Willemstad:--- Twenty people involved in development projects in Curacao, St. Maarten, Bonaire, St. Eustatius, Saba and Aruba, participated in the master class Project implementation: a piece of cake. The class ended Thursday, January 27. In four days the participants went through eight modules in which mainly the feedback to their own projects, the daily practice, was emphasized. Hence, the theory had an immediate practical effect.This master class, offered by USONA, aims to further professionalize project implementation on the islands.
The main subjects, eight topics were: Targets, Strategy and target tree, Actors/factors and stakeholders, Commission and principalship, Risk factors, Leadership and Change management, Process management, Planning and Control, and Cashing in. Each module started with a theoretical approach to the topic, followed by the practice. In each case the participants were given the assignment to provide feedback from the topic discussed to their own project(s). Because there is diversity in projects, this created lively and useful discussions.
The participants all work with USONA projects, except the three participants who are employed at Fundashon Desaroyo Arubano (FDA). FDA is, like USONA, responsible for the management of the Dutch development funds, but on Aruba.
The teachers were experts from the Netherlands and Curaçao who brought along a broad experience and could perfectly give feed back from the daily practice. The master class was led by Hans van Leeuwen (Certified Project Director) and Frans Versteeg (Advisor USONA).
The master class was supported by a web environment (SharePoint) to which the participants were able to log in already before the start and could read relevant discussion papers and documents. Within this platform they could also pose questions, a feature that continues to be available even after completion of the master class. This creates a study group and hence promotes the sustainability of this project.