December 23, 2014
Developing successful funding proposals can be a daunting task for new and inexperienced grants writers – especially among women and other traditionally underrepresented groups of civil society such as youth. To help address this disparity, the U.S. Embassy Sana’a’s Public Affairs Section in partnership with the local NGO ‘Foundation Support for Development (FSD)’ held a three-day workshop on December 21 in an effort to increase the role and participation of women, youth, and civil society in gaining access to a wide variety of assistance mechanisms. Participants from a diverse range of NGOs received tailored instruction and presented the class with a variety of case-studies highlighting and teaching the necessary skills and strategies to develop successful grant proposals.
Topics in the ‘Proposal Writing’ workshop, where instruction was delivered both in English and Arabic, included crafting a compelling proposal package, developing a well-organized budget, and researching a targeted list of funding prospects. Embassy instructor Hisham alOmeisy also combined group debate & analysis, case studies, a mock-proposal review panel with opportunities for discussion on the best practices for effective proposal writing, breaking out of the mold with innovative methods of idea pitching, avoiding common errors, and cultivating sources of institutional funding.
The workshop also provided a platform where the vast array of participants’ backgrounds from NGOs such as Holool Foundation To Fight Poverty & Unemployment, Yamaan Foundation for Health & Social Development, Hemmat Shabab Foundation (Encouraging Youth Innovation), and Wujoh for Media Development, shared experiences and exchanged ideas, further enriching the group discussions with the many and individually presented cases and hence enhancing the overall lessons learned from the workshop intended to transfer knowledge, skills and abilities.
The ‘Proposal Writing’ workshop is one of the modules of the embassy’s Information Resource Center-developed “Becoming the Source in Resource” training program which also includes ‘Project Management Essentials’, ‘Communication Skills’, and ‘Internet Research Techniques’ amongst other capacity building modules publicly offered to the Yemeni people by the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants were given certificates of completion along with training materials that included general guides on writing grant proposals.
