Guidelines for Preparing a Concept Note for Review by PTF

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) who are interested in receiving support from the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) to support a program on anti-corruption activities are requested to submit a brief Concept Note no more than 5 pages in length describing their proposal. The Concept Note should provide the following information briefly and clearly:

a. Who are you? Briefly provide some basic information on your organization, its size (number of employees, annual budget), strategic objectives, ongoing anti-corruption activities and any partnerships with other CSOs or donors, including a link to your website if you have one. This will allow PTF to make a preliminary assessment of your capacity to carry out a proposed program.

b.   What is the corruption problem to be addressed by the project? Please describe the observed corruption problem that your proposal intends to address. Be as specific as possible–naming the geographical location, if the project is concentrating on one, the type of corruption to be addressed, the major parties involved in perpetrating the corruption, etc. While identification of the corruption issue is necessary, some of its details could be included as a part of the project activities (e.g., a baseline survey of the corruption level, determination of the underlying causes of corruption, etc.). Generally, PTF prefers to support a small, focused intervention that has the possibility of success, and that later could be scaled up to a regional or even national program, rather than a broad and not well-defined project.

c. How will you partner with local authorities to ensure project success? PTF believes that in most cases collaborating with the public sector, while addressing a corruption problem, provides the greatest chance for long-term change. Consequently, where support of a public entity is necessary for the success of the project, the applicant needs to line up the support from the municipality, government department, judicial structure, legislative body, university etc., and confirm the public sector entity’s willingness, preferably in writing, to support the project’s implementation. The hypothesis is that consensus building and collaboration yield better and longer lasting results than confrontation.

d. What steps or activities will you take, and what outputs or results will they deliver? The applicant should give a brief list of the activities that the project plans to undertake to address the corruption problem. The activities should be focused and should have results that correct or stem the corruption problem identified. PTF wishes to see the applicant CSO directly engage in actions that have a credible chance of actually reducing corruption – not just raising awareness about it or measuring it.  The Concept Note should also specify who is going to implement the project. If the CSO alone will be carrying out the project, this should be indicated; if the CSO will be operating with partners, such as other civil society groups, these groups should be identified and their agreement to participate in the project already assured.

e.   How will you know if you have succeeded? This Section should describe the outcomes and impacts that are expected from the activities, as well as how the results would be measured and documented.

f.   A Budget Estimate. A broad estimate of the project cost should be provided, as well as an indication of how costs will be funded. PTF’s projects generally are implemented over one year and the grant size ranges from US$ 25,000 to US$ 35,000.  PTF expects the CSO to make some contribution to the project’s cost – usually around 10 percent.

PTF will review the Concept Note and decide whether or not the proposal meets PTF’s criteria. The CSO will be informed of the outcome. If PTF agrees to proceed, the CSO will be invited to prepare a full project proposal. CSOs should be aware that they will also need to provide their most recent audited accounts at the time they submit the project proposal.