PCM overview

• A temporary initiative with clear start and end dates.
• It consists of one or a seriesof activities to produce results and
• achieve a specific objective with limited resources.

• It has:
• 1. A Project Manager who is accountable and responsible forthe project on behalf of the Fund Manager
• 2. Clear start and end dates and a timeline
• 3. A limited, pre-defined amount of human, financial and material resources assigned to the project
• 4. A set of activities to produce the results
• 5. Results that are goods and/or services to be produced by the project, and
• 6. An objective achieved by the production of results.

• A method that ensures the project is managed in an effective,efficient and accountable manner. It divides the project life cycle into five key phases.
• 1. Unified Budget process;
• 2. project identification;
• 3. project development;
• 4. project implementation, monitoringand controlling; 5. project self-evaluation.

This phase is led by the Fund Manager and by Programme Managers. Its purpose is to provide strategicjustification for setting up the project and guarantee consistency between the policy and programmaticpriorities of the OSCE and its project work.

• The purpose of this phase is to conduct a needs assessment, analyze the problems in more detailand examine the options available to the OSCE to address them. By conducting a needs assessment, the Project Manager will be able to provide the Fund Manager and the Programme Manager with anoverview of:
• 1.The needs in relation to the specific target group/potential beneficiaries
• 2. The options that are available in terms of project ideas
• 3. What the project could resolve or change
• 4. Who will need to be involved
• 5. Approximately how and when the project will be carried out.

• The purpose of this phase is to submit to the Fund Manager a complete Project Proposal for approval. The proposal will contain the following:
• 1. Description of the political, legal, economic or social context in which the project will take place
• 2. Strategic justification for undertaking the project
• 3. Description of the project objective
• 4. Description of results the project is expected to deliver
• 5. Plan of operations
• 6. Roles and responsibilities of different parties to the project
• 7. Risk management plan
• 8. Monitoring, controlling and evaluation modalities
• 9. A detailed forecast budget.

• The main purpose of this phase is to deliver the results and realize the benefits expected from the project.The Project Manager will need to manage his or her team, as well as the information flow and communication.
• This phase will include the following processes:
• 1. Inception period (initial implementation phase) during which alladministrative and contractual work is finalized.
• 2. Execution phase during which activities foreseen in the plan ofoperations are carried out and results delivered.
• 3. Monitoring and controlling which take place parallel to execution.
• 4. Administrative closure and handover of the project to local counterparts.

• The purpose of this phase is to evaluate the performance of the project, find out if the results are deliveredand the project objective achieved; identify lessons learned and recommendations as well as follow-up projects to improve the higher level UB programme strategy. Every Project Manager is responsible for carrying out self-evaluation on completion of the project.The OSCE uses seven criteria for the evaluation of projects, which in turn address the following questions:
• 1.Relevance: To what extent were the project results and objective relevant to the problem?
• 2. Efficiency: Were the results of the project achieved at reasonable cost?
• 3. Effectiveness: Were the results achieved/are the benefits likely to be realized?
• 4. Impact: Did the project bring real change and contribute to aspecific UB programme objective/outcome?
• 5. Sustainability: Will the benefits last beyond the OSCE’s initiative?
• 6. Coherence: Was the project complementary to other interventions of the OSCE?
• 7. Added Value: What difference did the OSCE’s undertaking the project make?

• Gender mainstreaming is the globally accepted strategy for achieving gender equality. It is a tool the OSCE integrates into the project management cycle to further gender equality. Gender mainstreamingcovers the whole project cycle because the concern for gender inequalities has to be analyzed in all situations and in every phase of the project. In sum gender mainstreaming is a tool to ensure thefollowing:
• 1. The project does not exacerbate any existing gender inequalities.
• 2. The project is planned more effectively by recognizing that the activities, results and objective will be affected by gender relations in that society and the strategy needs to be adapted to the specific context. With gender mainstreaming a Project Manager will have a better knowledge of the characteristicsof the beneficiaries/stakeholders and can more effectively and efficiently plan for andreach results.
• 3. Gender equality is made a part of the transformation the project wishes to achieve. All the OSCE projects pertain in one way or the other to the “transformation” of political, military, economic, environmental, social or cultural institutions and structures. The Project Manager will integrate gender equality into this transformation process.

• Beneficiaries are the recipients of the project results. They can be split into two broad categories:
• 1. Direct beneficiaries. Individuals or groups who benefit first-hand from the project. For instance, in police assistance projects the direct beneficiary of the OSCE’s assistance will be the policeservice.
• 2. Indirect beneficiaries. Individuals or groups who benefit from the result or impact of the project. In the same example, the indirect beneficiaries of the impact caused through OSCE police assistance projects will be the general public, either a segment or as a whole.
• Beneficiaries may be the general public, non-governmental organizations/civil society organizations(NGOs/CSOs) or host country authorities. Their needs should to be taken into account throughout the project cycle. Direct beneficiaries may take responsibility for the implementation of one or more activitiesin the project. They could also provide feedback during the planning and development, monitoringand controlling as well as self-evaluation phases of the project cycle.

• This approach places the emphasis on conducting activities in order to achieve, or contribute to, short-, medium-, and long-term results.This requires sound programme planning and prioritization. Key concepts are:
• 1. objectives
• 2. outcomes
• 3. performance indicators
• 4. outputs

Programme objectives are the end results that a programme intends to achieve over several years.Programme objectives should, where possible, be directly attributable to one or more aspects of the mandate they contribute to, and should also reflect the strategic policy guidance given by the participating States.

Programme outcomes are the mid-term results induced by the outputs. An outcome is a mediumtermimpact a programme wants to achieve, on route to the fulfillment of objectives. Although affectedby outside factors the outcome must lie within the reasonable influence of the OSCE. Outcomes must focus on the tangible change introduced by the programme.

Performance Indicators are elements that reflect a quantitative or qualitative change which enables the assessment of programme achievements, or progress towards those achievements. In the OSCE, Performance Indicators are applied at the Programme Outcome level, in order to help gauge the impactof the Organization’s work. It is important to remember that indicators only provide a signal of progress and not scientific proof.

Programme outputs are the specific products or services resulting from several OSCE activities over one UB process. Projects are usually linked to this level of the hierarchy and one output can be linked to many projects.