Sections:

Governance and Transparency Fund (GTF)


6 June 2007

We have finally agreed a deadline for the receipt of Concept Notes for the Governance and Transparency Fund (GTF)

The deadline is:

Midnight (GMT) Friday 29 June 2007

I will send details of the e-mail address to sent Notes to later this week.

5 June 2007

I have received several e-mails over the past few days asking about the length of Concept Notes.

There are 3 sections which must be completed A, B and C. It is section B which has a limit of 1500 words, there is no limit on Sections A and C, so please ignore the 3 page limit mentioned on the guidance - however you must only send the relevant information requested and must not use these sections to expand on details provided in Section B.

The Concept must be in English and in a font size no smaller than Arial 12.

If the supporting documentation is available in English then please send the English version but do not go to the expense of having supporting documents translated - please just send them in the language in which they were produced. In certain circumstances we may have to contact you to ask for certain sections of documents to be translated.

All Concept Notes must be sent electronically to the e-mail address which I will inform you of, hopefully later this week. I will also pass on the postal address for supporting documents.

4 June 2007

I am now able to confirm that a consortium, led by KPMG, has won the contract to operate as the Fund Manager for the GTF.

This consortium also includes Harewell, Tripleline and Delta as well as a large number of stand alone consultants with excellent experience and knowledge of fund management and governance and transparency issues.

We hope to reach agreement over a deadline for Concept Notes later today - I will send another e-mail as soon as this has been agreed

31 May 2007

Please also note that this is a 2 stage appraisal process and that no organisation or consortium will be allowed to submit a proposal unless and until they have had a Concept Note approved.

In the interests of fairness the deadline for Concept Notes will be a very strict deadline and any Notes sent after midnight (UK time) on that day will not be appraised and will be returned to sender ie if the deadline is set for 8 June we will only consider Concept Notes which have been sent to the proper e-mail address before midnight (UK time) on 8 June.

Some of you have also asked questions about the format of Concept Notes. Just to clarify, there is not a form to be completed. Within the criteria and guidelines paper on the website ( www.dfid.gov.uk/funding/gtf.asp  ) you will find a link to the concept note format paper. This paper is intended as a guide to help you complete the Concept Note. The tick boxes on the right hand side are there for your reference only so that you can mark them to check that you have provided all of the information we need. Please e-mail me at gtf@dfid.gov.uk  if you are unclear about how to complete a Concept Note.

30 May 2007

I hope to send an e-mail on Monday 4 June announcing who has been awarded the contract as the GTF Fund Manager. At the same time we will also be able to tell you the e-mail address to which all Concept Notes must be sent. What we won't be able to say is the deadline for submission - this will be set after discussions with the Fund Manager on Monday.

In the meantime we have made a few additions to the FAQs on the GTF pages of DFID's website. If anyone has any other questions on any aspect of the Fund please e-mail me.

Several organisations/individuals have asked if they could meet with either myself or DFID colleagues to discuss the Fund or potential bids they wish to submit. Unfortunately, due to demands on our time, we would not be able to meet all of these requests and, in the interests of fairness, have agreed that we will not meet with any potential applicant to discuss possible bids. I am sure that everyone will support this approach.

18 May 2007

Just a short note to bring you up to date on developments on the GTF.

We are now in the final stages of selecting and awarding a contract to a Fund Manager for the GTF. We should be able to formally announce the winning bidder by 31 May. At the same time we should be able to say where Concept Note should be sent and also to let you know what the deadline for submission will be.

It is our intention to set a deadline for Concept Notes very soon after we have announced who the Fund Manager is - at present the best I can say is that it will not be before 8 June.

A number of questions have come in regarding consortiums, local partners and 'organisations'. Just to clarify:

Consortium members are those organisations who are coming together to submit a proposal which will provide benefits to local partners ie consortium members should be those organisations who will play a management role whereas local partners will be organisations who will directly benefit from support coming through the consortium members. You should not include local partners as consortium members unless they are playing this management role in support of others.

A further question has arisen on local partners. Some organisations have many country offices and have asked if these country offices can be considered as local partners. The answer is that they can be but only if the local partner can show that they are truly independent ie they have their own independent board of trustees, are able to take decisions at a local level without having to go back to a headquarters office, and can show that they are not dependant on other parts of the organisation 'family' ie Agency A (East Africa) must show that at least 50% of their income comes from sources other than Agency A

Please also note that although the guidelines and criteria for the Fund do encourage consortium bids, DFID will not favour bids from consortiums over those from single applicants.

The rule on number of applications per organisation is clear in stating that we will only accept one application ie we will only consider one application from Agency A. For organisations with multi country members we will still only consider one application ie if Agency A (Europe) and Agency A (Vietnam) both wish to submit an application we will only consider one and not both.

I will send another update e-mail at the end of next week. In the meantime if you have any questions about the Fund please e-mail me at gtf@dfid.gov.uk 

25 April 2007 

Please see the e-mail below from Daniel Smith of BOND (the umbrella membership organisation which represents UK based CSOs active in the field of international development).

Some of you may find Daniel's web page useful for advertising for/finding a like minded consortium partner

From: Daniel Smith mailto:dsmith@bond.org.uk 

Finding a consortium partner for the

I have already advertised this through the BOND membership but remembered you have your own GTF email list as well. I have put a page on our website for organisations to look for consortium partners (or to look for consortia to join). I am happy for this to be used by non BOND members (as this will be useful for BOND members at the end of the day as well). So if you want to send this round to your list then you are welcome to do so. Instructions as to what to do are on the web page. External linkhttp://www.bond.org.uk/funding/guide/dfid.htm 

Daniel Smith
Funding Officer

Last Updated 6 June 2007