My Communities

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.

This has occurred many times. the more resent one was an awareness campaign. the content and mode of delivery were designed but while testing the acceptability, it was discovered that the intended audience (i.e caregivers) rely more on their husbands for information. This was a project for the northern audience. We did not consider this a s a risk to disseminating the information until moments before the implementation stage. To mitigate this, we have to engage the men folk in the communities.

It is important to anticipate and consider potential risks that might affect the project activities, outcomes and impact in developing every project design. In our project for prevention of HIV among priority population, one of the risks we did experience along the way of implementing activities is that it is not easy to change the behavior of target population to practice safer sex. We have been trying to overcome this risk by encouraging our peer educators to focus more on providing effective behavioural change comminication (BCC) in addition to giving awareness about HIV. We also manage peer educators to contact target population at least 3 to 4 times per year to ensure that they have adopted the intended behavioural consistently so that their risk of getting HIV will diminish.

To identify risks and assumptions for your project ahead of time is good practice because ,many projects in Africa have become white elephants.By and large an oversight on risks and assumptions will lead to an abandonment of projects when the unexpected shows up.An irrigation project in our area had water being pumped by solar power to the reservoirs and the 3 out of 16 solar panels were stolen and all watering activities stopped at the site .

We did not plan for theft of solar panels and how to recover or replace the stolen ones.The cause for theft could not be ascertained,but we quickily learnt that whoever stole the panels wanted the progress at the site to stop.

How could we possibly have averted the theft becomes food for thought for us but we eventually had to plan to employ a security guard and cleared all bushes and shrubs around the site.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is important to think about the things that will disrupt the project from achieving the outcome and impact. It involves the collection of data from the ground prior to the project implementation to mitigate risks and assumptions. It is important to have an understanding of the risks before implementing the project to set realistic targets. A baseline study will inform the targets and implementation of the projects.

To identify risk and Assumptions, is important to critically think around the conditions within your project, what are some of the things that will disrupt you from achieving your goal. I remember an instant when we were excuting one of our project called "Aren't Our Perspective About Education all Wrong"
a project we carry out in most of the Senior High Schools in Northern Region. We never anticipated that there will power out because we rely on addressing systems to carry out our project. We forgot to arrange for an additional backup generator it nearly disrupted our project.
To me is always good to assume around your activities so always ready when the negative happens.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about things that might hinder the project from achieving its targets

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

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 submission. When we identify the probable hindrances of progress, we are challenged to brain storm on the probable solutions, and we plan with such at the back of our minds.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all the potential impacts both negative and positive that may influence the projects result. Sometimes last year my team and i had to project at hand where we needed to fill in 30 outlets with ambassadors. About 120 candidates were contacted for interview but only 25 turned up. We did not identify risk and assumptions while making the plan and eventually we were able to recruit 4 candidates instead of 30. We didn't ask question around "what if they did not turn up".

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all the potential impacts both negative and positive that may influence the projects result. Sometimes last year my team and i had to project at hand where we needed to fill in 30 outlets with ambassadors. About 120 candidates were contacted for interview but only 25 turned up. We did not identify risk and assumptions while making the plan and eventually we were able to recruit 4 candidates instead of 30. We didn't ask question around "what if they did not turn up".

@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 _______ .

Community Volunteers decline from active TB case finding.

It was assumed that Community Volunteers will work to help carry out active TB case finding without pay. That they will only receive 5 thousand naira for any TB case found by them. This worked for a while but stopped working because the volunteers began to decline as it was difficult finding positive cases. Like they can screen and test up to a hundred person in various settings and only one case will be positive. And this is usually after much work. It was discovered that the volunteers need immediate gratification as they are working and will still benefit for cases found.

It is therefore important to select volunteers with passion and who are resident within the community they are expected to work.

It is also important to include a token for stipends for volunteers during project planning.

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

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

Yeah, @Cyanrose in order to perform risk assessment, it's very crucial to use risk identification Tools & techniques, and remember to engage Stakeholders to identify project's risks.

@yinkaariba1 said in Module 2 Discussion: Risks and Assumptions:

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about all the potential impacts both negative and positive that may influence the projects result. Sometimes last year my team and i had to project at hand where we needed to fill in 30 outlets with ambassadors. About 120 candidates were contacted for interview but only 25 turned up. We did not identify risk and assumptions while making the plan and eventually we were able to recruit 4 candidates instead of 30. We didn't ask question around "what if they did not turn up".

