Development Project Management Within Local NGOs: 10 Recommendations to Meet 10 Challenges

As local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) assume a greater role in improving the well-being of the communities in which they operate, donors and government agencies are increasingly scrutinizing their performance and accountability. To effectively undertake development projects, the local NGOs must address a host of challenges, both internally and externally. These include inadequacies in technical capacity, project status information, stakeholder involvement, cost estimates, resources, infrastructure, communications, and vendors and suppliers; a lack of understanding of the local socioeconomic and political environment; and disruptive interference from management. By adopting project management practices, supervisors and staff members of the local NGOs can efficiently mobilize all the resources at their disposal toward designing and implementing sustainable interventions, and thus guarantee the ongoing support of their benefactors.