My Communities

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?

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about what if the project is not successful or delayed or is not going as planned. So, before the result may falter due to a missing component, I believe to think of each step necessary for our success.

Identification of risks and assumptions help to iron out the issues that might come up in the future to affects the project. It is advisable to come up with some risks and assumptions before starting the project. I want to give a scenario of my organization. My organization is implementing child protection program in one of the South Sudan rural communities. We distributed nonfoods items to children with protection concerns and referred them to another organization for educational support it happened one day that the organization concerns did not support the children and that make us feels like we are not doing to expectations. How do u advice me ?

Sometimes we need to involve these husbands also.Sometimes cultural beliefs hinder these people from cooperating but in this case when men are also involved it might change the attitudes that may follow.

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

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.

One of the issues to address will be to disabuse the mindsets of the fresh graduates and to appreciate becoming entrepreneurs

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about what facets can affect the final impact of the project. It will mean looking at elements , experiences and factors that will have an influence on input, output,outcome and impact. Feedback from stakeholders and beneficiaries should be taken into consideration as they can be able to point out factors that the project team can not perceive. This will ensure an effective mitigation plan and thus give a cushioning of high probability of the project objectives being met. In the adult literacy project that we had our estimate for project implementation was 8000 women, but got application of 10,000 women. We were not expecting the same but due to savings realized in subsidized workshop rent we were able to accommodate the extra 2,000.

The best way to identify risks and assumption in projects is involving all the stakeholders involved in the project which includ head of units/depertment and external partners to identify all possible risks they might face in the future on the project and to advice the best way to mitigate such risk.

There was a situation we traveled with a machine to the field and the machine broke down and it took us days to be able to fixed the machine back beacuse we did not traveled with any engineer and we didn't even expect such to happened.

To identify risks & assumptions it is helpful to think about all possible scenarios and how they could impact the project, whether positively or negatively.
There is a time that we organized a youth career fair which aimed at availing career guidance & information for the youth and charged a small fee to cater for the refreshment of the participants. We had done a lot of publicizing and on the event day the turn up was very high, with quite a number unaware/unable to pay for the fee. We had to allow them join & be part of the forum.
This implicated on our initial plan. Fortunately, we were able to still serve them all thanks to the patners who were on board.

@linnhtinhla77 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

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

@linnhtinhla77 You are so right, external risks are often forgoten by project supervisors and it always have a stronge effect on project.

Executing a project is never without its challenges; so we learned when my organization launched the ALHN (Project 500) where we intended to onboard healthcare facilities on a EMR. Being that we were offering the software free with other benefits, we assumed that acceptance and adoption would be easy, because we knew from research that the huge financial cost was a burden for most healthcare facilities that prevented the adoption of technology.
To our surprise, it turns out that most facilities where stuck to their old way of doing things. They were skeptical of our 'free' offering(s) and decided that their use of paper in keeping patients record was well suited for them.
We then had to restrategize our engagement, invite key stakeholders who we knew would be an influence and present the package in a different way.

I once worked in a project aimed at providing clean water to the members of the community. The problem identified was that some people walk long distances to get clean water and the project decided to build water pumps closer to the village. The assumption was that with the water pumps closer the women would save time, and use that time to do other things. what happen was that some women continued to go to the further place to fetch water besides having the water pumps closer. when asked why they do that, the answer was that they preferred to go to the further place because they go in groups and use the time to socialize with other women, they chat and get along. So this shows how important is to identify the assumptions and risks to avoid biase. The project took for granted that those women needed water closer but It did not foresee the fact that the women also needed time to be with each other. If that had been thought about, maybe the project should have included other activities to give the space for women to be together and talk about their issues such as workshops and other things

Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of a project design. This is majorly due to the fact that you cannot foresee all project risk during the planning stage. Some project risks arise during the implementation phase. I experienced this last year. We planted tomatoes in our 10 acre farm in the second week of October as we does. The assumption was that the rains would start the first week of November as usual. Unfortunately, the rains delayed up to the last week of November. As a result we exhausted all the water reserves we had in the first week of November. Without a plan to mitigate this unforeseen risk, all the plants dried up. What I learned from this incidence is that a project should spare some funds to mitigate unforeseen risks during the planning stage. Again, it is important to remain flexible as this will help to manage arising risks during project implementation. One important tip for identifying risks and assumptions is to scan your project's environment when designing the project. This will help to identify external risks to your project.

@fofanahosman26 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

with Saving Lives project, after my organisation had intensively trained targeted health staff on digital health data collection and reporting, to our greatest surprised the health staff were unable to collect health data and report from the digital tablets (Samsung Tablets) to the dhis2 for the first two months of reporting after we had trained them. the reason according to some of them they were novice in using smart screen tablets, and other said it was another burden to their already overloaded duties at the health facility. this unexpected incident nearly cost the project outputs, outcomes and impacts.

