Process Design and Preparation Building Block

CDS has been developed internationally not as a tightly defined or prescribed planning methodology but as an approach to strategic planning at the city level with the general characteristics of:

• A strategic direction
• Objectives for the growth development and poverty reduction
• Extensive consultation through a series of stages to prepare.

Because the process of conducting a CDS is as important as the outcome, it is a feature of the overall approach that the details of processes used are designed by the city itself to reflect its particular challenges and resources and the legal and institutional framework in which it is working. Therefore, while the CDSs in Viet Nam have common elements, they have each been designed and carried out differently to meet the particular needs and starting point of each city.

Process design is the first step in embarking on developing a City Development Strategy. It should consider the aspirations for the City Development Strategy (what are the key things we want to achieve?), as well as the existing environment (what do we have to work with? what has worked well in the past? who is available to work on this?) and any opportunities that might exist in the future (what are key deadlines or dates we might need to be aware of? What other processes are taking place that we can link to?).

Spending time designing the process at the start will help make sure that everyone involved in the project has a clear understanding of the ‘big picture’ – how the process will run, what the key steps are, when they will happen and why. It will help to create ownership of the project within the project team and supporters.

The objective of process design is to develop a clear picture of how the City Development Strategy project will run, before beginning. This will produce a plan for how the City will proceed with developing and implementing its strategy.

The process design phase will help identify in advance, what will take place and who will do it. It will inform the more detailed planning, which will take place with each Building Block and as the process evolves.

The ideas behind process design and preparation are that:

• Thorough planning can help a project achieve its objectives
• Clarifying roles and responsibilities will result in better outcomes
• Process design allows you to look at the big picture, the whole picture
• Process design allows you to be proactive in making choices and defining priorities between competing needs and limited resources
• The CDS process requires commitment from leaders and so they must be involved from the start
• Doing a CDS requires an acceptance or readiness to change and therefore an opened mind to change

Key components of process design and preparation are:

1. Project preparation and initiation

1. Clarifying objectives of CDS process
2. Confirming resources – what is the budget and staff resources available for doing the CDS? What is the timeframe?
3. Identifying skills needed – what are the skills needed to do the CDS and who will provide them
4. Seeking commitment and building a sense of ownership for the project
5. Project planning
6. Planning key steps and sequence– what will be done and in what order? When will each building block be completed by? Who will do what?
7. Planning for communications
8. Assigning roles and responsibilities

In reality there will often be overlap in some of these steps, as initiating, preparing for and planning for the project takes place at the beginning and will possibly involve the same people on the project team (or similar). Ideally all stages will take place at some time during process initiation, but the sequence is not fixed and can vary depending on the needs of the project.

a) Clarify objectives

What are the reasons for doing the CDs? What are the main things that the city wants to action? These questions need to be considered when clarifying objectives for doing the CDS. Some of the objectives will probably already be stated, for example by the organisation initiating or funding the CDS process, but clarifying them with all the people to be involved in the project will help make sure that none are overlooked and that the whole team is aware of the full range of objectives.

A workshop held with key project team members could be a useful way to clarify objectives.

Some examples of objectives that cities might have for doing a CDS include:

• To help achieve the development objectives of the city
• To increase grassroots democracy
• To facilitate the process of decentralisation
• To further administrative reform
• To develop plan for action which is detailed and realistic
• To further develop staff skills in strategic planning and help move towards a more strategic ‘mindset’

b) Confirm resources

It is important that the project team have a clear understanding of what resources are available to do the CDS. Doing the CDS will involve significant staff time (eg reviewing existing plans and documents, gathering data, creating maps, consulting with other agencies, coordinating consultants, consulting with key stakeholders including the ward members) and materials such as venue hire for workshops, printing and map making.

You should regard preparing the CDS as a project – even though iterative and ongoing, the process of doing a CDS ‘cycle’ needs to be project managed, needs resources allocated to it, will require consultation and communication, etc.

Overall budget

All CDS processes in Viet Nam to date have been funded with donor support and sources of external funding are something that should be explored and secured during the process design phase. It may be possible for cities to undertake a CDS without external support, or at least some components of the CDS, but the process will need to be adapted to fit the resources available. The scale of the project, including how long is spent on each task, will be shaped by the available budget. It is important to be realistic about what can be achieved with the available budget.

There are two ‘budgets’ that you will need to think about for your CDS. One is the budget available to ‘do’ the CDS (this is what you need to think about in process design and related to money available to carry out strategic planning process) and the other is the budget available potentially to implement the strategies through an action plan (this is something you will need to think more about in the action planning phase).

