions of credibility of the NGO
• Background of the founders and volunteers
• Objectives and philosophy
• Organizations who have worked with the NGO before
  
• Previous projects and success

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Established NGOs

• Questions on motivation of the NGO
• How many of their previous projects is the NGO
  still continuing ?
• Local involvement
• Where does the staff come from ? What is their
  background ?
• What is the community contributing to the project
  ?
• How does the NGO empower the local community,
  women, and minorities ?
• What is the degree of volunteerism in the project
  ?
• Relevance of our support to the NGO
• Scale of innovative projects

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NGOs AID has worked with before

• E.G. TNSF
• Questions of credibility of the NGO
• Objectives and philosophy
• Organizations who have worked with the NGO before
  
• Previous projects and success

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NGOs AID has worked with before

• What has changed? How has the organisation
  evolved
• Motivation for the project

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Question

• Chapter x works for 5 years with an
  organisation p and established a strong
  relationship.
• Chapter y wants to review a project from p
• How can we ensure that ys job is made easy and
  efficient in learning about the organisation?

Documentation
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Movements and Struggles

• People organise themselves for a cause. Lot of
  passion involved
• Have a huge volunteer base in villages and strong
  sense of social justice
• They do not have FCRA clearance
• Focus on activism and constructive work in
  different proportions in different phases
• Depending on the phase,
• Low on resources for constructive work time,
  money, people
• Very difficult to work with

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Movements and Struggles

• Projects come from partner NGOs
• Eg Pedal power generator, Bilgaon was inspired
  by Narmada struggle
• Michael and Swatis work against environmental
  degradation and pollution in villages had
  offshoots watershed work, eco-shop in Mumbai
• Or the movements themselves
• HBP
• APVUU

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Movements and Struggles

• Reach a consensus in the chapter about the issue.
• Ensure we can keep up with the pace of the
  movement- in terms of resources, our contribution

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NGOs working with Movements and Struggles

• The maturity of the NGOs relationship with the
  movement
• The risk they are willing to take for the
  struggle
• What is their acceptance by the movement
• How do the leaders of the movements perceive the
  NGO

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Project review guidelines

• Details about the project
• Area of coverage
• The beneficiaries
• Socio-econ status
• Budget
• Sustainability of the project
• How does the project relate to AID philo
• Compare and learn from previous projects
• Interest and the need as perceived by the
  beneficiaries
• Resources for the project
• How does the Ngo plan to monitor the project
• Our resources to do a site visit

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Project review guidelines

• Details about the project
• Area of coverage
• Beneficiaries women, children, minorities
• Population in the area
• Income bracket of the targeted population
• Primary occupations

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Project review guidelines

• Details about the project
• Need for the project
• How do the local people perceive it?
• Sustainability of the project
• Does it try to use the infrastructure already
  available without duplicating?
• Our and NGOs ability to keep up the communication
  level

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Projects

• Our ability to learn from a project depends on
  how we understand its purpose.
• Types of projects
• Research projects
• New problem
• Old problem
• Expansion
• Replication
• Circumstantial tapping unexpected changes
• Exceptions Geographically unexplored area

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Research problem or New problem

• AID is presented with a unfamiliar issue. e.g.
  Peace, Food security, SARS

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New problem

• Study the problem
• Find out if it really new or just new to us
• Why did the problem arise?
• Is it an important problem?
• Why hasnt anyone worked on it before

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Old problem

• Is the approach different from the previous one ?
• No How is it different or better than the other
  models?
• Yes How does it build on the previous models
• How easy/difficult is the replication/ expansion

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Expansion / Replication geographically

• Does the organisation have enough resources
• Has it been sustainable
• Is the programme effective or does it need more
  fine tuning
• How different are the conditions in the proposed
  area.
• Do we need further test in different conditions
• Should the expansion happen in stages or
  simultaneously in different places.

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Circumstantial projects

• Tapping unexpected large changes
• Sudden public interest in the issue
• Strong womens groups formed during a anti-arrack
  movement
• Strong self-help groups in a area

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Exceptional Projects

• We over-ride all the criteria
• Reasons
• Like to establish contacts in the area
• Want to use their expertise for something else
• We have to try to keep these to minimum

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Now we know what to know and understand

• But how we go about doing it?

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How do we learn about the NGO and the project

• Think of the NGO as a partner and show earnest
  interest in their work
• Present your concerns and questions while
  engaging in a discussion with
• Humility
• Critical thinking
• Self-education, understanding of issues
• Contact chapters who have worked with the group
  before
• Arrange for a site visit

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How do we educate the fellow AIDers on the project

• Project Coordinator is the only link between the
  organisation and the chapter.
• Have all the project reports, NGO information and
  correspondence uploaded on the website.
• Send out an email 4-5 days before the
  presentation
• Prepare for the day have the presentation in the
  format discussed in this review
• Present all the details unbiased.
• Keep the chapter informed about the review at all
  times
• DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT

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What are the rest of us to do?

• Project Coordinators work so much on the projects
  and they tend to get emotionally attached
• We should help the discussion stay objective
• Show interest and enquire about the progress at
  all times
• Participate in the phone calls and correspondence
• Appreciate their work

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What if the project is not approved?

• It is okay. The project coordinator is not
  responsible for it
• Write a polite note to the organisation
• Make sure the minutes do not reflect anything bad
  about the organisation
• Do let this dampen the enthusiasm for new
  projects
• Update the database

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Project is approved

• Update the database
• Inform the NGO
• Send a note to Chetna, AID-news, TMI, Dishaa
• Send the check request to AID Project Coordinator
• Hardcopy of proposal, presentation, discussions,
  correspondence, minutes and a note to the NGO
• The AID projects coordinator sends the check,
  your note and a letter from AID to the NGO

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Project is approved

• Send a AID-Austin packet to the NGO
• Annual report
• Chetna
• A letter appreciating their work and stating what
  you expect from the project
• Define the monitoring process
• Follow the post approval guidelines
• DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT

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Constantly reevaluate and improve project
approval process!Communicate and Document
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References

• Looking back at AID projects Ravi Kuchimanchi
  AID Austin mailing list July 16th 2003, Message
  2307
• Learning process in AID/Asha/ILP Balaji Sampath
  (http//www.aidindia.org/tnsf/Resources/Gen_Articl
  es/balaji_learning20process20in20AID20and20As
  ha.html)
• Project Review Workshop Jan 18th 2002 (AID
  Austin website)

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Future presentation suggestions

• Site visits
• Minimum information we need to review a project (
  incase we dont get all the details we want to
  know)