How the level of project/ finance staff integration is related to project effectiveness: A study on Joint Emergency Operations Program led by Catholic Relief Services-Ethiopia

Abstract

The frequency and extent of project staff and support team working together is important in getting as much out of the allocated project resources as possible in the planned time frame, quantity and quality. The general objective of the study focused on examining whether the integration of finance and program staff is related to project effectiveness of the Joint Emergency Operations Program, which is implemented across the country through eight consortium organizations one being a lead to the consortium. The study uses mixed method analysis and used both qualitative and quantitative data for this assessment. Data is collected in an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview as a primary data source by taking sample respondents from all the consortium members. The major finding s of the study are that there is inconsistency in integration of finance program staff in different organization which is affected by different organizational culture and practices. Although, in a consortium set up there are other external factors which affected both the staff integration and the project effectiveness. All staff are key to success and failure of projects thus, the research recommended that making sure to include and engage all support/ finance team in different programmatic workshops, trainings, team building activities and staff get together events with all staff will have more impact in building more integration between staff members of the organizations and ensuring the integration of finance and project staff is directly or indirectly related to the project implementation and its effectiveness.