Joint MFS II evaluations at country level

The present call relates to call one: ‘joint MFS II evaluations of development interventions at country level’. Applicants for this call were requested to develop proposals for evaluating development interventions implemented by Dutch CFAs and/or their Southern partners in eight pre-selected countries: Bangladesh, DR Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Liberia, Pakistan and Uganda. The assessment procedure of the submitted proposals was concluded on 12 January 2012. No proposal has been awarded for three of the country studies, namely Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Uganda. For that reason, a second call is launched for these evaluation studies. The overall purpose of the joint MFS II evaluations is to account for results of MFS II-funded or cofunded development interventions implemented by Dutch Co-Financing Agencies (CFAs) and/or their Southern partners and to contribute to the improvement of future development interventions. The specific aims of the evaluations of development interventions at country level are:

• To assess the effectiveness, efficiency and relevance of development interventions funded by MFS II;
• To develop and apply innovative methodologies for the evaluations of development interventions;
• To provide justified recommendations that enable Dutch CFAs and/or their Southern partners to draw lessons for future development interventions.

Who can apply

Proposals should be submitted by a research team composed of a main applicant, coapplicants and researchers. The main applicant and co-applicants should be employed by at least two different organisations. The main applicant must be a senior researcher with a PhD degree who is employed by an academic institution or a Dutch research institute complying with conditions specified in the brochure. The main applicant should be employed by an organisation that is not domiciled in the country on which the proposal focuses. At least one of the co-applicants must be employed by an organisation domiciled in the country on which the proposal focuses. Furthermore, at least one of the co-applicants must be a senior researcher with a PhD degree. Co-applicants may be employed by universities and non-academic organisations, such as research institutes, NGOs and consultancy firms.

What can be applied for

Each proposal must focus on one of the three countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia or Uganda. Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals for more than one of the countries, in which case a separate proposal should be submitted for each country. Country specific information is provided in separate documents in addition to the information provided in the brochure.

When can be applied

• Closing date for submitting proposals was 21 February 2012, 12:00 hrs

Extra Information

Please note that applying via Iris is obligatory. Foreign applicants should select ‘mfs2’ as the applying institute, after having selected ‘The Hague’ in the listing of towns. See also: ‘Instructions for foreign applicants’ under ‘Documentation’.

Criteria

Applications must fulfill the General Terms and Conditions of NWO Grants and all of the formal criteria mentioned in the brochure in order to be admitted to the competition. The applications are assessed according to a fixed set of criteria: I) the quality of the proposal, and II) the quality of the research team. All applications have to meet minimum standards for these two criteria, which will be equally weighed in the ranking process. For a detailed overview of the criteria, please see paragraph 4.2 of the brochure. Only one high-quality proposal is eligible for being awarded per country. If two proposals are similar in terms of quality, the proposal with the lowest budget will be awarded.

Procedure

The entire assessment procedure will take about six weeks: Admissible applications will be assessed according to the criteria by at least two members of an Advisory Committee; 

• The two Advisory Committee members’ preliminary assessment will be sent to main applicants; 
• Applicants will then have the opportunity to send a rebuttal in response to the issues raised;
• The two Advisory Committee members will formulate a reply to the rebuttals. Based on the applications, the preliminary assessments, the rebuttals, and the replies to the rebuttals, the Advisory Committee will evaluate and rank the proposals. The Advisory Committee will then present recommendations to a Steering Committee.
• The Steering Committee will take a decision on funding, based on the ranking and recommendations received from the Advisory Committee. Only one proposal will be awarded per country.
• All applicants will be informed in writing about the outcome of the selection procedure.

Committees

The Advisory Committee is composed of 14 senior researchers with an interdisciplinary background and extensive knowledge of evaluation methodologies. The composition of the Advisory Committee will be published after applicants have been informed about the outcome of the selection procedure.

Budget

A maximum budget is available for each of the eight pre-selected countries:

• Bangladesh: € 735,136;
• Ethiopia: € 1,716,010;
• Uganda: € 1,304,264.

Financiers

Dutch CFAs receiving MFS II funding and NWO-WOTRO.

Contacts

• Dr G. Tuitert
  phone: +31 (0)70 344 07 63, e-mail: mfs2@nwo.nl