1. Healthcare

Governance Facility
Open Call for Concept Notes/Proposal
GUIDELINE FOR APPLICANTS
January 2015
Table of Contents
1.
Background ........................................................................................................................................... 2
2.
Focus Areas of the Governance Facility ............................................................................................... 2
3.
Introduction to this Call for Concept Note/Proposal .......................................................................... 3
4.
Aim of the Guidelines ........................................................................................................................... 4
5.
Key Points to Consider by the Applicant Organisations ..................................................................... 4
6.
Partnership Development Steps: From Concept Note to Agreement ................................................ 7
Step 1: Submission of Concept Note ....................................................................................................... 8
Step 2: Assessment of Concept Note ..................................................................................................... 14
Step 3: Information to the Successful Applicants to Submit Full Proposal .......................................... 14
Step 4: Submission of Full Proposal ....................................................................................................... 15
Step 5: Final Decision on the Proposal .................................................................................................. 15
Step 6: Grant Agreement ....................................................................................................................... 16
Annex: 1
Concept Note Template ......................................................................................................... 17
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1. Background
The Governance Facility (GF) is a new initiative of the Embassies of Denmark and Switzerland, and the
UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in agreement with the Government of Nepal.
This arrangement is embedded in a bilateral agreement signed in December 2013 between the
Government of Nepal and the Embassy of Denmark, which foresees the development of a joint donor
facility to manage coherent, harmonized and coordinated funding support in line with the Aid
Effectiveness Agenda (Paris Declaration, Accra Agenda for Action and Busan Partnership). The GF seeks
to enhance governance through supporting state/government institutions and civil society
organisations. The GF was launched officially in December 2014.
The GF is a unique initiative that brings together financial and technical assistance from three donors for
supporting good governance in Nepal. It is in line with the government’s desire to have bigger
programmes – against scattered one-off interventions – as articulated in the Development Cooperation
Policy. It also addresses the need for increased coordination among donors supporting governance
improvements for attaining the intended results at lower transaction costs.
The GF believes that an open and transparent approach to supporting national efforts in fostering
governance can result in greater coordination and complementarities among national partners, and lead
to more effective and efficient partnerships. Over time, the GF seeks to enhance the capacities of its
national partners for championing governance reforms for effective service delivery and democratic
governance.
2. Focus Areas of the Governance Facility
The GF, aimed at enhancing democratic governance, peace building, human rights and access to justice
efforts in Nepal, is expected to be in operation until 2018. The GF will primarily aim to support national
and local initiatives to address governance challenges that have been observed in Nepal since 2006
under the following interlinked, broad themes.
The challenges are interrelated and so are the GF programme components. For detailed information
about the Governance Facility results-chain, please refer to the GF Logframe in the Governance Facility
website (www.gfnepal.org ). The activities and interventions supported will come under the following
components:
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Component 1: Peace Building and Democratic Development
Component 2: Access to Justice
Component 3: Human Rights Promotion and Protection
Component 4: Voice and Accountability
A secretariat in Lazimpat will provide and coordinate the GF support. A Board with the representation of
the Government of Nepal, civil society and donors provides guidance to the secretariat. The GF will
provide support to relevant state/government institutions, organised civil society, the private sector and
other social institutions to strengthen them as drivers of change to be able to respond effectively to the
governance challenges.
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In order to develop partnerships with potential organizations the Governance Facility will adopt two
approaches. It will seek partnerships, by both actively looking for partners and through public calls for
concept notes/proposals. State/government institutions will be approached to explore partnerships and
for soliciting proposals. Assessment of all proposals, those requested by the Governance Facility and
those received through open calls, will be informed, among others, by the following considerations:
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The Governance Facility’s objectives and outputs
Optimum number, balance and mix of partners desired for each of its four components
Balance in the number of partnerships between State/Government and Civil Society
Organisation (CSO) partners
Geographic areas the Governance Facility seeks to focus on, and
The Governance Facility’s funding and management capacity
The Governance Facility will seek its partners, particularly CSOs, and also organisations in the private
sector through public calls for submitting concept notes under its programme components.
