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.