Staffing

Key questions include:

• What do we have available to work with?
• What is the budget?
• Who are our staff?.

Time scale

Time is another key resource and it is important to know at the start how long you have to complete the initial ‘cycle’ of the CDS process. It is important to design your process to fit an appropriate time scale. Experience in Viet Nam to date is that it takes between 1–2 years to complete well.

c) Identify skills and perspectives needed

Doing a CDS requires a range of types of expertise and skills sets. Broadly, CDS is a strategic planning process, which takes place across traditional sectors and features a high level of participation and engagement with stakeholders. It is important to identify the types of skills needed to do the CDS and who will provide them.

The types of skills that might be needed to do your CDS are:

• Project management
• Communication skills
• Knowledge of economic, urban, environmental and social issues – problems, opportunities, relationships
• Data collection and analysis
• Designing consultation
• Facilitating workshops
• Conducting interviews
• Assessing environmental impacts of possible strategies and actions
• Assessment of potential options against criteria
• Analysing maps
• Report writing.

If you do not have all of these skill sets represented in your project team, you may need to run training for your existing team or use consultants (national or international or both).

If consultants are used in the project, you may like to think about ‘capacity building’ for the other staff involved in the process – eg. having consultants run a series of workshops for project staff as they undertake key stages of work.

Talking to other people who have run a CDS process is another good way to find out what skills are required and where these might be available. The CDSs that have been completed in Viet Nam are summarised in the Introduction to this Guide and in the separate list at Appendix 1.

d) Seek commitment and building a sense of ownership for the project

The amount of support for undertaking a CDS project will differ from location to location. CDS will need to be initiated by the City People’s Committee. If it is a Class 2 City, the CDS will need to be supported by the Provincial People’s Committee.

In some cases, the project may have high-level support and may be initiated by a formal commitment made by several Government agencies. In other cases, it may be the idea of just one organisation and may need to build support to ensure success.

Here are some possible ways to seek commitment and build a sense of ownership for the project:

• Introduce the idea in a workshop and invite stakeholders to invite them to be part of the project in an ongoing way
• Make sure you have key local figures aware of and supportive of the project – including the Chair of the People’s Committee
• Invite people from other successful CDS projects to come and address your workshops, to share what they learnt through the process, which might help your team and what the benefits were for their City/Province

See also the Consultation and Participation Building Block for more information on public participation.

e) Plan key steps and sequence

For each necessary stage of the project, the plan should outline the following details:

• What steps are required to implement the proposed stage?
• Who will take primary responsibility for each stage? Someone needs to be in charge.
• Who else needs to be involved? Many actions require collaboration. Who are the significant collaborators for this action to be successful?
• What resources will be needed to carry out each stage? These can include people, materials, money, equipment and skills.
• How do the stages relate to each other? Does one stage need to be completed before the next one starts or can they run in parallel? Are their benefits in planning certain steps of work to happen sequentially?
• When will each stage be complete? This includes not only how much time will be required but also a realistic date for completion.
• How will you know progress is being made toward carrying out each action? How will you find out to what extent whether the proposed actions are contributing to the realisation of the intended results?
• Who will you integrate sustainability concerns into each stage?
• How will you ensure appropriate participation and consultation in this stage?

It is important to plan, examine existing resources and then revisit the plan. You may need to make choices about where and how to focus so that the scope for each building block is realistic for the skills and resources available.

f) Plan for communications

Good communication during your CDS project has many benefits. It can help the project team work more efficiently, satisfy funding requirements, ensure good ongoing relationships with donor agencies and staff, ensure best value for money with consultants, help maintain political support, raise public awareness of the work of the organisations involved and keep stakeholders (both specific target groups and the general public) aware of how the project is progressing and what the outcomes will be.

Good communication includes sharing information between project team members, sharing information between organisations, in both a vertical (for example higher levels of government) and horizontal (different functional organisations at the same level) direction, reporting to funding bodies and lead agencies, seeking information, reporting to people who help with the project and keeping the public aware of the outcomes. It is important to ensure that there are “no surprises” for everyone involved the process, and that everyone is kept up to date on progress through regular communication.

During the process design phase it is not necessary to plan the detailed communications strategy for each building block (this will be done when you do the building block) but it is important to plan the general, project level communications for the project. This is a good time to make a commitment to what kind of ongoing communication will be necessary to make the project a success. Planning this is important – as different agencies and stakeholders may have different expectations – this could take some time to negotiate before the project begins.

