Glossary | United Nations Development Programme

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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.

Source: UNDP Financial Regulations and Rules

B

The Bank Reconciliation process enables the verification of entries on the bank statement by reconciling that information with external transactions and also system generated transactions in Payables, Receivables, Payroll and General Ledger. During the bank reconciliation process external transactions can be created for bank originated entries such as bank charges and interest.

Source: Bank Account Reconciliation

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A cash flow forecast is a short term projection of cash movement and its implications for the liquidity position of an organization. Depending on the size of the organization and business purpose, the time horizon for the forecast can be daily, (also called daily cash positioning), monthly, quarterly, and annually, on a rolling basis.

Source: Management of Cash Planning/Forecasting of Cash Flows
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.

Source: UNDP Financial Regulations and Rules
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.

Source: UNDP Financial Regulations and Rules

D

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.

Source: UNDP Financial Regulations and Rules
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.

Source: UNDP Financial Regulations and Rules

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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.

Source: UNDP Financial Regulations and Rules
The monthly imprest level is the liquidity requirement of a country office to be funded by Treasury. It is the cash needed by country offices to fund their operations monthly. The imprest level is also a cash management tool used by Treasury to promote efficient cash management. The sum of all imprest levels provides a good estimate of cash outflows from country offices and is used to estimate UNDP’S liquidity needs.

Source: Management of Zero-Balance Account System

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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.

Source: UNDP Financial Regulations and Rules
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.

Source: UNDP Financial Regulations and Rules, Property, Plant and Equipment

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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.

Source: UNDP Financial Regulations and Rules

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A Cash Management tool that consolidates balances from multiple bank accounts (sub-accounts) used for both collections and disbursements into a single master account daily. During nightly posting of transactions, either excess funds are swept from the sub-accounts to the master account or funds are swept from the master to the sub-accounts to restore all sub-accounts to a zero balance. This action is undertaken by the bank with which the ZBA is held.

Source: Management of Zero-Balance Account System

Policy Areas

Programme and Project Management

Crisis Response

Financial Resources Management

Human Resources Management

Procurement

Partnerships

Administrative Services

Accountability

Information and Communications Technology

Security

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