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• it is important to find riks and assumptions for a project before project implementation starts.

• Project summary helps to spot risks and assumptions.

• the risks and assumptions tell you clearly where the project can go wrong

• finding risks and assumptions before project implementation enables you to respond to them before and during project design phase in a process called formative research

• knowing risks and assumptions can be a powerful way to avoid bias

Are risks not assumptions if no evidence is found?

Risk and assumption can never be discounted in any project that's because any project will always have its risk and assumptions. Therefore, it is the work of an M&E expert to look deeply into this things without biasness to ensure effectivenesss of the project.

risks and assumptions help us get rid of bias so that we are able to to act on facts and enhance the effectiveness of the project. It also helps in making future decisions on similar projects

Risks are things that expected to happen in a project and them happening results in unexpected results while assumptions are our beliefs in something yet there is no evidence to back us up.
It is important though to understand risks and assumptions and to cater for them as they help us make right and informed decisions

The Global Project Assessment tools like SWOT, PESTEL was adapted and used to carry out review and its environment, including an assessment of the community needs, the gaps and documentation of good practice for project implementation.

Identifying the risks and assumptions may seem easy, but there is more to it than meets the eye. The Results Based Management approach puts a lot of attention to this aspect.

The assumptions describe the situations, events, conditions or decisions which are necessary for the success of the project, but which are largely or completely beyond the control of the project's management.

An easy way to check weather your risks and assumption make sense is to look at the activities row and follow there logic.

Quelle différence Y-a-t-il entre les risques et les hypothèses ?

The topics in Module are very important for ensuring the the project is prepared to handle identified risks by monitoring the status of identified risks. Because risks are out of the control of the project, it important to carefully consider how the project could be affect by which risks and have plan in place to monitor the degree of severity for each identified risk. thinking through and setting an early warning system for risks can help the project deal with risks. Assumption on the hand needs to clearly identified as such could also turn into risk. Assumptions about important aspects of the project such as beneficiaries adapting new skills or using new technology should be monitored and reassessed frequently to ensure that it is relevant or valid for the stage of the project.

The two topics are very crucial to the healthy delivery of the project.

Risks are uncertainties or unexpected events that you encounter during a project and can affect your project directly. Assumptions are factors that are considered to be true real or certain but without empirical proof or demonstration. In project planning, it is a must to make assumptions. Every level of your log frame has its own risk and assumptions so we need to indicate them on every level of the log frame. Listing risks and assumptions is very important because you can respond effectively when challenges emerge and require interventions. It also serves to assess whether the goals and activities proposed are realistic and achievable.

Great source of templates and knowledge. It really helped to refresh my memory with the logframe and IF - THEN chain.

Risk and assumptions are what disrupts your project plan in the log frame column. For example;

1. Impact
2. Outcomes
3. Outputs
4. Inputs
   When risk and assumptions are involved all these are affected. That’s when the if/then statement comes in. For example a woman want to give her husband a romantic welcome surprise from his business trip. Questions will just come in
5. What if he had a bad business trip?
6. What if he’s coming with colleagues?
   Assumptions is d other way round. Believing on something without evidence is an assumption.

Risks and assumptions are external factors over which the project has little control, but which may impact project activities and results and maybe connected to events, contexts or community beliefs. Identifying risks and assumptions helps an organization prepare for potential challenges in meeting the program goal as well as determining if a program redesign would be beneficial. For example, if an assumption highlights that a community may be unwilling to accept the activity, it may be necessary to redesign the program.

Studying the risks of a project is important, as it helps to identify possible problems that the project may have during its implementation, and helps to measure the probability of the project's success.

The identification of risks and assumptions helps to assess whether the proposed objectives and activities are realistic and achievable within a given time frame and with the support of the human and financial resources involved.

