The Swiss Project Management Journal
The People Project
In your opinion, what makes a project
managed in a non-profit organization similar to a project led in a for-profit
organization?
Oh well, let’s say … the projects in Save the
Children are really similar to the ones
managed in a private company, they
present phases you might have in a
private project: the feasibility study, the
objectives and KPI definition, the
resource allocation, the definition of the
plan and budget, a long list of stake-
holders such as children (stakeholder
#1!), families, local communities, institu-
tions and governments, donors, Save the
Children staff and volunteers …
Taking as an example the cooperation
project: at the basis of a good inter-
national cooperation project there is a
proper identification of problems. Once a
problem has been identified, it is neces-
sary to analyze the factors that determine
the occurrence of that problem. This is
how to formulate a tree of problems.
There are usually three levels of causes
that are defined based on the cause and
effect relationship that exists between
these: immediate causes, underlying
Project Management Institute
SWITZERLAND Chapter 13
take place in order to send specialized
personnel or volunteers to provide help to
the affected population, especially to
children. Looking at the Italian situation,
Save the Children Italia provided fast help
to the populations hit by the recent
powerful and destructive earthquakes in
Central Italy, starting from 2006 in Aquila
city right up to the last earthquakes in
Amatrice and Norcia villages at the end of
2016.
I think this is a great job and it is also hard
to manage these kind of projects,
especially when it is necessary to rapidly
coordinated intervention with other
groups or institutions!
Yes, it is. Behind all of this, there is a big
coordination job, not only internally in
our organization but also with the
government s, regional institutions,
associations and other NGOs a s well!
causes, and structural causes (root
causes).
To carry out this analysis in a correct and
in-depth way, the fundamental thing is to
have a clear idea of the stakeholders and
their level of influence and engagement,
the constant involvement of all the
beneficiaries and all the actors who can
play a role in the context of the
intervention.
The full involvement of the beneficiaries
in the definition of the international
cooperation project is crucial, in
particular the accountability of national
actors in the implementation of the
project and technical assistance oriented
to transfer knowledge to the local
population.
The first element behind a good
international cooperation project can be
its proper identification and formulation:
when the process is upstream, a detailed
analysis of project issues, future project
actors and, above all, the realistic
definition of expected results at the end
of the project needs to be done; the
2017 Edition