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    Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

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  • I was once part of a LoveLife Ngo tram and we headed to rural communities to distribute condoms and pass on some sex-health information...we had roughly estimated a turn up of less that 100 participants and the local community hall. But to pur Suprise we had ran out of Flyers and condom packs to give away....

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  • To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all possibilities of what will negatively affect the outputs, inputs and outcome of your project. It can vary from natural, social, political, cultural, financial causes. In one of our project, one of the risks that the project had to deal with was the unpredicted category 5 cyclone that encountered the project just when the project had started making it difficult for communities to commit because they were faced with problems that needed urgent attention such as improving social services, health and basic needs. The project had to spend some money to unplanned activities to help these communities back on their feet.

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  • I always believe in stakeholder engagement when designing a project. By so doing you get a clear understanding of all the risks and assumptions which may affect all parties involved in the project.

    In my organization while designing the Youth Apprenticeship Project (YAP) where we wanted to turn fresh graduates into job creators we assumed that fresh graduates had the entrepreneurial ability. The risk we faced is that some graduates did not want to be entrepreneurs, they preferred to be employed and however much we called them to join this project, their mind set was different.

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  • @apostledavid58 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    I was once part of a LoveLife Ngo tram and we headed to rural communities to distribute condoms and pass on some sex-health information...we had roughly estimated a turn up of less that 100 participants and the local community hall. But to pur Suprise we had ran out of Flyers and condom packs to give away....

    So the your assumption that a few participants biased the project and made you run out of supplies? What exactly did you do to mitigate the risk?

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  • @Loraini said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all possibilities of what will negatively affect the outputs, inputs and outcome of your project. It can vary from natural, social, political, cultural, financial causes. In one of our project, one of the risks that the project had to deal with was the unpredicted category 5 cyclone that encountered the project just when the project had started making it difficult for communities to commit because they were faced with problems that needed urgent attention such as improving social services, health and basic needs. The project had to spend some money to unplanned activities to help these communities back on their feet.

    Am still learning and want to understand more, do risks have to affect a project negatively? For instance what if you make assumptions which can help the project to save time and money. What will that be classified as?

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  • At that moment there wasn't much that we could do except offer apologies and promises of bringing more supplies. But we learnt from that and made sure that prior to every visit to any location in future before going there for programs implementation, sometimes depending on old data provided by your country's general statistics can prove fatal to the success of your programs implementation

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  • once risks are identified, it is a better way to avoid all the negative impacts, so identifying risks is the crucial parts for the project to be successfull

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  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about situations which are either conducive
    to the achievement of the project’s objectives, or which are adverse, and the project has to find its own ways of dealing with them adequately.

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  • We hard a project to evaluate the influence of bribery to voters decision to vote a particular candidate. We went through all the approval processes, but in one of the districts, the district internal security officer even after meeting with him and the District police officer and all the district officials and all approved. After a few weeks of work he decided to withdraw his approval and chase us from the district. We went to other districts where were welcome but but he put announcements over the radio and called other security officers to chase us to.
    After getting all the approvals we did not anticipate this, so we hard to recall our officers from the field and we hard fresh engagements with these officials and provided all the (un)necessary documentations that they wanted but the underlying issue was that he had engaged in bribing voters and he feared that he would be found out. we re-assured him that the information will be held in strict confidence and that we do not attache names in the data and we were allowed to continue with work.

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  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

    To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about a factor in planning process that is considered to be true, real or certain often without any proof or demonstration. Another assumptions are events or circumstances that are expected to occur during the project life-cycle.

  • Following this module, I realized the importance of identifying risks and assumption during M&E plan, because it gives you to me , a prediction of the the reverse of you objective or I would say the reverse of your project summary.
    Thus identifying risk and assumption is an import part of M&E plan for an effective project.

    I remembered vividly when me and my friends were trying to organize a tutorial in my community at Jos North Plateau State Nigeria. After all have been said, about how we intended running the tutorial, one us asked the questions below:

    What if we couldn't get a conducive place to give the tutorials?
    What if we don't have money to buy chalk?

    With the above questions posed, we needed to rethink of ways to solve these problems in case they arise.

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  • I happened to take part in HIV Counseling and Testing services activity in one community few years ago. The exercise was expected to last for ten days. But unknown to us, some factors could affect the deliverables which we could not take note of. The day we intended to conclude the exercise, it rained heavily and no volunteer could go out that day as such we could not complete the exercise that day as planned.

