Non-Profit Project Management

8/6/2019 Non-Profit Project Management

1/6

T E R M P A P E R : D I S A S T E R A N D I N T E R V E N T I O NP L A N N I N G A S P RO J E C T S

The Deepwater Horizon, as we discussed in class, got me thinking about how project management

applies to the response activities of international non-profits during disasters and emergencies, specifically in

the areas of animal security and human health. Similarities in these processes occur in part by capacity built

by governmental and non-governmental organizations over decades of work, but also due to recent event

and mission proliferation. New organizations especially benefit by the development and recognition of

project management as a framework and set of skills, and what expertise is available.

Disaster response as project management

On June 19th and 20th of this year, I participated in a Humane Society University course called

Emergency Animal Sheltering. The mandate of the course was to prepare volunteers to serve at emergency

shelters for pets and animals evacuated or displaced in the event of a disaster. Information covered in this

course is vital for dealing with any large-scale animal sheltering operation. 1 In preparation for the course,

participants read several training documents available at the Federal Emergency Management Agencys

website. These documents discussed the importance of animals in disasters, the various kinds of disasters,

planning disaster responses. and the structure of activities and responsibilities once disaster strikes. In brief,

animal issues are people issues, and the impact of not planning for animals with regards to disaster

management is manifold: risk of injur y to residents and responders; media risks and the additional distress,

anxiety, and grief to those concerned (given that the great majority of the public have pets and/or care

about animals), intensive relief efforts to compensate for lack of planning; the high economic cost of animal

lives in agriculture and related fields, sometimes dealing a fatal blow to family farms; and associated disease

outbreaks and risks with hazardous and biohazardous materials. There is also, as Exxon Valdez, the

Deepwater Horizon, and other disasters have shown, an immeasurable and often irreversible ecological

price to pay, with animals at the forefront.

The emergency management hierarchy - the Incident Command System (ICS) - begins and rests largely

at the local level. Local and county or regional agencies are stakeholders and actors in a situation, and are

part of the planning process. There is also a state or provincial emergency management authority, and

Jane Sorensen, 119447640 for Prof. Sylvain GauthierMonday, July 5, 2010 Project Management: Tools and Techniques

2040 words

1 The topics covered in the course material can be viewed at http://www.humanesocietyuniversity.org/coursesandprograms/professionalstudies/courseinfo/coursepage.html?sectionID=200
http://www.humanesocietyuniversity.org/coursesandprograms/professionalstudies/courseinfo/coursepage.html?sectionID=200http://www.humanesocietyuniversity.org/coursesandprograms/professionalstudies/courseinfo/coursepage.html?sectionID=200http://www.humanesocietyuniversity.org/coursesandprograms/professionalstudies/courseinfo/coursepage.html?sectionID=200http://www.humanesocietyuniversity.org/coursesandprograms/professionalstudies/courseinfo/coursepage.html?sectionID=200


2/6

national or federal response agencies and organizations. In the US, Homeland Security is responsible for the

National Response Plan, which was created in the 1990s and revised in 2004. It groups capabilities and

resources into the Emergency Suppor t Functions that must exist at all three levels of administration (local,

state, and federal).

Given the interdisciplinary nature of such high-level planning, the different kinds of disasters there are,

with multiple resources and plans for each ESF, one could call an Emergency Management Agency theequivalent of a Project Management Office.

Animals in emergencies largely fall under Mass Care, but Public Health and Agriculture and Natural

Resources are stakeholders and participants in the emergency plan. Interestingly, in the National Response

Plan, the most important federal agency dealing with veterinary issues in disasters is the U.S. Army Veterinary

Corps of the Department of Defense. After that come the various agencies and organizations of the

Departments of Agriculture and of Health and Human Services. This is where the American and Canadian

Veterinary Medical Associations coordinate activities related to animals in disasters (the Canadian Veterinary

Reserve notably began in 2006). Wherever there is a duplication or overlap of duties in law or policy, scope

management must be invoked to create memorandums of understanding on responsibilities. As part of the

planning process, and waiting in the wings for authorization to act during emergencies, are agencies and

organizations that have Mutual Aid Agreements, and non-governmental organizations with specific missions

and exper tise in aid, such as the Red Cross, Tzu Chi, and the United Animal Nations.

Developing an Emergency Operations Plan is essential for municipalities and organizations that serve

them. Like planning and implementing a project, the Plan itself is a team effor t involving key participants and

stakeholders. The best credentials for membership on the planning committee are the authority to

represent, control over resources that can be used in a disaster, and experience or knowledge of disasters.

