Early Child Development (ECD) Program Designs: Planning

The planning phase entails detailing objectives and identifying specific milestones and outcomes for the project. In particular, this is the phase to strengthen the internal cause-and-effect logic of the project, to set indicators to measure performance, to schedule activities in work plans, and to determine the financial budget.

The Logical Framework is a project management tool that helps in clearly and systematically designing and planning a project. When used adequately, it will help in guiding the project management team during implementation, and it can serve as a basis for project and impact evaluation. Many development organizations use the Logical Framework or a similar tool. It provides useful insights in the process of planning.

• The LogFrame matrix
• From goals to activities: the first matrix-column
• Identifying critical assumptions and risks: the last matrix-column
• Caution: advantages and disadvantages of the Logical Framework
• Monitoring and evaluating the project

The LogFrame matrix

The Logical Framework as used by the World Bank is based on a dynamic 4 X 4 matrix. The matrix consists of four columns and four rows. The first column represents the project goal, objective, output (or deliverables) and activities. It describes in a very short way how the project aims to achieve its goal. The second column specifies how to measure whether the activities, outputs and outcomes of the project have been carried out and accomplished. It contains the monitoring and evaluation indicators, including the targets. In the third column the project planners can identify the sources of information from which the data on indicators will be retrieved. This column describes the monitoring and evaluation system. Finally, the fourth column lists the assumptions on which the project is based but which are out of the project's control. These assumptions can be more or less critical for the success of the project, and can represent a risk to a lesser or higher degree, dependent on the (un)certainty of whether the assumptions will come true.

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From Goals to activities: the first matrix-column

The Logical Framework of a project should be designed in an objective- or demand-driven way from the top to the bottom; that is, working from the overall goal towards the needed activities. The first row contains the goal of the project. The specific project objective or intended impact is defined and inserted in the second row. The actual output of the project, or the project deliverables, are determined in the third row. Finally, in the last row, the activities are specified that will lead to the output as defined in row three. The activities or project components will need further specification in detailed work plans, which falls outside the Framework. It is important to keep the different rows separate and clearly distinguished from each other.

For example, the goal of an organization that is planning to set up an ECD project might be to foster healthy early childhood development in order to increase children's educational outcomes.

The specific objective of a program in a particular region might be to stimulate healthy cognitive development of poor, young children so that their performance in primary school will improve.

The project deliverables or output might be set as to increase access to and coverage of preschool and to improve quality of preschool education.

The project components (the actual activities) would then be the construction of new preschools, purchase of materials and toys, training of ECD teachers, redesign of ECD curriculum, etc.

The internal logic of the project should become clear when reading the framework from bottom to top. If the project carries out the planned activities, then the coverage of and enrollment in preschool will increase and the quality of preschool will improve. If enrollment and quality improve, cognitive development of the children will increase, which is likely to improve their performance in school.

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Identifying critical assumptions and risks: the fourth matrix-column

A project will never be able to exercise total control on the environment. A project's implementation is based on assumptions concerning both the expected impact of activities and external circumstances. It is useful to make these assumptions explicit before the project starts, and to assess their importance and the risk they represent.

The project in the previous example plans to construct preschools in order to increase preschool enrollment and ultimately improve cognitive development and primary school performance. However, this is based on several assumptions.

At the activity level:
in order for the planned construction activities to lead to increased access to preschool, it is assumed that the local communities provide a location for construction.

At the output level:
in order for cognitive development to improve as a result of an increase in number of preschools (increased access), it is assumed that children will actually enroll in preschool (i.e. that there is an unmet demand, or sufficient awareness among caregivers about the importance of preschool).

At the impact level:
in order for improved primary school outcomes as a result of improved cognitive development, it is assumed that the impact of preschool is not offset by malnutrition and/or other health concerns.

A closer look at the output level assumption shows that it is critical to the success of the project. Without increased enrollment, additional preschools will not affect cognitive development of the target population. A further analysis might show that the risk of this assumption not coming true is high because parents are not aware of the merits of preschool. In that case, it can be necessary to add awareness raising activities to the project.

Although the first (activity level) assumption might be crucial to project success, its risk of not being fulfilled may be low. For example, if all communities involved have already agreed on a specific location no additional activities are needed.

In general, pay most attention to assumptions that are both highly relevant for the success and impact of a project and that contain a high risk. In those cases, you might want to add additional activities that reduce the risk of the critical assumption not coming true.

The internal logic from the project should now become clear reading the framework from bottom to top:

• IF the project carries out the activities AND the assumptions in the last row prove true, THEN it will deliver the project outputs.
• IF the project outputs are delivered AND the assumptions in the third row prove true, THEN the project will produce the expected impact.
• IF the project reaches its objective AND the impact assumptions prove true, THEN the ultimate goal will come closer.

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Caution: Advantages and disadvantages of the Logical Framework

The Logical Framework has many advantages:
It provides insights and guidelines for systematically and logically designing a project and its components; it shows how the project and its environment are interdependent; when all stakeholders are well involved in its design, future communication and expectations between project managers, donors, governments, and other organizations involved are clearer; and, the logical framework promotes continuity in project implementation when new project staff replace original staff.

However, the biggest disadvantage of the Logical Framework lies in its tendency to become a rigid, inflexible instrument. If management sticks to the Framework without reconsidering it when the environment changes, the results may not be as good as expected. If new approaches and creative ideas come up, but are not considered in the in the Framework, project implementation and impact will be hampered. Related to this disadvantage is the strong focus on results, which might turn attention away from processes and opportunities to improve them.

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Monitoring and evaluating the project

Without monitoring and evaluating a project, it is impossible to follow project progress over time and evaluate the impact of the project at the end. Moreover, periodic evaluations and assessments will help in determining whether the project is still on track and whether the project is producing an impact. One of the project outputs (deliverables) should always be a monitoring and evaluation system.

The Logical Framework can be used as the basis of a Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) system. The second and third column of the matrix provide the basis of such an M&E system: they define the performance indicators, set the targets, and describe the system.

(Based on the World Bank Logical Framework Handbook)

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