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  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all the potential impacts that can affect the project and plan ahead what relevant mitigation measures can be applied. I was once involved in a project where we had to rebuild the project just after a year of establishment as it was destroyed by a category 3 cyclone. The rebuilding process was very slow as the community were more focused on rebuilding their lives and their homes rather than committing themselves to the project.

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  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.
    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.
    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?
    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    Despite the best of planning, some unexpected events can affect the outcome, such as adverse weather conditions that prompt women to rush to cultivate their fields instead of participating in the planned project event.

    To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about how local population would resolve the problem.

    Thank you for sharing your ideas!

  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.
    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.
    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?
    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    To identify risks and assumptions is necessary to think of the response you will get from the beneficiaries and their close influencers.For example family members and also their culture.To avoid bias,data is necessary or any information that support your core mandate.

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  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?
    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    It was in early this year 2019 when our project was starting at that time. we have discussed the overall scenarios of the risks and assumptions. The project's name is Hooyo Ku Hooyo in Somali which laterally means, mother to mother. A mother transferring health knowledge to another mother. It is about educating mothers of the reproductive age to the health benefits of having connected to the health centers. one study showed that more than 80% of the Somali mothers of the reproductive age and the pregnant and lactating mothers do not have the habit of going to the health facilities. SO in light of that. we have assumed the risks that may come ahead of the kick off of the project. To our surprise one the staff proposed that husbands may refuse their wives to listen or to accept the learning. So we all got shock, how dare a person whose wife taking knowledge is being refused by her husband. That was our.

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  • We hard an activity which was an orientation camp of beneficiaries and we hard to move with cash to pay for their feeding and transport . on are way to the camp we where attacked by robbers and went away with part of the money meant for feeding. and we have to source for fund from order overhead on the project.

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  • I was happened to organize a training for farmers on Farm record books. I raised a purchase request for refreshments and developed budget for transport refunds. According to the policies of my organization, it is the role of the finance officer to come and issue out payments to participants after a training is completed.

    After the 5 days' training was completed, it was time to pay off the participants by issuing transport refund and daily allowance. Unfortunately, the finance officer didn't show up because he thought the trainig was intended to end the next day and not on the day I concluded training (The risk). It so happens that he misunderstood the communication. The problem was that these farmers had come long distances and hired motorcycles for transport hoping they would pay up after receiving their allowances. The had started talking badly about the organization and how they will never turn up for any trainings as staff use their money for personal things. Which was not true.

    However, I permission from the fianancestors, I was able to handle the problem by using personal money to clear the participants and later organisation refunded.

    What I learned from this experience is that I had to take into consideration scenarios that the finance fails to make payments. From that time, I started thinking outside the box of any possible risks that may happen to affect the outcomes of the project.

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  • While deciding on risk and assumptions it is important to think about all the negatives that come to mind

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  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    Identifying riska before and after project design is paramount in achieving desired goal, but most risks to have a successful project are identified in the process of project implementation, for example when we are undergoing polio vaccine campaign with a target of 98% of children in the community, some school Proprietors refused assess to children in the school after notice have been written to them and accepted, we have to engage other stakeholders and invite them for sensitization before ACCESS was granted

  • Yes I agreed that, the important to identification of risk and assumptions, almost of peoples forget to consider about external risks and assumption on project because when developing preparation of project they are more consider about to success and meet the project objectives

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  • We are currently supporting monitoring of a health campaign and we have realized that part of the data or information collected at the formative stage is not reflective of the reality during the implementation. I am now realizing that we didn't plan adequately for the risk. The other challenge we are facing is that the project is being implemented in partnership with other entities and therefore as much as we know we need to review our initial strategy there is delay in doing so. Hopefully with this new knowledge we can find a way forward to review strategy and make the project a success.

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  • there were some difficulties in fund disbursement processes
    we have overcome this diffculty by prefinancing the activities until the disbursement is done

  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    To identify risk and assumption, it has helped me to see more further and be able to be alert and make wiser choices.

  • To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about what things can affect your project things out of your control. In my experience working with other organization its great but is always a risk to to trust complete in people, because sometimes what I expect in resources or things they will provided, is not what they process or what I expected. So having those things in mind helps me prepare better and make wise desicions.

  • This is a section i love most where you have to plan and ensure that the foreseen are incorporated in the logframe

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    The community, the Traditions and customs, the politicians and the economy is from the most risks and assumptions that can disrupt a project.

