This course provides a combination of theoretical concepts and practical experience about how to design technical proposals for development cooperation tenders.

Although multi-/bilateral donors vary in their requirements for technical proposals, several fundamental concepts and tools are commonly used by different agencies to describe the logical sequence and cause-effect relationship between inputs, outputs, results or outcomes, and impact. All donors insist on an evidence-based approach that needs to be reflected in a chapter on monitoring and evaluation during project design already, including specific indicators, baselines, targets, and methodologies for data collection and analysis. Most donors have specific and constantly evolving requests regarding the methodology and structure of tenders or for certain tender elements.

The training objective is to provide guidance on how to develop competitive technical proposals. The course combines information about current donor requirements with real examples of successful proposal elements and gives participants the opportunity to review and improve their own ongoing proposals in guided, participatory exercises.

Learning outcomes for participants:

Translating donor requirements into well-structured concepts;

In-depth coverage of a donor-specific methodology and its application (if requested);

Success factors for winning proposals.

The target audience of the course are practitioners in the field of development cooperation tasked with designing technical proposals for tenders issued by multi-/bilateral donor agencies. The content of the training modules can be tailored to the learning needs of the participants. Training participants would ideally have basic knowledge about tendering procedures. At an advanced level, practical experience with proposal design is a strong additional asset.

The standard course has a duration of two days, with eight sessions @ 45 minutes per day, divided by coffee and lunch breaks. Structure and duration can be adapted.

Course language is either German or English.