HOW TO DEVELOP A

STRONG PROJECT DESIGN

User Guide #9
 This User Guide is intended to help
applicants develop a strong project design as
applicants prepare AmplifyChange grant
applications.

Readers are free to download and reproduce

any of our user guides. We request that due
acknowledgement to AmplifyChange is given
where reproduced.

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BASED ON ANALYSIS OF
PROPOSALS AND PROJECTS
We have reviewed a sample of successful and
unsuccessful project proposals, and ongoing projects
across different funds to identify areas we can help
applicants to better design their projects.

We propose 11 considerations here to help you work

through your project design process.

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WHY IS PROJECT DESIGN SO
IMPORTANT?
A strong project design means that your
project:
• is more likely to be accepted for funding
• is more likely to have a bigger impact on the
people you wish to serve

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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR
STRONG PROJECT DESIGN
PART 1: NUTS AND BOLTS

PART 2: MONITORING PROJECT CHANGE

PART 3: GUIDING PRINCIPLES

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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRONG PROJECT
DESIGN

We recommend you go
through these 11
considerations with your full
team (including finance, and
the intended project
beneficiaries) before starting
your application.

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PART 1: NUTS AND BOLTS

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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRONG PROJECT
DESIGN
PART 1: NUTS AND BOLTS
1. Context – what need are you seeking to address?

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CONTEXT
Consider…
1. What is the main need your project seeks to address? E.g. safe abortion
services are not available and women are dying as a result of unsafe
abortion
2. Why are these services not available? What are the barriers to
delivering safe abortion that your project will need to address?
3. What other organisations are working in the same / similar area that
you could learn from, coordinate or partner with?

Your in-depth understanding of the context will be crucial as it

provides the foundation on which you can build appropriate
approaches.
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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRONG PROJECT
DESIGN

PART 1: NUTS AND BOLTS

1. Context – what need are you seeking to address?
2. Stakeholders and partnerships – who needs to be involved? Beneficiaries, local government, implementing
partners etc. consider partnerships that will add value to your project and begin developing these from the outset

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STAKEHOLDERS AND PARTNERSHIPS
Consider…
1. Who will benefit from your project? These people are your beneficiaries. How can you
engage them in your project design to find out what their most pressing needs are?
2. Who will support your project?
• consult local government to find out their ideas on how your project could
support their existing efforts in this area?
• implementing partners? Make sure you engage them from the start of the design
phase so you can learn from each other’s experiences in this area and select the
most effective approaches.
• Could you engage in informal partnerships or form a mentoring relationship with
older/ larger / more experienced organisations that you can learn from?

Engaging all relevant stakeholders from the outset is crucial. It will set a solid
Foundation for effective partnership, promote rapport and team spirit, reducing
the likelihood of silo-working and communication issues during project
implementation.
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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRONG PROJECT
DESIGN
PART 1: NUTS AND BOLTS
1. Context – what need are you seeking to address?
2. Stakeholders and partnerships – who needs to be involved? Beneficiaries, local government, implementing partners
etc. consider partnerships that will add value to your project and begin developing these from the outset
3. Capacity building – consider the most effective ways of building capacity of your target beneficiaries. Ask them
what their needs are.

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CAPACITY BUILDING
Consider…
1. Your own organisation and implementing partners’ capacity building needs first
2. The most effective methods of delivering capacity building
3. Allowing enough time to design and deliver high quality training, working with
‘agents of change’
4. How your project will support capacity development of government, where
possible, to promote sustainability and government ownership of your project’s
aims
5. How to measure qualitative as well as quantitative change

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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRONG PROJECT
DESIGN
PART 1: NUTS AND BOLTS
1. Context – what need are you seeking to address?
2. Stakeholders and partnerships – who needs to be involved? Beneficiaries, local government, implementing partners
etc. consider partnerships that will add value to your project and begin developing these from the outset
3. Capacity building – consider the most effective ways of building capacity of your target beneficiaries. Ask them
what their needs are.
4. Budgeting – have you involved your finance team from the outset of the project design process to ensure your
proposed budget is realistic?

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BUDGETING
Consider…
1. Making sure your finance team are involved in the design process
2. Finding pre-financing for the design stage to help you research and spend time
with stakeholders and beneficiaries to develop the most relevant design
3. What is realistically possible to achieve during the first 6 months of your
project. Take the time needed for internal capacity building into account.
4. Your organisation’s capacity to deliver the project. You may need to recruit
additional staff.

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PART 2: MONITORING
PROJECT PROGRESS
TOWARDS CHANGE

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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRONG PROJECT
DESIGN
PART 1: NUTS AND BOLTS
1. Context – what need are you seeking to address?
2. Stakeholders and partnerships – who needs to be involved? Beneficiaries, local government, implementing partners
etc. consider partnerships that will add value to your project and begin developing these from the outset
3. Capacity building – consider the most effective ways of building capacity of your target beneficiaries. Ask them
what their needs are.
4. Budgeting – have you involved your finance team from the outset of the project design process to ensure your
proposed budget is realistic?
PART 2: MONITORING PROJECT CHANGE
1. Theory of change – the why, how, who and what of your project following a logical flow

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THEORY OF CHANGE
Consider…
1. Why – what problem or need do you seek to address?
2. How - what strategies will you use?
3. Who - which population groups do you intend to benefit most?
4. What - what change does your project seek to make?
5. When – over what time period do you anticipate achieving what level of
progress?

Please refer to the AmplifyChange ‘Explaining our theory of change’ User Guide
module to help you develop your project’s theory of change and milestones. You
can also find more guidance here that will help you develop your own.