My experience with this event was that: I never expected 21st century educated health workers scared of using smart-tablets/phones after intensive training on how to collect and report health data. Secondly, I did realized and empathized with them the additional job responsibility added to their already overloaded health facility work. the third experienced was, we had to conduct refresher training and incentive for monthly data collection and reporting which would had cost implication to the project budget, scope and time.
The tips in identifying risks and assumptions should be to ask the following questions:
What would go wrong that would affect the outputs, outcomes and impacts of the project?
Is there any unforeseen event that might prevent you from providing the inputs of the project?
If you actually provides the required inputs , you would be sure that these inputs will lead to the outputs of the pr

@fofanahosman26, From all what I gather from your explanation,is that you failed to run pretest or pilot test your data collection with the health workers before going into the full-scale of the project. I also notice that your monitoring system was not robust because it was two months into the project you realize things were not going as planned. My advice is that when you decide to use digital data collection, always make sure to pilot test the tools to see if people are comfortable with the instrument they are using ,skips pattern are working effectively, if some questions are to be rephrases, etc. Also make sure at most a week you should be retrieving these data for analysis to see if everything is going as planned or to prevent data lost as someone might crash their device or being stolen. Guess we can all learn from this.

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

I once worked in a project aimed at providing clean water to the members of the community. The problem identified was that some people walk long distances to get clean water and the project decided to build water pumps closer to the village. The assumption was that with the water pumps closer the women would save time, and use that time to do other things. what happen was that some women continued to go to the further place to fetch water besides having the water pumps closer. when asked why they do that, the answer was that they preferred to go to the further place because they go in groups and use the time to socialize with other women, they chat and get along. So this shows how important is to identify the assumptions and risks to avoid biase. The project took for granted that those women needed water closer but It did not foresee the fact that the women also needed time to be with each other. If that had been thought about, maybe the project should have included other activities to give the space for women to be together and talk about their issues such as workshops and other things

@Carlama , This is the essence of community engagement. If you had fully involved the community into the planning phase of the project I believed you would have foreseen such risk.

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

In our quest to reduce poverty and food insecurity in the rural households, my organisation works to establish group owned rural irrigation schemes. We planned for one of the projects and engaged the primary stakeholders(rural farmers) among others. However, at the time of implementation, the traditional chief of the beneficiaries indicated that he would remove his endorsement of the project since we only notified him and had not followed the proper channels of notifying the traditional chief hence our action warranted a "fine". We had not anticipated that there could be fines emanating from development activities which would benefit the people led by the chief in question. We ended up forgoing some small activities to recover the financing that had gone into meeting the fine charged by the local chief.

Hi davdanhi. It is amazing that a government officer can be an obstacle to a project meant to bring development to their territory. This risk may go unidentified during the planning phase. It is important to effectively engage all the stakeholders to achieve full project support.

@Course_Operations said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:
To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about many risks, for example in a Value Chain intervention we assumed that if we give seeds farmers will sow, but we failed to understand that, each kind of seed has different pattern of Package of Practice. This was an assumption that took us by surprise.

To identify risks and assumptions it is helpful to understand events and conditions that might affect your project, therefore giving you enough time to make decision at the right time, Also it is helpful to describe situations, events, which are necessary for success of the project, but which are completely beyond the control of the project's management.

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 assumptions, it is helpful to think about _______ .**

That was during the launching od the IVF programme for which 50 person's were estimated. However, the number turned out to be more.
I believe it would be helpful to get a better estimate next time by administering surveys for the potential target patients.

@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 will possibly affect your project negatively from reaching its intended goal.
For my organization ADDS we enrolled our beneficiaries during SMILE OVC project in FY14 and after 5 years of implementation, the project year had elapsed and during our enrollment the directive for streams of enrollment fell around all forms of vulnerability like in poor Households, High Risk Adolescents, Street children, Double orphans, Single orphans etc. Eventually when the project elapsed and there was supposed to be transitioning from the project to another project running the same OVC program. The transition was between SMILE project implemented by CRS with funding from USAID/PEPFAR to iCARES project implemented by APIN Public health Initiatives with funding from CDC/PEPFAR and the Directive for enrollment was strictly for HIV positive beneficiaries. At this point over 90% of our enrollments was not from the enrollment stream which posed a high risk for us losing out of the project as an organization.

Other risks that the organization faced was not been able to implement activities within some of our communities as they were affected by Herds Men Crisis. Beneficiaries had to migrate from their communities to other areas in search for shelter and as such were loss to follow-up meanwhile making us not to meet our goals which was attaining care plan achievement or Households attaining resilience to be able to carter for their Household needs without any assistance.

In Identifying risks and assumptions you have to be proactive and open minded with your target beneficiaries about their concerns on what you intend to do and how they feel about the service you are about to render.

Our NGO took up a programme that involved in training teachers / faculty in active-constructive, learner-centered pedagogy in municipal schools. We had invited faculty from over 50 schools for a 2-day induction of a 2-year project. Over 100 participants turned-up. We had done a needs assessment by visiting a few sample schools and were being advised by the regional bureaucrats. We were taken by surprise as we had assumed that the participants would be motivated and interested in the programme. They rather said that they were over-worked and this training would be additional work. They blamed the same bureaucrats for not being connected with the ground reality. They took the induction as an opportunity to vent out their frustration.

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

In our quest to reduce poverty and food insecurity in the rural households, my organisation works to establish group owned rural irrigation schemes. We planned for one of the projects and engaged the primary stakeholders(rural farmers) among others. However, at the time of implementation, the traditional chief of the beneficiaries indicated that he would remove his endorsement of the project since we only notified him and had not followed the proper channels of notifying the traditional chief hence our action warranted a "fine". We had not anticipated that there could be fines emanating from development activities which would benefit the people led by the chief in question. We ended up forgoing some small activities to recover the financing that had gone into meeting the fine charged by the local chief.

