Shaina Smith Guest Speaker 4 August 2010
Shaina Smith, Project Manager in the Project Support Services Unit (PSSU) of the Ministry of Finance, was the Guest Speaker at our 5th August Weekly Meeting. She spoke about the importance of structured planning and management for sustainable development.
Ms. Smith said no matter how simple or complex a project, project management is simply about managing the desired change in a structured way in order to achieve intended goals. The benefits of using project management can be measured in terms of intelligent use of multiple resources such as people, materials, time and money.
"Project planning and methods provide the vehicle for the implementation of policy and legislative agenda. In this regard, to achieve any national strategic outcome such as sustainable development, planning is a necessity and a not an option," Smith told Rotarians.
The Project Manager said sustainable development requires decisive planning action and cannot occur on its own without some type of planning framework.
"The ultimate project is the building of a country for a defined period of time, consisting of interrelated short to medium term projects that add value to the society, economically, socially and environmentally with a unique set of stakeholders including future generations", Smith explained.
Smith said there is a no magic formula for selecting the right policy and projects that will foster successful development. But one thing in the Public Service is certain: it is cheaper to plan than to correct mistakes.