Managing Climate Change Projects in Developing Countries

Project management has become an organizational –wide core competency, nearly every project implementation staff/Team (PIT) regardless of discipline is involved in managing one or more projects. This short course is designed to provide project staffs with knowledge and skills in managing climate change projects.

The key to a successful project is in the planning and management: being clear on the objectives, deciding how to work together as a team, thinking through how to approach the scope, setting up a schedule and budget, understanding clearly what will make the deliverable acceptable to the client of the project. The easiest way to plan a project is to have those who will execute the work help with the planning. This has the added benefit that the team is ready to hit the ground running during execution.

This course is also designed to major on hands-on skills on Project Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning & Accountability (MEAL), the result-based Monitoring & Evaluation, Climate Change & Sustainable Development Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation & Forest Degradation (REDD+).

Training Modules

Project Management Fundamentals

• Characteristics of a project
• Project management frameworks
• Principles of project management
• Project stakeholder’s management

Climate Change & Sustainable Development

• Understanding Climate Change
• The Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming
• Climate Hazards and Risk
• Impact of Climate Change to Selected Sectors – Agriculture, Water and Energy Sectors
• Concept of Sustainable Development
• Climate Change Impact on Sustainable Development in Africa
• Contributors to Vulnerability to Climate Change
• Risk and Vulnerability Assessments
• Stakeholder Analysis and Participation
• International Response to Climate Change – UNFCCC
• Mitigation and Adaptation Practices
• Concept of climate change, risk, vulnerability and adaptation
• Risk and vulnerability assessment for climate change adaptation planning
• Evaluating climate risk in community context
• Integrated approach in vulnerability assessment
• Planning climate change adaptation
• Communicating climate risk
• Monitoring, evaluation and learning for adaptation
• Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
• Integrating Climate Change into National Plans and Budgets
• Mainstreaming Adaptation into Policies, Strategies

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation & Forest Degradation (REDD+)       

• Introduction to REDD+, IPCC, UNFCCC
• Climate Change and the Role of Forests
• Drivers for deforestation and degradation
• UNFCCC context and requirements
• REDD+ Safeguards under the UNFCCC
• Community based monitoring
• Carbon emission estimations
• GHG emission estimation from Biomass burning
• Current and evolving technologies
• Performance reporting for REDD

Green Climate Fund (GCF) Discourse

• Climate Strategy and agenda for Africa/East Africa
• Overview of Climate Finance
• Introduction to GCF
• Priority Setting and Country Ownership
• GCF Readiness Programmes
• Designing a GCF concept notes and proposals
• Simplified Approval Process (SAP)
• Co-financing
• GCF investment criteria
• Delivery of projects and programs including monitoring, evaluation, and reporting
• Financial management instruments and fiduciary standards
• Planning, identifying and designing of country driven transformational climate investment
• Preparation of concept notes and funding proposals within the investment criteria and result areas of the GCF
• The GCF Proposal/concept note review and appraisal process
• GCF REDD-plus results-based payments pilot program
• GCF Access modalities and accreditation upgrading process
• Project preparation facility (PPF) application
• Opportunities and challenges for the engagement of the private sector;
• Lessons on the accreditation of Development banks and suggestions and important institutional networks to the accreditation of Development Bank of Ethiopia
• Basic fiduciary standards

Key administrative and financial capacities

• Transparency and accountability
• Project management
• On- lending and/or blending

Environment & Social Safeguards in Projects

• Introduction to Safeguard Policies
• Safeguard Standards and Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability
• Assessing and mitigation of Sub-Projects Environmental and Social Risks
• Monitoring Environmental and Social Risks
• Environment and Social Framework requirement for pre- disbursement Conditions
• Stakeholder Consultation and Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP)
• Grievance Redress mechanism (GRM)

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning

• Monitoring and Evaluation Fundamentals
• Why monitoring and evaluation is important
• Key principles and concepts in M&E
• Monitoring and evaluation processes

Application M&E Frameworks in Project Management

• Conceptual Frameworks
• Result Framework
• Logical Framework matrix
• Logic models

M&E Plan

• Components of the M&E Plan
• Developing the M&E Plan
• Implementing the M&E plan

Designing Result Based M&E Systems (RBM)

• Introduction to results-based management approach
• Elements of RBM
• Steps in results-based management
• Understanding the results chain approach
• World bank RBM approach

Way forward After the Training

Participants will develop a work plan through the help of facilitators that stipulates application of skills acquired in improving their organizations. ASPM will monitor implementation progress after the training.

Training Evaluation:

Participants will undertake a simple assessment before the training to gauge project management, monitoring & evaluation knowledge, Climate change & Sustainable development and another assessment will be done after the training in-order to demonstrate knowledge gained through the training.