Nonetheless, outreach to volunteer responders and the private sector is emphasized for effectiveness. The

planning process, as a project, is as impor tant as the deliverable of a plan, because those creating the plan

Federal ESFs

1. Transportation2. Communications3. Public Works and Engineering4. Firefighting5. Emergency Management6. Mass Care, Housing, and Human Services7. Resource Support

8. Public Health and Medical Services9. Urban Search and Rescue10. Oil and Hazardous Materials11. Agriculture and Natural Resources12. Energy13. Public Safety and Security14. Long Term Recovery and Mitigation15. External Affairs

Disaster and Intervention planning as projects

Page 2 of 6


3/6

begin to work together as a team and learn each others capabilities, making them that much more effective

in emergency/disaster response and relief.

The following areas of Project Management here describe the fit with Disaster Management:

Work Breakdown Structure. From initiating the project, following the directives and indications

from the federal level to develop local and regional counterparts, surveying environmental factors that

constitute risks and organizational factors as resources, and comparing the plan-project with plans from

other jurisdictions, the WBS is also analogous to the roles and responsibilities of the ESFs and that of the ICS

used to marshall the response

to an emergency through all

phases of the Disaster Cycle.

As the Incident Commanders

Branch Director in a test

exercise of an emergency

sheltering situation, my first

task was to quickly recruit and

determine skills for our ICS

roles, as shown in the

following Figure:

Branch division of Incident Command System, Animal Response

Communications. During states of emergency and crises, communication becomes difficult not

only from the perspective of preparedness and familiarity. Plans on how to deal with incoming and outgoing

messages of stakeholders, participants, and recipients need to have appropriate and responsive channels in

place, and backup plans equally vetted in case of communication equipment breakdown.

Risk. The nature of disaster management is akin to the management of risk in Project Management; it

is like managing a project where you know the risk trigger is the project. The stages in the Disaster Cycle are

mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. The response stage is the most intense, and the shortest, as

there is no telling how long it takes to recover from a disaster or how long until the next one occurs - they

can be planned for and their effects smoothed out or diminished, but they can rarely be prevented. This

requires active monitoring of the environment and human system risk factors.

Sorensen

Page 3 of 6


4/6

Time and Cost management, Human Resources and Procurement. The time

management function works as a function of Cost regarding items budgeted by each organization in order

to meet their Mitigation and Preparedness goals. Catalogs of possible resources for each Support Function

need to be created and maintained on a regular basis, which is critically important for volunteer- and

relationship-driven efforts. During the Response phase of the Disaster Cycle, all of these project functions

proceed according to plan, and situations in excess of your planningor resources capacities is absorbed by

calling in and authorizing organizations with whom you have reciprocal Mutual Aid Agreements and Memos

of Understanding. It is here that a disaster response can be escalated to the provincial/state and federal/

national level. There is a cost function at the Federal level that operates like the finance office of a project,

prescribing how costs are paid and borne by each level of emergency response. Volunteer organizations help

offset the local burden of the cost by accounting for hours donated.

Quality Management. After verification of facts and assumptions of the plan - which includes

resource inventories and organizational environment and process factors - quality management is most

effective by exercising the plan and participants by attempting to approximate reality - training and

familiarization with roles, procedures, and also personalities, using testing exercises, and simulated trials both

indoors and in the field.

Planning the Guidelines for Health Intervention

When one thinks of the onslaught of disasters, one often thinks of the mandates of the Red Cross,

Medecins Sans Frontiers, and the World Health Organization (WHO). These, too, have project management

principles and functions built into their activities, even when the activity is publishing guidelines for policy

makers, health managers, and clinicians in the event of emergencies and epidemics. In the production of

guidelines, the desired outcome or business dr iver of the project must be the critical focus in making

recommendations, with explicit consideration of the balance of risks and benefits, paying attention to diverse

attitudes and preferences.