Hi @yinkaariba1, hope you are doing well. I really like the way you responded this, could you please share with us what you learned from that experience that could be useful to us?

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

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about things that might hinder the project from achieving its targets

I agree with you @akatukwasabenson, the whole project team, stakeholders must be involved in that process ...

I agree,and this is the more reason why planning is cardinal because it must include the risks and assumpions so as to make sure that the project is successful.

I agree with your points raised indeed issues to do with insurance should have been factored in so that in an event of theft you can claim from the insurance firm

Our organization assists underprivileged menstruating school-aged girls with essential feminine hygiene products, life-skills mentoring and tutoring support. One assumption that we made was that we could rely on the support of the respective schools to link us with students who were most in need of our holistic support. However, in some cases we find that students are randomly selected and encouraged to join the program because they would get "free stuff".

@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.

Yes I agree when identifying risks and assumptions we need to take holistic approach. Social, economic, cultural political, and natural circumstances could affect the project. I remember our project was hard hit by the change in policy by the government that with immediate effect all teachers should register with the teaching council or face the law. We did not have the money because we had not planned for it so we had to used money for other activities be caused we needed these peer teacher.

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

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

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about things that might hinder the project from achieving its targets

I agree with you @akatukwasabenson, the whole project team, stakeholders must be involved in that process ...

Involving a large audience helps because people bring out similar experience and how they handled them.

Risks and assumptions need to be well prepared for ,but even though you maybe prepared some risks and assumptions just happen.So it is best to just know that something may happen by suprise

To manage risks and assumptions, we should take into consideration all the negative things that may happen or things which are totally opposite to the outcomes and outputs that we want. For example, in one project where we have to conduct a seminar, the risks can include what if the target audience is wrong, or more people/ less people show up, what if time management doesn't go according to the plan, what if we don't find a venue, what if the resources that we need are not met? what if a technical issue takes place? and so on.

Identifying risks and assumptions is a key element in the success project planning and implementation. The risks and assumptions of a nutrition policy advocacy project that we were implementing in my organization at the time did not factor in the risk of lack of political will by government officials in changing nutrition based policies. During the implementation, we realized that progress was not been achieved as politicians did not see nutrition and Severe Acute Malnutrition as issues that are relevant to development.
To mitigate the situation, the project approach was adjusted to first create awareness / sensitize government officials on the adverse effects of malnutrition to a child and its productivity level and subsequently national development.
This approach worked as the increased knowledge gave the government officials incite into how nutrition policies are major determinants of child welfare and productivity and national development.

Assumption, we assumed that talktime for the tablets that were used for data collection would always be there and data uploaded on time, this was not the case and it caused confusion when data had a different date than the expected date.

@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 _______ .

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One time I lead a Community Development Service that reached out to widows of the Nigerian Army who had died in the terrorism insurgency going on in the country, and public school students in cross river Nigeria.
I had three months to plan and execute the project, so donors were less than beneficiaries.
Thankfully, I knew of these risks and made a few decisions
I contacted the Nigerian army officer wives association(NAOWA) and leader of Nigerian army soldiers wife association (NASWA), together we came up with a comprehensive list of beneficiaries.
I sought for a way to make up for those who may not get the material relief packages by offering a free cancer awareness training, cervical cancer screening and general medical diagnosis to everyone that will be in attendance as long as they show interest.
I reached out to the Nigerian Medical Association, they in turn reached out To The Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN) who offered to help with no fiscal charges.
I contacted the head teacher of the public school my team had chosen, we selected students who were in need of basic school amenities, we rewarded the best three students of each class, granted scholarship in one peculiar case and the MWAN gave deworming medicines to others, so in a way, no one is left unattended to.
I think I was able to manage the risks involved due to timing and fiscal limitations, the impact was solid and the outcomes just as my team had predicted.

@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 identified the risk and assumption is really helpful in the organization ,it really gives you the question that make you think about the other wise ,what if it does not work ,for sometime we need to examine the all thing before deciding or before going forward

Clearly, identifying the risks and assumptions during project design is very important as it helps the project team to think ahead of those setbacks and device better approach towards the expected outcome and subsequently impact.
Identifying of risks and assumptions in between a project can be devastating and may affect the success of the project.
Attention should be paid to this part of the M&E Logframe to achieve expected results.