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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRONG PROJECT
DESIGN
PART 1: NUTS AND BOLTS
1. Context – what need are you seeking to address?
2. Stakeholders and partnerships – who needs to be involved? Beneficiaries, local government, implementing partners
etc. consider partnerships that will add value to your project and begin developing these from the outset
3. Capacity building – consider the most effective ways of building capacity of your target beneficiaries. Ask them
what their needs are.
4. Budgeting – have you involved your finance team from the outset of the project design process to ensure your
proposed budget is realistic?
PART 2: MONITORING PROJECT CHANGE
1. Theory of change – the why, how, who and what of your project following a logical flow
2. Measuring change – we need to be able to demonstrate the change the project will have on beneficiaries?

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MEASURING CHANGE
Consider…
1. Developing a baseline position
2. Defining targeted change and how to measure this for different population groups
3. How you will measure the different types of change among primary beneficiaries?
4. How you will measure change among secondary beneficiaries?
5. How your project will reach the most vulnerable, and those with the greatest need?
6. What evidence you will use to document all changes you expect to see?
7. What resources you will need to measure change?

Always look first at what valid monitoring systems and data sources are in place
that could be used or built on to measure change in your project.

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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRONG PROJECT
DESIGN
PART 1: NUTS AND BOLTS
1. Context – what need are you seeking to address?
2. Stakeholders and partnerships – who needs to be involved? Beneficiaries, local government, implementing partners
etc. consider partnerships that will add value to your project and begin developing these from the outset
3. Capacity building – consider the most effective ways of building capacity of your target beneficiaries. Ask them
what their needs are.
4. Budgeting – have you involved your finance team from the outset of the project design process to ensure your
proposed budget is realistic?
PART 2: MONITORING PROJECT CHANGE
1. Theory of change – the why, how, who and what of your project following a logical flow
2. Measuring change – we need to be able to demonstrate the change the project will have on beneficiaries?
3. Monitoring, evaluation and learning – how will you establish a monitoring and evaluation strategy, and use learning
from the project?
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MONITORING AND EVALUATION
Consider…
1. What data you will need to collect
2. How you will collect it
3. What purpose will that data serve? i.e. what will you do with it once you’ve gathered it?
4. How will you triangulate and verify your project data?
5. How will you and your partners establish a reporting system? It will need to be practical
and feasible, informed by your capacity to collect data, analyse and use it
6. Will you carry out any evaluation activity? What would you like to evaluate within your
project and why?
7. How will you use monitoring and evaluation outputs for learning purposes?

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PART 3: GUIDING
PRINCIPLES

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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRONG PROJECT
DESIGN continued
PART 3: GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Gender and diversity – consider a range of areas your project aims to impact such as how boys and
men will be included in project activities, and how best your project seeks to support multiple exclusion
scenarios e.g. disability plus gender

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GENDER AND DIVERSITY
Consider…
1. How you will identify areas of potential resistance to gender-related change from
within the community that are relevant to your project
2. Realistic levels of time and effort to overcome such resistance so that you plan around
this
3. How best to reach people living with multiple exclusion factors
4. Articulating how girls and women will play an active role in decision-making or
management within your project scope, or as a result of your intervention
5. Clarifying the needs, perceptions and roles or men and boys in your project context

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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRONG PROJECT
DESIGN continued
PART 3: GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Gender and diversity – consider a range of areas your project aims to impact such as how boys and
men will be included in project activities, and how best your project seeks to support multiple exclusion
scenarios e.g. disability plus gender
2. Flexibility and adaptability– how will you ensure your project is able to flex and adapt to changes in
context?

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FLEXIBILITY AND ADAPTABILITY
Consider…
1. Testing assumptions and theory of change regularly
2. Developing a risk management plan to help mitigate against changes in
context that could negatively impact on your project’s ability to deliver
its intended outcomes
3. Developing and embedding a regular beneficiary feedback mechanism

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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRONG PROJECT
DESIGN continued
PART 3: GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Gender and diversity – consider a range of areas your project aims to impact such as how boys and
men will be included in project activities, and how best your project seeks to support multiple exclusion
scenarios e.g. disability plus gender
2. Flexibility and adaptability– how will you ensure your project is able to flex and adapt to changes in
context?
3. Sustainability – how will you ensure project beneficiaries are self-sufficient at the end of the project?

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SUSTAINABILITY
Consider…
1. Building sustainability into project interventions wherever possible. Strengthen
relationships with government
2. Working with beneficiary communities to have them engage in determining
what approaches to sustainability are possible
3. Strengthening/ including advocacy within your project interventions/ strategies
4. Carefully the ability of stakeholders to absorb recurring costs. Be realistic.
5. Assessing your project assumptions regularly and updating / adjusting your
sustainability strategy accordingly

The most sustainable projects are those whose beneficiaries are self-sufficient at
the end of the project.

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 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR STRONG PROJECT
DESIGN continued

PART 3: GUIDING PRINCIPLES

1. Gender and diversity – consider a range of areas your project aims to impact such as how boys and
men will be included in project activities, and how best your project seeks to support multiple exclusion
scenarios e.g. disability plus gender
2. Flexibility and adaptability– how will you ensure your project is able to flex and adapt to changes in
context?
3. Sustainability – how will you ensure project beneficiaries are self-sufficient at the end of the project?
4. Value for money – how can you best design your budget to be able to deliver your project efficiently
and effectively, making sure you include all potential costs needed?

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VALUE FOR MONEY

Consider…
1. Team approach - have included your whole team (finance, M&E etc) in
designing your project and budget to ensure it is realistic?
2. Context - different types of interventions and contexts result in
different value for money measurements

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THANK YOU
www.amplifychange.org

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