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Shan State: Peace reconciliation and development through community empowerment - Midterm evaluation
- eval_number:
- 2376
- eval_url:
- https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/2376
- lessons_learned:
- themes:
- theme:
- Planning and programme design
- category:
- Organizational issues
- comments:
- ILO and other development partners working in conflict-affected environments.
- challenges:
- Time pressure to submit proposal and proposal scoring leading bidders to satisfy all requests listed in RFP.
- success:
- Push back against unrealistic client expectations.
- context:
- Proposal development, particularly for programmes in conflict affected contexts.
- description:
- A lesson learned can be derived from the way the PRD Consortium was assembled and structured during the original proposal process. Interviews with Consortium staff revealed that the proposal process had felt rushed. Interviews with other EU peacebuilding consortium teams (Kayah and Kachin) interestingly also revealed a similar sense of rush indicating that part of the problem might have been with too short a proposal deadline set by the EU during the Request for Proposals. Regardless, the rushed proposal process ultimately resulted in a hurried assembly of Consortium partners relying mostly on previous relationships. Interviewees also suggest that the ability to meet proposal criteria and an interest in maximizing proposal points outweighed a more critical and in-depth assessment of how well institutional capabilities aligned.
Looking back, both the EU and PRD Consortium partners could have helped avoid this situation. While it is ultimately the responsibilities of applicants to deliver on what they propose, the EU should recognise the reality of the competitive proposal process. Firms will inevitably try to outcompete each other and try to address every client wish listed in the RFP. The EU should recognise that the original RFP was overly broad and in some ways is responsible for firms bidding on a programme that few could actually deliver. That said, the majority of responsibility does fall on the PRD Consortium members. The Consortium should have also considered following more of a prime-sub contractual relationship, with the international organizations taking the lead and mentoring the national organizations as sub-contractors.
- administrative_issues:
- Staffing for proposal, internal pressures to secure funding.
- url:
- https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/201396
- location:
- country:
- Myanmar
- region:
- Asia and the Pacific
- eval_title:
- Shan State: Peace reconciliation and development through community empowerment - Midterm evaluation
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