Proposals Have Price Tags

Over the last few months our partners have been working on a new way to identify the most strategic road investment projects in a three different Provinces. Last week I accompanied one group as they presented their proposed projects before various National Government Agencies.  NGAs are required to submit their budget proposals for 2015 within this month and our partners wanted to convince some of them to include their priority roads in their proposals.

I listened as they started their pitch by explaining their method for identifying what we have come to call “Strategic Road Links”. They applied the concept of Value Chain Analysis to trace the flow of strategic products for their target province (in this case, mango). They identified roads, regardless of classification, through which raw materials passed on its way to processing plants, consolidation points, local markets, and RoRo ports (for export to other Provinces and abroad).  Then they culled out segments of these road links that could be funded by different NGAs (for example, the Department of Agriculture could fund Farm-to-Market Roads while the Department of Public Roads and Highways could spend for national roads).

The Regional officers of the NGAs listened politely, and some enthusiastically. They like the VCA approach, and specially the fact that the roads they are being asked to fund actually connect to other roads that form a complete link between production areas, processors, consumers, and external markets.  

It turned out that one NGA, following its internal methods for prioritizing road investments, had also selected the same national roads proposed by our partners. Great!, we thought, some portions of the Province’s Strategic Road Links would be funded! Moreover, this NGA had already studied the selected roads and prepared estimates for the needed works. 

Other NGAs had no objections to the roads proposed for their funding. They had their own rules and procedures though, and they were kind enough to educate our partners about these. They assured our partners that if they could comply with the requirements (interestingly, one requirement was for geo-coded photos of the roads proposed for improvement) they would put these roads on their long list.

One common questions that came up across the different NGAs we visited was, “how much would the proposed road projects cost?”

To this question we had no answers. We had enough time to identify the most important road links, but we did not have enough time to make estimates for the necessary works that had to be done. Partners in other sites relied on their Engineering offices to prepare cost estimates and the more formal Program of Works and Estimates.

Later in the week I had a discussion about this with a mentor. He said that the price tag of a proposed project is certainly more than a formality. Of course it is the basis for appropriation of funds. In addition, being able to cite a cost to go with your proposal tells potential funders that you have thought your proposal through. It tells them you have worked out a way of carrying out what you intend to accomplish, and you have researched enough about the current situation (such as prices) to know how much your project will cost. 

The project cost estimate alone could be a decision point for a project. No matter how a project sounds good, if it’s too expensive for funders you might not be able to get all the financial support you’ll need. But cost does not necessarily have to be a killer. You can explore multi-year funding (another way of saying “installments”). Or you can look for cheaper ways to get things done. If that’s the case, then it’s back to the drawing board for you - and when see your funders again, be sure to bring the new price tag with you.