@davdanhi The scenario you shared is real and not far fetched in project implementation...believe it or not, execution of projects are still affected by cultural activities, customary procedures and sheer misunderstanding but truthfully , one of the ways to resolve this recurring impasse is to adopt the concept of project ownership where the beneficiaries and other stakeholders are carried along on the project from inception and made to understand that the project is their own ...therefore the success of it or otherwise is heavily dependent on them....Keep Learning

Hey everyone. Risk and assumptions identification is very primordial in project designing but also in activity implementation. We were once expected to offer HIV services in an island where a boat was supposed to be used. We had made plans that the boat belonging to the Ministry of Health would be of help as a partner. Fortunately, I gathered my team so we could think of risks and assumptions before we could implement that activity. The if/then statements helped in coming up with plan B just in case (if the boat from MoH is attached to other activity, then what will happen to our program?) And it came to pass that the day before the planned activity, the boat for ministry of health was unavailable. We immediately got in touch with the ministry of fishery that had a boat parked at the beach to come to our rescue and the activity finally took place.

In 2012, immediately after high school, I signed up as an occasional volunteer with Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ) in my hometown, Choma. The goal of this volunteering role was to educate the public about reproductive health related issues in communities on behalf of Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ). My scope was mainly highly populated townships in Choma town, where I and the rest of my team went house to house, educating and distributing condoms to people in the area.
To our surprise, most people we spoke to, particularly men, rejected our teachings, arguing that it is in their culture to marry as many wives as they could and have unprotected sex. One interesting response I got was that they did not believe in using condoms or practicing family planning with their wives because they paid dowry.
The major lesson I learnt from this experience was the importance conducting market research before doing such work. Unique cultural and social norms can affect the success of such a program. Many rural communities are deeply rooted in traditions and cultures around lack of trust for medical professionals. I learnt that I needed to make effort to recognize and understand these norms before implementing the program and develop strategies to address them.

In 2012, immediately after high school, I signed up as an occasional volunteer with Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ) in my hometown, Choma. The goal of this volunteering role was to educate the public about reproductive health related issues in communities on behalf of Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ). My scope was mainly highly populated townships in Choma town, where I and the rest of my team went house to house, educating and distributing condoms to people in the area.
To our surprise, most people we spoke to, particularly men, rejected our teachings, arguing that it is in their culture to marry as many wives as they could and have unprotected sex. One interesting response I got was that they did not believe in using condoms or practicing family planning with their wives because they paid dowry.
The major lesson I learnt from this experience was the importance conducting market research before doing such work. Unique cultural and social norms can affect the success of such a program. Many rural communities are deeply rooted in traditions and cultures around lack of trust for medical professionals. I learnt that I needed to make effort to recognize and understand these norms before implementing the program and develop strategies to address them.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all the possible factors that can disrupt a project from achieving its goal. These factors could include religion, culture, weather, communication etc.

A situation happened when my organization planned an event on awareness/education for women on the alternative dispute resolutions in their businesses, our sponsors asked all the vendors to provide invoices for their services, it was misunderstood that vendors are expected to use their resources, which will be reimbursed afterwards.
On the day of the event, some vendors assumed their services was not needed and did not show up as they had not been properly informed about the payment process.
We were able to find other vendors but it came at a higher cost.
We learnt that poor communication can also disrupt a project.

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

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.

I think an idea where an assessment is done, and only those who pass, are given access to the money or gets to the next stage for the attachment and practicals can be introduced. It might help a few pick interest on the skill.

Wow....This is mostly the case with rural areas, calm and consistent awareness also helps in changing their minds.

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

In 2012, immediately after high school, I signed up as an occasional volunteer with Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ) in my hometown, Choma. The goal of this volunteering role was to educate the public about reproductive health related issues in communities on behalf of Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ). My scope was mainly highly populated townships in Choma town, where I and the rest of my team went house to house, educating and distributing condoms to people in the area.
To our surprise, most people we spoke to, particularly men, rejected our teachings, arguing that it is in their culture to marry as many wives as they could and have unprotected sex. One interesting response I got was that they did not believe in using condoms or practicing family planning with their wives because they paid dowry.
The major lesson I learnt from this experience was the importance conducting market research before doing such work. Unique cultural and social norms can affect the success of such a program. Many rural communities are deeply rooted in traditions and cultures around lack of trust for medical professionals. I learnt that I needed to make effort to recognize and understand these norms before implementing the program and develop strategies to address them.

Wow, this is mostly the case in rural areas, but calm and consistent awareness also helps

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

Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of a project design. This is majorly due to the fact that you cannot foresee all project risk during the planning stage. Some project risks arise during the implementation phase. I experienced this last year. We planted tomatoes in our 10 acre farm in the second week of October as we does. The assumption was that the rains would start the first week of November as usual. Unfortunately, the rains delayed up to the last week of November. As a result we exhausted all the water reserves we had in the first week of November. Without a plan to mitigate this unforeseen risk, all the plants dried up. What I learned from this incidence is that a project should spare some funds to mitigate unforeseen risks during the planning stage. Again, it is important to remain flexible as this will help to manage arising risks during project implementation. One important tip for identifying risks and assumptions is to scan your project's environment when designing the project. This will help to identify external risks to your project.

I agree, there should always be plans to mitigate unforeseen risks.

