> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://undp.gitbook.io/performance/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://undp.gitbook.io/performance/methodology/values/sesp.md).

# SESP

## Introduction

Screening and categorization of projects are key requirements of the [Social and Environmental Standards (SES)](https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/operations1/undp-social-and-environmental-standards).

In this regard, the objectives of UNDP's Social and Environmental Screening Procedure (SESP) are to:

* Integrate the SES Programming Principles in order to maximize social and environmental opportunities and benefits and strengthen social and environmental sustainability;
* Identify potential social and environmental risks and their significance;
* Determine the project's risk category (Low, Moderate, Substantial, High); and,
* Determine the level of social and environmental assessment and management required to address potential risks and impacts.\\

#### Key Elements of the UNDP's Social and Environmental Standards include:

*Part A: Programming Principles:*

* Leave No One Behind
* Human Rights
* Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment
* Sustainability and Resilience
* Accountability

*Part B: Project-Level Standards:*

* Standard 1: Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Natural Resource Management
* Standard 2: Climate Change and Disaster Risks
* Standard 3: Community Health, Safety and Security
* Standard 4: Cultural Heritage
* Standard 5: Displacement and Resettlement
* Standard 6: Indigenous Peoples
* Standard 7: Labour and Working Conditions
* Standard 8: Pollution Prevention and Resource Efficiency

*Part C: Social and Environmental Management System Requirements:*

* Quality Assurance and Risk Management
* Screening and Categorization
* Assessment and Management
* Stakeholder Engagement and Response Mechanism
* Access to Information
* Monitoring, Reporting and Compliance

## Organisational Objective

100% of eligible projects have SESP done in the same year the project started.

## Data

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 currently active. *It is not clear how this particular data item is gathered, and this should be not trusted compared to the official Master Project List.*
* **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.

This data is then used to enrich the [Master Project List](/performance/methodology/master-project-list.md) with the isSESP\_Required and SESP\_Status information, and we use the ProjectNum\_Unified to match the projects from this SESP dataset and the Master Project List.

{% hint style="info" %}
Because in the SESP dataset a project appears as a row in each year it is active, if *any* year contains the SESP\_Status "completed" we count the project has having done SESP.
{% endhint %}

### Project Types

Projects are categorized as Eligible or Exempt from SESP requirements based on their type:

| Code  | Atlas Project Type             | Current Project Type                | Eligibility |
| ----- | ------------------------------ | ----------------------------------- | ----------- |
| CNT   | Country Development Project    | Development Project                 | Eligible    |
| CNT   | Country Projects (AWP)         | Development Project                 | Eligible    |
| DEVEF | Development Effectiveness      | Development Effectiveness Project   | Exempt      |
| DEVT  | Development Project Proposal   | Project Initiation Plan             | Eligible    |
| DSERV | Development Service            | Development Services Project        | Eligible    |
| ENGMT | Engagement Facility            | Engagement Facility                 | Eligible    |
| ENGMT | Engagement Project             | Engagement Facility                 | Eligible    |
| 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             | Eligible    |
| MGMT  | Instit Effect/Mngmt Project    | Institutional Effectiveness Project | Exempt      |
| MGMT  | Management Project             | Management Project                  | Exempt      |
| MSA   | Memo for Provision of Services | Development Services Project        | Exempt      |
| MSA   | Management Service Agreement   | Development Services 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    |
| SSC   | Multi Country Project/SSC Proj | Development Project                 | Eligible    |
| SSC   | Multi Country Project/SSC Proj | Development Project                 | Eligible    |
| UNC   | UN Coordination                | Management Project                  | Exempt      |
| UNV   | United Nations Volunteers      | Management Project                  | Exempt      |

### Project Statuses

The project statuses are defined in the [Master Project List.](/performance/methodology/master-project-list.md)

The statuses are:

* Financially Closed
* On Going
* Operationally Closed
* Submit for Operational Close
* Submitted for Financial close

The only project status that we consider is `On Going` for the purpouse of calculating the % of SESP completion for UNDP as a whole or any business unit within UNDP.

### SESP Statuses

* **Completed:** These projects have fully met the SESP requirements, indicating successful adherence to and implementation of necessary social and environmental standards.
* **Exempted:** Projects that are not required to do SESP. This can be based on the project type.
* **Not Monitored:** Projects that by their nature do not require SESP and so are not monitored.
* **Not Required:** This SESP status indicates the project is exempt from the SESP process, based on project type or other criteria.
* **Pending:** These projects are either in the process of undergoing SESP evaluation or have not started.

##

## Data Export

{% hint style="danger" %}
This has not yet been defined.
{% endhint %}

### Raw Cleaned Data

### Scoring data

* **Business Unit**: The name of the country office or business unit
* **3 letter ISO Code**: The ISO code of the country, if applicable.
* **Bureau**: The Bureau of the Country Office, if applicable.
* **Ongoing Projects**: The number of ongoing projects within the business unit
* **Projects requiring SESP**: The number of ongoing projects that require SESP. This includes both the ones that have completed and are yet to complete SESP.
* **Projects that have completed SESP**: The number of ongoing projects that have completed SESP
* **Projects that have not completed SESP**: The number of ongoing projects that have not completed SESP
* **% Completion Rate**: The completion rate, calcuated by the number of ongoing projects that have completed SESP divided by the total number of ongoing projects, multiplied by 100.
* **Traffic Light Score**: Green/yellow/red:

## Calculation of Scoring

The filtering below is done on the Master Project List, which has already identified unique projects.

1. **Filter out by project type:** As listed in the table above.
2. **Filter out by project status:** Only "ongoing" projects should be kept.
3. **Deduplicate the SESP data:** As the SESP data contains one row per project year, this leads to multiple SESP statuses for any given project\*\*.\*\* The way to handle this is that if a project contains the SESP Status `Completed` for any given year, we count the entire project as having completed SESP. In any other case, we count the project as *not* having done SESP.
4. **Merge Master Project List with SESP Data:** Using the ProjectNum\_Unified in SESP Data with ATLAS\_AWARD\_NUMBER in Master Project List to enrich the [Master Project List](/performance/methodology/master-project-list.md) with the following two columns: SESP\_Status and isSESP\_Required
5. **Further Filtering for SESP Required:** Filter by projects that are marked as requiring SESP (`isSESP_Required` == 1), indicating *they must undergo SESP processes based on predefined standards or conditions.*
6. **Excluding Projects Based on SESP Status**: From the filtered set, we further exclude projects with an SESP status of `Not Required`,`Exempted`, `Not Monitored`

**Calculation:**

Once we have done this, we can calculate the completion rate using the following formula:

Number of Projects with Completed SESP / Number of Total Projects with Completed + Pending SESP **= Completion Rate.**

{% hint style="info" %}
This calculation counts the `Pending` status as "incomplete'.
{% endhint %}

The Completion Rate (i.e. 75%) is then the score for this indicator.

## Traffic Light System

| Traffic Light | Score  |
| ------------- | ------ |
| Green         | 95-100 |
| Yellow        | 80-94  |
| Red           | <80    |

## Resources

* [UNDP Social and Environmental Standards](https://www.undp.org/publications/undp-social-and-environmental-standards)
* [UNDP Social and Environmental Screening Procedure (SESP)](https://www.undp.org/publications/undps-social-and-environmental-screening-procedure-sesp)