[continued from the main page]
The justification or rationale is critical in the proposal because it is one place in which you try to convince the donors that the project is worth doing. This section is also named as problem statement since we will define the competition of the problem and its solution here. You can give a precise description of the problematic situation by using quotes, live examples, references, research data and press articles which would be very helpful. If it is a well know problem, such as policy decision or efficiency of service, you may compare the local problem to other societies to show the donors that the problem happening in your society is more severe than other regions. On the other hand, you will need to convince the donors that the solutions you propose will solve the problem with efficiency, and have higher possibilities of success or goal reaching.
You may convince them by describing how the results could be used, and these factors could be considered:
- may resolve questions from people in your area
- may change the life of the people living locally
- may influence the governmental policy decision making
- may develop new and effective democracy patterns in your area
If there are other contributions your research will make, you may describe them in detail. You may also compare your solutions to those projects that have been earlier funded or reported to show the advantages of your project. The following is an example:
Improving the Governmental Policy Decision Making in Mumbai – Statement/Justification/Rationale
One of the important components of democracy is that the governmental policy decision making is transparent and with the involvement of the public. But what happens in the Mumbai government does not show the signs of democracy as the decision-making was always performed solely by governmental officers, which is a worst condition compared to the neighboring societies. To solve this problem, we propose to conduct surveys to identify the problem and to promote conversations between the government and the local populations. Similar strategies have been used and applied in other societies and have been found to be great successes in promoting democracy in governmental policy making (references needed showing the statements are true and referable). We expect that after two years of our efforts, the involvement of local populations to the governmental decision makings will be improved and placed into regular practices.
