Please note thereare two extra resources below the video - a press release and a complete Log Frame.

In this part of the course, we're going to start to look at the Logical Framework Approach. We're going to have an overview of the whole thing, and then I'll be bringing you step-by-step through that approach as you design your own project.

So, the Logical Framework Approach, commonly known as LFA, was developed in the 1960s for USAID and then was quickly taken up by many other development agencies, such as AusAID, DFID, and GTZ, who called it ZOPP - Ziel Orientierte Projektplanung - which means Objectives Focused Project Planning.

The Logical Framework Approach is not the same as a Log Frame. A Log Frame is a document, the Logical Framework Approach is a process, it's a methodology used widely by development agencies to identify, design, plan, implement, and monitor and evaluate development projects.

It is the process by which projects come into existence and also through which they are managed. The Logical Framework Approach is so widespread, it's so common, it is considered a foundation of development practice.

If you've never done one before, LFA is something that will be useful to you throughout your career. And if you're experienced in Logical Framework Approach, I hope you're going to find the way that we approach this, through this course, to be a useful and valuable refresher, and perhaps clarify some things that you may not have understood perfectly previously.

The Logical Framework Approach is an approach, it's a methodology. It's not the same thing as a Log Frame - the Log Frame is the document, which we will look at in just a moment, that is the end result of the process.

The Logical Framework Approach has a lot of advantages. It helps us to analyze the situation being faced by our beneficiaries, by our stakeholders, and lets us build a logical hierarchy so that we can reach those project objectives, achieve that outcome.

It lets us plan how our outputs - the first level of result - and shows us how our outputs and outcomes can be monitored and evaluated, how they can be measured. The Log Frame lets us summarize our entire project in a widely understood and accepted format. The Logical Framework Approach is summarized at the end by the Log Frame, the Logical Framework.

So, let's look at that first.

The Logical Framework, the Log Frame is a table. It's usually four rows by four columns, but sometimes you'll see variations on that. And it gives us a snapshot of the project and how it all fits together - it captures everything in the frame, as it were.

Each row describes different types of events as the project is implemented. You can see the activities leading to outputs, to outcome, to impact. And different columns showing different aspects and different information about each of those levels.

Let's look at that more deeply.

The Log Frame identifies and makes explicit the results chain of the project. The results chain, that is, the inputs, the resources needed to make the activities happen; the activities themselves, the project operation, what the project actually does; and then the three different levels of results, the outputs, outcome, and impact, which is what the project actually delivers in terms of change.

It also shows us how those different levels of results- the outputs, the outcome, and the impact - will be measured through the columns OVI - Objectively Verifiable Indicators - and MOV - Means of Verification. How we're going to get the evidence to show that the indicator has been met.

The Log Frame also highlights the external factors that could affect the project success. Here we're looking at our assumptions and our risks and preconditions, and these are explained in the Assumptions column of the project context.

The Log Frame also shows us how all of these elements fit together and how they connect to the causal relationships, which is not simply a vertical relationship, but begins with the preconditions.

The preconditions are what needs to exist before you can begin. They're very often legal or environmental or political, very much related to permission, and if those preconditions exist and we have our inputs, we have our resources, then we can carry out our activities.

Our activities will always lead to outputs. Outputs are the first level of result, completely within the project's ability to control, but there is no guarantee that the outputs will lead to the outcome. There will always be some assumptions at the output level that need to be true for those outputs to lead to outcomes.

Similarly, the outcome should contribute to the project goal, the impact, the shared development objective. For the outcomes to lead to the impact or the goal, there will also need to be some assumptions at the outcomes level that need to be true for the goal to be achieved.

Below there is a case study on a relief project for Internally Displaced Persons. There are two parts - the original press release which gives us the context, and the final Log Frame. Take a few moments to study it. You can also download it and print for reference. So pause the video and take some time to examine the case study.

Now how we got here - to the Log Frame - is the result of the Logical Framework Approach, a series of steps.

Unpacking the logic:

• If we have access to the camp and we have our inputs we can carry out our activities
• That will give us better access to water, better access to sanitation, reduced overcrowding and hygiene awareness

However, we have the assumptions that:

• If the number of IDPs does not significantly increase
• If those latrines and kitchens are maintained hygienically
• Then we will see improved living conditions.

But if there was to be a big influx of perhaps another 5,000 people, then of course we have overcrowding, we have poor sanitation again. So these are our assumptions.

If those are true, then we come to our outcome, the immediate improvement of living conditions.

We will see how this Log Frame was created as we walk through the steps coming up.

So even if the Log Frame - the outcomes, the goal or impact, indicators, inputs, means of verification - seems very complex, it is simply the result of simply working through a number of steps.

Remember that the Logical Framework Approach is a methodology. It is an approach used for identifying, designing, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating development projects. It is not the same as the Log Frame - the Log Frame is the end result and that comes naturally as a result of following the process, following the steps. (Remember, we do not follow the steps so we can 'make a Log Frame', even though the Logical Framework is a widely accepted and understood format for presenting that project concept. We do this because we want to create a project that will bring positive and sustained change.)

So, those 10 steps can be broken into two clear stages.

The first stage is analysis and there are 5 steps, and they will take considerably longer than the second stage of planning, which is really when we start to build that Logical Framework again using a step-by-step approach.

Looking first at the analysis steps, we begin with the 3 parts of situation analysis, that is the context, the problem and the people.

• The context analysis is a general initial scan of the project environment.
• The problem analysis goes deeper into identifying what problem the project aims to solve, its causes and its effects.
• And the analysis of the stakeholders looks at those people who can either affect the project or would be affected by the project, looks at their different interests and plans on how to manage those.

Again, all of these steps are coming up in the later part of this course.

• Next, we build an objectives tree, we build a hierarchy of the change that we wish to see.
• Then we analyze that further in order to define a strategy, what can be done, what can't be done, what we want to prioritize, so that we have a combination of approaches in order to reach that outcome, that positive change of addressing that problem.

Looking at the planning, we then are ready to start to build our Logical Framework and we begin with the high-level effects, the outcome and the impact, and then we move down the results chain and we do the outputs, the activities and the inputs.

Next we look at our assumptions to identify what external factors need to exist for change to happen. Then we are going to look at how we can measure the results, measuring the outputs, measuring the outcome and measuring the impact. Once all this is done, we can test the log frame, verify the project design, checking again that the logic zig-zagging through actually stands.