My Communities

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.

@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 _______ .
Just a bit of background. Our project is trees for life Uganda. Its a reforestation project in Kayunga District in Uganda, East Africa. One of the assumptions we had was, we thought that after the workshops and training, the residents were actively going to plant the free tree seedlings we distributed. After 3 months we discovered that a small percentage of trees was planted.
From this experience , I learnt a couple of things. I. land ownership issues affected the whole tree planting exercise.

2. People did not appreciate the impact of the project on our society
3. Local politics also affected the process.

To identity risk and assumption is key to successful project design. I volunteered for an organization that targeted eradication of malaria among under five. Beautiful plans were put in place with plenty incentives for the mothers and children. We expected a large crowd because enough of awareness creation done. To our surprise on the first day, only a handful of children we saw and same for the second day. It was disappointing as we thought when the first day beneficiaries went home with their items and good news more people would come the following day. It was shocking to know that the reason for the poor turn out was the erroneous believed that the project was sponsored by a politician the community had plenty negative notion about- such as giving
free gift to them to collect their destiny, because we paid courtesy visit to this said man and he hosted us so warmly. The whole 5 day project was a huge disappointment. We wrongly assumed that our incentive and good packages alone will get us the crowd

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 _______

It is helpful to think in the specif context. For example, Yemen context is very changeable. In this case we need to think in specifics risks and assumptions within each districts/villages ans also by sectors. From our experience, food security sector should change a lot from one district to others, specially in terms of food prices. Prices fluctuation can have an important effect on the activities deployments. The risk of the prices increase must be considered no only as a general but also in the budget line.
Moreover, work closely with authorities and community are also important in order to avoid or mitigate some risks and assumptions.
Respecting the community way of living and organisation, must help to avoid conflicts between population.

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 _______

It is helpful to think in the specif context. For example, Yemen context is very changeable. In this case we need to think in specifics risks and assumptions within each districts/villages ans also by sectors. From our experience, food security sector should change a lot from one district to others, specially in terms of food prices. Prices fluctuation can have an important effect on the activities deployments. The risk of the prices increase must be considered no only as a general but also in the budget line.
Moreover, work closely with authorities and community are also important in order to avoid or mitigate some risks and assumptions.
Respecting the community way of living and organisation, must help to avoid conflicts between population.

While working in a project to stop children from working in mine exploitation sites, we targeted youths 16 to 22 yearsby to train in skills for them to start income generating projects, . During project implementation, the majority of children identified where 6-15 years old and could not be started in income generating projects and should instead go to school.
We learned the importance of field research in developing project activities that will lead to desired impact
To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to:

• Ask the question: what could possible go wrong that will disrupt achieving at each level input, output, out come and impact
• Talk to people and organisations in the targeted area for all circumstances specific to the area
• Consult reports (evaluation) from similar projects to find out documented risk with such a project

To identify the risk and assumptions accurately or lately, is to discuss with the stake holders time to time and gets his opinion about the current situation.

@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 _______ .

Some years back we embarked on a community tour with media professionals. We were visiting a hard-to-reach community and we had to travel by water. As we boarded the boats we were delayed for about an hour by some young men who said we couldn't access the community without government permit. It took some time to convince them that we were working to get the government to intervene in their health challenges.

For a successful project it will be helpful to think through every possible negative event that could stop, delay or reverse the project's success. As much as possible every relevant person in a community of interest must be informed and brought onboard before starting out the project

Helps to anticipate things that may lead to failure of the project to achieve its targets.

Great discussions. Please remember to attend to your quizzes and your assignments too in order to fully complete your Module 2 course.

When i started my studies in HIV/AIDS management, one of our project was to go out to do HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in a community and our target group was mostly people in the sexually active groups or people at risk of infection. We went into one of the communities in Johannesburg, that being our first project, we just went from door-door distributing flyers with all the information regarding our intentions including the date, time and venue which was in one of the local church. To our greatest surprise, most of the people who showed up were mostly older women most of them were either widows and not sexually active. We struggled to talk to them any ways and there was language barriers, but we missed our target populations.

In 2017 the entomologists were taken by surprise when the outbreak of fall army workers occurred and many gardens of maize where destroyed by the pests. There was no plan that such outbreak would occur.
The assumption was that the usual pests like maize stalk borers would be contained.

To identify risk and assumption, it is helpful to think about all the phases of the log frame input, output, outcome, impact. In my project to sensitize and teach adolescents and youth about control, spread, of HIV/AIDS and to stop discrimination against adolescents and people living with the disease. We had a low turn-out of adolescents and youths because many parents saw the programme as bad influence to there wards because it involved sex, sex education which our society term as unhealthy information for the adolescents and youth.