It's important to identify the culture of your target group.
It's also important to identify the level of education of your target group.
It's also important to understand your capacity and act in accordance to your limits.
There is also need to be able to understand that you will identify some of the risks as you as you run the project

How that was sad actually our project aims to provide quality service for refugees and in one of my experiences we went out to vaccinate young girls tetanus and the community didn't really take the idea because they didn't understand what we were doing fully

Correctly identifying assumptions and risks ahead of time is one of the most difficult parts of project design.
This is because risk is something that is a threat, therefore choosing risk before it may lower confidence of the implementors or even some risk are so advance that they shut down the project.
Assumptions is always with no evidence therefore it may put one into a confused state .

Share one instance from your organization when a risk or assumption took the team by surprise. What did you learn from this experience?
one time the organization had a plan to carry out a Malaria prevention programme, one of the activity was to distribute mosquito nets. this was to be done during heavy rains, so the season was assumed to be during the month of December, little did we know climate changed, there was no heavy rains that came,hence that affected the project kick off.
I learnt that some assumption should not pre determine your work-ability.

What tips for identifying risks and assumptions can you share with your peers?
It is good first to do a formative research.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about
Because it can affect the kick off or the progress of the project

Risk are refrered to actions that you cannot control in a project like girls using the loan they got for material things instead of investing.

Assumptions are things that you believe without verifiable evidence. Like assuming that girls will learn new skills.

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

Its important to put yourself in the scenario and think of the events that could happen

@econnect_saurav even with what you have proposed, can we still exhaust all the risk and assumptions attached to a project....therefore risks and assumptions may be on-going concern in project implementation!!!

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

Risk are refrered to actions that you cannot control in a project like girls using the loan they got for material things instead of investing.

Assumptions are things that you believe without verifiable evidence. Like assuming that girls will learn new skills.

“I really like the way you responded to this prompt @learner1. What did you learn from that experience that could be useful to others taking this course?

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

Risk are refrered to actions that you cannot control in a project like girls using the loan they got for material things instead of investing.

Assumptions are things that you believe without verifiable evidence. Like assuming that girls will learn new skills.

“I really like the way you responded to this prompt @learner1. What did you learn from that experience that could be useful to others taking this course?

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

Risk are refrered to actions that you cannot control in a project like girls using the loan they got for material things instead of investing.

Assumptions are things that you believe without verifiable evidence. Like assuming that girls will learn new skills.

“I really like the way you responded to this prompt @xvi . What did you learn from that experience that could be useful to others taking this course? kindly share generously

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

It's important to identify the culture of your target group.
It's also important to identify the level of education of your target group.
It's also important to understand your capacity and act in accordance to your limits.
There is also need to be able to understand that you will identify some of the risks as you as you run the project

@DrakuaDanAmooti Truthful nuggets to take to heart for a successful project executions

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

How that was sad actually our project aims to provide quality service for refugees and in one of my experiences we went out to vaccinate young girls tetanus and the community didn't really take the idea because they didn't understand what we were doing fully

@DrakuaDanAmooti What a pathetic frustrating experience ... but note that such project misunderstanding can be resolve through further consultations and dialogue with relevant stakeholders, beneficiaries inclusive!!!

@Umar007 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

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

@Umar007 That is a good place to start but note that those that spring up in the course of executing the project should also be nip in the bud accordingly......

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

Wow....This is mostly the case with rural areas, calm and consistent awareness also helps in changing their minds.

Yes thats true

@ all learners: MEH gave us their assumptions with statements such as: 'Girls might not want to start or upgrade businesses'. But elsewhere I have come across assumption statements written line this: 'Girls will want to start to start or upgrade businesses'.

Can someone help me out. Is there a particular right/correct way to write these?

@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 designed a project to build 5, two bed rooms in Namatil district, and we aim to provide housing to 5 households, but since the houses were build only one institution requested to buy houses.

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

one of the risk and Assumption that took us by surprise during one of our project was, one of the stores for medical supplies caught fire and most of the supplies got burnt and yet it was during rainy season and the supplies were already pre-positioned due to difficulties in movement during rainy season.

It is vital to identify risks and assumptions since it helps one to understand events and conditions that are unforeseeable that might affect your project implementation, therefore giving you an ample time to make the right decisions at the right time. And this helps to mitigate adverse impacts that deter any project from achieving its desired objectives.

if we don't find funding , we won't be able to run our programmes and learners will still have challenges of reading and Numeracy. we will still have challenges such as students who lack the understanding of their capabilities.

@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 the Cause and Effect Diagrams. Cause and Effect diagrams are powerful. Project managers can use this simple method to help identify causes–facts that give rise to risks. If we address the causes, we can reduce or eliminate the risks.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about the Cause and Effect Diagrams. Cause and Effect diagrams are powerful. Project managers can use this simple method to help identify causes–facts that give rise to risks. If we address the causes, we can reduce or eliminate the risks.

Identifying risks and assumptions at the start of a project design,most a times can always be tricky.I can remember,when we were preparing for the child sponsorship camp.We managed as an organization,to put everything into place,from crafts to volunteers.Then we also had a certain target of volunteers to work with.However,this turned out the reversed way,since only a few of the volunteers showed up.We therefore had to cheap in as staffs to help where necessary.
From this we happened to learn on lesson,we need to fully work on risks and assumptions identification,in order to come to terms with the unforeseeable,that affects the implementation process.