  • During the recruitment process for IGCSE for refugees we anticipated to enroll atleast 20 students but to our surprise we only had 5 refugees turning up and only 2 showed interests in the project.We had assumed that they are familiar with the system but in the contrarily they thought its only good for those in the UK or US.So we had to rethink and allocate a budget for community awareness an activity we had forgone.
    Lessons learnt:Always involve the target population at the mere thought of the idea
    How to Identify risk and assumptions--Ask as many questions as you can to each of your output and outcome

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  • Once we were implementing an educational project for managers of State Bodies within a year, but in the halfway the Government announced its resignation, and managers didn't know how then the project would be held. But we had a Memorandum of Understanding with Government which helped us to finish the project.

  • Before the current project, we dealt with another project on Mkopa. The company had hired a number of individuals who were to be involved in the project. Immediately after the project kicked off, some individuals pulled out of the team leaving the project with less team members and a lot of work which was to be done within the stipulated time-frame. This brought alot of work pressure that could have avoided by employing not the exact number of persons but additional for just emergency when occurs.

  • I was in a team of a project where we were comparing the number of people who used electricity power and solar power and to our surprise we found that most people prefer to use solar than electricity due to the many accident caused by electricity.

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  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    o identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about what can go wrong within the implementation of the project. this will help one to plan oh how to respond if any of these risks occur

    While implementation a vaccination project in Wajir, Government employees allowance were revised and went up by a substantial amount. This meant that we had to look for an additional budget since the staff categorically refused to use the earlier allowances. Lucky the project had budgeted for 10% contingency fund ( Based on the total project amount). this helped us to start the project as we looked for funding elsewhere.

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  • To identify risk and assumptions, it is helpful to think carefully what will affect the success of the program in respect to the planning and awareness one give to the upcoming program.
    I will like to share a situation at my church last year vacation bible school which i am one if the facilitators. Vacation bible school is all about training children of age 9 to 16 and teenagers on how to be useful to themselves and their parent. In the process of planning the program the facilitators usually make a plan for 100 children for 5days camp but our plan for last year turns out to be wrong since we did not bring out the risks and assumptions in our planning. We later found out that over 200 children and teenagers registered for the camp due to the method of awareness we created for the progeam. So food items and materials for use was only planned for 100 children. We were able to solve the problems of the risks by going out each day to get more food items for each meals because every meals planned is not enough for the children so also the camp materials which makes us to spend more money than budgeted and more time than planned. What i learned from that experience is that there should be equality between the awareness of the program, the level of risks and assumptions that can arise with the planning and the provisions of inputs that are needed.
    The tips for identifying risks and assumptions should not be biase, its should be based on the output of the projects.

  • THE INITIAL PHASE WILL INCLUDE ALL MUST HAVE REQUARMENT /ASSUMPTION/RISK/TEST APPROUCH
    THE PROJECT IS USINING AGILE WILL WEEKLY INTERACTION .

  • if beneficiaries have low patronage of business and has no innovation creatives to convinces customer then business is going to melt down

  • We were implementing a project for mentoring the youth to develop skills in organizing events. We thought that the youth needed close guidance step by step till the end of the event. To our surprise the youth preferred being independent, develop their ways of promoting events and use a lot of social media channels to market the event. This was not allowed by the event sponsor. The design of the project was allowing only one person from our team to first get approval from our sponsor before airing out any information to the public. The event manager had a lot of stressful moments with the youth. Some youth actually dropped off the project. As a team, we decided to convince the sponsor to adjust in some of their media policies and let the youth own the process of the event otherwise the rate of dropouts was increasing.

  • @Vio said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    I was in a team of a project where we were comparing the number of people who used electricity power and solar power and to our surprise we found that most people prefer to use solar than electricity due to the many accident caused by electricity.

    Hmmm...that kind of sounds like the results of your finding!

  • @sunlikesworld said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    We hard an activity which was an orientation camp of beneficiaries and we hard to move with cash to pay for their feeding and transport . on are way to the camp we where attacked by robbers and went away with part of the money meant for feeding. and we have to source for fund from order overhead on the project.

    ..the same thing once happened to us too in one of the projects where the gunmen attacked us on our way from the bank. All the money was taken and thank God they spared our lives. Since then, I learned to design the project with the element of using automated bulk mobile money payment for project beneficiaries and salaries for field officers. All is being handled in a centralized place preferably in our head office not in the field.

  • To identify Risks and Assumptions, it is helpful to think about _____________________________________
    Since I have only been working at my current job for five months, without incidents, I must say, I will list a for instance scenario.
    Before starting a project, there is a high probability of something going "sideways." Some of the many reasons for this happening is;

    • A lack of organization

    • Excessive compliance failure

    • Complying with/ignoring new Regulations

    • It is very important to be very clear from the beginning of a project what the expected objectives and outcomes will be, and to identify what specific changes are expected for what specific area (s).

