INTRODUCTION TO MODULE 5 – Project Cycle Management
Project Cycle Management (PCM) is the methodology adopted by European Commission as its main approach for project and programme management. The main aim of PCM is to facilitate a participatory approach in designing and managing projects, starting from the real needs of the final beneficiaries of the activities. This approach ensures a high quality of the project activities (that are targeted to the real needs of the target groups) and, above all, a high level and a strong sustainability of the project results and impacts. A full project cycle is made up of six phases: programming, identification, formulation, financing, implementation, and evaluation.
This cycle highlights three main principles:
- Decision making criteria and procedures are defined at each phase (including key information requirements and quality assessment criteria);
- The phases in the cycle are progressive and linked to each;
- New programming and project identification starts from the results of monitoring and evaluation after every intervention (cycle).
The monitoring and evaluation phase aim to map the new the starting context, the new basic situation to deal with a new project, that is, the initial condition to improve that are to be considered modified by the previous intervention.