Grant Cycle Phases & Tools
Grant Cycle Phases & Tools
We are constantly refining our approaches, management systems, and tools to increase the effectiveness, transparency, and impact of different types of funding facilities.
An emphasis on capacity building and skills transfer
We provide technical assistance to funding agencies and more importantly transfer skills to different funding facility owners such as national institutions and ministries, regional organisations or independent institutions. This includes aspects of good governance, maintaining calls for proposals, evaluation and the management of fund disbursement, procurement, technical monitoring especially for infrastructure projects and impact monitoring.
Given NIRAS’ interdisciplinary and broad technical expertise, we can provide capacity building of applicants and grantees in almost all sectors ranging from civil society organisations to private companies and local financial institutions. Having worked with different types of grantees/project developers, we can tailor capacity building support to grantees to ensure efficiency, a client-friendly service provision and sustainability, without ever compromising on good governance and human rights principles.
Adapting design to different sectors and local contexts
Thanks to our global office network, diverse sector expertise and long-term experience in working with national governments and private and civil society partners, we establish funds that reflect local needs and characteristics. We use our well-established partnerships with reputable local organisations and service providers to strengthen our capabilities in identifying local fund management team members, be effective, and ensure appropriate handling of social, financial and political risks associated with grant fund management. This enables us to understand and communicate in a manner that addresses the local context and detects risks well in advance.
Focusing on value addition and leverage
We are experienced in catalysing additional funding during fund implementation and increasingly focus on bridging the impact investment market. We build on our long-term engagement with national financial markets through our work on matching grant schemes and work to leverage and bridge sustainable financing opportunities by:
- Identifying synergies with similar projects and assessing possibilities for integrating additional finance from like-minded funding agencies and other funding agents e.g. philanthropic organisations, Trusts etc.;
- Creating forums, networks, etc., with impact investors and the like to establish contacts and investment opportunities; and
- Leveraging finance from private sources and existing financial institutions. We view matching grants as a mechanism to create ownership, sustainability and scalability.