    • Start with and end with desired results, and include all team members involved with project.

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  • Hello every hope you are well , Are natural disasters risks that could lead to organization to obtain a result lower than that desired for a project?
    The result can be predictable but if it is not 100% achievable Can a lasting impact?

  • @Loraini said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all possibilities of what will negatively affect the outputs, inputs and outcome of your project. It can vary from natural, social, political, cultural, financial causes. In one of our project, one of the risks that the project had to deal with was the unpredicted category 5 cyclone that encountered the project just when the project had started making it difficult for communities to commit because they were faced with problems that needed urgent attention such as improving social services, health and basic needs. The project had to spend some money to unplanned activities to help these communities back on their feet.

    In that point, if you happen to know that one of the risk is going to affect your project and it might be natural happening risk like calamities, then does that guarantee to postpone or stop the project?

  • Hi guys,
    I realized that identifying risk and assumption will help to plan unexpected activities that may need funds or expert to handle, and in that note risk and assumption are the vital points that someone has to understand and itemize all risks that might affect the project.

  • @AMAGAJU said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    once risks are identified, it is a better way to avoid all the negative impacts, so identifying risks is the crucial parts for the project to be successfull

    Yeah I agree with you, identifying risk help to make project successful

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  • I assumed that training data collectors using the tools without field practice session using actual figures and filled registers was good enough but i realized that this was wrong because the data they submitted had a lot of errors.

  • @Arithi said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    o identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about what can go wrong within the implementation of the project. this will help one to plan oh how to respond if any of these risks occur

    While implementation a vaccination project in Wajir, Government employees allowance were revised and went up by a substantial amount. This meant that we had to look for an additional budget since the staff categorically refused to use the earlier allowances. Lucky the project had budgeted for 10% contingency fund ( Based on the total project amount). this helped us to start the project as we looked for funding elsewhere.

    That was very thoughtful, that means if some of risks might need fund, during budget planning there is a need to add miscellaneous amount.

  • @Driungu said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.
    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.
    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?
    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    To identify risks and assumptions is necessary to think of the response you will get from the beneficiaries and their close influencers.For example family members and also their culture.To avoid bias,data is necessary or any information that support your core mandate.

    Yeah, i agree with you

  • During this year, my team organised to meet a women disabled only group to discuss a sensitive topic on sexual reproductive health. unfortunately some husbands of the women came along as guides to support the mobility of their wives. this obvious affected the free discussion since men were around. we didn't anticipate this. we learnt that its important to work with the beneficiaries to identify some of the things that may affect their participation in our activities. you have have a list list of your own identified risks and assumptions but its a good idea to also consult different stakeholders on what might affect your program.

  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .
    I work in organization that is involved in relief distribution in Wajir County, Kenya.
    Just recently, the staff planned for distribution in one of the villages and the governor was expected to launch the distribution. The staff picked on a centre with assumption that it is most ideal given limited time in planning the whole project. The event turn out to be most disastrous for department. The staff made a terrible assumption in coming up with relief project and failed to plan wholesomely throughout the project.

    To identity risk and assumption I believe it is imperative to asked all wild question of "what and if" and deliberate through so that you can at least get the gist of what might end result look like.

    Thank you

  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about what could possible derail/delay project implementation.
    I was once part of a very big project involving community resilience building which was delayed for about one year because new office bearers were elected into office and wanted the entire project re-written to suit certain demands. What saved us was that the donor, an international organization had already signed the necessary documents and so there was no going back. Still it took a lot of time and effort to convince those opposed to the project and bring them to our side.

  • one of the best ways that you can identify risks and assumptions is to deeply study your project goals because reaching that goals you have to pass through a long way during that long way you will face a lot of challenges and that challenges will shine light on you the real risks and assumption that you must take into account.

  • During project design, their is an assumption that the project beneficiaries and locations area accessible. This is not always the case especially for fragile contexts. I am referring to a project that was once envisaged to be implemented in "location withheld" that had to be re-designed because of access issues.

  • During one of our intervention carried out in one of the BAY States, there was a certain location that was that we couldn't assessed during the morning hours except from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. So this sudden event prolonged the duration of the intervention beyond the expected time frame. During the planning stage the situation was unforeseen and we had to make decision that addressed the situation we were on the location.

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  • Risks and assumptions are the basis to avoid project failure. They help stakeholders start working towards any foreseen problems with response.

    1 Reply
  • During a wash project, we planned to provide potable water for all the people in a village where we were implementing a project, but it happens that the population's estimation by the statistic of my country was not accurate, there were more people in this village and also people from other village came to get potable water in the village for which the project was targeted.

