World Vision – Zambia

“This is the best thing that has ever happened to project management in the development sector, says Clement from World Vision’s Zambia team. “It is the reason why some kids in Zambia have clean water, why some clinics are built on time, and why a poor farmer in Eastern Zambia is able to harvest”.

Against a background of meeting challenging targets and increased demand for accountability, World Vision Zambia decided to put all frontline staff through the PMD Pro certification process. Partnering with LINGOs (experts in NGO training) in 2010, over the next four years, 156 staff completed PMD Pro 1 and a further 22 staff went on to take the more advanced PMD Pro 2 which assessed their ability to apply their learning to different project scenarios.

“We have found that PMD Pro has stirred up a desire to do better, and to deliver on the promises that we make to ‘our clients’,” says Clement. “Our leadership team has committed to ensuring that standards are maintained. We don’t want staff to relapse into old ways and it is important that they continue to be challenged by the new processes that they have learned.”

“The results have been incredible,” continues Clement. “Our WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) staff have used PMP Pro’s ‘issue logs’ and ‘risk registers’ to streamline operations and improve their management of risk. The ‘work breakdown structure’ has resulted in improvements to annual planning and budgeting processes, and we also use the ‘spider diagrams’ to monitor and assess resource gaps, and to redesign project processes.”

“Never has a process of improvement training and catalogue of tools aided our work in the manner PMD Pro has,” says Clement. “There have been many winners as a result. The recipients or customers who benefit from our work in the community, the donors who are getting value for money, the staff who are now confidently managing projects. In short, PMD Pro has [added] project management integrity to our work.”

— Clement Chipokolo
World Vision International (Zambia)