A UNDP knowledge product is “a branded published piece offering new insights and analysis that advances learning or increases understanding about a development issue and leads to improved development policies, programmes, practices, products, skills and competencies.” It is produced for the purpose of informing or influencing decision-makers, professionals or the interested public. Knowledge products may be classified under eight types: report, technical paper, guidance material, contributing paper, findings, dataset, brief, and think piece.
Quality assurance for UNDP knowledge products is a three step online process conducted by the Issuing Office. The Issuing Office appoints a Knowledge Product Focal Point who: a)Submits the planned knowledge product details (scope of work, budget, target audience etc.); b)Once the knowledge product is produced, assesses it against the quality standards, and c)Uploads the product for publishing on UNDP's public site. Two key decision points in the process certify the product meets the criteria. It is the role of the Approver, the authorizing officer within the issuing office, to: a) “Approve” is when the approver -the authorizing officer- certifies that the knowledge product has been adequately justified and its design details have been satisfactorily thought through to proceed with the production stage, and
b) “Clear” is when the approver certifies that the product fully meets UNDP’s quality standards and can be finalized and issued. At each step the authorizing officer signs off on the Online Quality Assurance process.
Following its publication, the issuing office is also able to track and monitor the impact and the performance of the published knowledge product.
All UNDP knowledge products must meet six quality standards: (1) the product is relevant to the organization’s or programme’s priorities; (2) the product demonstrates thought leadership; (3) the product is well-designed and internally consistent; (4) the product is assured of reaching its intended audience; (5) the intended impacts are clear and measurable; (6) an appropriate roll-out plan is included. To certify these standards are met, the approver/authorizing officer signs a Quality Standards Certification form through the online quality assurance process.
A set of nodes that run containerized applications. Containerizing applications packages an app with its dependences and some necessary services. They are more lightweight and flexible than virtual machines. In this way, Kubernetes clusters allow for applications to be more easily developed, moved, and managed. Kubernetes clusters allow containers to run across multiple machines and environments: virtual, physical, cloud-based, and on-premises. Kubernetes containers are not restricted to a specific operating system, unlike virtual machines. Instead, they can share operating systems and run anywhere.
The order of magnitude of the Regular Resources expected to be available from UNDP during a specified period for the financing of UNDP programme activities at the country level.
A TA is a staff appointment governed by the amended UN Staff Regulations and Rules for activities expected to be of a finite and temporary duration not exceeding one year and 364 calendar days.
Terminal expenses include all expenditures for transportation between the air terminal or other point of arrival or departure, and the hotel or place of dwelling, including transfer of baggage, and other incidental expenses. It should be paid as part of the travel advance or the travel claim settlement. No receipts are required for standard terminal expenses.
A termination of appointment is a separation from service initiated by the Organization (see UN Staff Regulation 9.3 and Staff Rule 9.6 for the purpose of: a) ending the continuing or permanent appointment of a staff member prior to the mandatory age of separation; or b) ending the temporary appointment or fixed-term appointment of a staff member prior to the date of expiration of the appointment.
The document included in the RFP which describes the objectives, scope of services, activities, tasks to be performed, respective responsibilities of the proposer, expected results and deliverables and other data pertinent to the performance of the range of duties and services expected of the successful proposer.
Thematic Trust Funds are a type of open trust fund. They are a flexible co-financing modality designed to help UNDP align and focus its programmes around its goals, and to provide donors with an opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to this process.
Staff members who are nursing mothers may leave the office up to two times a day to breastfeed their infant(s) or express milk outside the workplace. The maximum duration of absence for such purposes is: a) Two hours away from the office (including travel time) when the infant is one year old or younger; or b) One hour away from the office (including travel time) when the infant is between one and two years If a nursing mother has more than one breastfeeding infant, the maximum duration for leaving the office as specified above may be increased by up to 30 minutes for each additional infant.
Tolerance is the permissible deviation from a plan (in terms of time and cost) without bringing the deviation to the attention of the next higher authority .
The project can fund training to contribute to expected results and the capacity development strategy. Key policies and principles are: a. Participants in training are project beneficiaries and government staff; b. UNDP programme resources may not be used for training UNDP staff alone; c. Sitting fees cannot be paid for training, although UNDP may finance travel and allowances for participants who live somewhere other than where the training event takes place; e. The implementing partner must establish procedures to ensure that the best-qualified candidates are selected for training; f. The employer, normally the government, is responsible for ensuring that the participant puts the training to good use to achieve results.
Recorded at a chart field level in all Quantum financial systems, and ultimately as the data pass from one system to another, it is summarized by chart field in the General Ledger.
Movement of a staff member from one organization to another under conditions which give the staff member no right to return to the releasing organization.
While UNDP country, regional and global programmes have fixed time durations, they build on the results achieved in the last programme to transition into the new one. It is mandatory to transition from one programme to the next by carefully considering the achievements, challenges and lessons learned of the current programme in developing the theory of change of the new programme.
Transitional NCCs are defined as countries with 2012-2015 average GNI per capita greater than $12,475 for the first time compared to its status in the previous biennial budget period.
Transparency is a key principle underlying accountability. Duties and responsibilities should be clearly defined and staff members should be seen to accept and carry out these responsibilities.(f) Transparency refers to a process by which reliable, timely information about existing conditions, decisions and actions relating to the activities of the organization is made accessible, visible and understandable.
The travel claim is a post-travel report that the traveller is required to submit to the authorizing unit within two weeks from completion of travel when their travel is organized and paid for by UNDP. The travel claim provides appropriate documentation that the travel occurred; enables the traveller to claim reimbursement of additional travel expenses; and, should the travel advance have exceeded the amount of reimbursable expenses, enables the traveller to repay the amount of overpayment.
Travel expenses that shall be paid or reimbursed by the UNDP under the relevant provisions of the Staff Rules include: a) Transportation expenses; b) Terminal expenses; c) Daily subsistence allowance (DSA); d) Miscellaneous expenses.