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  • @LevensonBadio said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    During a wash project, we planned to provide potable water for all the people in a village where we were implementing a project, but it happens that the population's estimation by the statistic of my country was not accurate, there were more people in this village and also people from other village came to get potable water in the village for which the project was targeted.

    There are two key characteristics of risks and assumptions. First, there must be some uncertainty to the event. If there is 100% chance of an event occurring, it is simply a fact. If there is a 0% chance of the event occurring, it is fiction. Neither are risks or assumptions.
    Second, assumptions and risks are both outside the total control of the project team. If the event is within the control of the project team it is neither an assumption nor a risk. It should simply be managed to make it happen.

  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

    On a particular health awareness talk we set out to educate people in a particular rural environment. The benefits of collecting mosquito nets from the health center in the community, to our greatest surprise the health center has been closed down.

    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .
    -Possibility of going to a far distance to collect mosquito net.
    -Possibility of the health center not having enough mosquito nets that will go round.

  • We do trainings in schools in northern part of Uganda. We had always thought that after securing the 'go ahead' letter from the ministry of Education we will be free to conduct our trainings anywhere in schools as long as the school administrators approve them. We were surprised by the directive of a municipal officer in one of the municipalities who halted us citing 'security threats' in our work; we had never thought that somebody could ever thing like that!! We had to first go through security clearances.....so so unbelievable!!

  • Some time back we were handling on of the projects and we had the assumption that the normal certification and licensing of the staff will be as it has been for the last decade but this was not to be so we were taken by surprise to learn that the board had changed the years and the rules regulating licensing of the profession. It was tough and we had to adjust very fast and refocus on the changes to avoid negative impact on the project.

  • Risks and Assumptions are difficult part of project design. Puntland Youth Associations Network planned a project to sensitize and educate on civic engagement and advocacy for their rights in political participation in 2018 at state level and we targeted the graduated from national and international universities who studies social sciences programes. However, to our surprise most of them had the mentality of tribalism and believed that they cannot face their traditional elders and leaders ask for such demand claiming that its obscene to their culture. We changed the strategy of forming a team of local youth and project consultants to meet the traditional elders instead of using only the local youth after receiving advocacy and civic engagement training. Due to unhealthy clan and tribalism most of them could not support their fellow youth contesting with old men and women.

  • Its very nice and important to identify risk and assumption timely in any project implementation. There was a time or an instance where we went to a village to address issue about Teenage pregnancy. We were so hopeful that since this program is free the number of turnout will be enormous. But to our surprise, the turn out was very low.Girl children didnt surface because their parent were not carried along, also many were not interested because no menu. Here we learnt something about envisaging this risk and we have proffer solution in form of mitigation it occurrence

  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    Logframes are helpful because it helps us set our goal, inputs, outputs, and outcomes, as well as, our risks and assumptions. Sometimes when we plan things we don't consider all of these elements which will influence our result. Thus, the result may falter due to a missing component. I believe the logframe helps us visualize this and enables us to think of each an every step necessary for our success. Identifying risk and assumptions is key since it tells us all the possibilities we don't want to hear. It gives us all the what ifs and the reasons why our goal may not succeed. However, it is due to this that risks and assumptions are important because if we don't consider these possibilities into our equation then we cannot plan countermeasures against them or ways to prevent them from happening. Also, it helps us be wary of what may happen which, in turn, urges us to be prepared.

    I don't work for an organization but when I was part of an association in University, the president wanted to plan a beach day for the members. During the weekly President and VP meeting, we discussed the activity and the reasons why and why not we should do the beach day. He believed members would get more involved if we offered activities such as this, while I thought it was getting us away from our goal - which was to give members skills that they could showcase on their CV during the next job fair. While going through the module, I realized that what we did in the meeting unknowingly was one of these logframes. He basically did the project summary since he was in favor of the beach day while I did the risks and assumptions since I was against it. One of the risks and assumptions that I gave him that shocked him was creating a relief of responsibility document and the weather forecast because, even if it was still the end of summer, the chance of rain was possible.

    From this experience, I learned that it is wise to scope all possible alternatives and even if one is biased or doesn't agree with them because they might come in handy later on.

    For me, thinking about the worst of outcomes is the easiest way to think of risks and assumptions.

  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.
    It can be therefore it is important to know the project so that the risks and assumptions can be identified.
    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?
    We were doing a regional project and the assumption was that the youth from the different countries would respond to the project in like manner
    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all of what could go wrong and all the evidence we have_ .

