A financial authorization issued by the Administrator to an official or to a unit to incur commitments for specific purposes relating to the institutional budget and within specified limits, during a definite period;
A subdivision of the appropriations for which a specific amount is shown in the appropriate decision and within which the Administrator is authorized to make transfers without prior approval;
The total amount approved by the Executive Board for specified purposes for the current institutional budget against which commitments may be incurred for those purposes up to the amounts so approved. The appropriations are divided into “appropriations lines”, for each of which a specific amount is shown in the appropriate decision adopted for each budget period by the Executive Board and within which the Administrator is authorized to make transfers without prior approval.
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.
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
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.
Category of costs associated with “programmes” and “development effectiveness” activities which contribute to the effective delivery of development results, as follows:
a) programmes: category of costs associated with specific programme components or projects that contribute to delivery of development results contained in country/regional/global programme documents or other programming arrangements;
b) development effectiveness: category of costs associated with activities of a policy, advisory, technical and implementation nature that are needed for achievement of the objectives of programmes and projects in the focus areas of the organizations. These inputs are essential to the delivery of development results, and are not included in specific programme components or projects in country, regional or global programme documents.
Development effectiveness projects deliver outputs that UNDP designs and oversees to contribute to the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of results across multiple development projects. Such projects should be used for cross-cutting interventions that set standards; generate and share knowledge and learning; and develop and operationalize development policies. Institutional effectiveness projects manage inputs and activities that enable UNDP to contribute to development results.
A development project is a time-bound instrument to deliver outputs that contribute to outcome-level development change reflected in the programme, along with the results delivered by other projects and instruments.
Delivers outputs, activities and/or inputs towards a result for which a partner is accountable for strategy, design and project quality assurance. UNDP is only responsible for the quality of development services provided, not the entire initiative.
A method of financing the budget of a partner country through a transfer of resources from an external financing agency to the national treasury of the partner government. The funds thus transferred are managed in accordance with the recipient’s budgetary procedures. This includes using the national regulatory framework for financial allocations, procurement and accounting systems.
Organizational costs that are directly linked to the project budgets, achievement of development results and arise from the implementation of projects and programmes funded from regular and other resources. Direct costs of programme, administrative and operational support activities, that are part of the project input like: * Programmatic activities (as listed in the project document, including goods and services); * Project management;
* Project communications, advocacy, and funding partner visibility * Independent audit and Evaluation * Quality Assurance (QA) services; * Monitoring, baseline data collection, surveys and evaluation of projects; * Project briefings and technical guidance for project stakeholders; * Project meetings, progress, and final reporting;
* Donor-specific reporting; * Support to implementing and responsible parties;
* HACT assessments and all assurance activities; * Project supervision and coordination; * Programme coordination; * Policy advice and Quality Assurance ; * Risk management; * Activities leading to project closure (checklist); * Administrative, operational, and other shared services; * Contingency
The engagement facility provides a rapid and flexible response mechanism to support upstream policy results, evaluation and assessments, crisis responses and the testing of innovations with scale-up potential. It must support results identified in the UNDP Strategic Plan and relevant country or regional programme documents. Any country office, regional hub or Bureau may establish one or more engagement facilities in accordance with this policy. Resources can be committed by the programme manager/Resident Representative by signing the updated multi-year workplan maintained for the engagement facility. The facility always uses direct implementation. Terms of reference and concept notes, as relevant, are required to justify and detail expected results.
Includes disbursements and accruals for goods and services received, and the use or impairment of assets, dependent on the implementation arrangement and in accordance with administrative instructions issued by the Comptroller for a financial period.
UNDP programming comprises the planning, implementation, reporting and evaluation of development results achieved with partners through UNDP support. A UNDP programme is a plan for effectively contributing to outcome level development results through UNDP’s project modalities: development projects, the engagement facility and development services.
According to Article 17 of UNDP’s financial regulations, an implementing partner is “the entity to which the Administrator has entrusted the implementation of UNDP assistance specified in a signed document along with the assumption of full responsibility and accountability for the effective use of UNDP resources and the delivery of outputs, as set forth in such document.
The costs incurred by the organization in support of programmes or projects that cannot be directly attributed to such specific programmes or projects.
Innovation challenges solicit ideas and solutions to address development challenges. Innovation challenges: (a) often include stakeholders who are not necessarily affected by the development challenge, but well placed to develop solutions, including private sector actors; (b) typically limit themselves to the generation or testing of ideas, but not their implementation; (c) can be awarded directly by the head of office for grants up to $40,000 without further review. See the policy on innovation challenges. 29. Innovation challenges can be done in projects directly implemented by UNDP or when UNDP provides support services to national implementation (COS services). Low-value grants can be used in parallel to other engagement types with responsible parties or as part of a dedicated grant project.
Covers the estimates as approved by the Executive Board relating to the activities and associated costs in the cost categories of development effectiveness, United Nations Development Coordination, management and special purpose.
Institutional effectiveness projects manage inputs and activities that enable UNDP to contribute to development results. This type of project does not require a project document and can operate on a continuing basis. An annual workplan and budget must be prepared and approved by staff with appropriate delegation of authority
The difference between current assets and current liabilities. In the specific context of UNDP, this shall normally be taken to mean the sum of working capital and reserves.