For example, the overall communications plan may involve fortnightly project team meetings, monthly task force meetings, 6-monthly progress reports for the funding body and briefings to the Minster on request. Planning the communications approach during the project design phase allows the project manager to assign resources to these tasks.

g) Assign roles and responsibilities

Assigning roles for the up and coming project is an important part of process design. Clarifying roles at the beginning of the project can help to prevent uncertainty amongst those involved, ensure that tasks are completed and provide time for any negotiation or clarification that needs to take place.

In developing a City Development Strategy there will usually be a number of organisations involved – with one or two in a lead role and many more as partners. It is useful to clarify these roles early in the process. For example, one agency may be the lead, with two other agencies agreeing to provide necessary data and a fourth agency providing some additional funding and staff.

It is important to identify a champion, that is a senior member of government who understands and supports the CDS process and will provide an avenue of communication to higher levels of government about the project.

The project manager or coordinator of the project team is a key role. This person has the important task of effectively assigning work to others, supervising project progress and involving him/herself in each stage of the CDS to provide leadership and confirm strategic direction.

• What roles will agencies and organisations have?
• Who will provide political leadership? Which department will ‘own’ this project?
• Who is the lead organisation and who are the partner agencies?
• Who is the co-ordinator of all activities? Who will provide overall coordination and oversee work?
• Who needs to be informed?
• Who will be on the project team?
• Which organisation/s will the project team report to?
• What roles will people on the project team have?
• Who will project manage?
• Who will lead each building block?
• Who will manage budget?
• Who is responsible for documentation and report writing?

Community consultation is a key feature of the CDS process. It is critical to consider when and how consultation will take place when you are in the design phase. Consultation is a separate building block. However, consultation and stakeholder engagement should not be seen as a process that only happens once. Rather, ongoing processes of participation and stakeholder engagement should be incorporated throughout the CDS. The process design should reflect this.

In this phase, you may wish to identify key groups and sectors that you plan to consult with, how you would do it, how long it will take. This will help you plan and assign adequate resources to the task.

For more information on effective community and stakeholder consultation, see Consultation and Participation Building Block.

Use the following questions as a guide to incorporating consultation and participation in the design of the CDS process.

1. What steps have been put in place to make sure the CDS is a participatory process?
2. Has the whole process that is planned for the CDS been informed by the principle of participatory ‘bottom up planning’?
3. Can the process design stage draw on the results of any previous consultations?
4. Have a cross-section of stakeholders been involved in the design of the CDS process?
5. Have a wide range of views and perspectives been considered?
6. Have we thought about how to involve those people who are going to be most affected by development outcomes or may sometimes be overlooked in consultation (eg people from poor areas, women, young people, people living in informal settlements)?
7. Have we thought about how to involve those people whose actions or input will be crucial to the implementation of the CDS? For example, this means including not just party officials, but other stakeholders such as relevant city departments, community organisations and the private sector.
8. How will the process for the CDS be communicated to community and stakeholders? Will there be an opportunity for stakeholders to have further input?
9. How will the community receive feedback on the results?

Strategic Environment Assessment is both a separate process, and one which can be integrated with a CDS. It is important at the process design stage to consider how SEA will be integrated into the CDS. It will therefore be important to consider both:

• How you do SEA by reading the SEA building block; and
• The specific role that SEA will play with regard to each building block.

Adequate planning regarding how the SEA and CDS processes will work together will ensure process harmony between the two, including:

• Identification of key points in the CDS process where SEA can provide input
• Identification of critical requirements from an environmental and sustainability perspective (such as data and information needs or any formal regulatory requirements
• Team selection that ensures that environment / sustainability expertise will be available in the CDS team with responsibility for SEA resting with one person, but with the necessary links to the remaining CDS team, to ensure both an independent views as well as an harmonised process
• Identification of what additional technical expertise may need to be drawn upon e.g. technical assessment of the impact of options.

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a separate building block, however M&E needs to be done for every building block for accountability and learning purposes. Keep records of all activities conducted and make sure that you document the process of carrying out 'Process Design and Preparation' building block. This means you need to document what happened for each 'key component' of this building block and share this information with appropriate stakeholders.

Also, use the following set of questions to help you learn from doing the 'Process Design and Preparation' Building Block and to provide accountability for funds spent on this building block. This is best done either through a workshop, interviews or a survey, and you will need to include the views of all those staff with key responsibilities for this building block. Consult the M&E section in this Guide for further information on monitoring and evaluation.

• What were the key outputs for this building block? Were these outputs of the desired quality?
• How efficient has the process for this building block been? In other words, how do the costs of doing this building block compare with the benefits?
• What worked well and what didn’t work so well in doing this building block? What would you do differently next time and why?
• To what extent was meaningful consultation and participation achieved?
• How were environmental and sustainability issues (through SEA processes) included?