My organization runs a project on sensitization of the public on budget process. While mobilizing ToTs, we assumed that they have been involved in the budget process in their various organizations and are thus having some good level of understanding of the issues. To our surprise, majority of the selected ToTs had not interacted as much with the budget process. As a result, their initial performance was poor and we had to continuously hold sessions to build their capacities further.

Its vital to avoid over anticipating

To identify risks, it is helpful to think about all that might or can go wrong before, during and after the project.

I once volunteered with an organization for a medical outreach. Though I wasn't actively involved with the planning and project design.

We planned to attend to about 200 persons. So we got about 70 pairs of reading glasses and drugs. Low and behold, on the day of the outreach, we had over 1000 already seated, standing at the venue of the outreach waiting to be attended to.

We had to look for ways to make extra provisions for them.

An assumption during one of our outings was that all our equipment were okay and functioning properly. unfortunately by the time we began our sensitization session, we realized the projector was bad and we had to go out to town to get a replacement. Time, energy and Money wasted.

learning point for us was to always check all equipment before embarking on our sensitization project.

Two years ago, when i was working with one NGO in my country we had to sensitize the southern community and do a screening campaign for the community but we didnt take into consideration if the material and equipments we took were going to be enough for the number of people we had in plan to screen. and during the campaign we ran out of syringe, cotton, etc without even reaching our target and we had to call for help in the center for more equipments which took long to arrived in that community making us to stay longer than planned in that village,

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

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

@apostledavid58 This is one of my biggest fears, not having enough materials or supplies. From your experience, though, it sounds like you definitely learned how to mitigate that problem with multitudes of research in the beginning before getting to the implementation stage. This is definitely an eye-opening experience.

@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 the total impact a project will have on a given area. For example, when we first started planning to build schools in rural communities in Sierra Leone, we had to consider the indigenous organizations and leaders in the areas we were targeting. Without their support, our schools never would have gotten off the ground. Their influence is just as important as the opportunities we are offering. This wasn’t necessarily an assumption that took us by surprise, but could be an important factor to consider when looking at any area where you are looking to build a program. Gaining the support of those the community already trusts to back your project will ultimately help the program’s success.

Identifying risks and assumptions as being difficult or easy ahead of any project design depends on the persons involved and maybe, the kind of project in question. From an M&E perspective, the angle we are all expected to be coming from risks and assumptions typically puts you on track and curtails our personal biases. More so, it makes you feel naturally human to have your personal beliefs about certain issues, situations, and people as the case may be. on a personal level i consider RISKS AND ASSUMPTIONS as being very simple.@BLUESKY

This is awesome. Risks and assumptions are important condiments that give M&E its flavor. I know that Sex messages and education are very sensitive and focal to the lives of all and sundry at least in these contemporary times hence it would have been most advisable to assume or forecast higher turnouts and make provisions for more flyers and condoms because of the sensitivity of the project or are the residents of ageing population? My guess will be no but i appreciate your candor.@apostledavid58

In my country we were planning on advocacy visits and sensitization on warring communities after the government had offered the war lords amnesty. We assumed that that since there were laying down of arms, peace has been given a chance but two days before the day we intended starting the campaigns the clashes began.

Health care workers strike during the implementation of a free maternity delivery program in Kenya government facilities

@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 remembered when my organization wanted to start a new project called "Route-to-Market". It's a project by which we deliver our products straight from the company to our customers instead of having sub-dealers delivering tobtgem
One of the risks that caught our attention was the fact that most of our customers were discouraged to start booking for their products directly because they believe that it will be to cumbersome to actually cover and deliver to everybody since we don't have their details.
So we solved it by employing direct sales representative who will first develop a customer relationships and database and this afforded us the opportunity to be able to reach out to all our customers even in the remotest area.
To identify risks and assumptions, it's helpful to think about the events and conditions that might hinder the implementation of a project.

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

@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?

@asaadalshamy @AMAGAJU 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:

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 _______ .

We had a program called Youth Together where we brought in youth from different backgrounds and talk about different topic every week. The first few weeks went very well and there were full participation. But after couple of weeks the participant numbers kept going lower, which then totally shut down the program. One of our younger member had come up with this project, we were very excited and let them lead. We started it very soon without thorough planning and risk assessments. If we had taken some time and if we had guided the younger member we would have been able to predict such outcome and come up with a plan to retain the participation.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about the worse and come up with plan b for all the possible outcomes.

@Omo4one said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

An assumption during one of our outings was that all our equipment were okay and functioning properly. unfortunately by the time we began our sensitization session, we realized the projector was bad and we had to go out to town to get a replacement. Time, energy and Money wasted.

learning point for us was to always check all equipment before embarking on our sensitization project.

I think every organization must have gone through this experience at least once. Even when we check sometimes the electricity goes away. Good luck with all the work you do!

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

In 2012, immediately after high school, I signed up as an occasional volunteer with Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ) in my hometown, Choma. The goal of this volunteering role was to educate the public about reproductive health related issues in communities on behalf of Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ). My scope was mainly highly populated townships in Choma town, where I and the rest of my team went house to house, educating and distributing condoms to people in the area.
To our surprise, most people we spoke to, particularly men, rejected our teachings, arguing that it is in their culture to marry as many wives as they could and have unprotected sex. One interesting response I got was that they did not believe in using condoms or practicing family planning with their wives because they paid dowry.
The major lesson I learnt from this experience was the importance conducting market research before doing such work. Unique cultural and social norms can affect the success of such a program. Many rural communities are deeply rooted in traditions and cultures around lack of trust for medical professionals. I learnt that I needed to make effort to recognize and understand these norms before implementing the program and develop strategies to address them.

