Out of the total proposed ETB561.67 billion annual budget (2021/2022), Ethiopia allocated ETB183.5 billion, 33%, for capital expenditure alone which is largely dispersed through projects. Given the huge and ongoing infrastructure development, it would be fair enough to claim that project management is and will continue to be the key component of the economy for years to come in the country.
Of course, project management is the most viable and effective means to manage risks, issues, change, quality, cost and add value to the project economy across the globe and it is here to stay for long.Despite a clear potential of being an important tool to the economy, the level of attention given to project management in the Ethiopian economy is so minimal, and if any traditional. For example, it is not fully considered as a career choice, and in fact, and as far as my knowledge is concerned, there is no any project management accreditation institution ( apart from the general courses in few colleges and universities) in the country. Neither are the international institutions accessible to the ordinary citizens. This needs to change and if you follow me, I will shade light why, how and where to focus.
Project Value Driven Approach
From project identification, selection, establishment, implementation, test and commissioning, handover to operation and maintenance, project management principles and processes, phases, techniques and tools are useful frameworks and guides to gauge whether the project initiative can add real value to organizations and society. It is also a means to communicate and engage the wider stakeholders of the specific projects in time.
The usual practice in Ethiopia is, however, far from what project management processes and principles entail. Projects are usually initiated top down and executed without passing through a rigorous process and assessment at different stages, be it technical, financial, institutional, commercial, delivery, sustainability or stakeholder wise.Project units are set up based on relationships rather than project management experience and expertise as it is considered benefits for individuals as opposed to organizations and society. Worse, project status is poorly communicated to society and opens the Pandora box for every likely guess of the larger public.
To capture a real value from projects, it is fundamental to put in place a standard metric (value capturing systems) and conduct deeper assessments across all project dimensions and communicate effectively rather than depending on individuals’ subjective opinions. Leaders are there to set the tone and direction, yet the actual project work shall be executed through the scientific approach rather than mere orders.
Project Incentive Schemes
From the setup, project management units are not often empowered and there is no clear incentive of performance and accountability in place. Project teams are assumed to manage projects of millions of dollar sizes with the normal operational compensation despite the fact that projects have their own characteristics, challenges, and, of course, pressure. The assigned project management team goes extra rounds to ensure their benefits unofficially, ultimately falling under the very people or companies they are supposed to manage. Quality, cost, delay and assumed service delivery all left under the bus costing the country and society immensely.
Training in foreign countries is usually part of project packages under the premise of technology transfer while in reality it is an indirect incentive to the team and the people behind the project. It is quite common to witness people being sent to a training that has nothing to do with the project or the operation there after. In fact, there is a dominant public perception that projects are designed or initiated to benefits individual groups as opposed to the organizational value they would bring in.Empowering the project management team, assigning them based on work relations, experience and expertise, and laying out clear and transparent incentive mechanism for performance and accountability will save the country from over budget, delay and poor quality of service delivery.
Coordination Significance
Project management processes and principles (frameworks) are also a means to align, coordinate and streamline different project initiatives across stakeholders from planning to execution and maximize the overall benefits to society. Let me mention one straightforward example. But I have to state that it is not in any way to point fingers on the utility (as I know for certain that it is not really the utility’s decision) but to showcase an example.
The 500KV Transmission line from GERD to Addis Ababa cost a little more than a billion dollars. The transmission line was expected to carry the power generated from GERD. It was completed a couple of years ago costing additional thousands of dollars for maintenance, and probably servicing debt in foreign currency (not sure on grace period) hoping power from GERD will one day arrive. Had a rigorous project planning been done in tandem with the Dam, the billion dollars would have been spent on other yet important aspects of the economy. I hope you know the time value of money and opportunity cost and this misalignment happened under one institution.I would imagine similar flaws in the transport, road, technology and education spaces costing the country immensely and putting effective project management units, principles, processes, techniques, teams, tools and systems would help address it.
Leveraging Technology
There are enough project management tools and systems in the market that are matured to ensure effective planning, execution, handover and above all accountability. The two layers of project planning enables assessing the value addition during project planning and ensure effective monitoring throughout project implementation with a clear Dashboard on a single screen.
Putting in place project management units, tools and systems under the prime minister’s office or ministry of finance and enforcing similar tools across line ministries, for example, would help effectively monitor project status by simply assigning a single or few experts for all (or high value) public projects in real time. Leaving the detail project implementation plan to the executing agency, other stakeholders can focus on a master plan highlighting the key aspects of the project. Risk, alignment, progress and value.
Project learning
As in any strategic or operational management practices, learning is part and parcel to project management. Whether a success or failure, we are always in better position than before once we do a certain project in a certain area or organization. We have more insights as we execute projects in real life. Apparently, and in my experience working across many ministries, enterprises and organizations for many years in Ethiopia, the learning from projects is very poor. There is always a fresh start facing related problems and prescribing similar solutions. Similar project delay, overbudget, bad public image, poor quality of delivery and service across and within institutions.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work“, is the famous quote from Thomas Edison for the critics, stressing the importance of learning from experiences. Of course, there are good and bad project experiences that can be useful for organizational learning as they plan and implement projects in their organizations.Going away from the current practice, properly documenting project learning and sharing the knowledge to the general work force, it is possible to inspire attention to good practices and contribute in minimizing the majority of risks across project initiatives from start to end.
As you might notice, this write up is weighing in more on the infrastructure project aspect managed by the public sector. The project management principles, processes, techniques, phases, flows, systems and tools are more or less similar for all project related initiatives be it in private organizations, donor or development communities. It is only the nuance that differentiates the specific area of interest.
In the project economy, managing operations at project level highly improves operations at department, organizational and country level, creating cumulative real value to the society. This is even quite evident and important in the face of today’s shorter cycle of change and global uncertainty. Projects already everywhere in Ethiopia, paying attention to project management knowledge, practices, developments and giving it proper structure ( to the extent of establishing accreditation institution, project management units, assigning high level project executives ), would indeed improve project operations from where they stand today.
It would also inspire project and program management as a career choice in the industry creating jobs and reinforcing effective and efficient project and program management across the country.
If you stick with me for a while, I will teach you ( curriculum under development) what project management is all about, project management phases, project management knowledge areas, project leadership, Project operation and project management techniques, tools and systems not just in theory but in practice, And why it can be your career choice in Ethiopia.
This commentary was first published on Showing Up
Comments