Identification of the problem (describe the problem, its scope, show why and how it’s an important problem and worthy of attention, and finish with a problem statement)
What are you proposing? How will you address the problem you just described? This section should also include goals and objectives (why are you proposing this project, and what do you really want to accomplish?). Goals are usually broad statements, for instance improving women’s nutrition in rural villages; objectives would lay out the ways in which you would do this-awareness/media campaign, vegetable gardening projects, etc. You should justify the choices you’ve made.
Methods/approach (What methods will you use to achieve your objectives? For instance, if you proposed a vegetable gardening project, you would have to determine how you would go about accomplishing this task-would you train villagers, send workers out into rural areas, dig wells, provide seeds, etc.? There are many issues to work out). Some things to consider include:
Key stakeholders (who are the important people who need to be involved-whether with government agencies, village chiefs, etc.)
Planning and participation (how will you involve the intended beneficiaries? Who will manage the project?
Scale (nationwide, region-wide, village-wide, working only with women, working with whole villages, certain ethnic groups-there are geographical questions, ethnic/religious/cultural questions, as well as the scope of work)
Time—what is the time frame for the project?
Evaluation—how will you know if the project was a success? What might be important measures?
I would like you to briefly describe at least one alternative method that you decided not to use (or at least one other that could address the problem), and why the method you chose is preferable.
Resource implications-
Impacts/potential barriers-well-designed projects think through how they might impact different groups of people, and what the barriers to their success might be. You’re expected to engage in some informed speculation on these.
Design principles-some of the important principles of development we’ll discuss in class include grassroots participation (bottom-up vs top-down), collective action, flexibility, sustainability, leverage, scale, using local resources (increasing self-reliance), transparency, appropriate technology and transformatory potential. You’ll want to discuss which of these, if any, you’ve incorporated into your project, and how. Keeping in mind that incorporation of these design principles increases the likelihood of your project’s sustainability and success.
Documentation—you need to cite the sources you use, in the references section at the end of the proposal and in the text, too (Grigsby 2009). Use APA format just to standardize this. I want to know from where you drew your information, and expect you will have done some research—I’ve given you many possible sources of both conceptual and practical information.
Supporting lecture material: You’ll find this page on change, as well as this one, useful for thinking about this project and getting your ideas down on paper.
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