It's a tough environment out there.

Funding is in many areas declining, and donors are expecting more value-for-money. It's a results-focused environment, and every development dollar has to count.

So, How Do We Identify Projects That Donors Will Support?

Successful projects are focused on solving problems - and getting positive, measurable results for stakeholders.

Unfortunately, Many Organisations Seem To Be Focused On Activities Rather Than Positive Change.

Writing reports - we seem to do a lot of it.

And no-one can deny it matters - tracking outputs and progress towards higher-level results, helping management make decisions that steer projects, and of, course, accountability to our donors and other stakeholders - yes, reports do matter.

In over 20 years training people to write better, I know having an understanding of Professional Writing and following a writing process helps a great deal.

But I've Also Seen Many Humanitarian Workers - Managers Included - Don't Seem To Have A Logical Approach To Reporting.

As humanitarian and community development workers, we seem to do an awful lot of writing - proposals, field reports, evaluations, case studies ... reporting to donors and stakeholders on project results.

Of course, reporting is an important part of any MELS / accountability system. And while for many of us collecting and analysing the data isn't such an issue, communicating is - especially if English isn't our first language.

And are we supposed to write like those fancy UN reports we see when we are telling stories from the field?

And What Is Professional Writing Anyway?