E14 - Proposal Quality Review: 4 Key Issues and 15 Simple Tips You Must Know

Godfrey Senkaba discusses 4 key issues and over 15 Tips you must know to conduct a value-add quality review of a project proposal before submission to the funder. Whether you are internal staff or external consultants, taking a holistic approach to project proposal quality review will help you add value to both the process and product. 

Here are the four issues you must consider:

Issue #1 Rationale. You should the why a quality review of the project proposal is needed and be sure to align your choice of methods and tools to complete the task. Remember, there will always be assumptions made by the proposal team about your fitness to perform the quality review. For example, that you are familiar with the project proposal subject matter; have a working knowledge of the potential donor/funder; and can provide an objective review.

Issue #2 Conditions that motivated the quality review. You need to know which, or combination of the following conditions necessitated this quality review and plan accordingly. The conditions include the need to complete a required business process step before proposal approval; absence of monitoring and evaluation technical expertise during proposal design; proposal design is complex; and independent reviewer (external to proposal design team) is needed, and response to donor feedback on draft among others.

Issue #3 Expectations on scope and nature of feedback. You may be required to focus a quality review on the entire proposal; individual sections or components like conceptual framework, management, and staffing or indicator matrix; or the entire proposal but with respect to a specific theme like partnerships, sustainability, or gender equality and social inclusion. In addition, your proposal quality review feedback may be presented in any of the four formats: summary of key issues that needed to be addressed; detailed narrative including a justification for the needed adjustments and tracked changes; oral feedback; and mixed format feedback (summary/detailed plus oral feedback).

 Issue #4. The focus of the proposal quality review. Use my 7 “Cs” framework for quality review of programmatic documents. I developed this framework following several years of experience in international development programming, and understanding the nature, scope, and context within which project management cycle processes and activities are designed, implemented monitored, and evaluated. The 7 “Cs” are Checklist; Compliance; Consistency; Connectedness; Clarity; Compelling evidence; and Cost.

Check out this episode to learn about how to conduct a quality review of a project proposal more effectively. A value-add quality review of a draft proposal goes beyond reading the proposal documents. The process and choices you must make are as good as the feedback you aim to provide to the Project Design Team.

For more insights on how to add value to the proposal development process as a development professional,  or monitoring and evaluation specialist,  check out my earlier episodes:

Episodes 11 – The 7 Best Ways that Monitoring and Evaluation Specialists Can Preposition for Grant Project Proposals.

Episode 12 – The 12 ways to review grants donor solicitation documents using monitoring, evaluation, and learning lens.

Episode 13 – Proposal Development: 5 Things You Must Consider Before Developing a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Plan.

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Connect with Godfrey Senkaba:

Website: https://www.mandeboost.com

Email: [e-mail]

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/godfrey-senkab

Godfrey Senkaba, M&E Boost Podcast.