Project Monitoring and Analysis
IMPORTANCE OF PROJECT ANALYSIS, MONITORING AND EVALUATION
DEFINITION OF A PROJECT
There have been many attempts to define projects since 1950s. Before we arrive at our own working definition, let us examine a few of such definition.
1. “A project may be defined as an organism that converts resources (inputs) into results (output)” Van de Laar (1987).
2. “The term project is used here to refer to an activity or set of related activities, which is planned and implemented as an identifiable whole” Conyers and Hills (1984).
3. “The whole complex of activities involved in using resources to gain benefits constitutes over project” Gittinger (1980).
4. “.... a project is taken to be a discrete package of investments, policy measures and institutional and other actions designed to achieve a specific development objective (or set of objectives) within a designated period” Baum and Tolbert (1985).
5. “Any scheme, or part of a scheme for investing resources which can reasonably be analysed and evaluated as an independent unit”.
6. “a project is a time bound plan or scheme of activities undertaken to achieve a set of desired objectives” (National Banking College, Ghana 1997)
7. “Ä project is the investment of capital in a time-bound intervention to create productive assets” (Usworth & Franks, 1995)
It will perhaps be helpful to consider the features of a project in order to evaluate the above definitions and to frame our own.
FEATURES OF A PROJECT 1. It is an activity or set of activities on which expend (or resources) in expectation of returns.
2. A project logically appears to lend itself to planning, financial and implementation as a unit.
3. A project is usually a specific activity with a specific starting point and a specific ending intended to accomplish objective.
4. A project has a defined conceptual boundary; you can draw a boundary around it and be able to say what the project is.
5. The
DEFINITION OF A PROJECT
There have been many attempts to define projects since 1950s. Before we arrive at our own working definition, let us examine a few of such definition.
1. “A project may be defined as an organism that converts resources (inputs) into results (output)” Van de Laar (1987).
2. “The term project is used here to refer to an activity or set of related activities, which is planned and implemented as an identifiable whole” Conyers and Hills (1984).
3. “The whole complex of activities involved in using resources to gain benefits constitutes over project” Gittinger (1980).
4. “.... a project is taken to be a discrete package of investments, policy measures and institutional and other actions designed to achieve a specific development objective (or set of objectives) within a designated period” Baum and Tolbert (1985).
5. “Any scheme, or part of a scheme for investing resources which can reasonably be analysed and evaluated as an independent unit”.
6. “a project is a time bound plan or scheme of activities undertaken to achieve a set of desired objectives” (National Banking College, Ghana 1997)
7. “Ä project is the investment of capital in a time-bound intervention to create productive assets” (Usworth & Franks, 1995)
It will perhaps be helpful to consider the features of a project in order to evaluate the above definitions and to frame our own.
FEATURES OF A PROJECT 1. It is an activity or set of activities on which expend (or resources) in expectation of returns.
2. A project logically appears to lend itself to planning, financial and implementation as a unit.
3. A project is usually a specific activity with a specific starting point and a specific ending intended to accomplish objective.
4. A project has a defined conceptual boundary; you can draw a boundary around it and be able to say what the project is.
5. The