Risks are factors outside one's control that could cause a project to go poorly
Assumptions are things that one believes but are not supported by evidence

The main risk WE may this is the farmers opposition to using the local sheep claiming it is not economically beneficial.
An assumption could be that they could just get the money and and use it for other purposes like buying good for their families or other types of sheep

Identifying risks and assumptions serves to assess whether the Goals and Activities proposed are realistic and achievable in the given time frame and within the given available human and financial resources.
In this context, a risk is defined as an uncertain threat that, in case of occurring, could have a negative impact in the completion of the Goal or Activity. An assumption, on the other side, is the necessary condition that will enable the successful completion of the Goal or Activity.
In order to avoid repetition and redundancy, risks and assumptions should be defined at two levels: general and specific level.
If described negatively, an assumption can become a risk. On the contrary, if defined in positive terms, a risk can be transformed into an assumption. Thus, it is very important to pay attention to redundancy.
Assumptions that were considered in the form of risks do not need to be noted again and vice-versa. Similarly, risks and assumptions that were defined at general level, do not need to be mentioned again at specific level. If resistance to change is a major risk for the overall completion of the Roadmap's Goals, it would be also risk for the different Activities considered.

a risk is defined as an uncertain threat that, in case of occurring, could have a negative impact in the completion of the Goal or Activity. An assumption, on the other side, is the necessary condition that will enable the successful completion of the Goal or Activity.
In order to avoid repetition and redundancy, risks and assumptions should be defined at two levels: general and specific level. If described negatively, an assumption can become a risk. On the contrary, if defined in positive terms, a risk can be transformed into an assumption. Thus, it is very important to pay attention to redundancy.
Assumptions that were considered in the form of risks do not need to be noted again and vice-versa. Similarly, risks and assumptions that were defined at general level, do not need to be mentioned again at specific level. If resistance to change is a major risk for the overall completion of the Roadmap's Goals, it would be also risk for the different Activities considered.

Identifying risks and assumptions serves to assess whether the Goals and Activities proposed are realistic and achievable in the given time frame and within the given available human and financial resources.
In this context, a risk is defined as an uncertain threat that, in case of occurring, could have a negative impact in the completion of the Goal or Activity. An assumption, on the other side, is the necessary condition that will enable the successful completion of the Goal or Activity.
In order to avoid repetition and redundancy, risks and assumptions should be defined at two levels: general and specific level.

General risks and assumptions can be either related to the overall implementation of the Roadmap or common to all Goals included in the Roadmap. Specific risks and assumptions will be related to a concrete Activity, i.e. a particular risk that could hinder the successful implementation of a concrete Activity or an assumption that is key to the implementation of a specific Activity. For instance, a specific assumption for the Activity "establishing an Authorised Economic Operators Scheme" is that incentives granted to AEOs are enough to motivate private traders to invest in the time and resources to get the certification.

If described negatively, an assumption can become a risk. On the contrary, if defined in positive terms, a risk can be transformed into an assumption. Thus, it is very important to pay attention to redundancy.
Assumptions that were considered in the form of risks do not need to be noted again and vice-versa. Similarly, risks and assumptions that were defined at general level, do not need to be mentioned again at specific level. If resistance to change is a major risk for the overall completion of the Roadmap's Goals, it would be also risk for the different Activities considered.

Identifying risks and assumptions serves to assess whether the Goals and Activities proposed are realistic and achievable in the given time frame and within the given available human and financial resources.
In this context, a risk is defined as an uncertain threat that, in case of occurring, could have a negative impact in the completion of the Goal or Activity. An assumption, on the other side, is the necessary condition that will enable the successful completion of the Goal or Activity.
In order to avoid repetition and redundancy, risks and assumptions should be defined at two levels: general and specific level.

General risks and assumptions can be either related to the overall implementation of the Roadmap or common to all Goals included in the Roadmap. Specific risks and assumptions will be related to a concrete Activity, i.e. a particular risk that could hinder the successful implementation of a concrete Activity or an assumption that is key to the implementation of a specific Activity. For instance, a specific assumption for the Activity "establishing an Authorised Economic Operators Scheme" is that incentives granted to AEOs are enough to motivate private traders to invest in the time and resources to get the certification.

