Global Development Network
Objective of the assignment
The Global Development Network is seeking to recruit a consultant to do a desk-review and comparison of the opportunities/approach towards prospective applicants, grantees and past grantees of Awards Competitions, or similar initiatives, from other organizations.
The overall goal is to provide a review of how other organizations/donors organize activities for different engagement level of individuals/organizations through a Competition:
- Prospective applicants
- Activities that aim to increase the number of high-quality applications, and reduce the number of ineligible applications
- Grantees/winners
- Activities to develop their skills beyond the funding provided for their projects (e. g. presentation skills to different audiences, leadership, evidence-based policy making and targeting)
- Former grantees/winners
- Activities to support interactions of current and past grantees/winners
- Activities to engage the network of individuals
Tasks
The activities under this assignment include the following:
- Identification of other Awards Competition
The consultant will do a desk-review of existing documentation on the Global Development Awards and of other competitions focused on research grants and development projects with activities to assist applicants and winners. These can be global or national though focus should be given on initiatives that target researchers and organizations from the Global South.
Deliverables: Report: a) detailing a framework to compare the Global Development Awards Competition to other competitions globally, including a discussion of a shortlist of most relevant comparison criteria; b) a list of comparable initiatives globally from which GDN will identify a longlist 10 for deeper analysis in the following stage.
- Assessment of activities per identified competition and profile of applicants/winners
The consultant will provide a detailed comparative review of the different initiatives with an analysis of capacity building activities developed towards prospective/shortlisted/current/past grantees.
Deliverables: Detailed comparative report of the impact and format of the different initiatives across the identified competitions. GDN will select up to 5 the identified competitions for the following stage.
- Recommendations on the most impactful initiatives
The consultant, considering GDAC’s Impact studies and any similar studies from the 5 shortlisted competitions, will provide recommendations for which activities to import or develop in GDAC.
Deliverable: Detailed report with recommendations on the type of activities to pursue divided by target group (prospective/shortlisted/current/past grantees).
GDN will engage with the consultant throughout the assignment to select which of the identified competitions he/she should focus. GDN will also provide past Impact Studies of the Global Development Awards Competition.
Background
The Global Development Awards Competition (GDAC) is an innovative award scheme administered by the Global Development Network (GDN), funded under the Policy and Human Resources Development Fund (PHRD) trust fund managed by the World Bank, and generously supported by the Ministry of Finance, Government of Japan. This program has 2 categories open for interested applicants:
- The Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development (ORD)
- Competitive research grant program that identifies and funds outstanding research proposals from researchers from low and middle-income countries that have a high potential for excellence in research and clear policy implications for addressing development issues.
- The Japanese Award for Most Innovative Development Project (MIDP)
- Competitive grant program that supports non-profit Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from low and middle-income countries to recognize the innovative approach of their projects. Winners of the MIDP awards have access to a competitive second-level grant of USD 200,000 to scale up their project, after 12 months of implementation of the MIDP.
This competition has been running uninterruptedly since 2001, with over 100 Awards and USD 4.2m in grants. Some of the winners have gone to occupy prestigious roles in governments, academia and in global development institutions.
It is important to note that the participants involved in GDAC come from two different backgrounds:
- Young researchers from different fields of knowledge that apply for the ORD category with research proposals addressing development issues with policy implications, and high potential for excellence
- Representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that apply for the MIDP category with projects currently at the stage of implementation
Problem Statement
GDN therefore aims to develop an annual framework for the capacity-building activities targeted to prospective applicants and current grantees, with the involvement of past awardees whenever possible.
The Awards Competition already includes the following components that will be incorporate into the framework:
- Early information sessions (webinars) aimed to help prospective applications complete their applications, with a focus on eligibility criteria, format and structure of the application and the goals of the Competition. The overall goal of these sessions is to increase the number of eligible applications as well as their quality.
- A hands-on Communications Training for finalists in preparation of a public pitch for their project.
- A mentoring scheme to accompany winners during the implementation.
How to apply
Profile Specifications
GDN seeks to engage an individual or group of individuals with experience on managing competitions similar in scope to GDAC, ideally with oversight of capacity-building activities.
Application Procedure
Applicants are required to submit
- Up-to-date CV with evidence of previous experience for similar assignments or relevant projects,
- A note (not more than 3 pages) detailing the proposed methodology (linking it to past experience in similar assignments) to address the objectives
- Contacts of three references that can support the applicant’s qualifications for undertaking this task.
The deadline for submission of demonstrations of interest is Friday, 16 September 2022 (Indian Standard Time 6:00 PM) to be sent to theemail addresses [email protected] and [email protected] (all communications to be addressed to both emails mandatorily).
Selection Criteria
- Expertise in developing, evaluating and/or managing competitions similar in scope to GDAC (30%)
- Relevance of previous similar assignments (30%)
- Quality of the proposed methodology (40%)
Timeline and Budget
A budget of USD 3,000 is available for this assignment. The payment schedule will be agreed with the consultant.
Closing date: 9/16/2022