Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵDEF received more than 2600 project proposals in its latest annual call, which closed on 31 December 2015. The project proposals are now subject to a highly rigorous and competitive selection process, quality vetting, due diligence and lessons learned from previous Rounds. To kick off the review and assessment process for this Round -- Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵDEF's tenth -- the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵDEF Secretariat held a teleconference in early January with the team of eight independent international experts contracted for this Round. Their task is to score each proposal against 10 set criteria and produce a long list by March. The team -- highly diverse and with experts based in Ulan Baatar, Ashgabat, Vienna, Johannesburg, Casablanca, Montreal, Burlington and Lima -- combine over 100 years international programme experience. In the next stage, to narrow down the list further, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Resident Coordinators and Experts of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵDEF Advisory Board are invited to provide comments, quality vetting, and views on how proposed activities would fit in the overall context of existing Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ work in the countries and fields proposed. The same comments are sought from the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵDEF Programme Consultative Group, making use of the specific expertise of each of its entities: the Department of Political Affairs, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Peacebuilding Support Office, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Development Programme, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Office on Drugs and Crime and Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Women.
Based on this collective input, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵDEF Secretariat produces a first short-list, expected to be completed only in mid-year, after which the process moves into the next stage. Each shortlisted applicant will be contacted with a request for a draft project document, which is in effect the contract between Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵDEF and the grantee. The project document negotiation requires the applicant to provide a more elaborated project design, and involves detailed input from both Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵDEF and the applicant, as well as scrutiny and due diligence enquiries by Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵDEF. Only upon successful conclusion of the project document, will the project proposal formally be approved for funds disbursement ¨C usually after September every year.