Small Grants Management Challenges

The emergence of young leaders in project management has exposed some pertinent challenges in managing small grants projects. The execution of Our Chances with HIV Project' in Cameroon was a great experience on such challenges. We faced challenges like scope changes, adherence to HIV confidentiality policy and working with partners. Let me share an experience on scope changes.

GYCA announce the award of small grants for my project in January. That was quite timely since the project  was planned for January to June 2010 in consideration of the National Youth Week that runs from February 1^st  -10^th . Somehow, GYCA couldn’t provide the funds until mid February. We were caught between shifting the project timelines to wait for the funds and borrowing funds to respect the timelines. Mindful of the project’s attachment to the National Youth Week, We had to go for a micro-finance loan and partner with an institution that could facilitate the process. The risk with taking a loan to pre-finance a project is paying the interest and/or paying back if the funder changes her mind. This process also brought in a stakeholder that was not in the original plan.

Scope changes in project management have become a common project management challenge in recent years. This happens when there is a need to modify the agreed-upon project scope as defined. Scope changes often require adjustments to cost, time, quality, risk or other project deliverables. ‘These changes must be put back through the planning process, updating plans as needed and notifying stakeholders as deemed appropriate ‘said Sally Stanleigh, BIA associate. Corrective action is needed to bring expected future project performance into line with the project plan.

The term”Scope Change” refers to anything that will now be different to what had originally been agreed-upon in the original Project Scope Statement and subsequently the Project Plan.