ADES is a social organization promoting community development and the vindication and defence of human rights. Read more about its goals and work on the "Partenaires" page.

 

The project I will be doing with them over the next one-and-a-half years intends to build institutional capacities in project management, particularly in designing and formulating gender-sensitive projects through participatory methods.

 

 

Why Project Management?

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The goal is to ensure that

• communities are involved in the design of their projects (=decide what will be done and how)

• projects consider the different needs of population groups, especially with regards to gender

• projects continue to be oriented towards the needs of the community  

• the sustainability of ADES – and it’s close community organisations it helped establish – is improved.

 

ADES is already pretty good at networking and finding (international) funding for the various projects they implement with the communities. In the last 5 years, they have implemented a total of 29 projects from 14 different funders from all around the world. But, a lot of the identification and formulation work has been done by one person. What ADES wants to do, is involve the technical team more in the design of projects – after all, they are the ones that are implementing them, so they also have the best relationship with the communities and have a very good feeling of what could work under which circumstances.

 

And when it comes to the allied organizations – a community radio, a women’s cooperative, an agricultural cooperative, water cooperative, and the committee against AIDS and for LGBTIQ+ rights – the goal is to help them gain a higher level of independence when it comes to designing their projects and searching for funds.

 

How will we be doing this?

 

The aim is to develop an institutionalized training and learning mechanism for ADES and its member organizations, which can be adapted to the different levels and needs of the organization. 

 

1. Evaluation of capacity needs in project management

2. Design and implementation of a long-term training/coaching program

3. Create a team of Project Management Facilitators. They will evaluate the first cycle of the training program, adapt its contents, and – in a second step – implement trainings and coaching with the allied organisations.

4. The Project Management Facilitators will also design a 2-year plan on how the team can continuously update their knowledge, exchange experiences, and continue to learn from their practice.

5. Do a participatory evaluation with the teams of the entire project, to know what worked well, what didn’t work well, what impact did it have on their work, how ADES can continue the program, etc.

 

That’s the plan. As with every plan, it will surely be changed throughout the course of the project.

 

But for now, I’m looking forward to the challenge of imparting a topic that – let’s be honest – most people consider a bit drab and bureaucratic *%”& in a way that get’s people to the conclusion: Project Management is fun!

 

Or at least… useful.