Programme and Operations Policies and Procedures

 

​The Organizational Unit Restructuring Policy sets out UNDP’s human resources policy governing the restructuring of organizational units, including special placement of staff and selection measures. The Organizational Restructuring policy establishes one single policy to manage the restructuring which:

• Establishes clear roles, responsibilities and accountability for restructures of units organization-wide;
• Provides a clear and simple process easily understood by different stakeholders;
• Establishes a process agile enough to be effective in different organizational contexts (HQ and field);
• Streamlines and increases flexibility in the restructuring process;
• Ensures consistency, transparency, efficiency and fairness;
• Significantly increases the speed of restructuring;
• Provides safeguards for staff affected by restructuring and facilitates placement and selection of staff into new positions;
• Ensures the restructuring process is aligned with, and leverages the benefits of, other related new processes such as mobility, talent reviews, and rank-in-post plus

​The policy has been updated to align references to awards with the Innovation Challenges policy and with the Performance-Based Payments policy.

​The ICF policy and ICF Operational Guide have been updated to incorporate references to the new Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Policy (AML/CFT Policy). The AML/CFT Policy is referenced in the list of Supportive Tools in Annex 2, point 1 Integrity and Ethical Values on page 20 in the ICF policy and a new section 2.9 Mitigating risks associated with money laundering and terrorist financing has been added on page 12 of the ICF Operational Guide.

​The updated RMT reflects the approval of the two-tiered approach for the shielding of the development activities for the budget period 2018-2021 and extended it to the 2022-2025 budget period.

The RFQ, RFP (for services $200K and above) and ITB templates have been updated to align with the new Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Policy (AML/CFT Policy) and now includes ‘ultimate beneficial owners’ as follows: (i) In the procurement self-certification sections in the RFQ template in Section 2: RFQ Instructions and Data, Eligibility and in Annex 2: Quotation Submission Form, Bidder’s Declaration, Prohibition, Sanctions. (ii) In Section 2. Instructions to Bidders, A. General Provisions, 3. Eligibility in paragraph 3.2 in the RFP template (for services $200K and above) and in the ITB templates. For AML/CFT purposes (FATF Recommendation 24), the definition of ultimate beneficial owners focuses on the natural persons behind corporate entities. Ultimate beneficial owner means a natural person that exercises control over an entity through direct or indirect ownership, or has other means of influencing the Bidder such as through financing, close family relationships with the owners of the Bidder or through holding key positions within the Bidder. The updated templates are linked in paragraph 4 of the Solicitation policy.

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• Staff members are encouraged to take at least half of the annual leave they are entitled to in each year and to take it in a reasonable period of continuous annual leave;
• The policy has been updated to reflect that staff can now take seven uncertified sick leave days continuously; and
• The policy has been updated to reflect the fact that staff who are able to do so are expected to work remotely in the event of office closure, rather than having paid time off.
  

​The purpose of the Personal Data Protection and Privacy policy is to guide project/programme implementation when handling data, to be embedded throughout the data lifecycle to ensure UNDP implements the highest ethical standards for data protection and privacy. Protection of personal data is essential to upholding fundamental rights to privacy and the UN system-wide personal data protection and privacy principles. Strong policies on personal data protection and privacy, and on information handling and classification are critical for operating efficiently, considering opportunities and risks in the use of personal data, including in combination with evolving technologies.

​The UNDP Security Applicability Guideline is now available in French and Spanish. To access the French and Spanish versions click on the respective language tab. The guideline is located in step 2 of the Security Policy procedures.

​The Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) policy has been harmonized with the Social and Environmental Standards (SES) policy. The risk sub-categories in the Quantum + corporate planning system (capturing programme level risks) and in the Atlas project risk registers are now fully aligned with the project-level social and environmental standards. To align the risk entry systems, a slight rewording of ten risk sub-categories has been made and the risk sub-category on “Cultural Heritage” has been re-introduced in the relevant annexes of the ERM policy, Risk Appetite Statement and Risk Appetite Statement Guidance. 

​The project risk register template has been updated in Step 3.3 of the procedures to align with the updated Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) policy which has been harmonized with the Social and Environmental Standards (SES) policy. The risk sub-categories in the Quantum + corporate planning system (capturing programme level risks) and in the Atlas project risk registers are now fully aligned with the project-level social and environmental standards. The offline project risk register template (Annex 2) is aligned with the risk entry system in the Quantum + corporate planning system and with the risk appetite to risk significance in the risk matrix (Annex 3).

​The policy has been updated to add a new section on “Monitoring of Evaluation Plan implementation” (paragraphs 25-28). The updated guideline includes the process and content of annual and mid-year review of the evaluation plan; guidelines on the expected timeline for oversight; and monitoring roles and responsibilities of the country office, regional bureau, Bureau of policy and programme and independent evaluation office. 

​The policy has been updated to add a new section on “Evaluation Report” (paragraphs 11-15). This section provides guidance on objective and use of evaluation reports along with guidance on review and finalization of reports like Inception report, final report, Management Response to evaluation.

​Updates were made in the policy to reflect UNDP Evaluation Guidelines as follows: (1) Under new programme development, paragraph 20 has been added providing guidance to the submission of CPD-costed evaluation plans; (2) Planning for evaluation section is updated with the addition of three new paragraphs 39, 40, 41 to address UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 requirements on the need of strategic evaluations; to inform on Independent country programme evaluations and reflect accountability for the development of CPD evaluation plan.

​The policy has been updated related to Programme Assessment and Appraisal to add references (1) a review of UNDP’s comparative strengths and mandate that effectively integrated into the Cooperation framework Theory of Change (paragraph 12); (2) to the importance of learning from any past evaluation results into the formulation of the new country programme design (paragraph 14).

​The GMS rate table and contents are updated to reflect (i) Executive Board Decision on 5% for Individuals, (ii) OPG approval on applying 7% for Government Cost Sharing where UNDP provides support services to the government in its capacity as a Global Fund grant recipient, (iii) abbreviation changed from GFATM to GF, (iv) approval authority from Chief Finance Officer to BMS Director and (v) the updated table for Direct costs vs. Indirect costs from PPM.