This document discusses the strategic management cycle for education sector planning. It involves 4 stages: 1) analysis of the current situation and issues, 2) appraisal to provide policy orientations, 3) planning actions to correct issues, and 4) operationalization by taking institutional measures. Key aspects include collecting and analyzing data, conducting a SWOT analysis, formulating participatory policies and strategies to achieve SMART goals, developing action plans with objectives/outputs/timelines, and using tools like logical frameworks and policy modeling. The cycle aims to translate policies into measurable, accountable actions to improve the education system.

1. UNIVERSITY OF THE
ARMED FORCES
Logical Framework
Approach
Andrea Estefanía Alvear Aranha
National Education Sector Development Plan:
A result-based planning handbook

2. The Strategic Management Cycle
Even if there is not a unique way to
conduct strategic planning, it
commonly involves four stages:
analysis, planning, implementation,
and evaluation.

3. 1. Analysis: The actual situation of the
system and the critical issues related to
its status and functioning should be
analyzed.
2. Appraisal: In order to provide policy
orientations, findings and remedial
opinions should be formulated and
assessed.
3. Planning: It is necessary to establish
the actions to correct or improve the
situation. This plan can be long,
medium or short term.

4. 4. Operationalization: The required reform and
institutional measures that guide the plan
implementation should be taken.
Before the execution of the plan, some aspects
should be considered:
5. Design specific development projects or
programmes, and determine the required
resources to carry out the planned actions
and activities.
6. Provide feedback operations such as
monitoring, review, and evaluation.

5. In the education sector, the
management operations includes
system analysis, policy formulation, and
action planning.

6. Data should be collected and different
aspects related to the education sector
should be critically analyzed.
System analysis
The functioning of the system’s internal
dynamics have to be reviewed by planners.
Various contextual and determining factors
like macro-economic and socio-
demographic situations should be
examined.
A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats) analysis would be
required in order to identify critical issues,
challenges and establish remedial actions.

7. Stakeholders should dialogue in order
to understand the different problems
and issues.
Different tools and mechanisms should be used to
provide relevant data for discussions, so that people
can be aware of the current situation and perform
several activities to achieve the same objectives.

8. Policy and Strategy Formulation
After a careful analysis, some questions
should arise. They are related to the
specific activities to carry out to deal
with the main issues, challenges, and
opportunities.
The questions include the strategic goals
that the system should fulfill and the
methods or strategies to implement the
policies deigned to achieve the
objectives.

9. In order to make policy
formulation a participatory
process, it is necessary to
have available considerable
information and the
required policy alternatives
to ease evidence-based
policy dialogue and
consensus building.
The established goals and expected results
should be SMART (Specific, Measurable,
Agreed upon, Relevant and Timely), in order
to contribute to adjust the existing
educational policies and strategies.

10. Action Planning
Action planning is the process of
translating the policy statement into
actions that should be executable,
measurable, and accountable.
It also involves identifying objectives,
outputs, strategies, responsibilities, and
timelines.
A plan of action is the output of this
process, and the Logical Framework
Approach can be used to develop
result-based projects, programmes and
plans.

11. The plan of action can be compared to a
business plan that contains the actions,
inputs, and resources required to
develop a project over the next years.
Plans of action can be also called “work
plans”. The resources included in these
plans can be human, physical, and
financial (cost estimates required for
implementation, budget, and funding
gaps).

12. To prepare the education sector
development plans or programmes,
policy simulation modelling could be
used.
It is very important to have an objective
forecasting tool to facilitate policy
consultations related to policy feasibility,
financial constraints, and their consequences
on education and national development.

13. The Basic Structure of Plan or Programme Documents
There is a logic structure to present a
plan or programme that commonly has
several variants