Partnership and Participation and Results-Based Management
This essay consists of two questions. Presentation: - Clearly indicate the title of each question, without repeating the sub-questions, and add short titles to each of your sections and sub-sections, in bold - Indicate the source of cited facts & opinions, and add a list of references or bibliography at the end. - Use pronoun “I” since this is an individual paper and has to be written from your point of view. First question Partnership and Participation - What are we talking about exactly? - Is the importance accorded partnership and local participation that dominates the present discourse a real innovation or a way of being “politically correct”? - What are the conditions that will make the principle of partnership really work? - How can local participation influence the project cycle? Second question Results-Based Management - General appraisal: RBM – a helpful tool or a constraint? - Analysis: What do you think are the benefits, limitations, contradictions and challenges of RBM when applied to development projects? - Implementation: What approach would you take with your partner organization in a developing country when required to use RBM? Primary reference texts - For Question 1: CCIC, Effective Partnerships for Development, 2006 - For Question 2: Reidar Dale, The logical framework: an easy escape, a straitjacket, or a useful planning tool?, 2003. Each text analysis structure: - Introduction: What is the subject about and main questions, why is it important, what is your general appraisal, and how will you present your analysis (1/2 page) - Analysis: A short description of the main issue, problem or point, and any relevant opinions and critiques. Do you share or not their points of view and why? What could be done differently? How to implement these ideas, if applicable (4-5 pages) - Conclusion: A convincing summary of your main argument(s) (1/2 p.)
Project Management
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Question One
Introduction
Project management is an intricate process as it involves quite a number of members and stakeholders. This means that most of the time the decisions that have to be made, must include the insights from some of the members that have vested interests in what the project can achieve for them. The community where the project is to be established play a vital role. This means that the project managers have to work with the community to ensure smooth implementation. Where the community does not feel that they have been included in the project in a way that they would fully benefit from the same, there is bound to be some element of conflict. This further complicates the completion of the project and reduces the chances of achieving the objectives of the project. As such, one of the best approaches is covered through partnership and participation. Project managers have the liberty of choosing what level of involvement that community is engaged at (Work, 2016). However, it is also crucial to note that, in some of the cases depending on the objectives and the general dynamics of the agreement between the stakeholders, a project manager may choose between the two. In the case of partnership, the project may be one that is geared towards ensuring that the community is deeply involved and may have to manage some of the elements of the implementation process and the fact that, the community may at one time be handed the operational aspect of the project to manage. Some of this aspect tend to be driven in large part by politics than they are by productivity. With the result based management all the players get their chance to deliver on the various strategic goals of a project (Work, 2016). This can be a healthy approach and one that gives a project the much needed interventions relative to resources and the general element of cohesiveness with all the stakeholders involved. This paper offers some of the highlights with reference to participation, partnership and insights into the elements of results based management and how they influence projects management.
Partnership and participation
To understand partnerships, it important to evaluate the relationship that exists between Canada and the civil society (Cartier & Quebec, 2016). The anti-apartheid movements saw a lot of partnerships with reference to the achievements that were achieved in the 60s and the 70s. Where the civil society made invaluable contributions. Projects tend to have quite a number of dimensions that have to be considered either from the inception, implementation and even hand over processes. A community project for example with have effects on quite a number of persons and in varied ways.
Partnership
Where the government has to work with the civil society, there is an element of partnership. Partnership is basically the element of working together (Cartier & Quebec, 2016). There are however some principles that are a measure of a good partnership, such as shared values, trust, respect, reciprocity, self-criticism, risk taking, continuity, responsiveness and honesty. This means that most of the roles are shared between the project management teams and the community members where the project is to be implemented. The community members in this case will be some of the key players in the society, acting in different capacities (Banker, 2016).
Participation
On the other hand, there is the aspect of participation, where the people in the community in the location the project is being implemented are given that chance to take part in the decision making among other aspects such as implementation of the various parts of the project (Wasilwa, 2016). Participation allows the members of the community or generally the stakeholders to take part in the project management processes at different stages (Banker, 2016). This however, does not give them as much control, relative to the level of integration into the processes.
Political Correctness
Political correctness is associated with the democratic functions. This with reference to the public policies that have to be implemented or that have been implemented. Human rights also play role in the implementation of the project objectives as they have to be considerate and beneficial to the key players in the society (Cartier & Quebec, 2016). Where there are conflicting aspects, it is crucial that the parties involved at the society level are involved in the decision making processes, especially the representing voices in the said society. Participation or partnership offers some form value addition and the fact that is also allows the project management team to also get some additional insights. Having the community on the team helps the implementing to get informed on some of the aspects about the community that will better enhance the implementation process. This is to mean that, if for example the government is trying to implement a certain policy within the community, they will have a better chance of succeeding if they have some members of the community on the team. They will offer insights on the general feedback on the suggested course of action.
‘“Civil society is often way ahead of governments.†“How many times have we seen the ‘crazy ideas’ of a handful of people eventually become policy, and common practice?†Civil society “can often act more quickly than governments.†Whether by finding practical ways to put women at the centre of development initiatives or leading a movement to conserve agricultural bio-diversity, civil society – at its best – is recognized for its innovation and risk-taking, its ability to “think outside the box†and imagine new ways of doing things. It is an “incubator†of new ideas and approaches – that can be tested on a small scale, and later scaled up. For civil society to play an effective role in development, its capacity for innovation should be nurtured.’ (Cartier & Quebec, 2016)
It is also crucial to note that, community members interact with a project in two main ways. One of the main ways is through contribution, where they bring development into the project, and the other way involves the element of benefiting from the project in question. As beneficiaries, the stake holders the community members will give insights into how well the project was implemented relative to previous inputs on how the project should be implemented. As such, they give their inputs in loops to such that, the project management team is able to make adjustments where necessary. With regard to contributions, the community may in this case do it directly or indirectly. This is to mean that, the community may directly influence the direction that a projects takes where they are partners in the same. However, they can also influence the project progress through participation, wh...