Our 10 years aniversary has arrived... (June 08)

Dear visitor

Our 10 years’ aniversary has arrived; an opportunity to celebrate and recognize your part in our achievements.

If, in the past you have participated in any of our courses or workshops we thank you for the confidence you have placed in us. Your contributions have enabled the establishment of a vast reference base on Project Cycle Management (PCM) and the Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) tool. If you have not been a participant yet in our courses or workshops, you are invited to take advantage of our special offer and enroll and in turn benefit from this reference base.

It may be considered quite unique that PCM has not been pushed aside by any other new models. Interestingly, it has become even more strongly anchored in industry and its application has spread more broadly in use over the last few years.

‘Tool’ versus ‘Process’

It all started 18 years ago. In 1990, the Evaluation Unit in DG VIII (Development) of the European Commission initiated the introduction of the LFA tool throughout the project cycle. Following a comparative study of evaluation reports, it became obvious that project quality-improvements were strongly needed. At that time it was referred to as ‘The Integrated Approach’ and was aimed at developing and verifying each consecutive phase of the project cycle; a logical image of the intervention in the form of the Logical Framework MATRIX. This matrix became known as ANNEX 1 to all EU proposals and was considered a guarantee of proposal quality. However, most of the matrixes produced were (and still are) perceived as a bureaucratic compliance and were prepared last minute by individuals as a ‘box-ticking’ exercise. As a result very few of those matrixes were actually a product of the intended participatory workshops process between end-users and suppliers. Apparently one could get away with it as proposals got approved anyway! How mistaken was management to perceive that the existence of a matrix was a guarantee of quality without having verified the PROCESS of proposal preparation! Such information has never been requested in the infamous application forms!

Successfully piloted in the EQUAL programme over the last few years, the national agencies of the European Social Fund (ESF) supported the dissemination of this particular PCM PROCESS. Some agencies have actually taken firm stances to enhance the quality of the proposal preparation process. For example, the ESF agencies in Italy, Belgium Wallonia, and Poland have disseminated the PCM Process information via training sessions and a web site: Sound Planning and Management. They have shared experiences about their introduction of PCM amongst their community. Other agencies in Sweden, Portugal, and Belgium Flanders have launched extensive dissemination initiatives with manuals and training.

Further diverting from development cooperation

Beginning in 2002 SenterNovem, the Dutch Agency for Innovation and Environment, has adopted the LFA process and calls it P3N (Programming at 3 levels). Training their staff to design better tenders has become a part of the regular curriculum. Additionally, the organization of participatory workshops using their own trained facilitators has been a core element to reach agreements between stakeholders involving public and private organizations, e.g. Ministries in relation to Municipalities and Industries. You can read about these processes further here.

We see more and more interest in the LFA process elsewhere. Recently the Outreach Unit of the International Criminal Court applied the LFA workshop process to develop their own strategy and encourages each involved country to do the same themselves. Read more.

A very interesting use of this tool has occurred in University settings, where individual scientists are using the PCM process to draft funding proposals in order to boost shrinking University research budgets. The social benefit looked for by donors and sponsors were often not clear in technical research projects. New structures may have to be developed to bring different faculties together in multi-disciplinary project teams necessary for the implementation of such projects. Initially very critically and sceptically received, one approach became clear: it is the task of the scientists to win over the non-expert, decision maker in the donor organization by presenting a proposal that has a proper mix between technical science jargon and social benefit. We tried it out a.o. in Delft University of Technology.

Present

In the light of this 10 year celebration we are offering you a gift voucher of 10% discount on all our courses scheduled over the remainder of this year. To become eligible for this discount you only need to send in a half-page story explaining how the LFA process has been or could be useful to you. Hints can be found in the document: Why PCM? (Click here to download the pdf document).

Best regards.

Erik Kijne

PCM Group, Process Consultants & Moderators, Brussels, BELGIUM

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