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

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

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

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

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

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

To identified the risk and assumption is really helpful in the organization ,it really gives you the question that make you think about the other wise ,what if it does not work ,for sometime we need to examine the all thing before deciding or before going forward

I agree with you @Vinlord, it's really very important to identify risks and assumptions in advance in order to avoid surprise during the project implementation

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

Risks and assumptions need to be well prepared for ,but even though you maybe prepared some risks and assumptions just happen.So it is best to just know that something may happen by suprise

Yes @Tariey, risks and assumptions must be well prepared in advance, because it allows you to create a comprehensive understanding for your project decisions...

When planning for M&E it is also important the effect of staff transfers and resignations. I am involved in government hospitals to improve quality management of laboratories. In a Lab I am working in two staff got promotions and were transferred to other laboratories. One senior laboratory staff also got a scholarship from government to upgrade. All these happened within one month. This disrupted the project since those staff were most experienced people with years of hands on in Quality management. It took us another year before we train the remaining staff to fill the void.

While involved in a feasibility study on water needs in a community, we assumed a lack of water facilities in that area would lead to positive response from our intended host community. Instead of that positive response, youths and elders of the community insisted that we give them the money intended for the borehole facility.

@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?
Working in an organization where main goals are to provide excellent custoner service, it is expected that there'll always times that you make assumptions of the progress of your team especially when you belong to a top performing one. I remembered one time where I became part of the team that really do excel in terms of numbers in providing excellent customer service and gaining highest score for customer satisfaction. Given that, my team manager back then actually just relied to o much on such evidence and made a prediction that team performance would not ever deteriorate. His bias towards his belief of the team really did have some bad effect as some of my teammates became compalacent. I myself also did not even bother to think of what goals to achieve for personal and for our team.
**Sample Post: To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about factors that are outside of our control. It is okay to focus on what can be done but it is best if you know what to expect if things do not go in your way. From there, yoh can make not just another assumption but can create a more constructive plan to avoid risks or to either improve..

The risk and assumptions column i think it is by far the most important part of the project summary. Not identifying enough risks and assumptions may lead to the project's downfall. On my experience, we set out a full day to carefully think about all the risks and assumed all the possibilities we can think of. we even did an online research looking at similar projects and their risks and assumptions column. However, that was not enough. When we started to ask eternal stakeholders, a lot that we missed came up. So, on my opinion it is vital to bring in as much minds into the process of identifying risks and assumptions as possible, this will help to truly clear out any possible biases that may affect the project. My advice is that, project planners should try with the availability of resources to set up a commission that will advice the project planning process and it must be a mix of all possible beneficiaries to the project. Roping in a specialist on the identified issues on the PESTLAR/PESTLEG analysis (e.g. an economist or social psychologist) is best.

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about things that may disrupt your project plan and be in a position to come up with risk response measures in order to achieve the desired results

It is always appreciable to understand the risks that what it could be, before implementing the project because it might adversely affect the outcome, output and inputs. And moreover, it is always advisable to prioritise the risks based on their degree of influence that it could bring. Here, I want to share one of my experiences that how being a failure in predicting risks have affected the progress to a project. We had a project on installation of bio-toilet in 10 slum areas of Bhubaneswar city, India and beside we also had taken up the activity to make the slum resident aware about its use and importance. When half way work of installation (i.e. when five bio-toilets in five slums) has already been done, then suddenly one day the city got affected by the cyclonic storm and almost all the bio-toilet got uprooted. This brought a tremendous setback to our project. So, to improve the situation we find a way that is to reinstall the bio-toilets in those locations in a more resilient manner to cyclone. And we also formed user committee by electing few of the members from the communities in each of the 10 slums. So, that they could manage and maintain the bio-toilet by their own.

It is always appreciable to understand the risks that what it could be, before implementing the project because it might adversely affect the outcome, output and inputs. And moreover, it is always advisable to prioritise the risks based on their degree of influence that it could bring. Here, I want to share one of my experiences that how being a failure in predicting risks have affected the progress to a project. We had a project on installation of bio-toilet in 10 slum areas of Bhubaneswar city, India and beside we also had taken up the activity to make the slum resident aware about its use and importance. When half way work of installation (i.e. when five bio-toilets in five slums) has already been done, then suddenly one day the city got affected by the cyclonic storm and almost all the bio-toilet got uprooted. This brought a tremendous setback to our project. So, to improve the situation we find a way that is to reinstall the bio-toilets in those locations in a more resilient manner to cyclone. And we also formed user committee by electing few of the members from the communities in each of the 10 slums. So, that they could manage and maintain the bio-toilet by their own.

