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Project management arrangements and monitoring and evaluation

What are the possible management arrangements for an UNDEF funded project?

The vast majority of UNDEF projects are delivered directly by civil society organizations (CSO). In this type of project the CSO is responsible for the overall management of the project and bears all substantive, financial, monitoring, and reporting and evaluation responsibilities.

In exceptional circumstances and where there is clear value added, the applicant might feel the need to partner with a United Nations Executing Agency. In this case, the UN agency will oversee and monitor the project and act as UNDEF’s agent for project oversight.

Should an applicant decide to work with a UN Agency, the applicant must seek the Agency’s prior consent before submitting their project proposal. The CSO must indicate in the project proposal the contact details of the person who has given this consent. 

What is the executing agency fee?

The Executing Agency will normally be entitled to charge up to 7% of the Total Project Costs for its overhead cost in overseeing the project, unless otherwise advised by UNDEF. This fee must cover all financial, contractual, reporting, evaluation and other agreed services to the project. Please read the project proposal guidelines. 

Is an applicant entitled to use UNDEF funding to pay for programme support?

UNDEF funds projects, not project implementers. The CSO or other applicant in both management arrangement modalities will, however, be allowed to charge the project budget with some of its direct costs for programme support (e.g. salaries, travel, office supplies), as per local conditions and best international practice. However, such costs must be itemized clearly under separate budget inputs (e.g. salaries, travel, or miscellaneous). UNDEF expects these costs to be modest and high overheads will impact negatively on the assessment of the project proposal under the "Value for Money" assessment criterion. Please see proposal guideline for more information.

What are the minimum and maximum budget amounts for an UNDEF project?

UNDEF funds projects starting at 100,000 USD and up to 200,000 USD.

What is the difference between "budget by output/activity" and "budget by item"?

"Budget by output/activity" refers to costs for the project activities themselves (such as project events, production of radio/TV programs, outreach, creating and distributing training materials, etc.). You can list up to 10 activities.

"Budget by item" refers to the categories of costs necessary for supporting the implementation of the project (such as salaries, travel, contracts, etc.)

Please see UNDEF Project Proposal Guidelines for sample budgets and more detailed instructions.

Can the submitted project be co-financed, and should these costs be included in the project budget?

UNDEF does not accept co-financed project. The project proposal should be a stand-alone project to be financed by UNDEF as the only donor. In any case, no funds other than those to be granted by UNDEF should be included in the budget.

What are the monitoring, reporting and evaluation requirements for an UNDEF funded project?

You can find the details on UNDEF monitoring, reporting and evaluation requirements on the UNDEF guidelines available on the UNDEF website under the “Information for grantee” section. Please refer to your funding round. The section below provides you with the key requirements.

Monitoring of project activities will be done in several ways. All project applicants must monitor their own activities. In addition, if the project is executed by a UN Agency, all Executing Agencies will be also responsible for project monitoring and submission of reports. UNDEF reserves the right to appoint monitors to observe project milestones. Further information on milestones will be available at the project document drafting stage. Finally, UNDEF will monitor projects by way of review of mid-term and progress reports and will on occasion perform monitoring visits as well.

Reporting throughout all projects will be required via the submission of mid-term, final narrative and financial reports. These reports will be considered public information. UNDEF mid-term and final progress report templates and corresponding guidelines will be made available on the UNDEF website. All financial reports must be certified by an external, independent auditor, reflect interest earned on funds received from UNDEF, and align expenses with the approved budget allocations. Further details are provided to successful applicants through the UNDEF Project Document Guidelines.

Evaluation of projects is an UNDEF responsibility, in which UNDEF will define the procedures for project evaluation. In most of the cases the evaluation will be commissioned by UNDEF, in other cases the applicant will be requested to commission an independent evaluator. UNDEF will pay for these services out of the Monitoring & Evaluation funds that have been retained from each project. UNDEF has the discretion to use these funds for related or similar purposes as well. The applicant will cooperate with UNDEF-appointed monitors, and will be responsible for collecting baseline information and feedback forms throughout the project lifecycle.

For projects executed by UN Agencies, the Executing Agency will arrange for the evaluation and should discuss its scope with UNDEF prior to undertaking the evaluation. The cost of evaluation will be covered by the Executing Agency fee.

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ALERT: Any organization with an UNDEF project grant is responsible for its staff, personnel and contractors, including supervision, welfare and security, throughout the life cycle of the project and beyond, in accordance with its own rules and policies.