Proposal writing is not always easy. Everybody makes stupid mistakes sometimes, especially when they are just starting out. In this series, our experienced writers will share their worst fails in proposal writing and what they learned from them. Today, Eva makes a start with a story from Nepal.
A couple of years ago I was working in a small village in Nepal. For me it was very obvious that there was a hygiene problem, many of the private houses did not have a toilet and also the restaurants in an area with a junction of two mayor streets had not facilities. This was particularly problematic as many buses stopped here and the passengers just went to the side of the road. In the summer months the entire area smelled of urine and it was clear to me that something needed to be done.
As a first step I called a meeting with the villagers. Very few people showed up, but the ones that were there liked my idea: building a public toilet in the junction area. I proposed a small piece of land next to a shop and everybody agreed with me. We even went there and took pictures of the land and everything seemed to be ok. I thought I was on track, I had consulted with the stakeholders and done my research. So I went on to write a proposal to apply for funding for a public toilet for the village.
There was a program offering small grants for water and sanitation projects, so together with a local NGO we applied and were successful. I was very happy to tell everybody that we had the money to build the public toilet now. I had imagined we would start quickly, as I had described in my timeline and workplan and that we would finish the project much earlier than the deadline the donor gave us. Here is where the problems began.
No one wanted to start the building process. I tried everything, at first I tried to organize a group of volunteers, then I offered pay and I even got a skilled laborer to start the work, but people were very hesitant. I couldn’t understand why and called meeting after meeting, but no one wanted to give me a straight forward answer.
After a while I met the VDC Secretary and talked with him, and he gave me an idea: People thought there might be a road extension coming that would eat up that land. This road extension had been in the planning for years, but now it looked like it might happen in the next months and everybody was tense about losing parts of their houses and lands. But no one had told me about it, because I had not talked with the right people, and I had not asked the right questions. They were uncertain, so they did not want to share this information with me. The VDC secretary confirmed with me thought that that piece of land was safe from the road construction, so I thought the mayor obstacle was out of the way.
It wasn’t though. Still no one wanted to build the toilet, and slowly we were running out of time. The donor was asking for progress reports and I had to tell them there were none, as we made no progress at all. In one last effort I called another meeting and invited personally all the elders of the village to come. This time, participation was much better and I finally got my answer: There was a water source right next to the place that I had designated for the septic tank. Of course no one wanted to build there. But again, no one had told me either, as I had talked with the wrong people and had asked the wrong questions.
Finally, after we changed the location of the septic tank to a more secure spot we were able to start. By this time, I had to contact the donor and explain why we were late and what had happened. It was very embarrassing to me to admit that I had failed to communicate properly with all stakeholders before submitting the proposal, but luckily the donor was understanding and extended our deadline. In the end, the project was a success and the public toilet is still in use.
Do you have any similar experiences? Please share your stories in the comments, so we can all learn from them and avoid these mistakes in the future!
Eva is based in Germany and has worked for nearly a decade with NGOs on the grassroots level in Nepal in the field of capacity development and promotion of sustainable agricultural practices. Before that, she worked in South America and Europe with different organizations. She holds a Ph.D. in geography and her field of research was sustainability and inclusion in development projects.