3. Introduction to this Call for Concept Note/Proposal
With this public call, the Governance Facility invites civil society organisations, including national and
international NGOs, and organisations in the private sector, to submit Concept Note under its two
programme components:
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Access to Justice
Human Rights Promotion and Protection
The eventual partnerships with the civil society organizations and organisations in the private sector are
expected to contribute to one or more of the outputs and the outcome under the respective
components included in this call, as listed below:
Access to Justice
Outcome: Poor people, especially women, girls and traditionally marginalised people are better
protected from criminal violence and have improved access to justice
Output 1: Citizens have increased awareness of their right to access to justice and know how to do so
Output 2: An improved police-public relationship is facilitated in communities
Output 3: People with disputes in communities benefit from community mediation in accordance with
the law
Human Rights Promotion and Protection
Outcome: Relevant national, state and non-state stakeholders, promote and protect human rights as per
international standards and Nepal's own national and international commitments
Output 1: The capacity of state/government institutions to ensure the protection and promotion of
human rights is strengthened
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Output 2: Human Rights NGOs are supported to protect and promote human rights effectively and
collaboratively
Output 3: Selected institutions promote and implement the HRBA
Note: As the Governance Facility is interested in progress towards the outcome, ideas beyond the predetermined outputs in the GF logframe are welcome.
The GF aims at announcing another open call by March 2015 under Peace Building and Democratic
Development, and Voice and Accountability components.
GF will apply a two-staged process to selection under this open call: Concept Note; and Proposal. The
concept note will be the basis for short-listing potential partners who will then be requested to develop
full proposals.
4. Aim of the Guideline
These “Guidelines for Applicants” aim to give applicant organisations, who aspire to develop partnership
with the Governance Facility, a comprehensive information on:
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how they can contribute to the key areas that the Governance Facility aims to bring positive
change in
the process they need to go through before partnership agreement is signed
the key points to consider while developing the concept note, and subsequently in developing a
full proposal if they are invited to do so
the templates that need to be used at different stages of this process
how their concept note and full proposal will be assessed objectively against transparent criteria
5. Key Points to Consider by the Applicant Organisations
How to enter into a partnership with the Governance Facility?
The entry point for any civil society organisations and organisations in the private sector to develop a
partnership with the Governance Facility is submission of the concept note. However, submission of a
concept note or a full proposal, following an invitation to do the same, does not necessarily ensure that
they will automatically enter into a partnership agreement with the GF. There are several stages of
scrutiny carried out by the GF.
Who can apply?
Concept notes can be submitted by civil society organisations, including national and international
organisations, as well as organisations in the private sector, legally operating in Nepal. Concept notes from
INGOs will only be entertained if they propose to work with a local partner(s) as per requirements of Social
Welfare Council (SWC) and illustrate strategy for sharing its knowledge and experience. However, bilateral
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and multi-lateral organisations including UN agencies will not be eligible for this call and cannot be a part
of any consortium(s).
Both individual organisations as well as consortiums are welcome to submit their concept note. If two or
more organisations submit a joint concept note, the concept note needs to specify the lead agency
responsible for administration and implementation. The Governance Facility will require a signed
agreement among consortium partners at the full proposal stage if the concept note is selected. The
lead agency in the consortium or the other consortium members, who have already jointly submitted a
concept note as a consortium, cannot submit another concept note, individually or in another
consortium in the same component.
Any civil society organisation currently implementing partnerships funded by the Governance Facility
should also respond to this call for concept note if it wishes to propose an initiative for funding from the
Governance Facility beyond the present duration of the ongoing partnership.
How to submit a concept note?
Applicant organisations should send concept notes to the Governance Facility through its website in the
online template, which is prescribed therein, by the specified deadlines. The web site is the only
gateway for submitting the concept note, and submission of the concept note through any other
channel will not be accepted by the GF Secretariat. In case the applicant faces difficulties to access, or
submit their concept note through, the web portal, it is requested, via the newspaper notice for calls, to
contact the GF Secretariat at the below phone numbers or e-mail address:
Tel: +977-1-4432131/4432348
E-mail: [email protected]
Before filling up the concept note template, applicants are advised to go through in detail the
comprehensive “Guidelines for Applicants” posted on the website. If they still have any queries for
clarifications, they may send written queries (identifying themselves as representatives of particular
organisations) within 7 days from the date of announcement (including the day of announcement) of
the call to the above e-mail address. They will receive answers from the Secretariat within a reasonable
time. Any phone enquiries in this respect will also be answered by the Secretariat through the said email containing the question(s) posed verbally to the particular Secretariat staff and the Secretariat’s
answer(s).
How many concept notes an organization can submit?
An applicant organization can submit only one concept note under one component in this call. If any
organization considers that it is competent in implementing partnerships in both the components under
this call, it should submit two separate concept notes, one for each component. A concept note will be
considered as relating to only one of the components as the applicant has indicated in the web concept
note format, even though the concept note may have elements that have bearing on the other
component as well. Concept notes will undergo independent scrutiny and selection process.