Cultural norms and values are so important. I am so glad that you were able to understand that and are learning ways to incorporate your work with the local culture. Keep it up!

In 2017 my organization came up with a project dabbed as project 1000, we came up with this project for us to maintain a continuous enrollment of students with a thousand as a minimum. Little did we know know that the market was flooded with competitors who had more aggressive strategies that erroded our efforts to achieve project 1000. We invested a lot of financial resources into marketing which did not produce sustainable returns and made us incur losses.

The most disruptive unpredictable event I experienced as a development practitioner was the Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone in 2014.
Its scope was so vast that it led to the closure of the project and the evacuation of most expatriates from the country. The lesson learned that I can share from this extreme experience is that the only factor capable of correctly identifying risks and assertions at an early stage and of mitigating their effects is the local knowledge. Those who are more exposed to higher risks and their effects are the only ones able to identify appropriate mitigation measures. Therefore, my recommendation is to capture local knowledge from the onset, and monitor it during the project cycle. It is crucial to involve the beneficiaries in the decision-making process not only to mitigate risks and assumptions but for the success of the project

Assumptions are things assumed that they would happen.
Whiles risks are things which might be dangerous or not dangerous

Our project design is based at reducing the number of unbank individuals in Potiskum, Yobe State, North-East Nigeria by helping parents to bring up their kids with a good savings habit. Although, funds are needed to print fliers and leaflets in a way of enhancing awareness and other considerable factors.

But looking at our risk assumption for this I believe identifying this risk will allow us to create a comprehensive understanding that can be leveraged to influence other stakeholders that might want to partner into this and create better project decisions at the end.

@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: the difference between these 2 concepts. Both assumptions and risks can be internal or external factors. Internal factors are the things we have under control: the capacities of our staff, our management capacity, delegation of authority, etc. External factors are influences from the environment on our project.

Merely identifying the risks and ansumptions is not enough: it’s also important to reflect on what you will do if or when the risk occurs:

Are you going to try to avoid the consequences or the risk altogether (for instance through disaster risk reduction)?
Are you able to deal with the consequences?
Will you be able to transfer the burden to someone else (an insurance company for instance)?
Or will you do your best to mitigate the consequence as much as possible?

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

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.

@NathanielAmbrose thanks for sharing with us
It is always good to check the weather conditions during the planning phase of a project.
From your story te absence of weather forecasting cost you an extra day work.
So how did your team manage to handle the situation afterwards??? please do share with us and If you have any question feel free to post on this platform my colleagues and I will get back to you as soon as we can.
You can tag me with @KOPJ and i will try respond promptly
Happy learning

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

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.

Wowww beautiful experience
@MarionAkol this was really a critical scenario. Thumbs up you really managed it like a pro
Please feel free to ask any Question and share other experiences as beautiful as that one.
Happy learning.

@miskolly02 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

Our project design is based at reducing the number of unbank individuals in Potiskum, Yobe State, North-East Nigeria by helping parents to bring up their kids with a good savings habit. Although, funds are needed to print fliers and leaflets in a way of enhancing awareness and other considerable factors.

But looking at our risk assumption for this I believe identifying this risk will allow us to create a comprehensive understanding that can be leveraged to influence other stakeholders that might want to partner into this and create better project decisions at the end.

THanks for sharing
Are there other probems you may have faced in the cause of implementing a project.
For example you mentioned having to print flyers $ leaflets. Have you been in a situation where you carried morethan or lessthan what was necessary OR have you faced a situation were the flyers you printed could not be read by the target population, IF SO HOW DID YOU HANDLE IT????
PLease share with us and feel free to ask us any question we are here to help
YOU can tag me with @KOPJ and I will try respond promptly

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

The most disruptive unpredictable event I experienced as a development practitioner was the Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone in 2014.
Its scope was so vast that it led to the closure of the project and the evacuation of most expatriates from the country. The lesson learned that I can share from this extreme experience is that the only factor capable of correctly identifying risks and assertions at an early stage and of mitigating their effects is the local knowledge. Those who are more exposed to higher risks and their effects are the only ones able to identify appropriate mitigation measures. Therefore, my recommendation is to capture local knowledge from the onset, and monitor it during the project cycle. It is crucial to involve the beneficiaries in the decision-making process not only to mitigate risks and assumptions but for the success of the project

THanks for sharing this beautiful piece of experience with us.
I am a Geographic Information System Analyst on my regular activities away from managing my NGO and most often any job on Disaster responds is always very difficult to measure and when it has to do with a Disaster outbreak the least omission can cause alot.......for that i can testify.
Thanks again we hope to hear more from you @LCONTI
Please feel free to ask us any Question we are here to help
Tag me with @KOPJ

@Lykagema1 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

In my country we were planning on advocacy visits and sensitization on warring communities after the government had offered the war lords amnesty. We assumed that that since there were laying down of arms, peace has been given a chance but two days before the day we intended starting the campaigns the clashes began.