Even as we plan for our projects, we need to anticipate some risks. There is no project without risks but what is important is to plan on how to handle the risks in case they happened. When need to mitigate them even before they happen. Mitigating risks means reducing them through finding alternative solutions of reducing the risks, transferring the risks somewhere or completely removing them sothat our projects is implemented without danger.

I was once part of a team that went for medical outreach, my unit was responsible for HIV testing and on the second day before we even started we ran out of testing kits. The turn up wasn't what the M&E expected

Once I was involved in a group that set out to carry out a demonstration on making briquettes from rice husks. We assumed this will be preferred over charcoal. So, we spent money on designing a machine that would compact carbonised rice husk into briquettes. When the day to carryout demonstration came, after demonstrations, we were surprised that processors/ farmers were not so keen. Despite the fact of it being more profitable. Had we done a Risk and assumption, we would have found out that demand for briquettes - even though utilizing waste from rice production, was not going to be acceptable.

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

I was once part of a team that went for medical outreach, my unit was responsible for HIV testing and on the second day before we even started we ran out of testing kits. The turn up wasn't what the M&E expected

I guess less people turned up?

@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 _______ .

In every project to be realized there's what we call unforeseen circumstances ,situations that take us unaware .So its a risk to design an M&E plan for your project without taking into cognition some of these things that might occur in the course of the implementation of your project. It could be physical, spiritual ,natural or socially environmentally related these will depend on the kind of project your are into .I once coordinated a program organized by a local association called ASPEA(Aspiring entrepreneurs association).The program was to orientate young graduates and local business persons on entrepreneurship rather than waiting for government to launch public exams .The challenges we face was ,the people of that said community all believe that you cannot succeed without haven work for the government and so what ever thing you tell them is a waist of time .Another challenge was that of traveling out to Europe.We did not taking consideration the social behavior of the people we going to orientate.

In my case when we just started teaching the refugees with computers we had not planned for the cases of language so it became very difficult to give them knowledge so we had to employ a translator at a different cost from the one of the project

Identify risks and assumptions is bit difficult, because, we need to take out our biases, and think in terms of an outsider perspective, in other word, we have to criticize our own project in advance. And think about the outside factors out of our control that may cause our project failure, and often this factors are unknown at the beginning.
This experience has taught me, the importance of thinking a project as a whole. That, to have a good project, with a good M&E plan we have to make sure, that the activities we want to do, will real lead to the expected results. It can be assured with a research for facts to support our expectations. Also, Is important to asses the risks before the project implimentation phase so we can come up in advance with solutions to minimize the risks or at least to understand why, if the things goes wrong during the project.

I work as system analyst, member of IT support team in telecommunication multinational company. My team is structured recently and assigned to handover various systems. we faced handover issues with some teams because of the lack of training skills from these teams consequently the handover was insufficient, incomplete and wasted lots of time with very slow progress. This experience showed that we should estimate the efficiency and the progress regularly during the handover schedule plan. In my point of view, the whole risks and assumptions should be taken under consideration for instance, handover plan should be included plan A, B and C to avoid any consequences if any plan did not work effectively.

Understanding the importance of identifying risks and assumption at the start of a M&E plan is very key, because you will have to forecast the reverse of your project in summary. Consequently identifying risk and assumption is an import part of M&E plan for a project.
So our organization was providing safe water for four villages in rural Liberia hand-dug wells and using hand pump. The wells were dug doing the peak of the rainy season when the water table was very high. Now, came dry season the water table dropped and there was no water in all four wells. The water table went very low in fat all the wells lost water. We did not consider the risk and assumption factors, why doing these communities Wells. We realize that the community could not get safe drinking water when they really needed it.
This is why It's very significant to identifying risk and assumption when M&E plan for a project.

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

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

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

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

This Is good Emanuel.great work

Sure! And This is why it’s very significant to identifying risk and assumption when M&E plan for a project.

@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.

Sure! And This is why it’s very significant to identify risk and assumption when M&E plan for a project.

