Humanitarian aid project management
- Page updated on18 de April de 2025
This is not about grabbing a rucksack, setting up in a place and improvising things. On the contrary, behind every humanitarian intervention there is a great deal of analysis and planning (which, however, can always be done better). Understanding what a cooperation project is, how it is designed based on needs and how it is implemented and monitored is fundamental for everyone on the team.
Table of contents:
We think in terms of projects (and, ideally, programs).
The heart of humanitarian operations revolves around projects. A project is a set of actions designed and planned to achieve a set objective, within a certain timeframe and with certain resources.
Projects can be very different. Depending on the context where it is developed and focus, the cooperation project can have a longer or shorter duration, can cover more or less sectors (health, food security, education, etc.) and can have a larger or smaller volume. There are projects that can last several years, that can cover multiple technical sectors to respond to the needs of many people in large geographic areas, and that require budgets of several million euros.
A program is not exactly the same as a project. A program has a broader focus in its objectives, sectors of intervention and duration in time than a project. It is therefore practical to divide an organization's program in a territory into multiple projects. This allows each project to be planned and managed separately, with different funding sources and sometimes different teams. At the same time, working in this way allows the different projects in a program to have a certain synergy with each other, under the framework of a common strategy and objectives.
The cooperation project cycle and its management
Projects follow a logical sequence of stages, from start to finish. Although there are many ways to understand these stages, they are explained here in four, to facilitate their analysis in specific sections:
- Context analysis. The first step in planning a project, before defining what you want to do, is to understand the context in which it will be developed. This includes assessing and analyzing the needs of the population and their causes and understanding other important operational aspects, such as the existing response capacity, the actors involved, or the constraints to access.
- Design and formulation of proposals. Once we know the humanitarian context, the needs of the population and possible limitations or risks for our operations, we must determine what our action will consist of and reflect it in a simple scheme that can be understood by all partners. This outline will be the basis of our project proposal.
- Execution or implementation. When funding is available, the project will be implemented. This requires establishing planning mechanisms between partners and teams of people, executing and supervising activities, and monitoring the progress of the intervention and its achievements.
- Monitoring, evaluation and learning. When the project ends, we evaluate it and try to draw lessons and recommendations to learn and improve our future actions. While monitoring takes place mainly throughout the project implementation, evaluation carries more weight once the project has ended. However, both elements are related and often overlap, at least in part, throughout all phases of the project, so they are explained in the same section.
Projects must have a vertical logic, from inputs to outcomes
There are different frameworks for project management, such as the logical framework approach or results-oriented management. However, they all share the same basis: a project is more than a handful of activities. This is clearly reflected in the sequence of elements that make up its vertical logic.
The lowest level is the resources (inputs) that we need to be able to carry out the project, such as economic funding or a team of people. These resources are used to perform activities. Activities are the concrete actions that we carry out in a project. An example of an activity is a five-day training to staff of a health district on the diagnosis and treatment of acute malnutrition.
The next level is the outputs that are directly achieved by completing the activities. An example of output from the previous activity could be the number of health professionals who have been trained in the management of acute malnutrition. The outputs must contribute to achieving higher-level outcomes, which should reflect changes in individuals or institutions. An example of an outcome could be the improvement of the quality of nutrition services.
Outcomes contribute to achieving results at the highest level, which are generally only achieved after a certain period of time. We call this impact. An example of impact could be the reduction in mortality from acute malnutrition.
Finally, the vertical logic will be fulfilled, from the activities to the different progressive levels of results, if a series of hypotheses or assumptions are met. To know them, it is necessary to analyze the existing risks. In the example used above, some valid assumptions could be that the safety situation does not deteriorate beyond a limit that makes the activity unfeasible or the publication of the national protocols for the management of malnutrition on which the training is based, by the Ministry of Health.
Depending on the methodologies or tools used, more or fewer levels can be established. For example, there may be intermediate or specific objectives that contribute to a general objective, with which we hope to achieve an even more ambitious impact or in a longer time frame. The important thing, in any case, is to understand that in this sequence each element contributes to achieving the higher elements, with a progressive logic.
Projects must have a horizontal logic to demonstrate their achievements.
The main component of this horizontal logic is the indicators. Indicators are objectively measurable information that we use to determine to what extent we have succeeded in completing an activity (output indicator), achieving an outcome (outcome indicator) or reaching our ultimate goal (impact indicator). A possible indicator for our example is the percentage of acutely malnourished people who recover.
To certify the indicators we use sources of verification, which are documents or evidence that we use to demonstrate the value of the indicator, such as a signed attendance list of a training, an external report that measures the quality of healthcare according to given parameters, health services databases, or mortality records.
The project cycle
External links
- United Nations Development Group, 2011. Results-based management handbook.
- The World Bank, 2005. The logframe handbook.
- European Commission, 2004. Project cycle management guidelines.
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