Supporting the effectiveness of individuals, teams and organizations

The Implementation Planning Handbook was developed as the second volume in a three-part series on project planning.  Developed by Olive (OD and T) and published through Olive  Publications, the series drew on the practical experience gained by its staff as they worked with non-profit organizations and government agencies across South Africa in the years following the end of apartheid.

As the country transitioned into a democratic society, development practitioners needed new skills in designing, planning and organizing interventions into the pressing societal challenges facing the young country.  while many were critical of the perceived rigidity of project-based interventions, planning processes provided one way to engage stakeholders in building a shared understanding of the problems and opportunities waiting to be addressed, and practical mechanisms for agreeing on how to tackle these interventions.

The first book in the series, Project Planning for Development, outlined an approach for analyzing the situation and selecting the desired outcomes and outputs of the project. This approach is based on the Logical Framework Approach that was supported by many governmental donor agencies.

The second book in the series, the Implementation Planning Handbook, tackled the practical questions of planning the details of the project and developing financial budgets for the work.

The final book, Planning for Monitoring and Evaluation, provides a framework and practical set of tools for setting up and running a feedback process. The purpose of this feedback is to inform project management of progress, and enable accountability to donors and stakeholders, project management adjustments to the original plan, and learning to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

The series was well received on its introduction in South Africa. Over 15,000 copies of the books have been sold.  They have been used as course material by universities in South Africa, Australia, Britain and Canada. They have been translated into Portuguese, for use in Angola and Mozambique. A revised edition focused on biodiversity conservation, was prepared by Project C.A.P.E., with available volumes addressing project planning, and monitoring and evaluation.

Implementation Planning