The organisations that are not selected for partnership through this call may apply to the next call in
March 2015 if the components/outputs announced are of interest to them and match their areas of
expertise. Following that call, the Governance Facility will decide later to announce call on specific
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components/outputs in the GF logframe that are not covered or sufficiently addressed by the existing
partnerships. That would be another opportunity for organisations to submit concept notes.
How long will be the duration and size of partnerships?
Out of the approximately USD 10 million set aside for the two components of Access to Justice, and
Human Rights Promotion and Protection, the Governance Facility has allocated 7.5 million USD for this
call for the two components. Component-wise, the size of support is expected to be between 2.5 million
and 5 million USD. The Governance Facility seeks 4-8 partners for each component to ensure a good mix
of programme, size of fund and geographical coverage, among others.
The duration of partnerships is between 1 to 3 years. Therefore, applicants are encouraged to consider
developing any concept note that has its life-time between 1 to 3 years. It means that every concept
note does not need to aim for a three-year partnership. Overall, this call does not aim to receive concept
notes for initiatives with less than one year’s or more than three years’ duration. The funding size of the
partnerships will be within the range of USD 50,000 minimum to USD 750,000 maximum. However, if a
consortium is submitting the concept note, it may propose a budget beyond the stipulated maximum
ceiling with enough justification on the added value.
What documents are to be submitted with the application?
The Governance Facility aims to make the initial stage of application very simple and easy for the
applicant organisations. At the stage of the concept note submission, the Governance Facility wants to
know if the applicant organisation has a valid legal status. However, the Governance Facility will require
documents supporting the legal status at the full proposal stage, if the concept note is selected. In case
of a consortium, the Governance Facility will also require a signed written agreement among the
consortium partners at the full proposal stage, if the concept note is selected. When they are requested
by the Governance Facility to submit a full proposal, they have to submit additional documents to
support their Applicant organisations can submit additional evidences in addition to the required
documents as mentioned in the prescribed proposal format. However, they must submit the minimum
documents (such as legal registration and renewal certificate, signed written agreement among the
consortium partners, audited financial report for last three years) within six days of notification in order
to make their applications competitive. The Governance Facility might ask for further additional
documents from the successful organisations before a partnership agreement is finalized.
When and how to submit a full proposal?
All applicants will be notified on the status of their application within five weeks from the concept note
submission deadline. The Governance Facility will invite selected applicants, whose concept notes have
been approved, to submit a full proposal. Organisations invited to submit a full proposal should use a
proposal format that will be made available on the Governance Facility website. In order to facilitate the
proposal writing process the Governance Facility will invite all selected organisations to an orientation
programme where they will have a chance to interact with the Governance Facility team particularly
about their concerns/questions regarding the proposal format.
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Disclaimers
The Governance Facility reserves the right to award a contract (partnership agreement), or otherwise,
to any organisation based on GF's own requirements. Any attempt to influence the decision during the
process of assessment/selection of the concept note will amount to automatic rejection of the same.
The Governance Facility intends to evaluate concept notes and request full proposals from only the
organisations whose concept notes have been selected: based on which contracts will be awarded. The
concept note submission/evaluation will be without discussions with the applicant organisation;
therefore applicants are advised to review the call for concept notes and the “Guidelines for
Applicants” in detail. Applicants may request clarifications within 7 days from the date of
announcement (including the day of announcement), and submit the final concept note online by the
due date.
The Governance Facility reserves the right to amend contents of the announcement. The Governance
Facility may request further clarifications/supporting documents to the concept note prior to selection
decision.
The Governance Facility will maintain full confidentiality of the applicants and contents of the concept
note. It will not disclose contents of applicant's concept note to anyone else except those reviewing it.
The contents of the concept note template is deemed to be correct, factual and valid and filled by
authorized representative of the applicant organisation. Further supporting documents to validate the
assertions made in the concept note may be requested from selected applicants by the Governance
Facility during the preparation of full proposal.
6. Partnership Development Steps: From Concept Note to Agreement
Each call for concept note goes through 6-stages before a partnership commences implementation. This
section of the guidelines gives a comprehensive overview of the process as outlined in figure 1 below,
step by step:
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Figure 1
Step 1: Submission of Concept Note
The Governance Facility has designed a web-based application system. In order to facilitate the concept
note development for the potential applicants, the Governance Facility has made its logframe available
on its website for reference. This will give applicants an idea on how to best address the governance
challenges in Nepal and help the Governance Facility achieve its stipulated results.