If described negatively, an assumption can become a risk. On the contrary, if defined in positive terms, a risk can be transformed into an assumption. Thus, it is very important to pay attention to redundancy.
Assumptions that were considered in the form of risks do not need to be noted again and vice-versa. Similarly, risks and assumptions that were defined at general level, do not need to be mentioned again at specific level. If resistance to change is a major risk for the overall completion of the Roadmap's Goals, it would be also risk for the different Activities considered.

Well, this module is very important regarding the logical framework.
The term Risk and assumption has clear my mind the importance of it and if we cant not work on it then project could be ruined so during designing of project we must focus on it and be prepared for it.

Risk is the things that my hapen your project like for example we learn what happens when we are doing the moms party
And the assumption are things it my can happen to sure in the project the different between is risk is hapen surely but assumptions not sure

The risks that may befall us innovators are the change in technology and. Consumers demand. Police and rules.

Make sure your logframe has a logical flow

Helps us to foresee uncertain situation that can hampers progress. And put in mitigation measures in place well before hand.

Project assumption is the events or conditions most likely to occur when a project life-cycle takes place. It is also deemed as an element in the planning phase of a project that is assumed to be considered true, actual, or certain despite the lack of evidence or proof, according to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) 6th Edition.
Some commonly experienced project risks include:
Technology risk. The technological aspect of running a project is a complex deliverable because there is a high turnover of new and advanced technologies.
Communication risk.
Scope creep risk.
Cost risk.
Operational risk.
Skills resource risk.
Performance risk.
Market risk. etc.

This modules was very helpful. I could not differentiate the impact and outcome but after all I red from this module, I am able to differentiate the two. I learned that impact is that larger positive change we see as a result of the project. While the outcome refers to those short-term achievements produced by the projects. Another great learning I got is about the logical framework. That is an amazing and simple template that can easily help in writing the project summary.

Risks help us to think outside the box as we plan for the project and this is really important. It is like carrying an umbrella on your way to a function even when there are no signs of rain, when the rain comes you can still be able to attend and enjoy the function undisrupted.

The other risk is that the girls might spend the money from the loans on unplanned activities such as social events instead of planned project activities

There are also security risks especially with projects related to giving the beneficiaries tangible inputs like money. These need to be planned for together with the beneficiaries. And I think the baseline survey can be a good place to plan for such as we analyze the security situation of the community.

Bonjour, j'ai vraiment apprécié la façon donc ce module est conçu. vous m'avez vraiment aidé à comprendre quels sont les risques et hypothèse dans le projet designs.
Ma demande sera d'aborder que vous n'avez pas pu développer dans ce module en générale pour permettre de sortir un projet M&E expert digne de sont nom.
Merci beaucoup car je me vois bien outiller dans la conception du M&E dans les projets.

When you are in the Project designing phase, it is important to find the risks and assumptions before the project starts. Its important to know what could go wrong and if there is anything that might prevent you from providing the inputs. Furthermore, its also important to know if the inputs will lead to the outputs.

In the logframe, you can identify risks and assumptions by combining the outcomes with the outputs in an if/then statement.

In the risks and assumptions column, can we add risk mitigation plan as well

Can an assumption change midway of project implementation?

Does risks and assumptions involve sudden unexpected events such as disaster, financial crisis?

The issues of Risk and Assumptions are if there are some risk which are natural and may or may not have been considered, what becomes of them when we get to the assessments.

If Risk are outside ones control, how well is our evaluating them be in relation to the outcome and impact especially when thing go wrong or not the way we expect them to be?

But truly, I follow the lecture so far and its been a great deal of knowledge. I actually have learnt and gained new knowledge and insights.

Thanks.

This topic is an eye opener.
There is more to M%E than just rolling out columns, as it can be meaningless to end users if the issue of Risk & Assumptions are not considered.
Wholly basing our thoughts on our knowledge can be very bias.

When introducing successful interventions that were implemented in other communities, the assumption is that it resolve the existing problem in the targeted communities. Therefore, identifying risks and assumptions becomes critical in this planning process as it helps to look at the challenge holistically before identifying interventions/ inputs that will help to resolve the problem.