@Lykagema1 Thats a critical one.
So how did you handle the situation.
Did the project terminate or did you work on a different way to handle the situation
Please feel free to share with us

helps to plan the unexpected and make make informed decisions and prepare us for best or worst stages

Proper identification of project risks and assumptions ahead of time enhances better and informed project decisions. And ultimately leads to successful project delivery.

I had a firsthand experience while planning for one of our training session in my organization. Our target was to record higher registrations/ better participation in the forthcoming class. At the point of planning, we actually introduced a commission rewards system; where alumni or anyone who ensures prospect makes full payment and complete enrollment for the new class is paid a certain percentage. We did not consider the risk of what if number projected for enrollment does not meet the stipulated number of participants for any regular class to hold. This was not imagined as a risk because we actually ASSUMED the percentage commission given, will motivate everyone and we were sure to record more participation. Unfortunately the response was very poor and we did not get the minimum number of participant for a regular class. It was quite embarrassing, we had to reschedule for the few that completed registration and join them to a latter class/session.
From that experience, we learnt to think through all strategies now matter how good it appears and sounds and carefully outline all what if scenarios.

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

@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?

Some identified risks may affect a project positively.
These risks are considered as an Opportunity

@Tiga
stakeholder engagement in the beginning of project design is a key and it is very necessary moving forward. Projects get designed with the most noble of intentions but normally crash into dead ends when the value system or mind sets of the stakeholders are at variance with those of the designers hence community engagement with stakeholders is a move in the right direction.

At the re-occurrence of the communal clash between the warring communities that defied our assumption of peace in such communities, our activities were suspended for months, time was wasted and we learnt from that. The community stakeholders got to us after twelve weeks stating their readiness for peace to thrive.

@AMAGAJU
you can identify risks and assumptions which might be sure head ways in the line of your project design and success but what happens when the challenges you stumble into are in contrast with all the risks and assumptions you fathomed?

@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 always helpful to think about all the potential problems that might occur. As we know that risks are unavoidable but they can be minimized, we can always take time and make effective changes in the plans so that the impact of project remains unaffected.

It is essential to identify the risks and assumption of a project before embarking on the project so as to be able to tackle any issue that might pose a challenge during the course of the project. R&A makes one prepared for unforeseen circumstances.
My colleagues and I carried out a project research on poultry sometime ago. We considered majorly the poultry feed, vaccines and the likes and the person in charge of each assignment. We got to the field one day and found over 30 of the birds dead. Then we realized that we didn't really consider the diseases that could affect them in such environment.

If we had carried out risk and assumption before starting the project, the massive loss wouldn't have been incurred.

It is important to pre-empt risks and assumptions. This helps the team to be aware of what likely obstacle the project may face. It also helps the team to brain storm on ways these risks can be mitigated.

Great work and marvelous discussion. Please let us remember that Module 2 will soon end. Let us all attend to our assignments too.

Some years back I was in an NGO and we used to conducts tests and carry some sensetising the youths of a different towns and to our supprise due to the low numbers the statistics where showing, it so happen that we failed to attend to all the people that came because the numbers came minus us knowing,,,

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

@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?

Risk and assumptions may arise due to complexity of human interaction, societal operations and uneven frequencies of life events.

@Lykagema1 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

At the re-occurrence of the communal clash between the warring communities that defied our assumption of peace in such communities, our activities were suspended for months, time was wasted and we learnt from that. The community stakeholders got to us after twelve weeks stating their readiness for peace to thrive.

These are one amongst many unforeseen risks and assumption that may interfere in any project design

@Adrian-Sakala said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

In 2017 my organization came up with a project dabbed as project 1000, we came up with this project for us to maintain a continuous enrollment of students with a thousand as a minimum. Little did we know know that the market was flooded with competitors who had more aggressive strategies that erroded our efforts to achieve project 1000. We invested a lot of financial resources into marketing which did not produce sustainable returns and made us incur losses.

Hello Dear learner @Adrian-Sakala I really feel sorry for your projects but appreciate your efforts because you did your best. Looks like your project was about to improve the enrollment of students in schools/colleges. Would you like to share your experience with us and fellow learners that how did you manage after such unlikely conditions? The key thing that I would like to mention is “Stakeholders Analysis”. Did you come up with the stakeholder analysis before the execution of your project? Please

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

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

To strengthen surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases, our organization has decided to hold an exchange meeting with traditional health practitioners in a priority health district. At the time of implementation, we were faced with the fact that the traditional healers were in conflict on their territory of practice, and did not want to meet for the meeting to be held.
To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about the context of the locality (knowledge-attitudes-practices survey) in which we want to implement a project. It is necessary to maintain an "unforeseen" variable and depending on the studies carried out, identify the nature of the potential hazard. Furthermore, it's important to rely on previous reports of projects similar to those we want to implement.

In my view, 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.

I currently volunteer at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital(G.R.R.H) in the Northern region of Uganda and just completed my undergraduate Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at Gulu University.
In a research project about "prevalence and presentation of malaria in pregnancy in pregnant women attending Ante-Natal Care services in G.R.R.H" that involved answering questionnaires and taking a malaria blood smear, we were taken aback by a great delay in viewing of the slides, that was delayed by 5days and in addition my research-mates and I had totally not considered collecting the contacts of the study participants to report the found results. so we found ourselves stuck with far way delayed positive results and with no way of getting back to the participants to help the seek medical care to avoid complications.
I learnt that while carrying out a project, to look at all possible benefits of the project to all parties per-taking of it. and at all times at least get contacts of participants in case of any future reference, communications or follow-up needed.