Risk and assumption differs from one projects to another, even though unforseen circumstances may arise in the process of carrying out activities towards achieving the objective of a project, it becomes a Paramount to set aside some plan B, so as to attack the bad situation promptly.
In case of our project we face problems of women not attending Health facilities for their Labour and Delivery which in turn led increase of martenal motality. Hence, through certain logistics like free transportation, and even gifts as well as other support they are now changing positively.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about about the size of you target location and also the size of the population. I can remember when my Community development service team stepped out of our comfort zones to clean a particular location close to our place of attachment, it turns out that the dirt in that location was more that what we can handle. We did not put into consideration the size of our target location and also we don't have sufficient facilities to tackle such huge area.

@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....

The reason why you won the target community is because of the avenue you created to keep mobilizing the community members. Community mobilization is Paramount because it serve as feedback, the feedback also is use adjust the input which subsequently affect the output and rest. So you are fatially okay and credit will be given to this.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful not to loose focus of the primary purpose of your project. To identify the minimum satisfaction you expect or intend to derive from achieving your purpose. The circumstances surrounding your project is uncertain therefore makes the tasks of forecasting possible scenarios affecting your project life cycle impossible, humanly speaking. Educated forecast based on available data and intuition helps to ease the impact of unplanned and unexpected failure however in light of risks and assumptions, i would settled for the fact that the satisfaction to be derived from implementing any project or the satisfaction expected or intended of the outcome to beneficiaries should be limited to a minimum. What would be the basic satisfaction to be accepted given all risks realized and assumptions fail?

@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....

Great

@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 _______ .

Risk and assumptions are indeed very difficult due to the bias governing the assumptions. Thorough research need to be conducted through the target population first,that will give an idea of the expected risks and reduce the bias..

risk and assumption helps you to focus on things that and elements that are important and at times also to ignore elements and attributes that are common and are general facts.

the organisation where I have been working specialise in training on lifeskills for under privileged children and one common assumption is that all children living in slums and under privileged areas need life skills. IT was only after the discussion with the community volunteers and trainer the the assumption could be address and this lead to better selection or recruitment of children in the training programs. which later lead to overall course completion and outcome for the programs to reach it desired goals

Despite good planning and good assumption of risk, some things can catch the project by surprise. For example: the ADB project that we are currently working on has a component of constructing few satellite clinic. The clinics were designed as per existing standards, however as the new government that was formed in the country in late 2018, they wanted to change the standard/scope of the satellite clinics. They wanted more advance clinics that previously planned and agreed by previous government.

The solution to this was found then government accepted to fund the extra amount that would incure on the project with such change in scope and design.

The only lesson we got was that: no matter how well we plan our project, we cannot be 100% safe from risk. And as we along with the implementation the project can bring in few surprises which we had never thought before.

@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.

You can spare some funds to help mitigate the unforeseen risks, but how will you be able to figure out how much the risk will cost? What happens in case the risk needs much than you estimated?
But I like you point. It is a very good idea

One of the main reasons for which it is important to clearly identify risks and assumptions since the first steps of the project design is that doing this will 'force' us to consider factors of 'force majeure' upon which we have little or no control. While implementing a project that aims at providing education material to vulnerable children we might be induced to think that this action will be naturally welcomed by all targeted beneficiaries and eventually lead to a certain improvement in the level of learning of children. We need though to consider as fundamental factors the conditions under which our outcome and impact might be reached, e.g. an active participation of schools and teachers, an interest in receiving the material we would like to provide, the ability of teachers to use this material, etc. I believe that considering various scenarios helps us become better and more aware project managers.

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

One of the main reasons for which it is important to clearly identify risks and assumptions since the first steps of the project design is that doing this will 'force' us to consider factors of 'force majeure' upon which we have little or no control. While implementing a project that aims at providing education material to vulnerable children we might be induced to think that this action will be naturally welcomed by all targeted beneficiaries and eventually lead to a certain improvement in the level of learning of children. We need though to consider as fundamental factors the conditions under which our outcome and impact might be reached, e.g. an active participation of schools and teachers, an interest in receiving the material we would like to provide, the ability of teachers to use this material, etc. I believe that considering various scenarios helps us become better and more aware project managers.

Really nice thought. I have never considered "Force Maujuere" as a Risk. Infact if you ask me, it should be included in all Log frames.

What do you think?