I think identifying risks and assumptions is imperative and should not be overlooked if the team wants to ensure a smooth implementation of the project. A suggestion would also be to consult relevant stakeholders who understand the target group well when designing the activities, this can also help identify risk/ assumptions that the team overlooked.

Identifying risks and assumptions serves to assess whether the Goals and Activities proposed are realistic and achievable in the given time frame and within the given available human and financial resources.
In this context, a risk is defined as an uncertain threat that, in case of occurring, could have a negative impact in the completion of the Goal or Activity. An assumption, on the other side, is the necessary condition that will enable the successful completion of the Goal or Activity.
In order to avoid repetition and redundancy, risks and assumptions should be defined at two levels: general and specific level.

General risks and assumptions can be either related to the overall implementation of the Roadmap or common to all Goals included in the Roadmap. Specific risks and assumptions will be related to a concrete Activity, i.e. a particular risk that could hinder the successful implementation of a concrete Activity or an assumption that is key to the implementation of a specific Activity. For instance, a specific assumption for the Activity "establishing an Authorised Economic Operators Scheme" is that incentives granted to AEOs are enough to motivate private traders to invest in the time and resources to get the certification.

If described negatively, an assumption can become a risk. On the contrary, if defined in positive terms, a risk can be transformed into an assumption. Thus, it is very important to pay attention to redundancy.
Assumptions that were considered in the form of risks do not need to be noted again and vice-versa. Similarly, risks and assumptions that were defined at general level, do not need to be mentioned again at specific level. If resistance to change is a major risk for the overall completion of the Roadmap's Goals, it would be also risk for the different Activities considered.

It is a very important section of the M&E plan tool because it ensures that the project goals or objectives are on sight and guides in ensuring that any project risks are easily identified early.

evaluating risk and assumptions helps in understanding events and condition that foreseeable and affect implementation . Past event,list of activities can help identify risks. This helps in adjusting planning and target in an event it occurs

I think considering risks and assumptions is a wonderful way to guage or forecast the success of a project by removing any possible stumbling blocks, given that these factors are not under our control.

People may rush to collect when it is tagged as a grant instead of a loan. So, if they know that it is a loan, and they would pay back, they would be more circumspect in collecting. Don't you think so?

Risks are those things outside our control that can affect a project while assumptions are biases we have without data to base them on. For an HIV program some risks to consider may be that:

• even if we provide HIV test kits and personnel to test people the people may not want to be tested

• even if people test HIV positive they may not want to take antiretroviral therapy (ART)

• Even if we give people ART to take home they may not take the medicines

Assumptions are external factors for which the intervention is not responsible, but that are very important for the realization of the results, the project purpose and the overall objective. They are outside direct intervention control, but vital for achieving a successful implementation.

Identifying risks and assumptions serves to assess whether the Goals and Activities proposed are realistic and achievable in the given time frame and within the given available human and financial resources. Risk however defined as an uncertain threat that, in case of occurring, could have a negative impact on the completion of the Goal or Activity whereas an assumption, on the other side, is the necessary condition that will enable the successful completion of the Goal or Activity. In order to avoid repetition and redundancy, risks and assumptions should be defined at two levels: general and specific levels.

General risks and assumptions can be either related to the overall implementation of the Roadmap or common to all Goals included in the Roadmap. Specific risks and assumptions will be related to a concrete Activity, i.e. a particular risk that could hinder the successful implementation of a concrete Activity or an assumption that is key to the implementation of a specific Activity.

If described negatively, an assumption can become a risk. On the contrary, if defined in positive terms, risk can be transformed into an assumption. Thus, it is very important to pay attention to redundancy.
Assumptions that were considered in the form of risks do not need to be noted again and vice-versa. Similarly, risks and assumptions that were defined at the general level, do not need to be mentioned again at a specific level. If resistance to change is a major risk for the overall completion of the Roadmap's Goals, it would be also a risk for the different Activities considered.