The WHO has a handbook for writing guidelines for health inter vention recommendations. The

guidelines it publishes need to reflect graded, preferably high-quality2 evidence-based literature from as

many regions of the world as possible, and there is a preference whenever possible for basing guidelines on

systematic reviews (these are published papers that review the research and clinical literature of as wide and

thorough a sample as possible). Therefore, it is in the WHOs interest to have a prescribed method of

Disaster and Intervention planning as projects

Page 4 of 6

2 Based on confidence, see Evidence Assessment - Using GRADE in WHO Handbook for Guideline Development.


5/6

research and production in the guidelines it generates and kinds of the guidelines it inspires from similar

bodies at the national and NGO level. Following these guidelines make the work of the Guideline Review

Committee more efficient, and involves them from the beginning of scoping the guideline. The Scope is

circulated to external experts and organizations, for which scope management is an acknowledged activity,

as these stakeholders will try to expand it into a textbook.

In the planning and scoping of a guideline, the handbook discusses the requirements of an Emergency

guideline versus Standard and Full guidelines, and Books and other WHO publications. An Emergency

guideline is produced in response to a public health emergency where the WHO is required to show global

leadership. The timeframe for production is between one and three months, will be informed by evidence

but not by full reviews, and is generally WHO staff-produced with limited, informal consultancy and peer

review from outside. When published, a review by date indicates when the guideline becomes invalid, or a

new Standard guideline (usually requiring nine to twelve months) takes precedence. Most guidelines have

focus on improving clinical practice and health policy quality, and identify processes for implementation.

The planning and execution of a Guideline project is similar to Integration Management, as illustrated in

Chapter 4, or slide 19 of lecture 3. The Handbook contains thorough recommendations on the following:

project budget and sponsorship,

rationale,

guideline scoping,

choosing development participants for international research and review,

procuring a writer and editors and translators for effectiveness, assessing resources use and costs as the recommendations have an economic aspect,

controlling quality in part by by prioritizing and grading the relevant research,

evaluating the precision of research results,

involving recipient stakeholders in the recommendations and ranking the recommendations,

building in document revision via identifying research needs, and

preparing for production and distribution.

The examples of how non-profit organizations plug into national health and relief efforts, and the

expectation of flexible modularity in preparedness, further demonstrate the portability and effectiveness of

the project management method not just with delivering on contracts, but in delivering on best outcomes

in emergency response, health interventions, and disaster relief.

Sorensen

Page 5 of 6


6/6

W O R K C I T E D

Emergency Management Institute of the Federal Emergency Management Agency:

IS-10 Animals in Disaster, Module A: Awareness and Preparedness. Accessed at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS10.asp on June 15, 2010

IS-11 Animals in Disaster, Module B: Community Planning. Accessed at http://training.fema.gov/

EMIWeb/IS/IS11.asp on June 15, 2010

I-100 Introduction to Incident Command System accessed at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/

IS100a.asp July 3, 2010

WHO Handbook for guideline development, March 2008. Accessed at http://www.searo.who.int/

LinkFiles/RPC_Handbook_Guideline_Development.pdfon July 3, 2010

Other relevant literature:

Rapid health assessment of refugee or displaced populations, 3rd Edition, 2006. Medicins Sans

Frontiers. Accessed at http://www.refbooks.msf.org/msf_docs/en/Rapid_Health/

Rapid_Health_en.pdfon July 3, 2010

International Disaster Relief & Response Canadian Red Cross accessed at http://www.redcross.ca/

article.asp?id=5469&tid=036

Sorensen

Page 6 of 6
http://www.refbooks.msf.org/msf_docs/en/Rapid_Health/Rapid_Health_en.pdfhttp://www.refbooks.msf.org/msf_docs/en/Rapid_Health/Rapid_Health_en.pdfhttp://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=5469&tid=036http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=5469&tid=036http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=5469&tid=036http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=5469&tid=036http://www.refbooks.msf.org/msf_docs/en/Rapid_Health/Rapid_Health_en.pdfhttp://www.refbooks.msf.org/msf_docs/en/Rapid_Health/Rapid_Health_en.pdfhttp://www.refbooks.msf.org/msf_docs/en/Rapid_Health/Rapid_Health_en.pdfhttp://www.refbooks.msf.org/msf_docs/en/Rapid_Health/Rapid_Health_en.pdfhttp://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/RPC_Handbook_Guideline_Development.pdfhttp://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/RPC_Handbook_Guideline_Development.pdfhttp://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/RPC_Handbook_Guideline_Development.pdfhttp://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/RPC_Handbook_Guideline_Development.pdfhttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS100a.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS100a.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS100a.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS100a.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS11.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS11.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS11.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS11.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS11.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS11.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS10.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS10.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS10.asphttp://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS10.asp

Non-Profit Project Management

Documents

Transcript of Non-Profit Project Management