In one of my organization's sub-grantee's project the outcome depended hugely on one stakeholder, which refused to cooperate when the project started. We started to look for alternative solution, and succeed at the end but as we didn't identify and didn't discuss risks in advance lots of time was wasted.

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

@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!

Well said Tenying

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

In identifying risks and assumption, it is important to think of the environmental and political factors that might affect the project implementation and how to avoid them

I usually map my risks using the PESTEL tool. Al risks fall under the categories of political, socio-cultural, economic, technological, enrironmental and legal. I am currently working in a Cash transfer program that has suffered serious backlash in one of the project location-can you imagine, people refusing to be given free money? and associating it with illuminati? This is one of the major risks that I have encountered.

Interms of assumption; I work in an area where women engage in male dominated jobs because of limited choices. Such include charcoal burning, working in construction sites. Ideally, my assumption was that once they get the cash transfers, they would opt out of the hard jobs by starting other income generating activities. This has not been so.

To identify risks and assumptions it is helpful to think about instances of having an overflow. One time we were to give children books and reading materials at a location in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp. We can gone ahead and done a small research to identify the number of Children and those in dare need of the materials. Unfortunately for us we can an overflow of what we expected, leaving us to have to reschedule another time for the rest of the kids. This type of things should be put into consideration.

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

One of the main reasons for which it is important to clearly identify risks and assumptions since the first steps of the project design is that doing this will 'force' us to consider factors of 'force majeure' upon which we have little or no control. While implementing a project that aims at providing education material to vulnerable children we might be induced to think that this action will be naturally welcomed by all targeted beneficiaries and eventually lead to a certain improvement in the level of learning of children. We need though to consider as fundamental factors the conditions under which our outcome and impact might be reached, e.g. an active participation of schools and teachers, an interest in receiving the material we would like to provide, the ability of teachers to use this material, etc. I believe that considering various scenarios helps us become better and more aware project managers.

This is nice thought pattern, ii have learnt something from it. I think the condition under which the impact and outcome can be reached is important. Most times people forget the include such and the risks

Thank you for this topic of Risk and Assumptions. I remembered one day where we preparing the action plan and we had a hot discussion around this issues of assumptions and risks. Once again thanks for lightning me.

Risk and assumption is important because it keep project on track. Tackles unforseen problems that come on the process of achieving objective.

To identify risks and assumptions, its helpful to be context specific. Understand the area of implementation and context. In our project "let our girls succeed", we realized implementing a girls education project in a pastoral community came with its own challenges. Cultural festivals like marriage ceremonies that are conducted in specific times of the years, had a few girls pulled out of school for planned marriages, though some were saved from a planned marriage by the ministry of Education and child protection office, some girls would be married off. There is also the insecurity situation that threatens education with some areas of implementation being completely inaccessible and schools having to be shut down

3 years back, I was part of a project where we assume that Education Department will provide their teachers as field mentor who will provide on-the-job support in developing reading teachers. Previously two to three project they had did. But at the time of implementation, Education department refuse to provide their senior teachers as field mentor. Our activities and budget are stuck at that movement and our project team discuss with donor and we make modification and revise the budget of the project and hire field mentor by giving short term contract with private school teachers and graduates from elementary colleges.

Yes it is
Because the risks and Assumptions put forward are manily based on biases and predictions

We are preparing or supposed to have a CPD or CSR program, upon implementation, we find out that we never had really a consensus, few only volunteered to do the work or interested.

It is helpful to think about what they thought of the project or program, there must be a consensus, first and foremost.

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

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

Actually achieving our program's objectives is a bit of a struggle since the results are very much dependent on the change in behavior of our beneficiaries. And measuring a change in behavior is a challenge for the following limitations of the program:

1. The intervention is a one-time seminar (2 hour long)
2. The beneficiaries are mostly unbanked (some may be banked but not with BPI)
3. The beneficiaries are susceptible to financial scams and loan sharks
4. We do not require our beneficiaries to bank with BPI. We encourage them to maximize financial products and services from whichever bank.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about the internal and external factors that influence the results of the program. SWOT Analysis might be useful.

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

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think in advance about ALL the causes that will make fail your impact - they could be political, natural, cultural, social and economic. After evaluating which one are statistically more likely to happen, it is a good idea to give an alternative solution to each of them.