  • I am part of a volunteering organisation, where our biggest and most critical input is volunteers themselves, providing the manpower for the project. Recently, our number of volunteers has dropped, making it more challenging to carry out the projects that previously we had taken for granted.

    Our assumption here was clearly "the number of volunteers joining the program will remain sufficient to carry out the program." Although we were able to adapt and responded to the situation without damaging our relationship with our partners, it was a good lesson in considering the inputs as a risk, whereas previously it had been seen as fairly constant.

  • Course Facilitator

    @AMAGAJU said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    once risks are identified, it is a better way to avoid all the negative impacts, so identifying risks is the crucial parts for the project to be successfull

    That's true @AMAGAJU, it's very important to identify risks and assumptions in advance to avoid surprise in your project implementation.

  • Course Facilitator

    @ifelix said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    During one of our intervention carried out in one of the BAY States, there was a certain location that was that we couldn't assessed during the morning hours except from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. So this sudden event prolonged the duration of the intervention beyond the expected time frame. During the planning stage the situation was unforeseen and we had to make decision that addressed the situation we were on the location.

    Hello @ifelix, hope you are doing well, could you share with us What you learned from that experience that could be useful to other learners taking this course? We would really appreciate it

  • Course Facilitator

    @nam1985 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Risks and assumptions are the basis to avoid project failure. They help stakeholders start working towards any foreseen problems with response.

    Okay @nam1985, I agree with you, Identifying risks and assumptions also could show your potential supporters or your donor that you have real knowledge of the situation in the community.

  • @Loraini said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all possibilities of what will negatively affect the outputs, inputs and outcome of your project. It can vary from natural, social, political, cultural, financial causes. In one of our project, one of the risks that the project had to deal with was the unpredicted category 5 cyclone that encountered the project just when the project had started making it difficult for communities to commit because they were faced with problems that needed urgent attention such as improving social services, health and basic needs.

    To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all possibilities of what will negatively affect the outputs, inputs and outcome of your project. It can vary from natural, social, political, cultural, financial causes. In one of our project, one of the risks that the project had to deal with was the unpredicted category 5 cyclone that encountered the project just when the project had started making it difficult for communities to commit because they were faced with problems that needed urgent attention such as improving social services, health and basic needs.

  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:
    I use to work in aircraft maintenance industry before international development and we use to perform FMECA process to explore all failure possibilities. Now I keep this spirit to envision what could be wrong in the deployment of a project that has been design from assumption or initial problem to solve

    P
    1 Reply
  • We assumed that the project would produce 1500kg of Raw Cashewnuts at the Cashew Processing factory, unfornately, it has never been possible even to reach 60% of the planned goal. The assumptions came from the research about types of machines we would use and number of people to work at the factory. We didnot consider the differences that exist in the country.
    From this I learned that it is always good to have thorough research on the issue and have plan B and C.

    1 Reply
  • @ArnaudSegla said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:
    I use to work in aircraft maintenance industry before international development and we use to perform FMECA process to explore all failure possibilities. Now I keep this spirit to envision what could be wrong in the deployment of a project that has been design from assumption or initial problem to solve

    For sure it is real very important to have that spirit, I can assume that the situation continues and helps to reduce ocurrence of accidents. It may help aswell in development projects , to avoid project failures.

  • Course Facilitator

    @PiliraniTembo said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    We assumed that the project would produce 1500kg of Raw Cashewnuts at the Cashew Processing factory, unfornately, it has never been possible even to reach 60% of the planned goal. The assumptions came from the research about types of machines we would use and number of people to work at the factory. We didnot consider the differences that exist in the country.
    From this I learned that it is always good to have thorough research on the issue and have plan B and C.

    Yeah @PiliraniTembo, that's why it's very crucial to identify risks and assumptions in advance, because it shows you what you have to look out for during the implementation of your project and what could be possible to block your intervention.

  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:
    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.
    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.
    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?
    We had planned to have trained 100 youth by the end of the first

    We had planned that we would be training all the enrolled youth into the vocational skills but not everyone that came our way allowed to participate in the vocational programm.

  • we didnt get all the required funds that we needed hence we had to solicit for funds from different sources and we restrained alot in completing year one because we didnt get the necessary funds and some of our participants had to drop out.but we enrolled them back after a break.

  • To identify risks and assumptions ,it is helpful to think about the unforeseen events and things we can not have control over.while conducting catering skills development for vulnerable girls,we experienced challenges whereby the girls come not because of the skills they will gain in catering but they come because they get money they do not pay much attention to skills.Again since skill development is combined with restaurant for attachment and practicals,the waitress end up eloping with male clients. this are risks we did not have thought of or control over.

