Project cycle

At the heart of Close the Gap’s operations is the Project Management Team. The Project Management Team both identifies and evaluates project proposals, as well as it supervises and executes the roll-out of the project.

On the field, it is the Project Management Team who acts as mediator between the local and national authorities on the one hand and NGOs, educational and development organisations on the other.

Close the Gap follows strict guidelines in supporting individual projects. All Close the Gap projects are good-governance initiatives and civil-society aims, while collaboration with commercial initiatives is shied away from.

For Close the Gap to collaborate with a project, a number of strict requirements need to be met. Only through the availability of at least a certain level of IT knowledge and proficiency (both hardware and software) an initiative can be implemented to its full potential. Cooperation with the local authorities, such as the ministries of education, finance and development cooperation, needs to be in place. It is Close the Gap’s aim to negotiate a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with the proper (educational) authorities in order to ensure that the project is executed in an efficient and sustainable way. In this regard, Close the Gap tries to collaborate with recognised local NGOs with experience in the roll-out of community-based projects. Local NGO support assures the continuity of the project in the long run.

All projects have to pass a strict evaluation by the acceptance committee before they are considered.