To assess the quality of a proposal we need to evaluate whether it is clear and correct for WHO the project is intended, WHY the project should be undertaken (the problem analysis showing the relevance), whether we agree with WHAT is expected to be made available to end-users and WHAT will be done to make that happen (the Results and corresponding Activities) and WHAT not (the Assumptions) and assess HOW the implementing organisations will make it happen (Internal capacity building).
If 4 persons read the same proposal and give the following results on these questions, does that sound familiar? What should you do?
Scores (0 – 10) of the following issues of the same proposal by 4 persons: A – B – C – D were:
WHO? 4 – 6 – 2 – 6,5
WHY? 8 – 4 – 10 – 10
WHAT? 6 – 4 – 7 – 6,5
HOW? 4 – 8 – 6 – 0
Apparently it look like everybody has his / her own interpretation on those concepts and what they look for in the proposal. If that is the case approval of the proposal depends very much on the person who does the assessment….
Interesting that if only one person does the assessment he / she will never realize that othes might judge quite differently. Is that the reason assessments are mostly only done by one person? Do you recognize this?
We advocate to harmonize the understanding of those concepts in order to make the assessment more objective and standardardized.
What experiences do you have with this challenging function in steering the quality of the projects?
Want to know how you can organise such a quality assessment of a proposal?
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