THE PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES OF DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION PROJECT MANAGEMNET: THE CASE OF MESERET HUMANITERIAN ORGANIZATION (MHO)

Abstract

This study deals with the practice and challenge of development cooperation project management in the case of Meseret Humanitarian Organization (MHO). Project management body of knowledge developed by project management institute (PMI) considered knowledge areas to check the effectiveness of the project. In fact, among the nine knowledge areas, this study considered only the four core knowledge areas; these are cost management, scope management, quality management and schedule management since they are the four basic constraints which are base for the other knowledge areas. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the existing project management practices in development cooperation particularly the case of MHO. The research used both primary and secondary data sources. The primary data was collected using in-depth interview among 41 individuals from about 25 employees; who are fully engaged in the project. Reports and related articles act as secondary data sources. The questionnaires were distributed to 28 employees but only 25 of them ( 1 executive director,2 program coordinators, 2 project finance officers, 6 social workers, 3 psychologists, 2 nurses, 3 project officers, 2 project coordinator, 4 SA(social accountability) experts) properly filled the information. Purposive sampling was adopted as the sample would be taken according to the objective of the study. The research considered descriptive research and only qualitative research design. According to the collected data, 22 of the respondents were women; most of them were young enough range between the age of 19-40; and more than half of them were above 4 years of experience. The researcher concluded as: the scope, schedule and quality management were done well but not the cost management; the challenges faced by the organization were both internal and external. Internal challenges faced by the organization were Shortage of staff and implementing capacity, security problem at project implementation areas, lack of adequate project budget and delay in releasing project budget by some of donor organization. And the external challenge, which is beyond the capacity of the organization and the project team member were brought from the current political instability of our country and foreign countries.