Project Quality Assurance

For historical reasons, the SESP and PQA Data are stored together.

Downloading the data from the UNDP Data Warehouse, provides a CSV file with the following columns:

• OperatingUnit: Identifies the operational unit associated with the project, indicating the specific geographic or organizational division.

• Bureau: Specifies the bureau within the organization that oversees the project, representing a higher-level administrative grouping.

• isActive: A binary indicator (1 for active, 0 for inactive) showing whether the project is active in the year.

• Year: The year associated with the project's data entry, indicating when the project was either initiated or recorded in the system.

• isQA_Eligible: A binary flag (1 for yes, 0 for no) denoting whether the project is eligible for Quality Assurance (QA) processes.

• isQA_Required: Another binary flag (1 for yes, 0 for no) indicating whether the project requires QA based on specific criteria or standards.

• QA_Status: Describes the QA status of the project, such as "Exempted" or "Completed," detailing the outcome of the QA process.

• isSESP_Required: A binary indicator (1 for yes, 0 for no) showing whether the project requires Social and Environmental Standards Screening Procedures (SESP).

• SESP_Status: Reflects the current status of the SESP process for the project, with possible values like "Not Monitored," "Pending," or "Completed."

• ProjectNum_Unified: A unique identifier for each project, allowing for consistent tracking and referencing across different records or databases.

• ApprovedDate: The date and time when the project received approval, formatted as a timestamp, indicating when the project was officially sanctioned.

• Project Current Status: Indicates the current status of the project, used to determine whether a project is active as of today. Possible values include:

  • Financially Closed

  • On Going

  • Operationally Closed

  • Submit for Operational Close

  • Submitted for Financial close

Definition of "Closed"

A project is defined as "Closed" based on the earliest change of project status to “Operationally Closed”, “Submitted for Financial close” or “Financially Closed”.

Note: if Project Status goes back to “On Going” for more than 90 days, earliest closure is ignored, and we consider this project "Ongoing".

PQA Statuses

1. Exempted

2. Completed

3. Not Required

4. Not Started

5. In Progress

Project Types

Some project types are exempt from PQA. Here is the full list of project types in the Data Warehouse and whether they are eligible or exempt from PQA.

Code	Atlas Project Type	Current Project Type	Eligibility
CNT	Country Development Project	Development Project	Eligible
DEVEF	Development Effectiveness	Development Effectiveness Project	Exempt
DEVT	Development Project Proposal	Project Initiation Plan	Exempt
DSERV	Development Service	Development Services Project	Exempt
ENGMT	Engagement Facility	Engagement Facility	Exempt
FCORE	Fully Funded by Core Resources	Development Project	Eligible
FNONC	Fully Funded by Single Donor	Development Project	Eligible
FPART	Partially Funded (Multi Donor)	Development Project	Eligible
GLO	Global Project	Development Project	Eligible
INT	Initiation Plan	Project Initiation Plan	Exempt
MGMT	Management Project	Management Project	Exempt
MSA	Management Service Agreement	Development Services Project	Exempt
PROJM	Program Management	Program Management Project	Exempt
RAF	Regional Project Africa	Development Project	Eligible
RAP	Regional Project Asia Pacific	Development Project	Eligible
RAS	Regional Project Arab States	Development Project	Eligible
REC	Regional Project Europe & CIS	Development Project	Eligible
RLA	Regional Project LAC	Development Project	Eligible
RMCOR	Core Regular	Development Project	Exempt
RMFLC	Fully Funded by Local Cost	Development Project	Exempt
RMPLC	Partially Funded by Local Cost	Development Project	Exempt
SSC	Multi Country Project/SSC Proj	Development Project	Eligible
UNC	UN Coordination	Management Project	Exempt
UNV	United Nations Volunteers	Management Project	Exempt

Calculation Methodology

1. Filtering by Bureau: Initially, we select projects that are part of specific bureaus, namely "RBA," "RBAP," "RBAS," "RBLAC," "CB," "BPPS," and "RBEC."

2. Further Filtering for QA Eligible and Project Status: Among the projects filtered by bureau, we apply additional criteria to focus on those that:

   • Are marked as requiring QA (isQA_Eligible == 1), indicating that they must undergo Quality Assurance processes based on predefined standards or conditions.

   • Are currently active (Project Status == "Ongoing") OR

   • Has been closed within the last two years (to the day) based on the definition of "Closed".

3. Identifying Unique Projects: After applying these filters, we count the number of unique projects by their ProjectNum_Unified identifier. This final step provides the total count of distinct projects meeting all the specified criteria.

4. Define Complete and Incomplete: A project is considered compliant if it met any of the following:

   • We considered a PQA as "Complete" if the QA Status is Completeand ApprovedDate within the last two years as of today's date. OR

   • The project status is “Operationally Completed” or “Financially Completed” and QA Status is Complete. OR

   • The project was exempted

5. Calculating QA Completion Rate: To calculate the completion rate, we need to determine the total number of projects and the proportion of completed projects. The completion rate is expressed as a percentage and can be calculated using the following formula:

Completion Rate (%) = (Total distinct count of PQA Compliant Projects) / (Total distinct count of Ongoing Projects + Closed Project within 2 Years)* 100

To simplify:

Completion rate (%) = (Total Completed PQA / Total Considered Projects)*100

Resources

• PQA Policy