UNDP defines low-value grants (also known as micro-capital grants) as cash awards - selected via programmatic decisions - to civil society and non-governmental partners intended to generate and solicit development solutions for which no repayment is typically required.
Categories of costs in which the primary function is the promotion of the identity, direction and well-being of an organization. These include executive direction, representation, external relations and partnerships, corporate communications, legal, oversight, audit, corporate evaluation, information technology, finance, administration, security and human resources. This includes both activities and associated costs of a recurring and non-recurring nature.
The financial assistance provided to an intermediary which includes
nongovernmental or grass roots organizations in an amount not exceeding$150,000 for each individual grant.
PCAT is a mandatory tool that includes a partner pre-requisite checklist and capacity assessment scoping to assist project developers to determine which capacity assessments (if any) need to be completed before the project is finalized and approved.
Performance-based payments (PBPs) are a type of agreement between UNDP and a responsible party to provide funding upon the verified achievement of an agreed measurable development result. No advances are provided, rather payments are made only upon the verified achievement of agreed results. This approach gives greater incentive to responsible parties to achieve results.
UNDP staff and other persons engaged by UNDP under other contractual arrangements to perform services for UNDP programme activities or for programme support.
A portfolio is a programming delivery instrument, which contributes to one or more country programme outcomes and engages one or more implementing partners to address system level challenges for strategic development results.
The document approved by the Executive Board that describes the framework for UNDP programme activities, and indicates the proposed UNDP resources to achieve results during a specified period. Programme documents are prepared at the country level in cooperation with the Government of that country, as well as at regional and global levels.
The purpose of appraisal is to review the quality and feasibility of the programme or project and advise on its readiness for approval. Appraisal applies to UNDP programmes (country and regional) as well as all development projects. It does not apply to institutional effectiveness projects, development effectiveness projects, the engagement facility or development services.
UNDP Financial Regulations and Rules document defines 'property, plant and equipment' as tangible assets held for use in the activities of UNDP or for administrative purposes and expected to be used during more than one financial period. The Property, Plant and Equipment (PP&E) policy document provides further details of the term 'property, plant and equipment' as a tangible or physically verifiable item that meets ALL the following five criteria: a) Provides future economic or service benefits to UNDP – i.e. the PP&E item is held for use in the implementation of UNDP Programmes or for administrative purposes; b) Is expected to be used during more than one reporting period, which, is 12 months; c) Has a value of US$5,000 (US$5,000 for UNCDF too) or more (New Capitalization Threshold effective as of 01.01.2020); d) Is used and controlled by UNDP; and e) Has a cost that can be reliably determined.
The resources of UNDP that are comingled and untied. These will include voluntary
contributions, contributions from other governmental, intergovernmental or nongovernmental sources and related interest earnings and miscellaneous revenue.
Any organization that is legally constituted and duly registered may become a responsible party for a UNDP project where UNDP is the implementing partner or providing country office support to the implementing partner (and that support involves contracting a responsible party for certain activities). This includes government agencies, intergovernmental organizations, private firms, other UN agencies, or civil society organizations, including non-governmental organizations, advocacy groups, state-owned enterprises and academia.
Any organization that is legally constituted and duly registered may become a responsible party for a UNDP project where UNDP is the implementing partner or providing country office support to the implementing partner (and that support involves contracting a responsible party for certain activities). This includes government agencies, intergovernmental organizations, private firms, other UN agencies, or civil society organizations, including non-governmental organizations, advocacy groups, state-owned enterprises and academia. The same policies and procedures for selecting civil society organizations as Responsible Parties are used for private and non-governmental academic institutions and foundations (notwithstanding their form of ownership, i.e., public or private) and state-owned enterprises.
Refers to the financial contribution to a government budget, managed in a national account by a government entity for a specific set of sector or programme results.
UNDP selects one implementing partner for each project in consultation with the government coordinating agency. This is also the case for project portfolios; one implementing partner is selected for each project within the portfolio, while more than one implementing partner can be part of a portfolio (directly and nationally implemented projects may be part of the same portfolio). In multi-country and South-South projects, one implementing partner can be selected per country.
Categories of costs of a cross-cutting nature that (a) involve material capital
investments, or (b) do not represent a cost related to the management activities of the organization.
UNDP may provide support services for any implementing partner, called Country Office Support (COS). These can include delivering specified outputs, implementing select project activities, contracting a responsible party on behalf of the implementing partner, or providing procurement, recruitment, payment or other services. COS is specified and agreed between UNDP and the implementing partner through a signed letter of agreement.
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.
UNDP Financial Regulations and Rules (FRR) govern the financial management of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and shall, unless otherwise provided by the General Assembly or the Executive Board or as otherwise specified in these Regulations and the annexes thereto, apply to all resources administered by UNDP and to all the Funds and Programmes administered by the Administrator.
Resources credited to the UNDP Regular Resources Account or Other Resources Account and therefore excludes resources credited to the UNDP Funds Account.
Contributions to UNDP Regular Resources from Governments of States Members of the United Nations, of the specialized agencies or of the International Atomic Energy Agency;