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Course Contents (Back)
- The International Development Project Cycle.
- In-depth review of Project Cycle Management (PCM) and the Logical Framework
Approach (LFA) and its Phases and Documents.
- Project Identification and its Tools.
- Project Formulation or Appraisal and its Tools.
- Project Description or “Fiches” and Drafting Terms of Reference or
Statements of Work.
- Project Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation.
- Fundamentals of Financial and Economic Analysis (ECO-FIN) and other
Methodologies of Financial Appraisal.
- Conclusions and Review.
Objectives
- Knowing all terminology relating to projects of the different
Multilateral Funding Institutions.
- Carrying out a general analysis of EC Management Cycle and
identifying projects tools.
- Controlling all issues of Logical Framework: indicators,
means of verification, hypotheses and risk analysis.
- Carrying out an Economic and Financial Analysis (Eco-Fin).
Available Languages:  
Learning Unit Summary
In this module we will study the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) and
the Project Cycle Management (PCM) of various institutions.
We will analyse everything relating to these public Project Management
instruments, focusing on the differences and similarities of the
different Multilateral Funding Institutions, as well as in the economic
financial analysis (Eco-Fin) as complement to these previously described
tools.
The EC takes part in Development Cooperation (external actions) by means
of three mechanisms: Direct support to projects, sector budget support, and
macroeconomic support. Project support is carried with the methodology of
Project Cycle Management. The graph below shows the stages and documents of
this approach:
The Logical Framework Approach (LFA) is a series of techniques
used for identifying the key problems and objectives that the project wants
to address and project then proceeds to a detailed formulation of the
project. It is also used for consulting and involving stakeholders as much
as possible.
The Logical Framework Approach is an analytical process, as well as a
series of tools to support planning and project management and monitoring.
It allows information to be analyzed and organized according to its
importance and then the project to be designed. Moreover, it allows to
identify options or alternatives and support decision making for allocating
resources and activities.
The Logical Framework Matrix is the matrix-shape result and
summary of these analyses of the project, and consists of four columns and
four rows, which summarise the key elements of a project before, during and
after executing (it is possible to change or keep still the matrix
throughout the project).
- The first column of the Logical Framework Matrix describes that
aspect of the level of the project; it is also known as Intervention
Logic.
- The second and third columns are the indicators and the important
means of verification for monitoring and assessing and belong to the
so-called Horizontal Logic.
- The fourth column: Hypotheses or Assumptions, are the external
factors, which have power to influence in the success of project, but
are outside the direct control of project management. They belong to the
so-called Vertical Logic.
For the project identification we will consider the following stages:
- Stakeholders analysis.
- Problems analysis.
- Objectives analysis.
- Strategies / alternatives analysis.
- Description of Project and schedule, budget, risks, etc.
Each of the steps inside of the Logical Framework Approach is important
because they help us to define an aspect of the project and its future
implementation.
Last but not least, we review the key concepts of Economic and
Financial analysis (Eco-Fin) of development projects, according to the
European Commission external program. It focuses on the point of view of the
institution or a group of institutions (beneficiary, target group, etc.).
This is done by means of Cost-Benefit Analysis or Cost-Effectiveness
Analysis, depending of whether the benefits have an economic impact or not.
For carrying out the Economic and Financial Analysis (Eco-Fin), we need
to imagine the parameters we want to analyze to a certain degree, and model
the underlying economics of the sector and products / services. Furthermore,
we need to understand the desired level of analysis and the “economic”
certainty that key stakeholders or beneficiaries “will accept” (depending on
their function, education and their role as executive agency, EC Delegation
or Washington or Brussels HQ offices, etc. )
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