Risks and assumptions are in many instances not properly addressed when embarking on by few organization I have come across. Some are too confident in the project output and outcomes without making provisions for uncertainties. This session was really great

The module spoke at length on Inputs,outputs,outcomes, impacts,risks and assumptions of which have been confusing to me till now,and I got to learn of what they are and how they operate. But it would be great if there were more specific examples or rather based on project that specializes on one thing so that we can get a better understanding and clearer vision of what exactly is expected. But all in all,this module did teach me a few things and cleared the confusion

That's was great as I learnt a lot in this module and one of the topics that I enjoyed much is the project summary as it describes the activities that your project will do and the effects that those activities will have .A logical design tool that is used is the logical framework which brings together a bunch of information into the same place .

Risks and assumptions are all the things that might disrupt your plan .It is important to plan for risks and assumptions ahead of time so that you understand events and conditions that are unforseeable that might affect your implementation, therefore giving you enough time to make decisions at the right time .

Risk and assumptions are a very important tasks and requires vital skill sets to enable objective judgments after proper identifications of risks and assumptions

Risks and Assumptions are the critical external factors where project has little control but the consequences may disturb all the functioning of the project. These are often found or connected with belief of the community where project is going to run, events or other contexts.
Therefore, to identify it helps to project prepare for the potential challenges.
For example, the project that is going to be run in the local community may not be accepted by the local person itself.

I have learnt that The risks and assumptions column of a logical framework provide a lists of all the things that might disrupt my plan. For each level of the logical framework - inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impact - one would have to ask: what could go wrong? Is there anything that might prevent you from providing the inputs? And, if you provide the inputs, are you sure that this will lead to the outputs?

also the IF/THEN statement would help expose possible risks that could affect my project plans from reaching it outcome and impacts.

Risks are a list of things that cannot be controlled and can affect the implementation of activities up to the impact. on the other hand assumptions are positive effect of the plan which you do not have evidence and would like result to bias. It is important to highlight the risk and assumptions in your plan because it helps to plan in advance on the unplanned events or conditions so that you adjust the plan appropriately

Risk are lists of uncontrolled things that might negatively affect the plan of the project. On the other hand, assumptions are list of positive things that can happen in the project which do not have evidence hence can bring bias. It is important to highlight risk and assumptions because you are able to plan for unplanned conditions or events

Very interesting but i still have a problems on how to differentiate between impact ant outcome more explanation please

Great topic

to work on risk and assumptions serves to assess whether the goals and activities proposed are realistic and achievable

In this context, a risk is defined as an uncertain threat that, in case of occurring, could have a negative impact in the completion of the Goal or Activity. An assumption, on the other side, is the necessary condition that will enable the successful completion of the Goal or Activity.

Risks are things outside your control that might disrupt your plan. for example if one plans to take a loan and build a house, the risk factors are after building a house one might find it hard to pay the loan, secondly the amount of the loan that he intends to take might too high for him or her to be given, thirdly the money might not be enough thus leading him to apply more loans, while assumptions are biases that is things believed but not supported by evidences.

Risks in a project are things that unexpectedly happen and they are beyond your control in a project. They are biases and can negativity my project. For instance, I had a project in with the outcome: Reduction of cases related to water-borne diseases among residents by 30%. My risk can be:The residents still do not boil or treat their drinking water when consuming though the implementing organization dug wells and educated them on boiling and treating water first.
My assumption: Residents treats and boil water before drinking.

Targets should always be realistic ,when you set a target you are commiting your team to reaching that target .If you miss a target because you were unrealistic ,everyone involved will end up dissapointed ,the team and your donors .It is important to set realistic targets because it will motivate your team .

before I knew project may have more than one Impacts, but through this module new idea learnt that project have single Impact been expected to be achieved

thank you

happy because simple English language used

I would like to ask the team, is it possible each of project summary have risk and assumptions?

if you identify risk in project summary where can you show it in logframe to enable you community or donors know proposed approaches to deal with risk

On risks and assumptions, I feel we can eliminate or rather reduce biases in a project by thoroughly understanding the project and it's environment. Also undertaking formative research helps address and eliminate some of the biases that we might have.

