Certificate programme
Project management and MEAL
A development project is won or lost as much in its design as in its implementation. A logical framework built in a hurry, indicators that cannot be measured, a theory of change that does not hold up: these original flaws are paid for over three years, and no amount of good day-to-day management can make up for them.
- Duration
- 5 weeks, 10 sessions, 50 hours
- Format
- In person or online
- Credential
- Training certificate
Tuition185,000 XOF
By the end of the programme, you will be able to
- Carry out a situation analysis and a problem tree based on verifiable data
- Build a theory of change and a coherent logical framework, with its assumptions
- Write measurable indicators, each with its sheet, source and collection method
- Draw up a work plan, a Gantt chart and a project budget
- Analyse the stakeholders and keep the project's risk register
- Design a MEAL plan and an indicator tracking table that work in the field
- Put a complaints and feedback mechanism in place
- Design and defend a complete project proposal before a committee
Who it is for
Target audience
The certificate is for those who design, manage or monitor projects: project officers and coordinators, monitoring, evaluation and MEAL specialists, heads of mission, programme managers, leaders of associations and civil society organisations, staff of government technical services, development consultants, and people moving into the humanitarian and development sector.
Prerequisites
Two requirements:
- Hold at least a two-year post-secondary degree (BAC+2), in any field, or have proven professional experience in a project or an association
- Have a personal laptop, since Excel is used for the budget, the planning and the monitoring tools
No prior experience of project management is required. Participants already working on a project gain particularly from it: the course lets them take their own project's system apart and put it right, which has an immediate effect on their work.
Teaching method
The certificate runs over five weeks, at weekends only, with two sessions each weekend — Saturday and Sunday, 8.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. — making ten five-hour sessions and 50 supervised hours. The format was chosen for professionals in post and people on field assignments, who cannot free up weekdays. Personal work takes two to three hours a week, and three to four during the project weeks.
The format is hybrid: each session is preceded by video capsules to watch remotely, at any time, for about an hour and a quarter. Theory and demonstrations go there; the session is given over to practice — exercises on the tools, cases from the field, work on the project. Sessions are held in person or online and live, as each participant prefers, at the same price.
The whole course is built around a running project: each participant designs their own, from the diagnosis through to the complete monitoring system, and presents it at the end before a simulated committee. Project management and MEAL are taught together because each determines the other: a poorly built logical framework makes the monitoring system unusable, an indicator chosen without knowing how it will be collected will never be filled in, and accountability thought about after start-up is never credible with communities. The cohort is limited to fifteen, with individual supervision of the running project.
Detailed program
10 sessions · 50 h of teaching
Week 1 — The project cycle and the diagnosis
2 sessions · 10 h- Map the actors and the funding of a chosen sector, from donor websites and published calls
- Read a real call for proposals, extract the eligibility criteria and decide whether to respond, on a one-page decision sheet
- Allocate the roles of a project team and spot the likely friction between coordination, technical staff, MEAL and finance
- Analyse the conflict sensitivity of an area of operation in the Sahel: who gains, who loses, what risks for communities
- Exercise: submit the actor map and the decision sheet for your running project
- Going further, in the course material: funding sources and consortia; project roles in detail
- Find, in the secondary sources available in Burkina Faso, three pieces of evidence that support the problem chosen, noting their date and source
- Build your project's problem tree from a list of grievances, separating causes, core problem and consequences
- Turn the problem tree into an objectives tree, then compare two possible intervention strategies
- Draw your project's theory of change with a free tool, then have the group pull it apart
- Exercise: submit the problem tree, the objectives tree and the theory of change diagram for your project
- Going further, in the course material: rapid and in-depth needs assessment; gender and inclusion analysis; donors' theories of change
Week 2 — Logical framework and indicators
2 sessions · 10 h- Fill in your project's logical framework matrix, from goal to activities, in a spreadsheet
- Test the vertical logic: at each level, check that the level below is enough to produce the level above
- Complete the assumptions column and discard those that are merely wishes
- Hold the logical framework up against the group's theory of change and correct the inconsistencies found
- Exercise: submit the complete logical framework matrix of your running project
- Going further, in the course material: the logical framework as donors see it; vocabulary differences between frameworks
- Rewrite vague indicators as measurable ones, with unit, formula and source
- Complete the full sheet for three of your project's indicators: definition, formula, source, frequency and owner
- Set a baseline and a target from a verifiable source, and write the justification in one sentence
- Check that every output indicator is disaggregated by sex, age and disability
- Exercise: submit the sheets for all your running project's indicators, with their means of verification
- Going further, in the course material: donor-mandated indicators; the place of qualitative indicators
Week 3 — Planning and budget
2 sessions · 10 h- Break the logical framework's activities into tasks, then estimate durations and workloads with a documented margin
