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Programme and Project Management


Project Management

Related Sub Processes

| Justifying a Project| Defining a Project
| Initiating a Project| Running a Project
| Closing a Project



Description

Figure 5 is a pictorial view of the project lifecycle. The cycle begins by justifying a project’s business case and/or development challenges (which should be articulated in the CP and CPAP) and ends with delivery of outputs to be assessed in the programme review. The rounded-corner rectangles in the centre of the diagram represent the processes of a project, essentially the high-level activity areas starting and ending at decision points that must be followed to manage a project. This approach covers the entire project lifecycle from idea generation, to formulating a project, to implementing the activities in the project, to monitoring and evaluating the project, to realising the project benefits and their intended contribution to programme outcomes. At each process, the Project Management section of the Guide will provide information to ensure appropriate UNDP policies are followed, key stakeholders are kept informed, appropriate project management structure exists, outputs and activity deliverables are monitored, and the project is well managed.

Figure 5: The UNDP Project Cycle

The diagram also illustrates with dotted lines the key management review points within the cycle. The dotted lines at the far left and far right indicate the start and stop points of the project management cycle, and the other dotted lines indicate management approval or decision points between or within processes. The dotted lines intersecting the “Running a Project” process indicate that there will be reviews at each major decision point during the implementation of the project, as many or as few as required to ensure that the project is under control (these reviews are typically aligned with calendar years).

The bottom ovals in the diagram indicate different review mechanisms applicable to UNDP projects to make approval decisions. For example, the first three “Decision Point” ovals are points to consider the questions:

  • 1° (Primary) Decision Point: Is this project a correct response to country needs and suitable for UNDP support?
    This decision is made by UNDP Country Office management, to confirm the project idea as initially identified during development of the Country Programme.
  • 2° (Secondary) Decision Point: Is the project scope realistic for UNDP to delivery clear and obtainable results, with solid management arrangements to implement this project?
    This decision is considered during appraisal of the project by the Project Appraisal Committee (PAC) to review the project scope and approach.
  • 3° (Tertiary) Decision Point: Does the design of the project demonstrate a plan to operate and assess progress towards production of deliverables and outputs to ensure success?
    This decision is considered by the Project Board when reviewing a detailed project budget and activity schedule.

The “Project Reviews” oval indicates multiple scheduled decision points that must be made while a project is being run, to answer the questions: Is the project still relevant? Is the project yielding the desired results? Is the project being run as planned? Is there a need to redesign, cancel or modify the project in any way?



Relevant Policies

The section below sets out some of the main policies that are cutting across all project processes. Please refer also to the sections "Relevant Policies" for each sub-process.

National Ownership. All projects are nationally owned and entail the commitment of human and financial resources along with external resources. In particular:

  • UNDP support to projects is provided only at the request of a programme country government;
  • An essential strategy of the UNDP country office is to engage key government officials and other stakeholders in a dialogue to analyse problems and to identify the consultative process that will be followed in deciding what support UNDP should provide in a chosen programme area.

Sustainability. Sustainability means that the individuals, institutions and systems assisted by UNDP continue to function effectively after the project ceases and, in fact, have the capacity to improve continuously their way of working. All UNDP projects must be environmentally sustainable. Negative impacts need to be avoided or minimized, positive impact should be strengthened and environmental opportunities seized. Guidelines and tools related to environmental impact and assessment are to be used irrespective of the sectors covered by a project.

Management for Results. The management arrangements must be designed to ensure that the expected results are achieved through the effective and efficient use of UNDP resources. The institution managing projects must set up mechanisms to track progress towards results.

Partnerships. UNDP support must be coordinated with that of other partners, such as the government, United Nations organizations, multi- and bilateral donors and non-government organizations (NGOs). In order to achieve project results, the UNDP country office and the institution responsible for managing the project must establish key partnerships. This also helps promote national ownership and sustainability of results.

Strengthening national skills and capacities. All projects must use existing national resources, personnel and capacities to the fullest extent. Where a non-national entity such as a United Nations agency manages all or part of a project, specific results must be included for building national capacities, allowing the progressive transfer of responsibilities to a national entity.

Capacity to manage. UNDP must ensure that the Implementing Partner has the necessary capacities to manage projects. The Key aspects of capacity are outlined in the Overview section (LINK). Specific tasks related to capacity assessement are described in the process "Defining a Project"