The online platform available in www.gfnepal.org will provide any potential applicant a unique access
right with their own username and password. This access will have three basic functions.
1. User registration: A potential applicant organisation can create a new user account using its
email account and information about itself. The user account is activated upon submission of
legal registration information that demonstrates the potential applicant organisation’s eligibility
to work in Nepal. It is anticipated that this user registration can be re-used for submitting future
concept notes and avail information on future opportunities.
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2. Concept note submission: The potential applicant can log in and create (for the first call a
maximum of two) concept notes. This function will equip the applicant to save draft versions
(over time) and ‘apply’ after reviewing the final version of its concept note. The online
application system is designed in such a way that without completing all the sections the
submission will not be successful. Applicants, once registered, may use their login username and
password to access their saved concept notes before deciding to apply.
3. Information management: The applicant organisation can log in and see their submitted
concept notes through a dashboard, as well as access latest information on the status of their
concept note (submitted/under review/selected or rejected). Registered applicants may access
additional information regarding the future calls online.
As mentioned above under “How to submit a concept note?” in section 5, in case the applicant faces
difficulty to access, or submit their concept note through, the web portal, it is requested to contact the
GF Secretariat for necessary guidance. Applicants are advised to go through in detail the “Guidelines for
Applicants” posted on the website, before filling up the concept note template. If they still have any
queries for clarifications, they may send written queries (identifying themselves as representatives of
particular organisations) within 7 days from the date of announcement (including the day of
announcement) of the call to the given e-mail address. They will receive answer(s) from the Secretariat
within a reasonable time but not later than two days from the end of the one-week period allocated for
queries. Any phone enquiries in this respect will still be answered by the Secretariat through the said email containing the question(s) posed verbally to the particular Secretariat staff and the Secretariat’s
answer(s). No queries received after one week of announcement of the call will be entertained. The
applicants’ queries and GF Secretariat’s responses will also be posted online within two days after the
stipulated time for queries.
Applicant organisations will have, altogether, three weeks to submit the concept note including the first
week of submitting queries and subsequent clarifications from the GF secretariat.
All applicants should first access the Governance Facility website (www.gfnepal.org) and submit their
concept note online in a prescribed format without exceeding the word limits stipulated therein. The
Governance Facility wants to know key information from the applicants at this stage. Key section of the
concept note and the issues to consider while completing the submission is presented below:
I.
Registration Information
This section is about basic administrative information required throughout the application process.
Please include your organisational details and details of contact person for this application who will be
the point of contact for the Governance Facility. In case of consortium, the lead organisation should
apply whereas the necessary information regarding other consortium members should be provided in the
respective sections as appropriate. Hence, the legal registration status of the lead applicant is applicable
here.
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Concept Note Number
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This number will be auto generated from the system when the applicant organisation creates a new user
account.
II.
Title of Concept Note
Though there is no word limit for the title of the concept note, it is recommended that the title is short
yet clear which best reflects the thrust of the concept note.
Please select a component your concept note primarily aims to address. If your organization wishes to
address both components as listed in the call, you have to submit two separate concept notes online. You
have to select which of the outputs under the selected component your intervention is going to address.
If you consider that your intervention is going to deliver an output not specified in the Governance
Facility logframe but still contributes significantly to the component specific outcome, then click the
‘other’ and write that output in the relevant sub-section of the ‘Intervention Details’ section. That output
may be the only output your intervention is going to deliver or may be an output in addition to other
output(s) specified in the GF logframe. Please bear in mind that the Governance Facility outputs you have
chosen to contribute to might not necessarily be the outputs for your intervention whose outcome in fact
may match the GF output(s) or a different output not specified in the GF logframe. While assessing your
concept note, the reviewer will see how your results-chain i.e. output-outcome-impact is synchronized
with the Governance Facility results-chain.
III.
Basic Information on the Concept Note
If the application is being made by a consortium – a group of two or more organisations – please
mention the name of the consortium members. As the name and address of lead organisation will be
automatically generated from registration, you are requested to give names and address of other
consortium members only. The Governance Facility will require an agreement among the consortium
partners at the full proposal stage, if the concept note is selected.
Similarly, please indicate the duration of the proposed intervention by selecting the year and months
from the options. In addition, please indicate the approximate total budget, total only, of the
intervention in Nepali Rupees.