I found this topic very interesting, not because we don't know about the risks when implementing any project or monitoring and evaluation plan, but because it was possible to understand how to fit and link the risks to each element of the logframe (of the project), consequently giving a vision strategy of how to attack each component and mitigate the risks that arise.

This module has been interesting and enlightening. Now I understand the log frame better and I know to apply if and then when planning my project. I now understand also how to look out for risks and assumptions.

I can understand the concept of Risks and Assumptions. Risk and Assumptions might affect my implementation, therefore giving you enough time to make decision at the right time. We can test Risk and Assumptions in the Log Frame Matrix.
We can input some of the risk and assumptions in the log frame then we could ask our beneficiary about out assumptions.

its better to look fowards for see any of the dissapointments and barrier for include other factors to the project planning and after obtain the other factor you may possition yourself as M&E officer on safe side while designing.

Risks and assumptions are important to understand

Risk and assumptions section is an inevitable section in logfram in project design.
The risk states all the factors outside the project control that could cause the project not to be implemented as plan. Assumptions are equally important because they help to prepare the project designers not to have bias in some areas of the project. Risks and assumptions are very important in understanding events and conditions that are unforseable which might affect the implementation of the project thus giving the M&E manager enough time to make decision to ensure the smooth implementation of the project.

• discussing risk and assumptions in M&E.
  In Monitoring & Evaluation, assumptions and risk forms part of any M&E plan. Risk and assumptions are important for making sure that the design of our results chain is credible.
  Assumptions are the preconditions necessary for projects or programs to achieve results. So our assumptions and preconditions needs to be reasonable, if results are to be observed as expect.
  Risks are factors that could significantly affect the achievement of the project or program results and targets.
  So when identifying the risk for projects and programs we must think what can go wrong:
  Questions like
  • What could shift in the external environment?
  • What are the external forces acting against project success?
  • Whats other factors like resources, implementation capacity etc. can hamper the project.

It is important that during the planning phase of a program that the project is able to answer certain monitoring and evaluation questions as these are pivotal to the success of the project

In setting Indicators one should not get too optimistic and make assumptions that could be a challenge to the program. carefully consider the risk involve and how to adjust your indicators

WHAT RISKS ARE MOST LIKELY TO OCCUR?

how to easily identify the risks of a project?

Riscos e pressupostos inclui oque pode acontecer durante o progresso e como deve ser solucionado

Riscos e pressupostos inclui oque pode acontecer durante o progresso e como deve ser solucionado

Project risk: is uncertain event that is likely or unlikely to occur during project implementation.
Project assumption: this is foreseen factor that is likely to happen without any evidence to proof and therefore likely to affect quality of project implementation.

Sometimes the NGOs forget to take into account risks and assumption sufficiently. For example, I have seen that many organizations don't consider the effects of covid pandemic anymore. That isn't very good by looking to the fact that there are still many LDCs applying lockdowns

Risks and assumptions are situations or circumstances that might make input, output, outcome and impact not to possible in project implementation. In other words, they are foreseen circumstances that might affect the achievement of well stated or designed project. These circumstances or situations are usually beyond the control of organization involves in the implementation of the project.

Targets are ought to be realistic. However, targets might be unrealistic based on several reasons. For instance, settling a target whereby the available inputs maybe budget, staff strength etc. are far below the proposed target.

There are various steps needed to be taken when creating data collection tools. First, you must consider 'who' will use the tool. In the process of considering who will use the tool, information like gender, age, literacy level etc. would be considered. The other steps to be considered when creating data collection tools include; Information to be on the tool, additional information or meta data, testing of the tool and training of people that will use the tool.

