Concept Paper

Planning and Conceptualizing Social Advocacy for Developing an ICT Project

by Mrs. Donna Belle G. Mercado

​Planning and Conceptualizing Social Advocacy

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​ICT serves as the steppingstone for the economic, social, industrial growth and development of the first world countries around the globe.

​Thus, ICT is generally seen as an advantageous instrument to provide better and cheaper ways of communication and promote changes that to enables the generation of new knowledge and equipping the people with the relevant skills needed. Hence, ICT projects undergoes deep research, inquiry and studies before implemented that is why planning and conceptualizing are vital for any projects.

Planning and Conceptualizing the Content

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Always start with the ends in mind. Generate your own ideas about content and identify various opportunities based on your target audience. Have a clear plan of actions, responsibilities, work requirements, timeframe and budget if needed. Set a SMART goal to target

​Specific –(What do you want to do or want to achieve?) ​Set a real goal that is direct, detailed and meaningful. Make sure that your goals are focused and can identify a concrete outcome. Your goal will be at risk or vague without the specifics of the goal, because knowing what you wanted to achieve is knowing the leverage to success.

​Measurable – (When will you know when you reach it? What are the signs of your success?) – Make sure that you goal is trackable and quantifiable. Defining your own definition of “success” will aid you to estimate your current achievement level on reaching your specific goals.

​Attainable – (Is it possible for you to reach your goal?) Work towards a goal that is challenging but possible and doable. Check if you have the tools or resources that will help you to achieve and attain your goals.

​Realistic – (Are your current skills enough to reach your goal?) Knowing yourself is the key to your success. Be honest with yourself and know your capabilities and the things that you cannot do. Be realistic toward your goals as well as on your capacity to do.

​Time-Bound- (When exactly do you plan to accomplish it?) Give yourself a deadline. Every goal should have a target date to finish. Having deadlines motivates oneself to do more efficiently and helps you to be focused in reaching your goals

​Concept Paper

​Concept papers are summaries of projects or issues that contemplate interests, experience and expertise that commonly serves as a purpose of delivering an in-depth discussion of a certain topic that a person has a strong position on. The terms "concept paper”, “proposal" or “abstract” are often used inter-changeably as they can be used for the same function.

​Concept paper can also be used as a mainstream educational tool to develop and to create solution to a certain problem or issue. Moreover, concept paper provides guidance for the implementation of a project, concept paper carries and gives good practices, viewpoint, advocacy, belief and values or other correlated issues that needs and promotes action to be taken in the future.

​Your concept paper can range from (2) two to (3) three pages for a small research project to up to 20 pages for immense research projects. For the formatting of concept paper it is suggested to be the following: a) the font style should be formal such as Times New Roman, Garamond, Baskerville or similar Serif typefaces.; b) the line and paragraph spacing should be in double space; and c) the font size should be at 12 points.

​Key Points on making your Concept Paper

1. Rise with a concept topic or idea that you are genuinely interested.

2. Write down the questions associated the topic or idea you have chosen.

3. Create a possible solution from each of the questions that you have developed.

4. Classify what kind of data you need that will answer your questions and identity how will gather the information needed.

5. Identify how you will analyze, interpret, and present the overall data you gathered.

​Elements of a Concept Paper for Social Advocacy

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​1. Title Page – The title of your concept paper will serve a lot in terms of getting the audience interest, so make sure to have a short but a catchy and interesting title of your chosen topic.

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​2. Introduction - This element of concept paper serves as the most important part of your concept paper. You must keep on pursuing an adding value to convince the reader about your project’s mission and vision.

3. Purpose – This element of concept paper includes the reasons why your chosen project or advocacy campaign is worth all the time effort and money. You need to make a strong atmosphere of purpose.

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4. Description - This element of concept paper includes all the necessary information, data and details about your project. This element talks about the steps and procedure on how you will do things properly

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​5. Support – This element of concept paper contains your budget needed for the project. Every project needed funds to be published and materialized their certain cause, thus support from a sponsor/s necessary to be consider.

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​6. Contact Information – The element of concept paper that includes information on how the you can be contacted. These includes the following (but not limited to): a) name/s of the creator/s, b) address, c) phone or telephone number, d) email address, and e) website.