How to Lead an International Development Project
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[edit] Overview
This is a guide for all development project leaders in Nourish International. Leading an international development project requires a large time commitment. Projects are selected during the fall semester and planning the project often takes the entire spring semester. We recommend that project leaders start planning as soon as possible.
Project leaders are responsible for recruiting and managing the team of students who go on the trip. They are also responsible for managing the relationship with our partner agency on the ground. last but not least, project leaders are responsible for communicating what happened on the trip to our supporters and the general community. This is a lot to handle, but we promise the experience will be rewarding. What you put in is what you get out.
[edit] Recruiting
The importance of recruiting cannot be stressed enough. Recruiting should begin the second a project is selected. Students require ample time to decide whether or not they want to go on a trip, and the more time they have, the better. Time is everything here. If students decide to go earlier, they can apply for more grants. The earlier they know about a project, the more likely they are to go because they have not formalized plans for the summer and they will therefore be more flexible.
So the first step is to start early. The second step is to aggregate all of the necessary information for the project that students need to know in order to make a good decision about going on the project. There will be an online platform to do this on our website. This is scheduled to launch in the fall of 2007. This is where students can get all the essential information they need about the project. If anyone has questions about the project, you should be able to direct them to this site to answer all of their major, pertinent questions they have a pressing question that the site does not answer, then you should update the site to fill that need.
Next, stop by Nourish committee meetings and pitch the project. Hold an international projects meeting where the project is the focus, and invite the whole chapter.
Caveat: recruit specific people who you think are needed on the trip. If you need a documentarian, recruit the video person heavily.
Caveat 2: Remember that Nourish is a network of chapters. Students from all chapters can go on the trips. Contact International Projects chairs at other chapters to expose their members to the project.
[edit] Leadership Positions
By dividing the responsibilities that a project entails you will be able to incorporate several people into a very exciting process. Being able to delegate tasks amongst a core group will enable the project to reach it's highest potential. Each project will be unique, but there are some general roles that should always be included:
Project Leader:
One person should always know about everything, even though they might not be directly responsible for everything. This person can offer a critical eye when one is needed and help maintain the focus of the entire team. During the project it is invaluable to have someone that can make difficult decisions when the plan changes (which always happens) that everyone supports and respects. It is also very important to have the Project Leader be the point person with the partner organization to represent Nourish. More than anything, the Project Leader is a people-person. Fundamentally, the leader is responsible for bringing the team together (recruiting) and for leading them in the field work (management). It's about communicating with everyone and turning a group of students into a solid development team.
Caveat: Each project will have different needs in terms of people and skills, there will always be other roles on top of the ones listed here and the leader must decide what these will be.
Logistics and planning:
You'll be traveling to a different country and moving around a lot, someone needs to figure out how. This job can be the most difficult and rewarding part of the Nourish experience because you'll be responsible for the group's experience while in the country. Try to keep costs as low as possible while still keeping safety as your number 1 concern. Get creative too! For most people this will be the first time that they have seen the country you're working in, make sure they get to see more than just the airport and the work site. A team that falls in love with the country will work better and will be received by the community with open arms.
Documentarian:
Does a student grow from an Nourish project? If so, then how much? That is what the documentarian is addressing through media and qualitative data. Before the project, during the project and after the project there should be a series of surveys aimed at tracing people's growth. Having multi-media materials of the experience is incredibly important for this. Experience and love for documenting is a must for this role. Everything changes when the camera is turned on, from the group dynamics to the way that the community sees you. A camera is extremely powerful and the person behind it must understand this to make sure that the project does not lose from its presence but instead rather grows from it. This person must be somewhat independent from the group to ensure an honest and objective perspective, this must be understood by everyone involved to ensure productive collaboration.
Researcher:
What kind of impact is this project going to have? How do we measure it? These are the questions that the researcher must ask and answer before the project starts. A faculty mentor with experience in the field is a must to make sure that the data collected can actually be used later on. Once you have an idea of what you could do then it is time to talk to the community partner extensively to figure out how to actually go about it. The data collected from the research will benefit our partner just as much as us, and they know that, so definitely include them at all points in the process.
Caveat: The power behind a research component lies in the commitment it represents to the future. Impact can only be determined over time which means that we'll have to go back to communities over time to track our impact. Nourish projects are always seen as long-term investments and with the research we can prove it (literally) and also maintain a long-lasting relationship with the communities we work with.
[edit] Logistics
Carlos
[edit] Partner Relationship
As trite as it sounds, the key is communication. Every failure we've had with partners in the past can be attributed to a lapse in communication. The project leader should be in touch with the partner on a weekly basis, even if it is a short email to ensure that everything is on pace and nothing more is needed from our end.
dAA4fk Pleased to read intelligent thoughts in Russian. I`ve been living in England for already 5 years!...
[edit] Caveats
Keep these thoughts in mind, and 99% of any potential problems will be avoided:
1. What will the students be doing while they are there? How can they be useful? How can we avoid being a burden? What skills do you need? What do we need to do to prepare? Are there any safety issues we should be aware of?
2. Money. When do you need the money? When do you need to start the project so we can be useful while we are there?
[edit] Above and Beyond
Carlos
[edit] Leverage Your Project!
We should never forget that our projects are, well....pretty bad ass. We spend the entire year generating funds and planning the project. It is the peak result of the summation of thousands of hours of hard work your chapter has committed all year. Since this is the case, you want to make sure you get as much bang for your buck as possible.
====Newspapers==== Write a press release for the project and send it to your campus newspaper and any local newspapers.
====Blog==== Set up a blog for the project through our website and tell all of your family and friends about it. Get the rest of the project team to post and tell their friends and family as well.
====Progress Report==== You can update your project on the website by adding information in the progress report tab for your project.
[edit] Policies
1. Nourish members must act in accordance with their native country's travel laws.
2. Nourish members must act in accordance with the laws of the destination country.
3. Students are responsible for their own travel expenses.
4. Nourish members must sign the standard Nourish International liability waiver to participate on a project
5. Project leaders are responsible for getting project members to sign the standard Nourish International liability waiver
Guidelines -- see Travel Guide
[edit] Preparing Your Team
Carlos</nowiki>