Data management involves data collection, data entry, data collation, data use and analysis. The description of data management can be done through the creation of data flow map. The data flow map will outline details of 'who to do what'.

so better planning ahead for risks and assumptions to understand events and conditions that are foreseable, to make better decisions at a right time, to adjust project plan and targets, and to escape biases

Risks are the factors that could significantly affect the achievement of the project or program results and targets.
Assumptions are the preconditions necessary for projects or programs to achieve results.
Risk and assumptions are really helpful during the project designing phase.
Risk and assumptions can enable the monitoring and evaluation officers understand the events, situations and conditions that are invisible that might make the project difficult to implement. Hence giving the monitoring and evaluation officers enough time to make decisions at the right time.
UNREALISTIC TARGETS
Targets play a very important role in projects. They motivate your team to achieve success and every understands what is going to be achieved.
Unrealistic targets are set in a project if no proper research was done during the project design phase. The head of Monitoring and Evaluation team may not know the baseline historical data well hence resulting to make unrealistic targets.
Unrealistic targets can result to mistakes and poor quality outcomes.

Risks are the factors that could significantly affect the achievement of the project or program results and targets.
Assumptions are the preconditions necessary for projects or programs to achieve results.
Risk and assumptions are really helpful during the project designing phase.
Risk and assumptions can enable the monitoring and evaluation officers understand the events, situations and conditions that are invisible that might make the project difficult to implement. Hence giving the monitoring and evaluation officers enough time to make decisions at the right time.
UNREALISTIC TARGETS
Targets play a very important role in projects. They motivate your team to achieve success and every understands what is going to be achieved.
Unrealistic targets are set in a project if no proper research was done during the project design phase. The head of Monitoring and Evaluation team may not know the baseline historical data well hence resulting to make unrealistic targets.
Unrealistic targets can result to mistakes and poor quality outcomes.

I think as an expert of monitoring and evaluation we need to evaluate risks and assumptions

so better planning ahead for risks and assumptions to understand events and conditions that are foreseable, to make better decisions at a right time, to adjust project plan and targets, and to escape biases

For Risks are happening , lawful maybe, in every dynamic working environment, better recognizing risks before starting your project for offering solutions to araised problems at a right time.

Every project has risks and assumptions and they are supposed to be seen before hand to prevent some of the issues that may come up after the project has started. Risks are the things that cannot be controlled while assumptions are the biases and beliefs that have no clear evidence. An individual thinking of monitoring and evaluation should not have biases and beliefs but should rather do evidence-based data collection and analysis. The risks and assumptions should be planed for to understand the unforeseen events and conditions.

Risks can also be related to community beliefs especially in some communities.
Until assumptions are validated, they are still risks.

                                                                 RISKS AND ASSUMPTIONS

In Monitoring & Evaluation, assumptions and risk forms part of any M&E plan.
Risk and assumptions are important for making sure that the design of our results chain is credible.

Assumptions are the preconditions necessary for projects or programs to achieve results. So our assumptions and preconditions needs to be reasonable, if results are to be observed as expect.

Risks are factors that could significantly affect the achievement of the project or program results and targets.
So when identifying the risk for projects and programs we must think what can go wrong:
Questions like
• What could shift in the external environment?
• What are the external forces acting against project success?
• Whats other factors like resources, implementation capacity etc. can hamper the project.

Going through this module has made me realise the need to know the risks and assumptions asociated the projects. These will inform me why the results are they way they are. Thus, knowinging the risks and assumptions before hand is of paramount importance to inform project design.

This module was educative

To be honest i am not clear what i should respond to as there is no guidance for this part. However, just thinking that you might want me to reflect in general terms my ideas about Risks and Assumption, my points are the following. For me the assessment of Risks and Assumptions in project planning, is the same as threat analysis in SWOT of strategic planning. The premise for the analysis of of the Risk and Assumption is contextual dimension of the intervention logic. Success of a project is not determined by what the project does only but what other other agents and factor do against and/or infavour of the project and Risk and Assumption analysis is preparing the project for external factors.

It is important to look into the risks to the project in order to be fully aware of what may prove detrimental to the project. For example, a risk that is outside of our control, such as bad weather, may derail the project starting time, and thus create challenges with completing all the activities within the proposed time line.

Likewise, it is also important to identify any assumptions that may reflect our own biases towards a particular element of the project. It is stronger to rely on actual data than make assumptions.