In order to ensure good coverage of the intervention, specifically, while assessing the concept notes
against relative criteria – more on which under Step 2 below – among the good concept notes that
secure 70% minimum score overall, the Governance Facility wants to know the geographic coverage of
the proposed intervention. Therefore, please indicate if your intervention is going to have a national
coverage or district coverage. Mention the number of district you want to reach and give the names of
the districts by selecting from the options. You can select as many districts from the list as applicable.
IV.
Organisational Information
This section includes three key sub-sections that are expected to collectively give information on how
competent and professional the applicant organisation is. Please consider giving appropriate information
according to the assessment criteria on the corresponding right box. Though the section does not carry
any score as such, this section is important for the application to be assessed further. Please bear in mind
that if the organisation, whether individual or consortium, does not have enough relevant experience of
similar kind, the likelihood of the concept note to be rejected will be high irrespective of the
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appropriateness of the proposed intervention. Therefore, try to highlight your relevant experience that
will enable you to make the intervention a success.
In the ‘relevant experience’ sub-section, please explain how your organisational experience and expertise
are aligned with the proposed intervention. Your experience, hence, does not need to be limited to the
institutional experience; it can be the experience and expertise of your current staff as well. Explain how
your expertise is relevant to, and will help you in better implementing, what you have planned to
implement. You can illustrate with relevant example(s). Provide, as far as possible, your latest project
experience that you consider best aligns with the proposed intervention. While highlighting the
experience, it is recommended that you also shed light on the donor partnership and fund mobilization
you have done. It will help the Governance Facility to assess your ability in managing the proposed
intervention.
The word limit, as mentioned in this ‘relevant experience’ sub-section, applies to individual applicant
organisations only. In case of a consortium application, based on the information provided in section III,
there will be auto-generated compartments (boxes), one for each consortium partner. There, in addition
to 500-word limit for the lead applicant, each consortium partner’s relevant experience should be
highlighted within 300 word limit. While presenting the individual organization experience, please try to
highlight how the experience of consortium members supplement and complement each other that helps
the Governance Facility to assess how it will contribute better to the successful implementation of the
proposed intervention.
In the ‘financial track record’ section, give an overview of the annual budget, in Nepali Rupees, for the
last three years in order to indicate your ability to handle the expected budget for the proposed initiative.
Further, provide the breakdown of funding by three major funding sources for the last three years so that
the Governance Facility can assess your financial management ability and the capacity to deal with
funding partners.
As you are supposed to provide the amount in Nepali Rupees, use the conversion rate fixed for this call,
i.e. 1 USD= N. Rs.100.00, if your budgeting is in a Foreign Currency.
Additionally, provide the information about the current staff to demonstrate their competencies.
Mention the number of staff, key positions and the competence available in your organisation taking
workforce diversity and GESI sensitiveness of the organisation into consideration.
V.
Intervention Details (100% score)
As you can see, this is the only section for scoring against specific criteria. This section carries full score,
i.e. 100%, which is distributed to the four sub-sections which carry different weightage. In this section,
the Governance Facility wants to see if the applicant has:
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identified the pertinent problem to be addressed, and has clear understanding of the problem,
proposed intervention that is the best possible option to overcome the identified problem,
proposed a logical intervention that is likely to deliver effectively what it has promised to,
considered well how the project benefits are going to sustain beyond the project period,
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considered how the value for resource will be achieved,
proposed a competent team that can make the proposed project a success
a. Proposed Intervention and its Relevance (700 words; 30% score)
Explain clearly the specific problem that your project is going to address and the rationale for choosing it.
You can explain how the proposed intervention addresses the demand and/or supply side of the
governance issue in Nepal. You are requested to provide a justification for the selection of direct and
indirect beneficiaries and locations.
List out the key activities under the proposed intervention and results-chain. Explain how the activities
can realistically be implemented within the proposed time frame and that will help you deliver the
outputs of your intervention and contribute to other two elements of the results-chain, i.e. outcome and
impact. Try to be specific while identifying the outputs and outcome(s) of your intervention.
You are requested to highlight how the proposed initiative is relevant to the intended outcome
anticipated by the concerned GF component.
