# 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 `Complete`and 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](https://popp.undp.org/policy-page/quality-standards-programming)


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://undp.gitbook.io/performance/methodology/accountability/project-quality-assurance.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.