Memoire Online - Project selection and management in international development organisations

Considering their humanitarian nature and other factors such as the operating environment and the number of stakeholder, International Development Organisations differ from other project-based organisations. The main tools used by for profit organisations when selecting programmes and projects are financial models such as the Net Present Value (NPV), the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and the Payback Period (PB) with a focus on strategic alignment of the programmes and projects. The documentation gathered from the five selected organisations was not quit clear on the tool or tools used for the selection of programmes and projects but did make references to balance scorecards and weighted scoring models. The tool proposed for the selection and prioritization of programmes and projects under this framework is a Weighted Scoring Model consisting of six main criteria:

The strategic alignment of programmes and projects will be ensured by the members of the Programme selection Committee because they are the ones who define the organisation's country strategy. The members of the programme selection committee understand the strategic orientation of the organisation therefore it will be easier for them to decide whether or not a programme or project is in line with it.

Cost-effectiveness has been pointed out has the most important criteria when selecting programmes and projects and is also a pre-requisite when organisations request funding from donors such as the United Kingdom's Department of International Development (DFID, 2011). Deciding whether or not a programme or project will use resources, both financial and human, optimally to achieve its stated objectives is one of the roles of the members of the programme selection committee.

Risk appraisal analyses the programme/project activities highlighted in the proposals and identifies activities that can have impact (negative) on the programme or project if not managed accordingly. If a project's risk assessment is high, the members of the programme selection will decide whether or not it should be rejected or not. Assessing the risks has been identified as an important parameter when making decisions that will have an impact on the strategic orientation of an organisations (Morgan and Strong, 2003; Dess and Lumpkin, 2005)

Benefits in the context of this framework will be the measurable improvements that will result from the implementation of a programme or project while outputs will be the tangible or intangible specialist products of a programme or project.

Outcomes will be the expected change or changes that will be brought about by the implementation of a programme or project. The programme selection committee will review proposals and give them overall score that reflects the proposal's orientation when compared to the objectives that programmes and projects are meant to achieve as highlighted in the country's strategy.

Sustainability will refer to the ability of a programme or project to preserve its benefits throughout its lifespan and beyond. Well defined programmes and projects with clear objectives, outputs and benefits are usually more sustainable and easier to implement therefore it is the responsibility of the programme selection committee to ensure that only programmes and projects that will bring sustainable changes are selected and implemented. Sustainable programmes and projects will meet the

needs and the demand in the country therefore ensuring beneficiary satisfaction which was identified by Diallo and Thuillier (2004) as a critical success factor for development projects.

Assessing the managerial capability of the people involved in the implementation of a programme or project is crucial because the impact beyond completion will depend on their ability to maintain and sustain the changes brought by the say programme or project. Ashan and Gunawan (2010) identified the lack of managerial capabilities has one of the reasons why projects fail which was later on confirmed in another study by Ika (2012).

	Weight	Project 1	Project 2	Project 3
Strategic Alignment	20%
Cost-effectiveness	20%
Risks	10%
Benefits, Outputs and Outcomes	15%
Impact and Sustainability	15%
Managerial Capability	10%
Total

Throughout the implementation of programmes and projects, the following tools will used to make their management easier:

The work breakdown structure will be used to break down programme and project activities into manageable work packages therefore making the planning process easier. The RAID Log will help track any changes or activities that can have an impact on the programme or project. These changes can either be risks, issues,

assumptions or dependencies. Risks in this case will be defined as events whose occurrence will have a negative impact on the programme or project if not properly mitigated while issues will be event that are occurring and require attention. Assumptions will be defined as actions or events that are assumed to be in place and contribute to the successful implementation of a programme or project while dependencies will be any event or work package that depends on the programme or project and vice versa.

Project selection and management in international development organisations

5.2 Selection and Management Tools