Project proposal writing

Project proposal writing was added to the services after my return from Morocco in July 2011. All of a sudden, I became aware that 5 out of 6 proposals written in the past as a sort of by-product during my consultancy times have been successful. Two German consultancy firms (Pohl Consulting, AFC) and three NGOs benefitted from this “experiment”. Only one proposal – unfortunately that one which was about to secure a follow-up assignment for the MIDEO project I was heading between 2008 and 2011 – failed. Here, the feeling was that not the concept note as such was not up to the expectations of the EU but that GTZ proposals as such have been turned down by the EU project proposal evaluators as none of the five GTZ proposals in the framework of the post ANEAS migration projects was accepted (!).

Whatever case may be, this success rate was reason enough for me to continue on this line. Even more so because project proposal writing allows me to work from my home base and to reduce extensive travel as it happened in the past.

In a short span of time in autumn 2011 I was approached by several consulting companies to write project proposals on their behalf. Within two months I had the chance to elaborate 4 project proposals for Benin (2), Morocco and Ghana and many more are in the pipeline. My marketing policy may have played a major role: my services are comparatively cheap but in case of successful project proposals I benefit with a certain percentage on the project budget.

The intimate knowledge of GIZ internal procedures, the experience with Capacity WORKS as GIZ’s preferred project management model as well as my acquaintance with value chains (specifically with ValueLinks in the agricultural sector) made it almost a perfect mix to specialize on proposal writing.