This is a common risk for organizations like ASEAN which often finds itself considering, planning, implementing and evaluating hundreds of projects at the same time. Countless project proposals to ASEAN have been rejected or returned to proponents for reformulation as they failed to make the grade.

The ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information and the ASEAN Secretariat, however, have taken a major step toward minimizing this pitfall by conducting in Jakarta late last year "The ASEAN Project Development Manual Training". Thirty participants from the ASEAN Secretariat and the National COCI Secretariat staff of all nine member countries went through the training.

From Dr. Bob Griffin of the UNDP, they learned to identify problems that are of common concern to member countries and to distinguish whether these problems are regional or merely national-in which case action should be taken at the national and not at the regional level.

They learned how to formulate objectives on the basis of problems identified. An objective, they learned, should address the identified problem and lead to the solution of that problem.

They learned how to identify inputs and outputs-a very important aspect of planning. Faulty input and output identification often leads to vagueness in project proposals.

Then there are the management and implementation arrangements that should also be clearly identified. There has to be a project manager who is responsible for the achievement of project objectives, provide progress reports of implementation and a final report on completion of the project.

To ensure full understanding of roles and responsibilities, there should also be an identification of "parties responsible" for the implementation of each activity within the project.

The proposal's claim to priority must also be clearly established, considering that ASEAN resources are not unlimited. Basis for priority could be the sector plans of action and the decisions reached at Senior Officials Meetings, Ministerial Meetings and ASEAN Summits.

These and many other concepts in planning and programming, the participants grappled with and, hopefully, mastered. But having also learned that all work and no relaxation makes dull project proposals, they found time, after two days of intensive drills, to implement a well-planned foray on the offerings of Hartz Chicken in a Jakarta mall and a night tour of the cultural section of Jakarta's famous Ancol.