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

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

When designing modules on peace education we assumed that the potential users where willing to have access to turn key solutions. In fact an ad hoc solution, considering more carefully the context was expected. From this experience we have decided to take more time investigating on needs (expressed or not). To identify risks and assumptions the "What If ?" methodology (and "if then") helps changing view point. Using "why" three times heps go deeper in the explanations and parcel implicit / assumed thoughts.

After determining what the project looks like it is very important to look at some of the risk that the organization will undergo. At the beginning of the project planing alot of assumptions are made this is to aid the organization to have a foresight of what will be encountered ahead. For instance of the organization is expecting to be able to educate 1000 children and they are required to provide for them writing materials also. The goal have be set but it can be possible as the project starts it cannot be achieved. It is important to take note of that.
I once volunteered with an organization and our aim is to educate girls who are vulnerable in our environment ,after making all the necessary preparations we ended up not getting the number of girls we have prepared for .

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

I think that Risks are Factors which are outside of your control that could cause your project to go poorly. These can be mitigated, or can cause suffering to your project

Yes @frutehenda you can take steps to reduce the effects of risks, by identifying them before the project start, to avoid the surprise..

it is helpful to identify risks and assumption in that it prepares in achieving the project objectives.In our project on education we underestimated the number of students i.e refuges The number was too big

working in health care and our project focuses on reducing maternal and neonatal mortality, we had assumed that we will have adequate staff members to fill the vacancies so that they can be trained to deliver holistic health care, but unfortunately due to brain drain to the developed world we could not recruit enough personnel for the project despite the fact that we had adequate funding.

to identify risks and assumptions, it is important to think about your activities and identify all things which will hinder you to lead very well you objectives.

Our organization, Because International, assumed that the quality of The Shoe That Grows could be manufactured in a country other than China. We went through the process of making sure the shoes were made with the same quality, but they still turned out defective and did not meet the standards. We learned this after putting these shoes in the field, and we learned a lot from this experience especially manufacturing in a different country. If you deal with manufacturing, always make sure the factory has the right equipment and the right knowledge to produce whatever you are making.

Actually, I haven't encountered any risk during my project implementation, simply, because I am in incipient step of my career. This is my first time taking this kind of work.

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.

I was involve in a scheme by Coalition of Easter non Governmental organisations in Calabar, Nigeria. A risk we didn't foresee was volunteers fabricating data

Identification of assumptions and risks ahead of time is the most crucial and beneficial aspect of a log frame, because if poorly and unrealistically done the project is bound to fail.
Proper identification of risks and assumptions must be a complete combination of detailed desktop review and preliminary site visit to the intended beneficiary. This can be done through the stake holders meetings as a way of obtaining some expectations before actual commencement of the project to avoid misappropriation of funds. Risks will always come for any project but identifying as much as possible and later planning for their mitigation is better than to be surprised by their occurrence.

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

I was involve in a scheme by Coalition of Easter non Governmental organisations in Calabar, Nigeria. A risk we didn't foresee was volunteers fabricating data

This is one of the biggest challenges being faced in my home country too.

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

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

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

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

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

This Is good Emanuel.great work

Sure! And This is why it’s very significant to identifying risk and assumption when M&E plan for a project.

Horrible yet a good learning experience, this emphasizes learning from previous experiences especially for repetitive projects.

the number of needy students was more than the resource we had.We had to reduce the items given to each student

I was running a peer-to-peer tutoring program in a small organisation which didn't have M&E framework. The idea was great but the progress the students made was not high. The risk I was not completely aware of but could have expected was that overall level of students was not very high. It was extremely hard to choose Senior High School students who would tutor their Junior High School peers. A also think that there are other outcomes beyond performance such as creating greater social trust and capital which mattered but were not captured or were extremely hard to measure.

To identify risks during project implementation, it is important to think and proactively anticipate scenarios that can affect project out comes so that you can put in place mitigating measures. eg, i was planning to organize a vegetable learning plot for my farmers which must be done in the first week of July. We needed money to procure all the materials needed for the project to kick off but unfortunately, the money was released two weeks later because the financial team were busy processing end of month salaries etc.

It is always great to anticipate potential threats to smooth running of the project activities like delay in disbursement of funds, changes in weather patterns etc.

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

To identify risks and assumptions, it is helpful to think about the potential threats that will negatively affect project activities like delay in disbursement of funds, changes in weather conditions etc.