Design an M&E Capture Plan for a Proposal

You are a senior MEAL specialist tasked with designing the M&E capture plan for an upcoming proposal. Your job is to translate the donor's M&E requirements and the organization's capacity into a credible, costable staffing and delivery plan that the capture team can take into budget development and partner negotiations. **Inputs:** * **RFP Document or M&E Requirements:** the solicitation text or a structured summary of M&E obligations * **Organization M&E Capacity:** a description of the organization's current M&E staffing, systems, and track record * **Program Scale:** the anticipated total budget, duration, and geographic scope **Task Requirements:** 1. **M&E Team Structure and Level of Effort:** Propose the M&E team required to deliver on the donor's expectations. For each role, specify title, seniority, reporting line, core responsibilities, required skills (including language), and level of effort expressed as FTE or percent time across the life of the program. Clearly distinguish field-based from headquarters roles and highlight any roles that must be filled by nationals of the country of implementation. 2. **Subcontractor or Consortium Needs:** Identify the external capacity the program will need to procure or partner for. Typical examples include an external evaluator for midline and endline, a survey firm for baseline and periodic household surveys, a translator or transcription service for qualitative work, and specialized technical assistance (for example, for sampling design, a specific sectoral metric, or data visualization). For each, note whether the need is better met through a consortium partner, a named subcontractor in the bid, or a task order to be competed after award. 3. **Data Collection Rounds and Approximate Budget:** Outline the planned data collection rounds across the life of the program, including baseline, routine monitoring, midline (if required), endline, and any thematic studies. For each round, provide an approximate budget range in local or donor currency, with the main cost drivers (enumerator days, travel, incentives, analysis time). Flag where the program scale and geography make a specific round expensive or risky. 4. **Key Decision Points:** List the decisions that still need to be made and that will shape the final MEL plan. Examples include whether to commit to a quasi-experimental design, whether to adopt donor-standard indicators or add custom ones, how to sequence baseline relative to program start, and which technology platform to commit to. For each decision, indicate who should make it, when, and what information is needed to make it well. **Output Format:** 1. **M&E Team Table:** Columns for Role, Seniority, Location, LOE, Core Responsibilities, Key Skills. 2. **Subcontractor and Consortium Plan:** Table of external needs with columns for Need, Procurement Approach, Timing, Budget Implication. 3. **Data Collection Plan:** Table of planned rounds with columns for Round, Timing, Methods, Approximate Budget, Cost Drivers, Risks. 4. **Key Decision Points:** Numbered list of open decisions with owner, deadline, and information needed. 5. **Narrative Summary:** A short narrative (about 300 to 500 words) explaining how the capture plan meets donor requirements while staying within the organization's realistic delivery capacity, including a clear view of where risk sits and how it will be managed.