International Development Fund: grant awards and management stages

Pre-application process

For all of our sectoral (health, education, equalities etc) programmes, we apply our long-standing partnership principles, discussing with the Governments of Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia their priorities within each sector, to ensure we meet our commitment on partner-country led development. This ensures that, although many of our sectoral programmes run across all three countries, they are tailored to the needs of each country. As an example, under our health programme, the focus for our support on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is on expansion of PEN-PLUS in Malawi and Zambia (a community focused person-centred solution that builds on the World Health Organisation's package of essential NCD interventions), but on palliative care in Rwanda. 

Within those sectoral programmes, for our competitive funding rounds, we set out in the call for proposals the relevant eligibility and assessment/evaluation criteria. As an example, criteria will normally focus on requirements for applicant organisations to have:

• a legal personality
• knowledge and experience, expertise and operational capability relevant to the delivery 
• experience and expertise in designing and implementing monitoring, learning and evaluation processes
• capability in putting in place robust management, budgetary and financial control and governance arrangements, including quality assurance and exit strategy, and robust fraud and safeguarding policies and processes.
• capability in identifying, assessing, and mitigation of risks throughout the lifecycle of the programme, including safeguarding and financial risks.
• evidenced good practice in delivery and expenditure of development funding, eg in line with the Paris Declaration (delivery and harmonisation)

The call for proposal will also make clear that, should an application be successful, the resulting grant-holder will be bound by Scottish Government (SG) terms and conditions for International Development grants for any award, with a style example of the SG terms and conditions included in the call pack. The call for proposals will also set out the Programme objectives, activities and themes, based on the needs analysis and discussions with the partner country governments, and will set out requirements in relation to matters such as the Theory of Change for the programme, and grant holder responsibilities.

Since our new approach in 2021, and resultant programming from 2023 onwards, some of our programmes may include a design phase (for example this is a key element of our Women and Girls Fund, in line with its participatory methodology), whilst others will move straight to inception phase post-award, based on the successful application proposal. 
Recent examples of calls for proposals (for our health and education programmes) which led to the award of grants includes:

• our inclusive education design evidence paper programme design, followed by our call for proposals in February 2024
• our health design evidence paper in January 2024, followed by our call for proposals for Zambia non-communicable diseases programme and Rwanda non-communicable diseases programme: call for proposals in May 2024

We take a similar approach with contracts, see for example our recent Women and Girls Fund:

• our Women and Girls Fund call Public Procurement and Property Supplier opportunity

Once a funding round has opened, the International Development Team also run information seminars early market engagement sessions - for interested applicants to explain what is being sought, including the criteria. The purpose of these seminars is to highlight any new issues or processes for the funding round, to reinforce the importance of good reporting/monitoring and evaluation, and enable potential applicants to ask any questions. These sessions are followed up with timetabled opportunities for potential applicants to submit questions about the funding round, which are then answered and disseminated to all as frequently asked questions.

A similar approach is taken with pre-contract awards, in alignment with procurement processes.

For non-competitively awarded grants, such as the peer-peer Police Scotland partnership with the police services of Malawi and Zambia, a more tailored approach is taken pre-award of any funding. However, there is commonality on certain key elements, such as adherence to the Scottish Government terms and conditions for International Development grants for any award of funding.