Barbadians missing out on grant funding

The ability to submit a project proposal which scores high on the evaluation grid of various international donor agencies cannot be underestimated.

This point was emphasised by Director of the Research and Planning Unit in the Economic Affairs Division (EAD), Patrick McCaskie, as he spoke yesterday at the start of a two-day Proposal Writing Workshop held in the Bridgetown Meeting Room of the Baobab Towers in Warrens, St. Michael.

Following a session held last June, this final phase of the Proposal Writing Workshop was hosted by the EAD, in collaboration with the Human Resource Development Strategy (HRDS) Unit of the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Human Resource Development, with support from the European Commission, for the benefit of key staff members within government, the private sector and civil society organisations. “The strength of your proposal determines whether you are awarded the grant or whether you will be rejected,” McCaskie told those gathered.

He added, “Barbados is classified as a high income country and does not receive high levels of grant or concessional financing, therefore, developing the capacity to strengthen the proposals which are submitted is extremely important.”

 

Another key speaker was Human Resource Development Specialist Orville Lynch, from the Human Resource Development Project Unit, who stressed that Barbadians are missing out on grant funding, due to their poor proposal writing skills.
 
“We in Barbados do not do very well in drawing down funds from international agencies, because of our lack of the ability to write proposals” Lynch pointed out.
 
“The Jamaicans get a lot of money out of international agencies because people can write proposals. There is a lot of money out there, but we are unable to tap into it, because, apparently, there is a weakness in proposal writing in this part of the world,” Lynch lamented.
 
However, both McCaskie and Lynch noted that the workshop would help to build Barbadian’s proposal writing capacity, helping participants to write stronger project proposals. Lynch also told participants to use the opportunity presented to help the country move to the next level by accessing the funding that is available.
 
Presenter for the session, Proposal Writing Training Consultant Kirk Brown was meanwhile key in taking participants through the donor funding procurement process and he pointed out key proposal writing mistakes that persons should avoid. (RSM)
 

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