In order to move ahead even the well prepared project
proposal must not be submitted in hurry. Most of the donors
and sponsors have deadlines and generally the work on any
proposal by applicants is left till the last moments. In case
where an applicant gets information about a certain deadline too late it is better not to go ahead with application
rather than presenting a badly prepared project proposal.
Such a proposal poses much bigger threat of failure during implementation phase even if it gets the approval. The author has developed a tool that is simple to apply
and remember. It can be known as STOP analysis.
STOP – Shared, Thought, Owned & Paid
Shared: It must be noted that a project prepared by
experts might be good enough to get the financial sup-
port or achieve its targets. However unless it is shared by
the people affected by that project i.e. stakeholders, it
won’t be sustainable. The project idea must be supported
by majority if not all the stakeholders affected directly or
indirectly by the proposed project. Earlier the proposal or
project concept is shared, better it is, as modifications at
later stages might be very difficult leading to preparation
of a new proposal altogether.
Thought: There are two types of assessments required
under this heading, first is to see if the proposal carries
common sense and second if all necessary activities
have been planned or not. All possible activities should
be included and written in measurable form. Activities
should be described well in the proposal leaving less room
for guesses and ambiguities due to disagreements and
discussions in the later stages. On the other hand there is
no sense in implementing a project that has well planned
activities but does not carry any common sense i.e. the
benefits or losses should be understood by the affected.
Owned: Whether it is a state funded, foreign funded or
privately funded project the ownership of the project
must be defined clearly. Who will own the benefits or bear
the damages of the project. Ownership issue becomes
more important once the project is finished and there is
no financial or technical support from external sources or
experts is available. The owners must prepare themselves
for takeover during the project implementation phase if required. In case where a project is expected to bring
some financial gains it is much more important to have
clearly defined owner of those gains. Therefore a project’s
post closure phase must also be planned well in advance
even during the proposal preparation stage for the successful implementation of the project.
Paid: No matter how beautifully a project is planned and
how successfully it is implemented, it needs the finances
for sustainability. One should get the answers to following
questions in this regard. Who will pay for project preparation, project implementation and its continuity once the external funding is seized?
Especially in community projects the sustainability of a
project depends upon financial assistance of the community made available to maintain the project. A clear,
agreed and acceptable format should be developed
for this purpose. The common bottle neck in such cases
is when a certain part of community which is required for
project’s sustainability disagrees or fails to contribute for
the project’s sustainability. This may create inter-community clashes as well as threats the sustainability of the project fruits. Any such issue should be resolved to maximum
possible extent during project planning phase.
Details about STOP Analysis and other tools is available at https://www.createspace.com/3492429