    G
    1 Reply
  • To identify risks and assumptions, it's helpful to think about every single step in your project. For example, if you are progressing in your project, update your project status with new risks and assumptions . As a result, you will have a clear vision of your project and how to avoid these risks before they happened

  • While I don't have an example from experience, I can envision an assumption that might derail a project. For my sample project that seeks to create a consortium to ensure access to education and lifelong learning everywhere, it might be the case that some places would not want to be a part of such a network. It might be hard to believe that this is true, but there are places that remain quite apart from global enterprises for many reasons. To mitigate this, the mission statement can be adjusted to reflect that 'in all possible areas ... education and lifelong learning will be made available' or something to that effect. So, as the prompt suggests, "to identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about: whether or not you might get participants to support your mission, even if it seems to benefit with no costs or risks.

    Cheers,
    Elizabeth

  • I was involved in entertaining the participants of the Nigerian Mathematical Society conference in 2017 at University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria. Base on the assumption that the Vice-chancellor of the University and Governor of the state have promised to support the confernce and the money received from the participant registration will cater for the conference. We went ahead to draw a budget and contracted a caterer for the conference. Few days to the conference, we received support from the Vice -Chancellor which was very low to our expectation. No support from the Governor of the State and the participant registration fee cannot cater for the conference. This led us to promise to pay the caterer immediately after the conference. To our greatest surprise, the participant registration fee cannot even pay 50 percent of the caterer Bill's due to other demands involved in the conference organization. At the end, the caterer sue us to court since we couldn't pay her money.
    I learnt that risk should be taken into consideration whenever you are planning for an event. Also your project design should not base only on assumptions.

  • When identifying risks and assumptions, it's important to think about external threats to the project's mission and activities, not just assumptions made during project activities. The project I work on was developed as a beekeeping project to increase income among rural farmers. However, in the first year of the project, the invasive Varroa mite caused massive problems because so many beekeepers lost their hives. The focus of the project had to change from increasing honey and wax harvest skills to increasing varroa skills.

  • Course Facilitator

    With the starting of our recycling plant we where donated a baler.
    We assumed the following:
    1 - it would arrive as soon as we had our facility ready
    2 - The machine would work flawlessly.

    What we learnt is that (1) donors may also have challenges on their side that could affect your plans and workflow. As a result our baler only arrived 3 months after we had the facility ready. Secondly (2), the machine that they donated to us was a second machine that stood out in the elements for over two year... This means that we had to service the machine and replace some of the perished parts. These are all expenses that we did not budget for and obviously cost us in time aswell. I believe that if we addressed our risks and assumptions before hand, we could have made provisions for these factors and be more proactive then reactive. Or simply, it would have made our lives alot easier!!

  • Identifying risk assumptions its better to think about the end results. Good risk identification will create good project communication thus good decisions will be made

    1 Reply
  • I was part of a road construction project funded by the government. During planning, we based our cash inflows on the fact that we would receive payments for work done in utmost three months after the requests. This meant that we needed to secure at least 3 months if our cash flow requirements at project commencement. However, to our surprise, we spent over a year without receiving any payments from government amidst all the site expenses we had to clear.

    F
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  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    To identify risks and assumptions, it is important to critically think about any existing pre-conditions. When assumptions do not hold, then they become risks. In my organization, we were sub-granting to partners distributed in in 6 Counties in Africa because we are a pan-African's Women network. We invited the partners to an inception meeting to introduce the new project. Later on when doing due diligence and organizational assessment, we found out that one of the organizations was actually not a registered NGO. We had to keenly followup the registration status before drawing any contractual agreements not to mention that our Donor was very cautious about our partners being NGO and Women Rights Organizational-registered entities

  • Risk and assumption is one of the major challenge in project implementation, in time past we organised evaluation feed back meetings in a particular location not knowing that the community is over floded with water, due to the rain fall the event could not hold. We had to go back and re_organised the event for another day.

  • hi, I am Lukito Aldo from Tanzania I

  • HI, I am lukito Aldo From Tanzania I invite you to be on the same group for discussion of this course my whatssapp no is +255767539249 for easy communication

  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    Part of my project design is that the kids who are beneficiaries of the education outreach portion of our organization will in turn be willing to participate in beach clean-up activities around the country. We are therefore assuming that the kids would be interested, willing and able to do so, and the risk is that they do not show up, and we do not have enough volunteers to participate in an effective clean-up initiative.

    For-seeing this, a way to mitigate the risk would be to have a permanent set of paid workers on hand for the initiatives, so that regardless of volunteers, we have hands to get the work done during clean-up initiatives.