For example, political instability in Kenya is likely to happen, therefore, if my NGO (located in Kenya) needs grants for education purpose, it is a good idea to apply for grants from more stable countries.

organizing a training workshop without taking into consideration rainfall which came and disrupted the whole activity and also we didn't think of the unforeseen circumstances.
also holding the workshop without making arrangements of excess training manuals which made the training not to go on smoothly

Risks and assumptions identification will be helpful to enable mitigation measures and have them ready in case of need.
We had a project in our organisation on green insects for food and feed.The insect in question was crickets and the information available are that they are wildlife that can easily be domesticated as their housing is easy to simulate.This then meant from studies available that they are hardy and resistant to diseases;being a short crop harvesting is done in 3 months hence farmers have a fairly less risky venture.
the only measure was to keep good hygiene of the housing and equipment for feeding and watering.Farmers got into the project with high hopes they converted their shelters not in use for sheep and goats or old kitchen room as their cricket farm.
When disease struck and huge no.s of crickets were dying and farmers were in a frenzy with little information from our end on how to handle the issue ..the project was almost brought to a halt...destroying the infected stock and trapping new wild species to domesticated with limited time project gains were reversed and most farmers opted out some crying of wasted resources that had been heavily invested.
What could be done for new project like in our case is to request the donor as it was a pre informed project to set aside funds for a feasibility study which should be funded and ensure its feasible before roll out,,Linkage with international centers for insect physiology and ecology researchers from the county/country be roped in and funds set aside for their backstopping which we requested and that there were no funds availed for this.

@irek90 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 in advance about ALL the causes that will make fail your impact - they could be political, natural, cultural, social and economic. After evaluating which one are statistically more likely to happen, it is a good idea to give an alternative solution to each of them.

For example, political instability in Kenya is likely to happen, therefore, if my NGO (located in Kenya) needs grants for education purpose, it is a good idea to apply for grants from more stable countries.

This is a good that your organisation thought about the Post election violence and had funds allocated for public education..My organisation in Kenya also made a concept note to one of the donors funding a project with huge gains to avoid reversing gains of development due to instability.
We had peace initiative activities to identify hot spots and triggers and formed peace committees.Though what i have gathered it also requires a huge chuck of resource allocation to effectively enable these committees function well.

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

3 years back, I was part of a project where we assume that Education Department will provide their teachers as field mentor who will provide on-the-job support in developing reading teachers. Previously two to three project they had did. But at the time of implementation, Education department refuse to provide their senior teachers as field mentor. Our activities and budget are stuck at that movement and our project team discuss with donor and we make modification and revise the budget of the project and hire field mentor by giving short term contract with private school teachers and graduates from elementary colleges.

This i think was brilliant ,the move was on point hope the resources /budget line changes were easily accepted by the donors..though sometimes they feel the concept was weak not to identify this assumptions and risks before hand and involvement of all stakeholders before hand in reaching a consensus on roles execution

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

I usually map my risks using the PESTEL tool. Al risks fall under the categories of political, socio-cultural, economic, technological, enrironmental and legal. I am currently working in a Cash transfer program that has suffered serious backlash in one of the project location-can you imagine, people refusing to be given free money? and associating it with illuminati? This is one of the major risks that I have encountered.

Interms of assumption; I work in an area where women engage in male dominated jobs because of limited choices. Such include charcoal burning, working in construction sites. Ideally, my assumption was that once they get the cash transfers, they would opt out of the hard jobs by starting other income generating activities. This has not been so.
I relate so much with this post ,I have learnt a good deal too ,attitude and behavior change of change agents is key which sometimes we bypass believing they will not think of refusing free money

It was very clear that Outcome based education will be implemented in all secondary schools according to a National strategic plan. A new Permanent Secretary was hired by Government and introduced a totally different thing. Now the project has stopped and its way has went into the dark. It died. No one ever thought someone would stand against a parliament approved initiative/reform.

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

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

I agree to the lesson you learnt. in many instances we forget or ignore to engage beneficiaries effectively. They are on the ground and might have so much negative impact on the whole plan, like in your case.

To identify risk and assumption, it would be helpful to have a thorough analysis of the situation you are apt to with your project. By doing so, you will be able to have a glimpse of what will be the risk that your project will undertake.

The question is "what and if" needs to be asked if identifying risks and assumption's to atleast get an idea of unforseen circumstance.

To identify risks and assumption,it is helpful to think about the importance of planning for risks and assumptions ahead of time is so that you can understand events and conditions that are unforeseeable that might affect your implementation, therefore giving you enough time to make decisions at the right time.

It will be helpful to never afraid of failure or trying to avoid planing for the risk in any project.
We need to know that identifying likely risks in any project and taking pragmatical approach in resolving it, it is part of M and E Plan.