EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (ABSTRACT)
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and also Ministry of Education (MOE) in Guyana are vibrant institutions that spearhead the advancement of child protection, education, sports, technology, child and youth development, and cultural diversity in Guyana and throughout the Caribbean. Both of them work thoroughly and in collaboration to implement projects and programs throughout Guyana.
The aim of this programme is to sensitize the community on the relevance of life skills while dealing effectively with the national reality on gender-based issues, especially sexual violence against children and women, and domestic violence, as well as to upgrade the teaching-learning process by providing training in Life Skills and GenderBased Issues for primary teachers.
The general objective of the program titled “Programme sensitization on gender-based issues and life skills amongst elementary school children and their families in a selected primary school in Georgetown, Guyana”, to be done through a UNICEF-Ministry of Education (MOE) Guyana partnership, is to create a program to promote the sensitization of gender-based issues and life skills amongst elementary school children, their families and society in general in selected primary schools in Guyana. The specific objectives are 1) to create a scope management plan in order to define the deliverables that will be part of the present project, adhering to the agreed scope and not stepping out from its boundaries in order to prevent gold plating and scope creep; 2) to design a stakeholders management plan in order to identify key staholders and the way programme would be promoted amongst stakeholders; 3) to create a cost management plan in order to budget the expenses for the program’s implementation and operations; and 4) to create a time management plan towards directing the timing for the trainings of MOE staff, teachers and community members.
Knowledge areas such as Project Integration Management, Project Quality Management, Human Resource Management, Project Communication Management Project Risk Management and Project Procurement Management are not included due to time constraint. Scope, Time, Schedule and Stakeholder Management Plans are the most relevant knowledge areas that will be able to achieve the general objective of this Final Graduation Proposal (FGP).
The Scope Management Plan followed expert judgment in the field of social sciences for its development. Project scope requirements were tailored to tackle the social problem the project desires to solve. The Scope Management Plan was developed bearing in mind the project’s social impact within academic settings, family contexts, the Guyana Judiciary and Police Force, community groups, mass media and social networks in order to increase the level of success, since the project aims to achieve positive behavioral change within community members.
The Time Management Plan was well sorted since it takes into account the common risks and issues that can take place in a primary school in Georgetown, Guyana. The Cost Management Plan intended to have a high level of accuracy by using Bottom-Up
cost methodology throughout its development. It is noteworthy to mention that the cost estimated and budgeted are actual costs per services rendered per companies/organizations and individuals within the national context of Guyana. Cost of Quality (COQ) was used since the project aimed to hire renown experts in the field of social sciences and prestigious companies nationwide to implement the project since it aimed to prevent rework by further needing to implement an upgraded project in the future as the characteristics of the project and its elements were not well-crafted and the social problem continued to exist.
The Stakeholder Management Plan took into account a wide array of stakeholders, ranging from supportive and resistant to neutral, which could have impacted the project positively or negatively. Neutral stakeholders (social networks and mass media) had been used as resources to impact positively the project, increasing its level of success.
The Core Risks for this project were Resistance from the Police Force (H), Resistance from the central and local government (M) and Resistance from community groups (L).
The Core Milestones were Submit Project Initiation Report, Accept Training Materials, Deliver written report to project team, Present slide presentation on report findings, Submit final draft report to sponsors, Present final draft report to sponsors and Accept project.
With regards to the methodology for the project, the quali-quantitative approach was used since different research methods were implemented depending on the stage of the project. The primary sources used were books, serials: newspapers, journals and magazines; interviews, data and field work; and the secondary sources were history work/studies, commentaries and websites.
Among the main conclusions were that this project aimed to tackle the rising types of violence and high rate of gender based issues that prevail in Guyana by using the education system as a solid foundation in order to generate social change by taking a holistic approach and partnering with different sectors of society to make its objective a reality. A key step into achieving behavioural change within society was to prevent cognitive dissonance in order for the individual to be receptive to the new behavioural patterns, set of value system and information that was being introduced.
The main recommendations were that 1.) MOE and UNICEF can set up a SocioEducational Department in each school with trained social workers, gender issues specialists and psychologists, who will be assigned to each grade to attend to the emotional needs and family issues of every child. By doing this, as a permanent practice, it will prepare children and teenagers to be emotionally intelligent and stable, capable of living in harmony within society. Doing so will decrease, on a long-term basis, it is hypothesized, the high rate of violence witnessed within various sectors of society, especially within family settings and between intimate partners; and 2.) A judiciary system that takes all the proper steps, within a timely manner, to punish offenders for the transgression committed will be a deterrent towards individuals who are not willing to change. It is noteworthy to mention that part of their punishment, a rehabilitation plan needs to be implemented and adjusted to the type of offender and transgression
committed in order to decrease recidivism. 3.) Due to time constraints, a Communications Management Plan was not developed. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy to mention that it is paramount for the achievement and success of this project, since it is the core tool for change management, taking into special consideration that there are high level sponsors, all channels for communication and change work together to have success in this project.
Descargar
http://www.uci.ac.cr/Biblioteca/Tesis/PFGMAP1618.pdf
