Germany Embassy Funding for Small Scale Projects in India
MK: The project that has been my passion for the past five years is Project Refuge, an orphanage that has been run by the same Nepali family for the past 30 years, located in the Far-Western Region of Nepal. We began this project with the modest goals of teaching art to young students and updating the building with a roof replacement and bunk.
Call for Proposals for Small Scale Projects (Bhutan and India). The German Diplomatic and Consular Missions in India operate a programme which enables them to provide direct financial assistance to Indian and Bhutanese NGOs and religious institutions for the implementation of small-scale projects for the benefit of disadvantaged groups of society.
Small Scale Projects address the needs of the underprivileged parts of society, alongside the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with a clear focus on “Helping people to help themselves” and aiming at funding sustainable and improved living conditions.
The areas of activity are: healthcare and sanitary equipment, income generation through education and vocational training, water supply, energy supply, food security, reconstructions after a natural disaster etc.
The Embassy’s administrative district comprises Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand as well as the Kingdom of Bhutan.
The German Consulates General in Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai have their own funds for small scale projects within their districts.
Last year the German Embassy in New Delhi disbursed over € 140,000.00 among six projects, including special funds for emergency COVID-19 related measures.
Criteria
PROJECT MONITORING AND EVALUATION AND ITS IMPORTANCE
MONITORING
This is the regular systematic collection and analysis of information to track the progress of program implementation against pre-set targets and objectives. It aims to answer the question “did we deliver?”
Monitoring; Clarifies program objectives, Links activities and their resources to objectives, Translates objectives into performance indicators and sets targets, Routinely collects data on these indicators, compares actual results with targets
And Reports progress to managers and alerts them to problems
Monitoring gives information on where a policy, program or project is at any given time (or over time) relative to respective targets and outcomes. Monitoring focuses in particular on efficiency, and the use of resources.
While monitoring provides records of activities and results, and signals problems to be remedied along the way, it is descriptive and may not be able to explain why a particular problem has arisen, or why a particular outcome has occurred or failed to occur.
Evaluation deals with questions of cause and effect. It is assessing or estimating the value, worth or impact of an intervention and is typically done on a periodic basis – perhaps annually or at the end of a phase of a project or program.
EVALUATION
This is the objective assessment of an ongoing or recently completed project, program or policy, its design, implementation and results. It answers the question “What has happened as a result?”
Evaluation Analyzes why intended results were or were not achieved, Assesses specific casual contributions of activities to results, Examines implementation process, Explores unintended results, Provides lessons, highlights significant accomplishments or program potential and offers recommendations for improvement
Evaluation looks at the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of an intervention. It will provide evidence of why targets and outcomes are or are not being achieved and addresses issues of causality.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MONITORING & EVALUATION
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) helps those involved with any type of projects to assess if progress desired is beingachieved.
M&E benefits the key actors involved in community development in the following ways:
For project executors (i.e., a company Community Relations Team, a company/NGO partnership, or a company foundation), M&E can improve management. By monitoring progress against defined goals, a project manager can assess what is working and what is not, and from there can determine what changes should be made to a project. This inturn makes it possible to improve the way things are being done in the project organization.
For companies, whether executing a project or supporting it through partnership or funding, M&E can be used to demonstrate progress to internal management and to external stakeholders. Internally, measurable results can justify continued funding and clarify the return on investment of community development efforts to managers and shareholders. Externally, the results of M&E can demonstrate commitment to and competence in community development, and thus help a company maintain its social license to operate. This makes the companies to make sound decisions concerning major projects undertaken and to know where to invest.
For community members and NGOs, participating in M&E is an opportunity to influence the design and execution of community development projects. Furthermore, by providing feedback on whether programs are achieving aims in line with community needs and desires, M&E is a powerful accountability mechanism.
(Our next article on challenges in monitoring and evaluation coming soon…)