Results-Based Management: on-site training

EMPOWERHOUSE is an initiative by Birgitte Jallov, who has worked for the empowerment of people and communities for more than 30 years in more than 60 countries. EMPOWERHOUSE works in seven focus areas: media development; community media; strategic communication; civil society; women and gender rights; evaluation and impact mapping; and research and teaching, training and conference facilitation. Results-Based Management is a crucial element in all of these areas, and is equally important for project managers, media managers, campaign planners, fundraisers, etc.

Results-based management has become THE established way of designing, implementing, monitoring, reporting on and making funding decisions on projects, programmes, initiatives, partnerships, etc. Results-based management places the overriding attention where it should be: not “what do we want to do?”, but: “what is the change that we want to achieve?” If well done, results-based management helps project designers think the motivation of their planned intervention through from the outset; helps to integrate an integration firmly into its relevant context; allows project managers to keep their eyes on the areas of core importance; facilitates reporting and communicating on a project and programme in a meaningful and goal-oriented way; and promotes the structured learning of lessons, timely adaptation, and achievement of intended results despite changing environments and working conditions.

However, results-based management includes a number of concepts that for many have proven difficult to fully appreciate, with the result that an inspiring and constructive identification and discussion on intervention strategies far too often turns into a meaningless, time consuming and unproductive filling of boxes. As many of its partners have suffered from these difficulties, EMPOWERHOUSE has developed this on-site course-cum-workshop, which has shown tremendous changes in many different settings. Instead of fearing and despising this valuable tool, partners – often without any academic background – have learned to embrace and master it, with astonishing results for their ability to design, fund, monitor and manage their projects.

Forms of the training course: The training course on results-based management can be provided in two forms:

(1) normally as a combination of a training course and a workshop, where participants produce concrete project or programme result frameworks and monitoring plans. This combination normally has a duration of three days.

(2) The training course can also be provided ‘in abstract’, with a duration of two days.

Target groups: The course and workshop on Results-Based Management is made for

• Managers of community media, civil society or government institutions planning to develop a project, programme, or campaign
• Initiators of projects, programmes and campaigns preparing their fundraising efforts and their communication with potential donors
• Project managers in charge of implementation, monitoring of and reporting on their projects
• Donors and organisations who want to support empowering initiatives, and feel that despite previous training on results-based management and logical framework they could use a refresher and an approach that focusses on the heart of a project rather than on mechanics
• Academics and students who seek to complement theoretical research with practical understanding of how development and change can be promoted in practice.

Content: The course provides participants with all the tools they require to elaborate a complete and meaningful results framework and monitoring plan for their project:

• Formulation of intended results: which change is intended
• Identification of outputs and activities the that lead towards the intended change
• Identification of risks and assumptions that need to be in place for the intervention strategy to work
• Identification of useful indicators
• Baselines and targets
• Preparation of a monitoring plan

 

Learning objective: both versions of this on-site course will enable participant to acquire the knowledge and skills required to

• Analyse their present situation, and define a goal to be achieved
• Preparation of a realistic intervention strategy
• Prepare a realistic strategy for the management of relevant risks to their intervention
• Understand the importance of indicators, the qualities of SMART indicators, and how to identify them
• Setting targets that are both sufficiently ambitious and realistic
• Define how to monitor if an intervention is making the desired progress.

The course consists of

• Prepared presentations for each of the course modules, combining a presentation of core concepts of results-based management with rich examples from initiatives and projects from all over the world
• Plenary discussions and group works
• Individual assignments including feed-back discussions.
• The exact shape, participation and duration of the on-site course can be customised to specific needs and possibilities.

In the ideal case, where the course is combined with a workshop during which participants produce concrete results frameworks and monitoring plans for their intended interventions, the event will also include

• individual and group coaching by the facilitator,
• review and discussion of draft products, and
• review of final products and recommendations for further strengthening (if applicable)

Excerpts of the evaluations of previous courses on results-based management:

“The workshop was inspiring as it covered the key concepts of RBM”

“The workshop was well organised and was an eye-opener!”

“The LFA/RBM framework is great as it helps us not to take any elements in a programme for granted!”

“I now appreciate how effective LFA/RBM is as a project implementation and tracking tool!”

“LFA/RBM keeps you more focused and able to connect all elements”

“The facilitator and the workshop itself were participatory and interactive – good!”

“The planned liaison with the facilitator to fine-tune log-frames after the workshop is very welcome and needed!”

Price:
Prices for training-cum-workshop course and for a training only depend on the location, number of participants or participating groups, potential pre-course preparatory and post-course follow-up, etc.Ø  For a specific offer, please contact mail@empowerhouse.dk

For more information on EMPOWERHOUSE, see www.EMPOWERHOUSE.dk