NGO support toolkit (English)  >  Technical support 

Project management

In order to be able to develop and implement any programme of work, NGOs and CBOs need project management skills. Good project management can contribute not only to the efficiency of the work, but can play a huge role in maximising the quality, impact and sustainability of an intervention.

As organisations mature, and come to manage larger, more complex projects, NGO/CBO support providers (NSPs) will have to help project managers develop more sophisticated skills. But such technical support will only be valuable to the extent that they encourage implementing partners to ensure all staff and volunteers involved in the project have a good understanding of the project cycle.

The key areas of project planning and management that NGOs and CBOs may need help with are:

• Assessment
• Design and planning
• Monitoring and performance management
• Evaluation
• Project cycle planning

There will be differences in approach depending on whether the NSP is supporting a wholly new programme of work, which can be planned and developed from the beginning or the scaling up of an existing programme, where different elements of project management may already be in place, or if the NSP is supporting an experienced NGO to manage its first HIV-related programme.

In some cases, especially where technical support is a contractual requirement of grant funding, the NSP may become involved in hands-on assistance with major change management within the CBO and NGO. In other cases, especially where an experienced NGO has more experience of project management, technical support may focus on helping managers in the NGO troubleshoot particular problems.

All this needs to be taken into account when tailoring the technical assistance to local needs and circumstances. It is important for NSPs to assess the project management capacity of each of their NGO partners, which is best done in partnership with their managers and governing body.

Issues to consider

• Some less experienced NGOs, especially CBOs, will have developed in crisis mode, as an urgent response to an epidemic threatening their communities. They may need persuading of the benefits of a more formal approach to project management.
• Skills in project management can also be applied to other development issues outside the field of HIV/AIDS, or conversely, adapted from experience in these other fields.
• Sometimes particular aspects of project management, such as monitoring or evaluation are not addressed until later in a programme of technical support. However it should be emphasised that all aspects of project management, including monitoring and evaluation, are best addressed at the beginning of a programme.
• There can be different approaches to project management for different scales of working. In other words, the correct scheduling of technical aspects of project management should coincide with when they will be most needed in practice.
• NSPs need to assess the quality of the technical support they offer with realism and humility. Sometimes, especially in the case of newly established NSPs, their staff may have less experience of project management than some of the NGOs they are supporting.

Related themes

Project design & selection

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