On 6th – 7th August 2022, the Youth Think Tank Competition for the East-Asian Australasian Flyway (EAAF) had its 3rd training workshop aimed at equipping youth with skills necessary in the conservation field — Project Management. The 2-day In-depth workshop was led by Ms. Maaike Manten from BirdLife International, Trainer of Conservation Leadership Programme and facilitated by the EAAFP Secretariat Communication Team.
Day 1
The workshop began with an introductory lecture, How to Design a Good Project Plan: Logical Frameworks easing participants into the concept of “Logical Frameworks” and how to apply it to Project Planning. The session focused on defining the problem and resolving it by making a project plan. In the following session, participants then learned how to fundraise based on their Project Plan made using “Logical Frameworks.” Participants discovered how to use “Logical Frameworks” on funding applications and develop winning project proposals.
[PPT Materials] Project Planning, Logical Frameworks, Proposal Writing and Fundraising (Link).
Day 2
Continuing the use of “Logical Frameworks”, Day 2 covered Good Project Management and Implementation. Participants were able to grasp how to use “Logical Frameworks” as a master tool to help write up an action plan, staff work plans and budget. In the subsequent session, participants then learned how to use their project plans to Deliver and Measure Impacts, and how “Logical Frameworks” could also become the basis for project monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
[PPT Materials] Project Management, Implementation, Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Achieving Impacts (Link).
[In-depth Workshop] Project Management: Session 1
[In-depth Workshop] Project Management: Session 2
How the participants benefited from the workshop
Before and after the workshop, participants were asked to fill in workshop surveys. A total of, 16 and 15 out of the 20 participants answered the pre- and post-workshop surveys respectively.
In the pre-workshop survey, participants indicated and average understanding of project management (Fig. 1) and all of them had some extent of experience in project management (Fig. 2).
 Fig. 1 Rating of understanding of project management |
 Fig. 2. Rating of experience in project management |
All 15 participants who filled out the post-workshop survey indicated that they had a better understanding of Project Planning, Implementation, Evaluation, and Fundraising through “Logical Frameworks,” (Fig. 3 a, b, c, d) and the workshop had matched or exceeded their expectations (Fig. 4). Participants also gave high ratings when asked to rate 1) Topics and Contents, and 2) Trainer, all selecting over a minimum of 4 points out of a total of 5., with over 60% selecting 5 points.
 Fig. 3a Rating on increased understanding of how to design a good project plan using logical frameworks |
 Fig. 3b Rating on increased understanding of how to use project plan for fundraising |
 Fig. 3c Rating on increased understanding of how to use one’s project plan for project management and implementations |
 Fig. 3d Rating on increased understanding of how to use project plan to deliver and measure impacts |
 Fig. 4 Graph indicating whether the workshop met participants’ expectations |
Fig. 4 Graph indicating whether the workshop met participants’ expectations
Additionally, all participants gave over 4 out of 5 points on how useful the workshop was for their future work (Fig. 5.).
Fig. 5 Rating of workshop usefulness in participants’ future work.
Takeaways:
In the survey, all participants answered that the workshop either matched or exceeded their expectations. We asked them what their key takeaways were. Here are a few examples of their responses.
“I have heard logical framework explained more than once but Ms. Maaike presented it in layman’s way that it was easy to understand and follow – my colleague who also participated also said so (and it was their first-time hearing “logical framework”). This was the training that I understood logical framework well.”
“The workshop made me realize the importance of project management to objectively assess the growth and result of the project. The workshop was also very helpful in emphasizing the importance of logical frameworks in writing proposals. With these key takeaways, I think I’m ready to manage and raise funds for my future projects.”
“The workshop has fulfilled my needs in project proposal writing in Day 1 and project implementation in Day 2 within a short period. The main topics that I learned are problem tree, objective tree, and logical framework.”
“I was amazed by how Maaike was able to deliver the topic well. The speaker was able to expound the concept of tree problem analysis, emphasizing that we need to really know the causes of these problem to solve the roots of the problem. Moreover, she was able to emphasize the creation of good objectives which is SMART, Specific, Measurable, Accurate, Realistic and Time-bound.”
