Danida Fellowship Centre

Planning for Change

and
Action Planning

E-learning course

Next
 Content

Congratulations
for being selected to a DFC course!

1. Introduction
2. Planning for change
• Analysing the current situation (‘as is’)
• Imagining an improved future (‘to be’)
• Analysing ‘how to get there’
3. Action planning
• The content of an action plan
• How to work with action plans
Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Introduction (1/2)

Objectives of the e-learning course

• Introduces you to concepts and tools for project and

action planning

• Helps you identify ideas for your (organisation's)

action plan

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Introduction (2/2)

How it works
• Mandatory course
• Takes approximately ½-1 workday to follow the course
• Course consists of slides with speak and exercises
• You can stop the presentation and continue later
where you left

Expected outcome
• An initial understanding of project planning
• Capacity to prepare a realistic and relevant action plan
to be implemented in your organisation

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Planning for change (1/2)

Development is about change

 Analyse the current ‘as is’ situation

 Find out where you want to go (‘to be’).

 Make an action plan

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Planning for change (2/2)

Objectives for this module

1. Analysing current situation (‘as is’)

2. Analysing where to go (‘to be’)

3. Analysing ‘how to get there’

1 3 2
Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Analysing ‘as is’ (1/7)
Identifying challenges in your organisation

Which are the key challenges that your organisation face and
how do you experience these in your everyday work?

In the following you will get an introduction to two tools:

• Problem Analysis
• Stakeholder Analysis

The following case will be used for tool specific exercises

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Analysing ‘as is’ (2/7)
Case
The city of Mango has several bus companies. During the last years the
frequency of bus accidents has gone up significantly. This has caused
much delay and inconvenience for the passengers. There have also been
several serious accidents in which passengers have been killed.

The newspapers have taken a particular interest in the problem, and some
of the companies that have had more than their share of bad publicity have
registered a reduction in the number of passengers.

Much of the problem is technical: the buses are old, and are in bad condition
because of a persistent lack of spare parts.

But the human factor is also important: many accidents have been caused
by high-speed driving on bad roads.

One of the companies have decided to identify the underlying causes and
find out what to do about the problem.
Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Analysing ‘as is’ (3/7)
Problem Analysis

Why do a Problem Analysis?

• Establish an overview of problems and clarify the relation
between them

How to do a Problem Analysis:

• Identify important problems within the focus area
• Identify a focal problem amongst these
• Identify the effects of the focal problem
• Identify the causes of the problem
• Construct a problem-tree

Where a I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Analysing ‘as is’ (4/7)

Effects
Passengers
are hurt or
killed

Frequent bus
Focal Problem
accidents

Bad condition
of roads

Causes
Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
Analysing ‘as is’ (5/7)

Previous Next
 Analysing ‘as is’ (6/7)
Stakeholder analysis
What is a stakeholder?
Stakeholders are persons or groups that can either affect or
be affected by the focus area of the project (focal problem).

Why do a stakeholder analysis?

• The stakeholder analysis helps you to identify the views
and interests of main stakeholders so that you can take
them into account during project design

How to do a stakeholder analysis?

• Identify stakeholders affected by the problem as well as
their main interests. Decide how to involve the identified
stakeholders
Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Analysing ‘as is’ (7/7)
Stakeholder Analysis

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Analysing ‘to be’ (1/3)
Objective analysis
In order to improve the future situation we need to think of
vision and objectives for an improved situation.

What is an objective:
The objective indicates WHAT we expect to achieve more
precisely.

One way of identifying a future situation ‘to be’ is to start with

the ‘as is’ situation described in the problem analysis and
reformulate the negative problems as positive statements.
However, it is also possible to start directly with ‘to be’ and
identify the objectives for an improved future.

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Analysing ‘to be’ (2/3)
Improved future situation

Example:
In the bus case, the focal problem is ‘frequent bus accidents’

The positive reformulation will be ‘frequency of accidents

considerably reduced’. This is the objective for the project

On the next slide you will find an exercise

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
Analysing ‘to be’ (3/3)

Previous Next
 Analysing ‘how to get there’ (1/3)
Results, activities and inputs
Results, activities and inputs help us achieve the objective

The results indicates HOW the project is expected to achieve

its objective.

The activities are tangible actions required to produce or

deliver project results.

The inputs are resources required for implementation of

activities (e.g. funding, personnel, materials, services and
time)

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Analysing ‘how to get there’ (2/3)
Intervention matrix

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Analysing ‘how to get there’ (3/3)
Producing change
Indicators specify the performance standards to be reached
in order to achieve the objectives, outputs and activities.
Indicators provide the basis for monitoring and evaluation of
the performance.

Indicators should be SMART:

Specific, Measurable, Available, Relevant and Timebound
Examples:
• An indicator of training of drivers to act and drive
responsible could be: the number of drivers trained.
• A SMART indicator could be: 60% of drivers trained in
responsibly driving by December 2012.

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Action planning (1/6)

Objectives for this module

This module will enable you to

• put into practice your new knowledge on planning for
change

• understand the concept of an action plan

• take the initial steps in preparing an action plan

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Action planning (2/6)
What is an Action Plan (AP)?
• A working document to be initiated before, work with during
the course and implemented after the course
• A powerful action learning method

Try to identify areas of improvement in your

organisation related to the topics of your future
DFC course

Write down you initial ideas!

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Action planning (3/6)

How to work with the action plan

• Before the course, start reflecting and discuss possible

AP focus areas with your colleagues and superiors

• Decide on a relevant focus area, formulate an AP topic

and upload it on the course portal

• Develop the AP during the course using the other fellows

and course facilitators as coaches

• Finalize and implement the planned activities upon return

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Making a realistic AP (4/6)

Consider the following important aspects:

• Ownership: who – a part yourself – will benefit from a
successful implementation of your AP?

• Assumptions: what are the necessary preconditions for

successful implementation? Do you/your organisation have
the necessary means to implement your AP?

• Indicators: How will you measure success of your AP? Is the

level of ambition realistic

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Action planning (5/6)

Content of an action plan (example):

• Introduction (context and AP focus area)
• Current challenges to be addressed ('as is')
• Objectives and results to be realized ('to be')
• Planned activities (what, who and when)
• Indicators for success and potential risks
• Conclusion and recommendations

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Examples of AP's (6/6)
• Building capacity of field officers of Ghana Audit
Service in both Performance (Value-for-money)
and Regularity (Financial)

• Environmental concerns integrated into the

planning and implementation of the
organisation's programmes

• Improving reliability and timeliness of financial

returns from the regions

You can find examples on AP's here

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
 Further reading
• Danidas Monitoring at Programme and Project level
(2006)

• EU's Project Cycle Management Guidelines (2004)

• DFID's Tools for Development (2002)

• Danidas Logical Framework Approach - A flexible tool for

participatory development (1996)

Where am I?
1. Introduction Previous Next
2. Planning for change
3. Action planning
Completion

Before arrival at the DFC course, please upload the AP topic

or focus area you have chosen to the course portal

We hope you have enjoyed the e-learning course and

look forward to seeing you at the course!

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