In case of consortium partners, indicate who does what and which consortium partner is responsible to
deliver specific outputs, if applicable.
b. Effectiveness (700 words, 30% score)
Please elaborate how the activities/outputs are likely to achieve the outcome(s). Highlight the project
intervention strategy/approaches and the theory of change, and explain how the proposed strategy will
help you effectively deliver outputs and outcomes. In case of consortium, explain how the members are
supplementing and complementing to deliver best possible results. Highlight how the Gender and Social
Inclusion (GESI) issue will be addressed. Highlight what other factors (internal and/or external), including
assumptions, have been considered to make the project outcome achievable. Though it will be asked for
a detailed plan at the proposal stage, please highlight how the monitoring and evaluation of the
proposed intervention will be carried out to ensure the achievement of the intervention outcome(s) and
output(s).
c. Sustainability (300 words, 20% score)
Though there are various dimensions of sustainability of a project intervention, the Governance Facility
at this stage is primarily concerned about the sustainability of the project benefits. Highlight how the
project benefits are likely to continue after the project is phased out. List out key sustainability indicators
the intervention has planned to achieve. You are encouraged to highlight if you have considered any
factors, internal and/or external, to ensure sustainability of outputs and outcome(s). Mention your
phase-out plan and your collaboration with state institutions, if applicable.
d. Value for resources (20% score)
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This sub-section has three parts that together help the Governance Facility decide if the proposed
investment is worth it. Three criteria to assess the value for resources are set: Economy, Efficiency and
Equity.
d.1 Cost of intervention
Please make sure that you have an indicative budget by major headings. As already indicated, consider
the duration of the proposed intervention and budget ceiling (minimum USD 50, 000 and maximum USD
750, 000 for three years maximum) while calculating the budget. Please use the exchange rate of USD 1=
NPR 100), if your original budgeting is done in a foreign currency. Please try to make the budget as
realistic as possible.
In case of a consortium application, provide consortium breakdown of the proposed cost to demonstrate
how the financial resource sought is going to be utilised by different consortium members. In doing so,
please complete the table (auto-generated, in case of consortium applicant) that will indicate total
Rupees to be handled by the lead and other consortium partners and the respective percentages.
If you have a plan to mobilise resources for this intervention from your own and/or other sources,
mention them as well.
d.2 Proposed key staff and positions, their qualification, and expertise, and roles and
responsibilities and commitment to diversity (500 words)
In this section, you are supposed to demonstrate your team competence and persuade the concept note
reviewer that the proposed team has the necessary skills and right people are available in the right place.
Therefore, list out the names of the proposed key staff and their positions along with their areas of
expertise. Similarly, please state key roles and responsibilities of the proposed staff. In doing so, you can
use a matrix. Please bear in mind that the Governance Facility will require CVs of proposed staff, with
their consent, at the full proposal stage, if the concept note is selected. Highlight your plan to ensure
diversity in the workforce. You could indicate how you are going to hire new staff for the proposed
project. In case of consortium, please indicate which of the proposed staff represents particular
consortium members.
d.3 Justification for proposed financial and human resources for efficiently delivering results
while promoting equity (300 words)
Explain how the intended results are more likely to be efficiently delivered with the mobilization of
proposed financial and human resources. Highlight how the results to be delivered by the intervention
will be fairly accessible to the stakeholders in a way that promotes equity. You can illustrate your plan
here to promote Gender and Social Inclusion to support your argument that you have well considered the
equity issue.
The online template for the concept note has ‘save’ and ‘go back’ function so that applicants can take
time to review their writing, save it, go back and make changes before they submit the final product. As
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soon as the complete concept note is submitted by the applicant, the applicant will receive a system
generated submission confirmation mail.
Step 2: Assessment of Concept Note
There is a rigorous process to assess the submitted concept note at different stages, internal to the
Governance Facility. If need be, the Governance Facility may engage consultancy services to accomplish
part of this task. All of the concept notes will be assessed within four weeks from the deadline of the
concept note submission. Assessment of the concept note by the GF secretariat will take first two weeks
and then next two weeks will be used by the participating donors to decide on the submitted concept
notes.
The specific criteria for the concept note to be assessed include Relevance, Effectiveness, Sustainability
and Value for Resources. These criteria, with some elaboration, will be visible to all the applicants while
they are applying (please refer to the Concept Note Template also attached to this document as Annex
1). A threshold of overall 70% score is considered minimum for the concept note to be further assessed
where it will be subject to, among other things, the following considerations which constitute the
‘relative criteria for final selection’:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
(Absence of) overlapping geographical coverage
(Absence of) overlapping outputs coverage
(Absence of) legal registration and identity overlap
(Absence of ) scale/profile overlap
(Absence of Required) GF management capacity
Only the concept notes securing 70% or more will be taken to the next level of assessment by the GF
secretariat, based on the aforementioned criteria. It means that if there are two or more concept notes
on a specific component with the same score, it does not necessarily mean that all of these will be
selected. Overall, as long as the top scoring concept notes fulfill the relative criteria, the number of
partners to be selected for the full proposal stage will be picked up downwards from the top of the list
in the scoring sheet.