- Build your project's Gantt chart in a spreadsheet, with dependencies and milestones
- Identify the critical path and the seasonal constraints — rainy season, agricultural calendar — that shift it
- Plan procurement with lead times that are realistic for Burkina Faso
- Exercise: submit the annual work plan and the Gantt chart of your running project
- Going further, in the course material: a comparison of planning tools; the detailed work plan
- Build your project's budget from the work plan, line by line, with an assumptions note for every item
- Apply a documented rule for administrative and indirect costs, and be able to explain it to the donor
- Draw up the monthly cash flow plan and spot the gaps between commitment and disbursement
- Build the budget monitoring tool in Excel: burn rate, variances and end-of-project projection
- Exercise: submit the detailed budget, its explanatory note and the budget monitoring tool for your running project
- Going further, in the course material: the budget formats of the main donors; budget revisions; preparing for an audit
Week 4 — Stakeholders, risks and MEAL
2 sessions · 10 h- Build your project's power and interest matrix, including local authorities, community leaders, women and young people
- Draw up the project risk register — operational, financial, security, reputational, political — with likelihood, impact and owner
- Write the contingency and withdrawal plan for the area of operation, based on a scenario of deteriorating security
- Define the commitments on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse that apply to the project and its partners
- Exercise: submit the stakeholder matrix and the risk register of your running project
- Going further, in the course material: the stakeholder communication plan; managing expectations; keeping the register current
- Write your project's MEAL plan: roles, collection frequency and how it connects to the logical framework
- Build your indicator tracking table, column by column, with a collection method and a source for each
- Design a collection form in KoboToolbox and test it with two other participants
- Write the complaints mechanism procedure: receipt, logging, referral, response and closure
- Scope the final presentation: format, length and assessment grid
- Exercise: submit the MEAL plan, the tracking table and the complaints procedure of your running project
- Going further, in the course material: the MEAL budget and team sizing; donors' MEAL expectations; accountability indicators
Week 5 — Proposal and defence
2 sessions · 10 h- Write the justification and the intervention strategy of the project, drawing on the diagnosis data
- Assemble the logical framework, the budget and the tracking table, then check them against each other with a checklist
- Write the one-page proposal summary and have a peer review it
- Complete the gender, protection, environment and safeguarding sections of the proposal
- Exercise: finalise the complete proposal for your running project, ready to be defended
- Going further, in the course material: concept notes and expressions of interest; the mistakes that get a bid dropped; the administrative file
- Remotely, before the session (about 1 h 15): capsules on preparing a defence, the questions a selection committee asks, and critical feedback
- Present your project in ten minutes before a simulated committee, then answer five minutes of questions
- Defend the diagnosis, the theory of change, the logical framework, the budget and the MEAL system before your peers
- Receive critical feedback, written and spoken, on your proposal, then fold it into the final version
- Exercise: certificates are awarded to participants who have defended their project and attended at least 80% of the sessions
Assessment and certification
The project management and MEAL certificate is awarded on an admission average out of 20, made up of three components:
- The certification exam (50%) — 25 questions drawn at random from a bank of more than eighty, in 80 minutes. Two attempts are allowed, seven days apart, and the better one counts.
- The project proposal (30%) — defended before the panel in the tenth session.
- Attendance (20%) — recorded session by session. An absence announced at least three days in advance counts as half; an unannounced absence does not count.
The admission average is 12 out of 20. A mark below 8 out of 20 in the exam is eliminatory: neither the project nor attendance can make up for it. As soon as the average is reached, the certificate is issued automatically and becomes available in the participant's account.
The certificate is issued by Waaldé Impact, signed by the trainer, and states the course title, the 50 hours, the period, the list of modules completed and the subject of the project proposal presented. Each certificate carries a unique number and a verification code.
Participants who do not reach the average receive a certificate of attendance. They may retake the exam and present their project proposal with the following cohort, at no extra cost.
Upcoming sessions
Next dates being prepared
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Frequently asked questions
185,000 XOF per participant. Training for a team or an organisation is quoted on request.
5 weeks, 10 sessions, 50 hours.
Yes: you can attend onsite or online, as you prefer.
Two requirements: hold at least a two-year post-secondary degree (BAC+2), in any field, or have proven professional experience in a project or an association ; have a personal laptop, since Excel is used for the budget, the planning and the monitoring tools ; no prior experience of project management is required. Participants already working on a project gain particularly from it: the course lets them take their own project's system apart and put it right, which has an immediate effect on their work.
Yes: participants who meet the completion requirements receive a Waaldé Impact certificate with a unique number that employers can verify online.
Fill in the online enrolment request: no payment is taken on the site. The firm reviews your application, then contacts you to confirm your place and the payment terms. No session is scheduled yet: leave your email on this page to be told when registration opens.
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