Project Life Cycle – Planning Your Youth Development Projects

The project develops through 4 main phases: Preparation, Planning, Implementation and Conclusion. It is important to understand what each phase entails in order to write a successful proposal. In fact, when submitting a proposal (or a concept note) you must demonstrate to have an innovative idea to solve a contingent problem, a methodology to tackle this problem, a way to attract the attention and begin a productive collaboration with your target group, a strong vision on how you will manage all the proposed activitiesand deliver what you promised timely and respecting the financial restrains of the allocated budget.

Preparation for Your Youth Development Projects

The main goal of the first phase is to write a successful proposal to attract funding from donors. First of all it is good practice to convene all the members of the organisation to discuss about potential ideas for a new project. This first meeting should decide what you would like to do broadly. For instance, your organisation realises that one of the main problems of young people in your community is the high level of unemployment and, as such, members of your organisation decide to set up a training program to increase the employability of the target group.

The members of the organisation will be divided in two groups. Group 1 will conduct background research with the aim of gathering information about the situation of youth unemployment also in relation to what has been done previously to solve this problem. Group 2 will be in charge of organising focus groups with young people. The goal of this group is to test whether the target group would be interested in attending trainings and whether they have ideas or suggestions to help you design these trainings according to their needs and interests. This second group will also have the task of collecting real life stories from young people to further probe that your project is really needed. The results of group 1 and 2 will be disseminated among all the members of the organisation. At this point you have all the information necessary to develop a strong proposal. Namely, you will need to elucidate:

1. What is the main goal of your project? How the life of young people in your community will be affected by the implementation of this project? For instance, the goal of your project could be to decrease the rate of unemployment among people aged 18 to 25 living in your community.
2. What are the outcomes of the project? How the life of young people in your community will be improved thanks to your trainings? For instance, people attending the trainings will know how to write a resume successfully, they will know how to use a certain software, they will know how to speak a foreign language (according to what the aim of the training was).
3. What are the outputs of the project? What will be produced as a result of the training? For instance, a manual could be assembled for further trainings or a report could be written to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the training cycle.
4. What are the activities of the project? Activities are the concrete means to reach a stated goal. For instance, a cycle of trainings in a specific field is an activity.
5. What are your inputs? What do you need to implement the project? Inputs could be money, facilitators, manuals, or infrastructures to run your trainings.

Project Management for Youth-based Projects

Source: www.fonsforngos.org 

Whether you are an experienced project leader or you are moving your first steps in the NGO-world, you should keep in mind that the secret of being successful in this field is to plan in advance to deliver what you promised. To have a good idea is rarely enough to achieve concrete changes in your community. Certainly, creativity will help you imagining how to tackle an existing problematic situation and propose a set of activities, which could interest the youth of your community. Yet, if you want to attract funding both from development agencies and private donors you have to learn how to write a project,monitoring its development and report to those whosponsored you. This is why to understand what projectmanagement entails is of crucial importance.

Project management is the process of designing and monitoring the development of a set of activities aimed to reach a goal. It starts with the analysis of one or more issues relevant to your community in order to propose a concretestrategy able to address said issues with the aim of solving existing problems. Project management begins with an in-depth analysis of the economic, social and political situation of your community.

Once you gathered this information, you will draw on the collected data to build your project proposal, which will include the rationale of the proposed project, its main goals, the timeframe and its main outputs. A successful project proposal is the one that clearly states the steps you are taking to move from the evaluation of a problematic situation to its resolution in a limited time span. Additionally, a successful proposal includes an explanation of how you intent to monitor the development of your project as a means to assess its final outcomes and your overall success. You should also take into consideration that planning has to deal with the uncertainty of the future.

As such, a strong proposal draws on the analysis of the present to list a series of potential risks that the project is taking also to imagine ways in which you could engage with them if they happened. Lastly, a good proposal spells out how you intent to report on the progress of your project to your stakeholders being them your donors, potential partner organisations, your community and your target group. This part is of utter importance especially for those who are financially supporting your activities. To clearly state how you will communicate with them, when, and how they will become part of your project (for instance by participating in the final events, meeting the participants, or reviewing your financial activities) will demonstrate your ability to manage a grant and it will support the creation of long-term working relationships with donors, who might become interested in sponsoring other future projects.

The next 5 sections will guide you through the main phases of project management. You will be given a general idea of what is expected from you. You will also find a list of common mistakes to be avoided. Further, each section will give you examples and practical information that you can use to write your own projects targeting youth.

http://www.fundsforngos.org/free-resources-for-ngos/project-life-cycle-planning-youth-development-projects/

Will be continue in next blog.

CALL FOR APPLICATION

Bigyan Memorial Research Award

Raju Memorial Youth Award

1. Bigyan Memorial Research Award

On 23^rd September 2006, the helicopter crash at Ghunsa took place and the world lost 24 dedicated people working in conservation and environment. Among these 24 was Late Bigyan Acharya, an environmentalist and a member of Environment and Public Health Organization(ENPHO). In honor of Late Acharya, ENPHO has established a “Bigyan Memorial Research Award” to enable individuals to conduct research work on the field of environment and science, which will help to build younger generation working on environment sector. 