I currently volunteer at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital(GRRH) in the Northern region of Uganda and just completed my undergraduate Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at Gulu University.
In a research project about "prevalence and presentation of malaria in pregnancy in pregnant women attending Ante-Natal Care services in GRRH, at the

I am a medical officer at Gulu Regional refferal hospital in Uganda. Participating in several research projects has enlightened me about the gravity of prior checks on the different assumptions and risks the projects we undertake can encounter.
One among others was when we assumed that, in a project helping young girls that have undergone unwanted pregnancies,and aborted,
With community sensitization and counseling these girls, they would easily be accepted back into society to our dismay. Most of them were rejected, and left out in all societal engagements.

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

In my view, 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.

This is true

It is very important to consider Risks and Assumptions while in designing Logic Framework if there is no Evidence. This will strengthen your Log Frame in inputs, outputs, outcomes and impact of the project analysis.

It is important since enables us to understand the events and conditions that are unforeseeable that might affect your implementation. Understanding those unforeseeable conditions help us to make timely decisions.

Identifying risk as part of the continual improvement in the management system is very important so that such anticipated risks will be dealt with accordingly. We started the journey for ISO certification four years ago. for the first two years of the journey, it was not successful. there are so many factors that attributed to the failure for the ISO certification. One of the issues that our organization didnt do then is to identify the potential risks in the processess and in the management system as a whole. Since most of quality auditors have no experience in ISO and the consultant is not approachable, hence, the attempt did not succeed. However, this doest stop the management to find ways on how to achieve the goal to be ISO certified. A new consultant is hered and help us for ISO certification

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

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about the factors that can act as an obstacle in achieving the result or output or outcome or the impact. Moreover, these factors can affect the project path in a way so that there can be a delay in reaching the goals.

In our project, we have provisions for distribution of nutrition items to children of backward class and economically poor families on a monthly basis. Once we planned that instead of monthly distribution, if we could arrange quarterly distribution, we can get the following benefits, like save the time which was spent every month for procurement, delivery of nutrition items, reduce the use of human resources (project staff) who every month involves in distribution, save the time of beneficiaries whom we called every month and we can distribute a larger amount (combining amount of 3 months). But surprisingly, during quarterly distribution, we noticed that there were several problems, like as the vendor supplied larger amount(3 months' items), he mixed some amount of bad quality goods with the good quality materials, he might thought we could not be able to identify the bad quality materials. Moreover, we provided 3 kg of every material, instead of 1kg. In the villages, all the people were not our project beneficiaries. Thus, many of our project beneficiaries sold a portion of their materials to other villagers in exchange of money. In most of the cases the money was misused.
I have learnt that we should assess the risks pretty before during project design phase involving not only project staff but also project stakeholders.

Awareness of potential risks reduces the number of surprises during the project delivery and, thus improves the chances of a project success. A scenario played out in my state of residence 3 months ago. Am a Newly recruited Class Teacher and was actively part of a solidarity movement for the reelection of the incumbent Governor of kaduna state. We had assumed that all public primary school teachers would participate in the solidarity march, unfortunately, only the newly recruited teachers were in attendance. So, as newly recruited competent teacher, we were ignorant of the civil service rule that states "Non partisanship" of public servants in politics. Then we realised the risks of our actions that, IF our candidate had lost the election THEN we would have been dismissed or our appointment terminated.

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

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

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about the factors that can act as an obstacle in achieving the result or output or outcome or the impact. Moreover, these factors can affect the project path in a way so that there can be a delay in reaching the goals.

In our project, we have provisions for distribution of nutrition items to children of backward class and economically poor families on a monthly basis. Once we planned that instead of monthly distribution, if we could arrange quarterly distribution, we can get the following benefits, like save the time which was spent every month for procurement, delivery of nutrition items, reduce the use of human resources (project staff) who every month involves in distribution, save the time of beneficiaries whom we called every month and we can distribute a larger amount (combining amount of 3 months). But surprisingly, during quarterly distribution, we noticed that there were several problems, like as the vendor supplied larger amount(3 months' items), he mixed some amount of bad quality goods with the good quality materials, he might thought we could not be able to identify the bad quality materials. Moreover, we provided 3 kg of every material, instead of 1kg. In the villages, all the people were not our project beneficiaries. Thus, many of our project beneficiaries sold a portion of their materials to other villagers in exchange of money. In most of the cases the money was misused.
I have learnt that we should assess the risks pretty before during project design phase involving not only project staff but also project stakeholders.

So, am just curious since the items meant for 3 months were misused in just a month, did your organization leave the beneficiaries with nothing for 2 months? Or What provisions were made to cover up for such unforseen circumstance? Perhaps, the original monthly distribution plan was just OK.

there was a time my organization was organising a tutorial class for youth on the use of basic ICT skills, we estimated that about 150 youths will attend, but to our greatest surprise a handful turned up, about 25 of them and we already acquire laptops and palm tops. It was disappointing .

last year, my organization planned on trainining about 150 youths on the use of computer and ICT skills, we went ahead to acquire lots of laptops, desk tops and facilitators for this programme, to our greatest surprise few youths turned up for this programme. About 45 of them, we where disappointed as we already payed the facilitators and bought laptops etc.