First round application deadline

Back to work issues (note to self: having a one day weekend really gets to you after a few weeks, you never go to bed on a day in which either you did not go to work or you will not be waking up to work)...

But no complaints because these are exciting times for the project; on Thursday, the deadline for applications passed and the response has been incredible. We have now managed to count all of the applications and there were something like 350 concept notes (the first stage in the process) across all of our sector and cross-sector themes.

Counting them all has been quite tricky; we have had repeated power cuts and internet failures and there were quite a few duplicates and a bit of a technical issue with our mail server (thankfully now resolved).

Happily contemplating piles of concept notes

This number is much more than anyone expected and it goes to show the scale of appetite for a project like ABIF in Afghanistan. I remember discussions back in the design phase when we suspected that the budget would be a bit on the low side, but had imagined counting the number of applications in tens, not hundreds.

Of course, it is a question of quality much more than quantity. We now have to evaluate all of these applications; weeding out those which are ineligible, and rank the ones that are left. Because of the nature of the challenge fund process, it is only the very best that will receive grants, "best" meaning those that are most likely to contribute to achieving our development objectives. I have no doubt whatsoever that many of the concept notes we have received will be from applicants who have somehow failed to understand our project objectives, something for us to think about as we start to plan the marketing for Round 2.

(Despite the higher than expected number of concept notes, I think that I stand by my previous predictions... I reckon that we will end up with something like 10-20 fundable concept notes, but maybe I am being pessimistic!)

But whatever happens in the first round, the important thing is that we now have a really good foundation on which to take the project forward. Many of the concept notes that we have received this time will be good, but not good enough. My hope is that we will be able to work with these borderline applicants over the next few months to help them to better understand our objectives and submit a stronger application in the second round. This kind of learning from such a solid foundation really promises well for the future and places us in a much better position in terms of the depth of our contact database than I had anticipated at this stage of the project.

Needless to say, the team is delighted with the number of applications they have managed to generate. They have worked really hard over the two months that have passed since they joined the project and deserve a lot of credit for their efforts.

On day one none of them had any knowledge or experience of M4P (which guides our strategy) and none of them had worked on a challenge fund before! But nevertheless, they are smart people and have absorbed a huge amount in a very short space of time. Most importantly, they have also managed to communicate a reasonable share of that learning to a lot of people.

We have organised events with our main strategic partners (AISA, ACCI and the Afghan Industrial Association), sector presentations with ministries (Ministry of Mines and Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock), and we have run provincial events in Herat, Mazar, Kandahar and Jalalabad... It has been a busy time!

So this afternoon we completed the definitive database of applications. Tomorrow we start work on the serious business of evaluation.

And meanwhile, it has been snowing like crazy, this morning the view from the office looked like some kind of winter wonderland!

View from the ABIF office