A project document may be revised at any time by agreement among the signatories to the document, the donor, UN pooled fund steering committee and/or vertical fund, as relevant, and following consultation with the project board. The purpose of the revision is to make substantive or financial adjustments and improvements to the project. Restrictions apply for GEF- and GCF-financed projects.
According to Rule 121.01 paragraph (a) of the UNDP Financial regulations and Rules (as amended on January 1, 2012), the Chief Procurement Officer of UNDP is accountable to the Administrator for all procurement functions of UNDP for all its locations, except for those procurement actions governed by paragraph (c). The Chief Procurement Officer may further delegate authority to staff at headquarters and other locations, as may be appropriate in fulfilling the purposes of these rules.
Projects should be closed in a timely manner to manage fiduciary risk, meet donor expectations, avoid costly extensions and enable the timely transfer of assets for the sustainability of results. Closing a project requires assessing overall performance, quality and lessons learned, and necessary handover to ensure sustainability.
A legal obligation arising from a contract, agreement or other form of undertaking by UNDP or based on a liability recognized by UNDP, either against the resources of the current year in respect to UNDP programme activities or against the current budget period in respect to the institutional budget
Under a project, a contract is an agreement between the implementing partner and another institution, private firm, individual or NGO to carry out specific activities, or to provide specific goods or services. Contracting is used where the parties agree that it would be the most cost-effective way of achieving the desired results.
Cash or in-kind resources (the latter being in the form of goods, services, or real property) provided to UNDP. Contributions are used to cover UNDP programme activities as well as programme support, management and administration, and support to operational activities of the United Nations, including costs associated with the administration of contributions received for special purposes; costsharing - a co-financing modality under which contributions from Other resources can be received as a supplement to Regular resources for specific UNDP programme activities, under the relevant cooperation framework.
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.