The Technical Committee, in coordination with its Steering Committee, will provide its views on the
recommended concept notes, which will be the basis for the GF Secretariat to notify the shortlisted
applicants.
Step 3: Information to the Successful Applicants to Submit Full Proposal
3.1 Information to the applicants
The Governance Facility Secretariat will invite the selected applicants, whose concept notes have been
accepted, to submit a full proposal. The applicants will receive information package that includes, apart
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from an official letter, key concerns and feedback from the Governance Facility on their concept note so
that these issues could be addressed while developing the full proposal.
Unsuccessful applicants will also be notified during this period. The web portal will enable all applicants,
with the help of their username, to view the status of their concept note application. If any applicant
wants to know more about why their application has not been successful, they can write to the GF
secretariat and they will receive related information from the GF secretariat.
3.2 Orientation to the selected organisations
In order to help selected organisations submit proposals of good quality, the GF secretariat will organize
an orientation program on the prescribed proposal format. It is expected that this support will ensure
the proposals are received with all the issues in the standard format addressed. GF will reimburse the
travel cost (including air fare) and accommodation of those participants attending the orientation on an
actual cost basis, if they are from outside the Kathmandu valley.
3.3 Submission of legal document and financial capacity by the selected organisations
Within six days of the notification, prior to submitting full proposal and detailed budget, the selected
organisations will have to submit documents to justify their renewed legal status, consortium
agreements (if applicable) and financial audited reports among others, as requested in the notification
letter. Meanwhile, they can start preparing their full proposal.
Step 4: Submission of Full Proposal
Within four weeks (including six days for submitting the documents as specified in 3.3 above) of the
notification by the GF Secretariat, organizations have to submit a full proposal. Organisations, which
have not submitted concept notes and have subsequently not received letters from the GF to submit a
full proposal cannot participate at the proposal stage. The requested organisations need to log in to the
GF web portal to have access to online proposal format. Any technical difficulties in logging in the web
portal can be resolved through communication with the Secretariat.
An auto-response will be delivered for successful application immediately after their online submission.
As with the concept note stage, all of the standard templates like logical framework, M&E Plan, Budget,
Risk Management Plan will be available online for the applicants.
Step 5: Final Decision on the Proposal
The Governance Facility will assess the proposals and make a final decision within five weeks of the
deadline for submitting the proposals. The GF Secretariat will complete assessment of the proposals
within the next three weeks and recommend the selected proposals to the Technical Committee. The
Technical Committee, in coordination with the Steering Committee, will make a final decision on the
proposals within the next two weeks. The assessment criteria at this stage will resemble the elements in
the proposal format.
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All of the applicants, whether their proposal is successful or not, will be informed formally by the GF
Secretariat within a week of the final decision made. The successful applicants who need to address
some of the feedback from the GF before partnership agreement will be informed about the
comments/feedback as well.
Step 6: Grant Agreement
Upon the final decision made on the proposals, the GF Secretariat will engage with the successful
applicant organisations to fulfil a few possible requirements. One of the requirements could be that the
applicants may need to address the comments/feedback from the GF and/or furnish additional
information to the Governance Facility. Another is that the Governance Facility may engage with
potential partners in completing a due diligence assessment. Budget negotiation and finalization of the
Annual Workplan and Budget (AWAB), including the task to be accomplished during the inception phase
will also be a key focus at this stage.
Following the completion of the above engagement, the GF Secretariat will invite the organizations for
partnership agreement.
Partnership agreement will be signed by the Head of Programme, GF, and the authorized representative
of the successful applicants. The names of successful applicants will be published on the GF Website.
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Annex: 1
Concept Note Template
Concept Note
I.
Registration Information
Applicant/Lead* Organisation
Name:
Contact Person
Click here to enter text.
Name:
Click here to enter text.
Designation:
Click here to enter text.
Telephone:
Click here to enter text.
Cell Phone:
Click here to enter text.
Email:
Click here to enter text.
Address: Click here to enter text.
Legal Status: ☐NGO ☐INGO
☐Pvt
☐ Other (specify)
Is the organisation’s legal registration renewed? ☐Yes
☐ No
(Note: The Governance Facility will require documents supporting
the legal status at the full proposal stage, if the concept note is
selected.)
*In case of a consortium, the lead organisation should apply.
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Concept Note Number: Auto number/Hidden
II.
