Writing Problem Statement/Project Rationale in a Proposal

The Problem Statement/Project Rationale gives an explanation about the issue that is being addressed by the project. It also argues in favour of implementing the project in the proposed area in the existing conditions. It is very critical that we give evidence to what we are writing in this section of the proposal. Evidence can be in form of other research, existing literature or data collected by the organization itself. The following are some important points that need to be remembered while developing the Problem Statement/Project Rationale:

- Problem Statement/Project Rationale is a brief analysis or summary of the problems identified relating to the project or issue to be addressed by the project.

- It has to be precise and point-to-point basis.

- Use of quotes, live examples, references, research data and press articles would be very helpful.

- It has to be very specific to donor issues and priorities.

- Giving references to other NGOs, Governmental work in the area working against the same problem would be useful.

Some common information we use in this section includes:

Country, region, area details (location in region, government, population etc);

Poverty information, including information on the state of the economy,

Employment/unemployment;

Gender issues;

HIV/AIDS situation;

Health and education