  • Risks and assumptions is the very important part of the project. It communicates circumstances that may negatively affect the project plan, and prevent the achievement of the project goals. Good risks identification is the basis of risk management .

  • @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:
    To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about because All projects have risks. If a potential risk of the project is not identified early, then the project will be at a high risk to complete as per schedule, within budget and to meet the expected quality. One of the challenges faced by team members today is not having a sample or general risk list to refer to when identifying the project risk and this might affect the project at hand.

  • Course Facilitator

    @Unaisi said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    @Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

    Respond to this prompt after completing the content in Module 2.

    Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.

    Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience? What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?

    Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .

    To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all the potential impacts that can affect the project and plan ahead what relevant mitigation measures can be applied. I was once involved in a project where we had to rebuild the project just after a year of establishment as it was destroyed by a category 3 cyclone. The rebuilding process was very slow as the community were more focused on rebuilding their lives and their homes rather than committing themselves to the project.

    @Unaisi ,What did you learn from that experience that could be useful to others taking this course?

  • To identify risks and assumptions, it is best to think of the outputs and outcomes in order to make a good assumption and measure the risks.

    1 Reply
  • It is helpful to think about risk and assumptions before project start because this will reduce project failure rate and provide a foundation for developing risk mitigation strategies and contingency plans.

  • One time we planned for an activity with an assumption that the budget allocated would be sufficient. Unfortunately we ran out of money and we had to stall the project as we sourced for more funding. We learnt that its very important to prepare a good activity budget and stick to it even if the activity been implemented looks small in nature

  • In one of our hygiene promotion activities we did produce and distributed household latrine slabs to the beneficiaries to augment the software component of passing information about the need to stop open defecation. The community had no household latrines and we assumed that with proper awareness the community would embrace the project. The idea was, while we produce and distribute the latrine slabs, the beneficiaries were to dig their pits and use locally available materials for constructing superstructure. We planned to produce and distribute 250 household latrine slabs, but the rate of take up was low, by the time the project was ending only 150 households had showed interest and utilized the slabs. In our subsequent project and based on the experience of the previous project we reduced the number of slabs and assumed that the next community we were going to supply the slabs would also be slow in embracing it. Ths time around we budgeted with 100 slabs, to our dismay this particular community showed interest in the project and few months into the project all the slabs had been distributed and still they needed more yet we had exhausted money in that budget line.

  • It is very important to think of all cases scenarios to identify risks & assumptions ranging from location, culture, religion practice, government policy, law, beneficiaries socioeconomic status etc,

  • Risk assumption arises due to human biases and taking norms are always normal happening. Where objective analysis and deeply interrogating underlying issues that may aggregate, risk factors can be severely reduced in project design

  • While preparing for a field work trip at Water Collective international to go and monitor one of our local community water project, we did not take into account the risk of increase in transport due to bad roads in the rainy season since we were calculating the same price as in the dry season when roads are moderately fine.
    Due to lack of assumptions, we ran short of money while we were in the field.

  • It was in May 2018 when our organization, as part of our quest to gain financial freedom for women, organized a three-day (Wednesday to Friday) cosmetics training for 30 women beneficiaries in a community. The organizers had talked to the care taker of the community social centre where the training was to take place. Without considering the risk of loosing the place, the team did not look for another center. The team moved to the community on Tuesday only to be told the social centre had been booked for a funeral activities. The stress the team went through to arrange for another place taught us to never leave anything to chance.
    Had it not been for a hotel's conference Hall that was free for the period, we would have had to stop the programme all together, and sums of money thrown away.
    Failure to consider such activities as the funeral also caused almost 40% of beneficiaries not turning up for the program.

    It is the best thing to consider all possible risks and assumptions when planning for any project

    F
    1 Reply
  • I remember one day during the meeting of de fluoridation of water In Naivasha we had several meetings to strategize on way forward and every time we had a meeting we invited about 50 members but in every meeting only 25 turned out and we assume this is the number we will be working with. Towards the end we had now to finalize and we decided to hold a party to thank all those that have been coming. So our budget was only to take care of about 30 members ,this was addition of 5 people from the one that used to come to the meeting. Everything was good and we were now looking forward for the party. On the material party day we assemble as usual and the 25 members were there .as we get along we were surprised to see people continued coming and after 2 hours there were around 200 people. This gave us a lot of headache as our assumption was surpassed by 170 people. hence we were not able to hold the party as planned .we fail in our assumption.

  • we do alot of mistakes by not doing our home work on risks and assumptions.
    Thats is a great work .

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