Title of Concept Note:
Click here to enter text.
This concept note primarily relates to the following component and output(s) (hide option from Admin/choose one radio button: choice is
mandatory):
☐ Output 1
☐ Output 1
☐ Output 2
☐ Output 2
☐ Output 3
☐ Output 3
☐ Other
☐ Other
Note: As the Governance Facility is interested in progress towards the outcome, ideas beyond the pre-determined outputs in the
GF logframe are welcome.
III. Basic Information on the Concept Note
Is this concept from a consortium of organisations? ☐Yes☐No (If yes, give the names of the consortium members)
Name and address of Applicant/Lead organisation: (automatically generated from registration information)
Name and address of other organisations (in consortium, if relevant):
1.Click here to enter text.
2.Click here to enter text.
…
(Note: The Governance Facility will require an agreement among the consortium partners at the full proposal stage, if the concept
note is selected.)
Proposed duration of the project: Year 1, 2, 3
Month 1 to 12
Approximate budget (NPR):
Geographic Coverage
National Coverage ☐Yes ☐No
District coverage: Number: ……… District(s): Click here to enter name
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IV. Organisational Information
Criteria
Relevant Experience (500 words)
Alignment of relevant project experience with
proposed intervention
(In case of consortium, the following will appear automatically)
Criteria
Relevant Experience of Lead Organisation (500 words)
Alignment of relevant project experience with
proposed intervention
Relevant Experience of Organisation X (300 words)
Relevant Experience of Organisation Y (300 words)
Relevant Experience of Organisation Z (300 words)
Criteria
Financial Track Record (in NPR)
Details
Annual Budget
3 Major Funding
Sources /Amount
2012
Amount
Source/Amount
Source/Amount
Source/Amount
2013
Amount
Source/Amount
Source/Amount
Source/Amount
2014
Amount
Source/Amount
Source/Amount
Source/Amount
Capacity to manage funds and funding partners
Note: Please use USD conversion rate 1$=Rs.100 if the budgeting is in a foreign currency.
Current staff (300 words)
Criteria
Click here to enter text.
Total number, key positions as well as
competencies of staff
Workforce diversity/ GESI
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V. Intervention Details (100% score)
a. Proposed Intervention and its Relevance (700 words, 30% score)
Click here to enter text.
Relevance Criteria
Clarity on identification of the problem that
intervention seeks to address.
Do the activities and outputs of the intervention
logically link to its anticipated outcome(s)?
Do the activities, outputs and outcome(s) of the
intervention contribute to the intended outcome
anticipated by the concerned GF component?
b. Effectiveness (700 words, 30% score)
Effectiveness Criteria
Click here to enter text.
Are the activities/outputs likely to achieve the
outcome(s)?
What is the intervention strategy (theory of change
and how will it be achieved)?
To what extent the Gender and Social Inclusion issue
has been considered?
To what extent the M&E plan sounds realistic?
Are the major factors, influencing the achievement
of outcome(s), appropriately considered?
c. Sustainability (300 words, 20% score)
Sustainability Criteria
Click here to enter text.
To what extent do the benefits of the proposed
intervention continue after intervention ceases?
Are the major factors, influencing the sustainability
of outcome(s), appropriately considered?
Is the phase-out plan in place?
Is there a plan to collaborate with state institutions?
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Value for Resources Criteria
d. Value for Resources (20% score)
d.1 Cost of Intervention
Economy: Are the costs justified?
Major headings
Budget in NPR
Click here to enter text.
Click here to enter text.
Click here to enter text.
Click here to enter text.
Click here to enter text.
Click here to enter number
Click here to enter number
Click here to enter number
Click here to enter number
Click here to enter number
Total Budget
Budget expected from GF
Auto calculated
Budget contribution from own/other sources
Click here to enter number
Efficiency: Do the outputs justify inputs?
Equity: Has equity been considered adequately?
Click here to enter number
Note: Please use USD conversion rate 1$=Rs.100 if the budgeting is in a foreign
currency.
(In case of consortium, the following will appear automatically)
Proposed Breakdown for budget expected from GF per Consortium Members
Organisation
Lead Organisation
Organisation X
Organisation Y
Organisation Z
Proposed Budget Share Percentage
d.2 Proposed key staff and positions, their qualification, and
expertise, and roles and responsibilities and commitment to diversity
(500 words)
Click here to enter text.
d.3 Justification for proposed financial and human resources for
efficiently delivering results while promoting equity (300 words)
Click here to enter text.
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