Abstract
Project management is an autonomous discipline that is applied to a huge diversity of activity sectors and that has evolved enormously over the last decades. International Development Cooperation has incorporated some of this discipline’s tools into its professional practice, but many gaps remain. This article analyzes donor agencies’ project management approaches in their funding mechanisms for projects implemented by non-governmental organizations. As case study, we look at the Spanish decentralized donor agencies (Spanish autonomous communities). The analysis uses the PM2 project management methodology of the European Commission, as comparison framework, to assess and systematize the documentation, requirements, and project management tools that non-governmental organizations need to use and fulfill as a condition to access these donors’ project funding mechanisms. The analysis shows coincidence across donors in the priority given to project management areas linked to the iron triangle (scope, cost, and time) while other areas are mainly left unattended. The analysis also identifies industry-specific elements of interest (such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals) that need to be incorporated into project management practice in this field. The use of PM2 as benchmark provides a clear vision of the project management areas that donors could address to better support their non-governmental organization-implemented projects.
Highlights
International development cooperation (IDC) is an important social and economic activity sector globally
85.4% of all the AOD channeled through Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) in Spain in 2017, with an average 92% of AOD channeled through NGOs out of the total AACC AOD
The bureaucratic burden, measured by the number of documents an NGO needs to process to submit a proposal, provides an indication of the amount of work an NGO needs to undertake in order to be able to receive funds to implement their projects
Summary
International development cooperation (IDC) is an important social and economic activity sector globally. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC), in 2019 the total Official. Development Assistance (ODA) amounted to USD 169.2 billion from DAC countries and other official providers and there is a slow increase trend in 2020 [1,2]. Union (EU) (DAC EU member states together with the EU Institutions) is the world’s leading donor [1]. The EU’s New European Consensus on Development [3] sets the development policy framework that applies to all EU institutions and member states, providing a common approach to development for the decades. Development and the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as shared objectives. It recognizes the multiple roles that Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) play in development and promotes their participation and contribution to sustainable development
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