Question

Describe how projects are selected for purchase and/or implementation within an organization of familiarity to you.

Answer 1

Project planning involves a series of steps that determine how to achieve a particular
community or organizational goal or set of related goals. This goal can be identified in a
community plan or a strategic plan. Project plans can also be based on community goals or action strategies developed through community meetings and gatherings, tribal council
or board meetings, or other planning processes.

The community and its involvement are central to designing and implementing a
successful project. Many government and other funders seeks to fund community-based
projects that reflect the cultural values, collective vision, long-range governance, and social and economic development goals of native communities.

The formal project development process is both simple and complex. Conceptually, the
process is very simple—a progressive narrowing of strategic choices—although it may
involve many activities and require an extended period of time. Approximately 80% of
your time should be spent planning your project and only 20% of your time writing and packaging the actual application. Operationally, the project planning process is far more complex than the project goals, objectives, and activities. Project development is one
component of an overall strategic plan designed by a community working toward positive change through a community-based planning process.

There are different methods for involving community in the project planning process.
Below are some examples:
Comprehensive Planning
This process involves completing a community-wide needs assessment to engage the
community in identifying and prioritizing all long-range goals and the community
problems preventing the achievement of those goals. Next, the community is involved in
the process of developing a method to accomplish long-range goals, also discussing
initial ways to overcome the problems. This method should include a process to measure
the progress towards achieving those goals. Comprehensive plans usually require at least
a year to complete, and cover a five- to ten-year time span.
Strategic Planning
This is a process used when a community or organization already has a comprehensive
plan and wants to move forward to achieve its long-range goals. Strategic planningmally selected in a two-step application .procedure: expressions of interest (EoI) in
step 1 and application forms (AF) plus partnership agreements . In both steps the evaluation of the EoI is carried out by the joint secretariat. The evaluation starts with the eligibility check and (for those successful) is then completed with the
assessment. d. The assessment is
based on the assessment criteria. This part of the evaluation is concentrated on operational and content-
related aspects, in addition to the strategic ones.