This Memorial Award will be granted each year and this year the award will be announced in 22^nd annual general assembly of this ENPHO. In this regard, a research proposal is requested from interested students/researchers for conducting research work in the following fields of study:

• Water and Sanitation
• Climate Change
• Ground water resource and River Pollution
• Other Environment related issues

Required Documents:

• Proposal maximum 10 pages
• Updated CV
• An Official “Letter of Recommendation” form applicants’ supervisor or mentor
• An Official “Letter of Approval” form department/college head.

Eligibility Criteria:

• All students who had passed Master 1st year & currently joined Masters’ Second year program and supposed to start their thesis.
• Age less than 30 years.

Memorial award of amount: NRs. 25,000/-

• Deadline for submission of proposal: 31^st August 2013
• Selection Notification: October 3^rd Week
• Duration of Research Grant: November 2013 - April 2014 (6 months)

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2. Raju Memorial Youth Award

On April 21, 2011, Environment and Public Health Organization had lost a member, young colleague and a youth working with ideas and commitment to bring safe drinking water and sanitation to rural people of Nepal. In recognition of this untimely and tragic loss, ENPHO has established “Raju Memorial Youth Award” to be awarded to individual or organization working remarkably on water and sanitation sector in Nepal. In this regard, individual or organizations working in water and sanitation sector in various areas of Nepal are requested for application along with detailed documents reflecting experiences in the following address.

Required Document:

• Proposal (flexible)
• Organizational Profile (If you are approaching through organization) Valid recommendation letter from two professional referee (If you are applying individually)

Memorial award of amount: NRs. 10,000
Deadline for submission of proposal: 31^st August 2013

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Application should be addressed to:
Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO)
New Baneshwor, Kathmandu
Contact no. 4493188, 4468641
Email:  enpho@enpho.org

2013 Urban Photographer of the Year Competition

Deadline:  31st August 2013.

Calling all amateur and professional photographers alike! The CBRE Urban Photographer of the Year competition challenges you to capture what you consider to be the essence of urban life at any time of day, anywhere in the world. Our theme this year, ”Cities at Work’’, encourages you to portray the life of your chosen town or city.
Theme : ‘Cities At Work’

The Urban Photographer of the Year will be the person who, in the eyes of the judges, has best captured the brief to portray the life of a town or city at a given time of day. Whilst the photograph does not necessarily have to be taken at that specific time of day, it does need to look as though it was. You can choose to photograph any town or city at work worldwide.  For example, a photograph could capture London at 4am, Lisbon at 2pm, Dubai at 9pm and so on. When you submit your photographs you will be asked to select which hour of the day each represents – this will place each in an hourly prize category. Please note, you can only submit one photograph for each hour of the day. You will also be given the option to enter each under one of six new categories based around urban themes. If you do not feel your photograph is represented by any these, please choose ‘none of the above’.   You cannot change your entry one you have submitted it. Therefore, we advise that you take great care when selecting the hour and category for each image that you wish to submit.
The new categories are as follows:

1.Travel/Transport
Travel is a vital part of any urban landscape; the Travel/Transport category will house your pictures of modes of transport, journeys and movement.

2.Workplace
This category will showcase the very best of the competition’s images of people at, or places of, work.
3.Architecture

Architecture and the built environment is an integral part of urban society. Here we ask you to submit imaginative shots that capture the history, atmosphere and character of a city’s buildings.

4.Urban regeneration
Urban regeneration is seen as essential to revitalising impoverished urban areas, developing communities and improving the infrastructure of society. We are seeking the most thought provoking images depicting how these projects are transforming our urban environment.

5.Cityscape
By day or night, many city’s have distinctive skyline’s. Can you capture the life and stature of an urban landscape in one photograph?
6.Environment

Integrating environmental thinking into urban development has resulted in much creativity as cities seek to breathe fresh air into the hustle and bustle of daily life. We’re looking for images that have demonstrated green thinking.

What size does the image have to be?
Images should be no smaller than 2MB and no larger than 3MB. Images should be in JPEG format. All images must be saved in the RGB colour model and be at a minimum of @300 dpi. (8 X 10). Please note that we will contact you by email for the higher resolution image should we require your image for our coffee table book. Images that are taken on camera phones can be entered into the competition. These images should still be no smaller than 2MB in order to enter them – we may need to contact you for a higher resolution image. The entrant must be the sole author and owner of the copyright and all other rights in all images, which they enter. Images that have won prizes in other competitions are not eligible for this competition.

Prizes

First Prize: photo safari holiday,

Second Prize: Olympus OM-D Camera,

Third Prize: Blue Dot display stand

Click here for more information.