Fundamentals of Planning PDF

PL155 FUNDAMENTALS OF PLANNING DIMENSIONS OF PLANNING FOR DEVELOPMENT © 2007 Pearson Education  Outline  Dimensions of project planning  Social aspects of project planning  Economic and financial dimensions...

PL155 FUNDAMENTALS OF PLANNING DIMENSIONS OF PLANNING FOR DEVELOPMENT © 2007 Pearson Education  Outline  Dimensions of project planning  Social aspects of project planning  Economic and financial dimensions of project planning  Cost recovery policy  The role of institutions in planning  Structure of institutions  Organisational procedures © 2007 Pearson Education  Introduction  Understanding planning for development requires that planning activities are classified according to the goal they intend to achieve  Several of such examples include: emergency planning, town and country planning/ human settlement planning, development planning, strategic planning  © 2007 Pearson Education 3-3  Dimensions of Project Planning © 2007 Pearson Education 3-4  Social aspects of project planning  This type of planning is done with the society or the population in mind  This is very essential dimension of planning. Why?  Project affect people as beneficiaries (intended consumers); producers; victims (unintended losers)  It also takes into consideration the strategies necessary to win and retain the support of intended beneficiaries to design, implement, monitor and evaluate project goals and objectives © 2007 Pearson Education 3-5  Issues for consideration  Socio-cultural issues (taboos, customs, festivals and practices etc.)  Demographic issues (size of population, age-sex structure, birth rate, death rate etc.)  Social organizations (groups and associations, local unions, clubs etc.)  Institutional issues (laws, power and systems)  Active participation by the beneficiaries  Gender sensitivity (role of and interest of women) © 2007 Pearson Education 3-6  Economic and financial dimensions of project planning  Refers to the availability of adequate financial resources to begin and complete the project  Important because projects which failed to capture the adequacy of funds have implementation challenges  Projects get either abandoned or suspended.  This dimension of planning also deals with recovering project cost especially from the beneficiaries. This ensures that funds are available to provide new projects.  Generally, all projects must be financially viable. © 2007 Pearson Education 3-7  How?  Necessary to prepare financial plans  What it entails: – mobilization and utilization of funds – recurrent costs – the financial situation of the beneficiaries (especially social goods) – the effects on district budgets – Cost recovery policy 3-8 © 2007 Pearson Education  Cost recovery policy Consider the following: – economic efficiency (pricing policy) i.e. an economic state in which all resources are allocated to serve each person in the best way possible, minimising waste and inefficiency such that any changes made to help one person would harm another – income distribution in society (equity) – revenue generation (project’s ability to generate income) © 2007 Pearson Education 3-9  THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS IN DEVELOPMENT PLANNING © 2007 Pearson Education 3-10  Institutions and Organisations  Douglas North (2009) defines Institutions as:  “the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic and social interaction”  The “rules” of the game, and Organisations are the “players” © 2007 Pearson Education 3-11  Two aspects of organizations which are interrelated for effective plan implementation are organizational structures and organization procedures. Organisational structures are the focus of organization theory and design Organizational procedures are the focus of management science © 2007 Pearson Education 3-12  The Structure of organization According to Mintzberg (1979), what organizations/institutions stand for can be described as follows: “Every organized human activity…gives rise to two fundamental and opposing requirements: the division of labour into various tasks to be performed and coordination of these tasks to accomplish the activity “The structure of an organization can be defined simply as the sum total of the ways in which it divides its labour into distinct tasks and then achieves coordination among them” © 2007 Pearson Education 3-13  Organogram or Organizational Chart  It is the easiest way to present an organization/institution Such a diagram shows the various individuals in the group, their positions in terms of power, command and authority as well as responsibility. A very important aspect of an organizational chart are the lines of communication among all the positions. © 2007 Pearson Education 3-14  Communication and relationships are important because of the following:  they reveal the hierarchical structure (centralized type/system characterized by bureaucracy or decentralized)  they indicate the difference between co-ordination through (direct) control or supervision and that which has to be obtained by consultation and or negotiation © 2007 Pearson Education 3-15   Co-ordination may be vertical or horizontal. Vertical co-ordination is when an institution (a higher one) controls another (a lower one) Horizontal co-ordination: when two institutions (of equal plane or authority) deal directly with each other © 2007 Pearson Education 3-16  E.g. An example of vertical co-ordination is the relationship between the Ministry of Local Government and the District Assemblies. Horizontal co-ordination is the relationship between Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Finance. © 2007 Pearson Education 3-17  Organisational procedures These are the ways of operations of the organization. These are mostly in-built within the organizational structures. They include codes of behaviour, norms and practices, processes of promotions and sanctions etc. © 2007 Pearson Education 3-18