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PEN International Guidance Notes for PEN Centres: 2. Project Cycle
What is it?
The project cycle is a well-known and very useful process for planning,
implementing and evaluating activities. It is used to examine what a project is trying
to achieve and why.
It provides a way of assessing how a project performs in practice. It provides
information to help improve the project and overcome difficulties.
Using the cycle, projects are visualised as a circle or spiral in which each stage
informs the following one. The circle repeats itself: this shows that experience
gained in carrying out one piece of work is fed into future activities.
The Project Cycle
Assessment and planning
implementation,
evaluation
monitoring
(source: Save the Children UK)
Why do it?
This formal and staged process brings an element of discipline to planning and
carrying out projects. When it is combined with common sense, experience and
judgement it really helps groups and organisations make thoughtful decisions about
the work that they do.
It helps to promote a culture of reflection where those involved have to question
their assumptions, justify decisions and recognise mistakes.
It also helps with the following aspects of development which are often required by
donors:
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Accountability: Many PEN Centres carry out projects funded by donors.
The donors want to know if their funds have been used effectively and
efficiently. In carrying out many projects, Centre staff and volunteers are
working with individuals and communities to help them improve the quality of
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their lives. They have a responsibility to be clear about what they are doing,
why they are doing it; and what results have been achieved.
Using the project cycle methodology means that Centres can be
accountable both to donors and to beneficiaries.
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Improving performance: At the end of each cycle, Centre staff and
volunteers will need to reflect upon what worked well, what was not so
successful and how they will plan for the next piece of work. This should
lead to improved performance and results.
Learning: The process of monitoring and evaluation provides an opportunity
for improving projects, reflecting on successes and failures and sharing
experiences with other organisations working in similar projects. The
process of monitoring and evaluation can also help staff and others develop
new skills.
Communication: Project cycles can also provide a clear way of agreeing
and communicating what Centres are doing within the Centre itself, with
other Centres and externally.
When and how?
It is carried out:
- before the project starts (planning),
- while it is being implemented (monitoring),
- at specific points during and after the project (review, evaluation and impact
assessment).
It is important that a good cross section of people at all levels are involved in all
elements of this process. This includes staff, volunteers and beneficiaries. There
will of course be a small core group who will be managing the whole process, but
there are roles for different groups of people at each stage of the project cycle.
Key Steps
1. Assessment and Planning: Identify and understand a problem, plan a series
of actions to deal with it. Develop clear aims and objectives.
At the planning stage of a project or programme information about the main issues
and about the context is vital for a good understanding on which to base future
work. This is called a situation analysis.
A situation analysis should include information about:
- the people in the area affected by the work;
- government policies and programmes;
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social, economic and political systems;
cultural beliefs and attitudes;
roles of men, women and children;
vested interests and what other organisations are doing in the same
areas.
Aims are needed to give an overall focus to the work, and to give direction to
programme planning and design. They describe the longer-term changes the
project is expected to produce.
Objectives clearly express the changes that you are trying to bring about – and
therefore what the work is trying to achieve – so that activities can be designed to
meet them.
If the objectives are clear:
- everyone understands why they are engaged in chosen activities,
- progress related to achieving these objectives can be measured.
As situations change and develop, it may be necessary to adapt the objectives to
suit these changing circumstances or your better understandings of the situation.
Activities: are what the project actually does in order to achieve the aims and
objectives. There may be several possible ways of achieving the aims and
objectives, and the best should be chosen – based on the situation analysis,
available resources and overall aim of the project.
The following chart gives an example of how aims objectives and activities relate to
each other.
Project
Aim
Objectives
PEN will become a cultural force in xxxxx (country) by fostering the
development of community-based programs that promote reading
and writing, advance written and oral literary culture, and advocate
greater freedom of expression.
1. To promote a greater love of literature in ….. region
2. To support the development of quality teaching in schools in xxx
region
3. To advocate for the freedom of expression at all levels
Activities
To achieve objective 1:
- Activity 1: Reading Circles: monthly meetings for PEN
members and the general public, with book presentations,
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readings and discussion.
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Activity 2: Organise writers workshops where published
authors will support participants with ideas and guidance
To achieve objective 2:
- Activity 1: Set up and facilitate Training Workshops for
Teachers
- Activity 2: Source and supply quality literature and books for
schools in xxxxx
- Activity 3: Story competitions in schools
2. Implementation
In this stage, the activities that you have planned are carried out and
documented
3. Monitoring:
Monitoring means keeping track and making a record of what is happening on a
day to day basis: how many activities have taken place, how many people are
taking part in the activities ( men/women, boys/girls), how much is being spent.
By doing this, your management team can ensure that the work stays on course by
checking. They can measure progress towards achieving objectives. They can
identify problems as they come up, and adapt plans to changing circumstances.
The results of the monitoring processes can be fed directly back into planning so
that necessary changes can be made. The information that is gathered through this
monitoring process will contribute to the process of evaluation.
4. Evaluation:
Evaluation differs from monitoring in that it focuses on the overall progress the
project has made, not only in completing activities but also in achieving its
objectives and overall aim.
It will assess changes that have occurred as a result of the project taking place –
planned changes and unexpected ones.
Evaluation looks backwards at what has been done and can be used to analyse
and learn from the experience, to understand reasons for successes and failures, to
communicate experience to others, and see how the money has been spent.
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