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Description of process

Full proposal evaluation process
The COGM is responsible for organising the full proposal evaluation meeting. The COGM prepares the full proposal evaluation package to be sent to each expert. The evaluation package contains the following materials which are mailed to the board members at least two weeks before the meeting:

• agenda for the evaluation meeting;
• copies of each application, including the budget justification with the grant amount, disbursement schedule and reporting requirements;
• evaluation criteria for full proposal — the full proposal scoring sheet for national grants (see Annex XV);
• a letter addressed to each expert explaining the whole procedure and inviting them to the full proposal evaluation meeting; including the explanation of the evaluation criteria which should be prepared and adapted by the COGM based on the criteria suggested by the HOGM (the explanations assures a common understanding of each evaluation criterion among the experts during the course of the evaluation process (see Annex XVI);
• the National Grants Guidelines (see Annex II).

Before the evaluation, the board members must become familiar with the grants announcement, projects’ expected results, indicators and proposal guidelines. The proposals should be evaluated according to the listed criteria/indicators in the guidelines, as well as on the requirements and limitations for project proposals listed in the guidelines.

It is recommended that REC also take part in the scoring process with one vote (either the COD or the COGM or jointly). The reason is that the REC can contribute valuable comments on the topic and on technical side of the proposals. Such comments should be shared in the meeting and reflected in the local advisory board minutes as well as in the awarded or rejection notification letters. Nevertheless, the country office should decide, based on experience and donor requirements, how involved the REC staff should be in the evaluation panel.

The COGM should provide enough time for the board members to receive all the materials, review all the proposals in advance and score the proposal based on the common evaluation criteria. The board members are required to send all the scoring sheets to the country office before the evaluation meeting takes place. The COCD/GM ranks proposals based on the independent scores of the experts, and this provides the starting point for the evaluation meeting. The local advisory board members are asked to study the sheet and the instructions carefully before starting the evaluation. Each of the highest ranked proposals will be discussed extensively during the evaluation meeting and the experts are required to participate and contribute comments. Explanations are required from the experts where their scores differ significantly from the scores given by the other evaluation board members.

The filled in and signed scoring sheets are to be sent back to the country office. They are handled confidentially and kept in the office’s files.

Related policies

• Local advisory board policies
• Grants policies

Supporting docs

• Annex XV - Full proposal scoring sheet for national grants template
• Annex XVI – FP Scoring sheet instructions letter template
• Annex II – National grants guidelines template

Financial