Guidance for the Narrative Progress Report Template
· This reporting template is valid for inception report, semi-annual and annual report (SAR & AR), and final report (there may be some adaptation required for the final project report).
· These reports are a contractual obligation. They need to be delivered on time. The next payment is contingent on the report being approved by LIFT Programme Team and satisfaction regarding the quality of the information provided. The Programme Team may come back with questions and clarifications that need to be considered appropriately.
· Sections written in RED can be deleted or replaced by the ad-hoc information, they are only provided as guidance.
· Date of submission:
Ø Inception report: latest one month after the end of the inception period
Ø Semi-annual report: 31 July
Ø Annual report: 28 February
Ø Final report: latest three months after the end of the project
Please refer to the agreement.
· Difference between AR and SAR
The SAR covers the first 6 months of the year.
The AR covers the full year. So, the AR is overlapping the period covered by the SAR. It is recommended to use the SAR as the basis for writing the AR with updated information.
The measurement plan for the SAR uses the same targets/milestones as the AR: the milestones/targets for the end of the year or end of the project. There is no specific milestone for half-year.
· The Final Report covers the whole project period and may require combining information from several annual reports. Note that this is true only for the narrative progress report, the final financial report covers only the last year of implementation.
· Flexibility of the template
This template is proposed to help partners fulfill their reporting requirements. It is recommended to keep it as short as possible (around 30 pages or shorter without annexes). Detail analyses, discussions on some specific activity / output / outcome may be provided in annex, highlighting only the main results in the main report.
In case this template is not well adapted to your project – e.g. for projects whose main objectives are networking, research–, it is possible to negotiate the use of a different template that would fit better the project objectives. This should be agreed with LIFT programme officer at the beginning of the project.
It is recommended to follow the same template across the project duration.
· Avoid repetitions. Include the required information in the relevant section and refer to it in other sections as required. For example if you have discussed gender issues in the section 3, don’t repeat the same information in the section 6, just refer to the relevant outcome.
· Change process
The report should highlight any change occurring in the project implementation, either about the budget, the work plan, the context, the strategy or for specific activities, and to explain why these changes are happening or required. Nevertheless changes affecting the contractual agreement must follow a specific approval process independent from the report. Please discuss with LIFT programme officer to assess the need for a contract amendment and/or a no-objection request. The IP cannot assume that a change explained in the report is approved by LIFT.
· Feedback
LIFT would be happy to receive your feedback about this template. Some exchange will be organized at programme level. Don’t hesitate to share with LIFT programme officer your recommendations and ideas about the reporting template.
Name of IP
PROJECT NAME
Agreement ref. number
NARRATIVE PROGRESS REPORT
REPORTING PERIOD
FROM DATE – TO DATE
date submitted
DATE
Page 9
NAME of IP - Progress Report - PERIOD
PROJECT INFORMATION AND RESOURCESProject title: / PLEASE WRITE HERE THE TITLE OF YOUR PROJECT
Implementing Partner(s) and local Partner(s) / PLEASE STATE THE NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION AND ALL YOUR IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS
Responsible Person: / PLEASE NAME ONE (!) PERSON ONLY
Contact email: / EMAIL OF THE RESPONSIBLE PERSON
Project Starting date / Project completion date
Originally planned / Current estimate
As in the agreement / As in the initial agreement / As in the latest amendment
Approved Total Budget / Latest Signed Revision (US$)
YOUR TOTAL PROJECT BUDGET as in the initial agreement / Your total budget as in the latest budget revision – only if there was an approved revision of the budget as attached to the agreement
Approval Date of Amendment / Nature of the Amendment
PROJECT PERFORMANCE AND RESULTS
Include a TABLE OF CONTENTS, a LIST OF ACRONYMS and a MAP if necessary/useful
1. BACKGROUND
This section provides a summary of the project relevance and objectives for somebody unfamiliar with the project, in maximum one page.
State the higher-level project goal or objective and provide a brief outline of what the project components are and how they are supposed to contribute to it. You may use the project proposal summary. Update this section only if major changes happen in the context and overall strategy.
2. HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE REPORTING PERIOD
This section provides a summary of the main results, changes, lessons, challenges and issues during the reporting period.
It may include a table with a summary of the key results.
This section should highlight any planned/suggested strategic reorientation of the project and the related proposed modifications to the theory of change (TOC). An updated TOC should be provided in annexes. all changes to the TOC must be approved by LIFT and must follow an official request for change independent from the report.
This section should highlight any major delay in implementation and the need to revise the work plan. An updated work plan must be provided in annex.
3. PROGRESS TOWARDS OUTCOMES / DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS PER COMPONENT
MAJOR OUTCOME / COMPONENT 1: COPY THE OUTCOME TEXT FROM YOUR TOC HERE
You may include a diagramme showing the causal pathways between outcomes and sub-outcomes relevant to this component.
a) Progress towards the expected outputs and outcomes, and process
This section is about the effectiveness of the project; it describes the results achieved during the reporting period related to the major outcome / component. This section may include the results related to several interlinked outcomes and outputs. Please as much as possible focus on results rather than activities. Detailed activities can be listed in an annex.
These results should be described in comparison to the milestones / targets and aligned with the measurement of the indicators provided in the measurement plan. Add the measurement plan with the results achieved so far and during the reporting period in annex. Any important discrepancy between the results achieved and the milestones/targets must be discussed and explained.
Please distinguish clearly between the cumulative results achieved since the beginning of the project and the specific results achieved during the reporting period.
Consider including a table with the key related indicators / milestones / results if appropriate, or any other relevant table / graph / diagram to present the results in a reader-friendly format. Ensure that it is coherent with the measurement plan in annex.
The data should be sex-disaggregated wherever possible.
This section also explains the processes that led to the results and how the project contributed to these processes.
The section may be subdivided in sub-outcomes as required.
b) Institutional, operational and economic sustainability
If relevant and as appropriate for the outcomes described above, this section describes any progress towards sustainability. This may include an analysis of new local institutions regarding formal registration, governance, operational management, etc. The economic viability of the institution may be discussed in light of a business plan, specific cost-benefit or return on investment analysis. The economic barriers for beneficiaries to adopt new practices and the economic impact of these practices can be discussed here as well.
c) Lessons, new challenges and risks
This section describes any lessons emerging from the project implementation related to this specific component / outcome. This includes considering the unexpected or unintended consequences of the project.
This section discusses the related learning questions that are specific to the component. Please clearly type out the learning question you are referring to.
This may include an analysis of new challenges and a revised risk assessment linked to this component.
d) Plans for the next period
This section describes the major activities and events planned for the next period as in the work plan.
MAJOR OUTCOME / COMPONENT 2: COPY THE OUTCOME TEXT FROM YOUR TOC HERE
a) Progress toward the expected outputs and outcomes, and process
b) Institutional, operational and economic sustainability
c) Lessons, new challenges and risks
d) Plans for the next period
See the guidance above. Copy/paste this section as necessary according to the number of major outcomes / components in the project.
4. KNOWLEDGE AND LEARNING QUESTIONS (LQs)
LQ 1: COPY THE LQ TEXT HERE
This section describes the progress made during the reporting period towards answering the learning questions that are not considered through specific outcomes in section 3. Explain what are the processes followed to respond to these questions and any knowledge produced during the period.
Knowledge products (studies, reports, etc.) should be listed in the annexes.
LQ 2: COPY THE LQ TEXT HERE
OTHER KNOWLEDGE PRODUCT AND PUBLICATIONS
Add here information about researches and studies that are not included above or in the outcomes listed in section 3.
It might be useful highlighting relevant studies published in your sector / area even if not produced or funded by the project.
5. STAKEHOLDERS, POLICY INFLUENCE, AND CONFLICT-SENSITIVITY
Please create sub-titles as required for each distinct policy area and/or major stakeholder group.
This section explains how the relationships between the main stakeholders have evolved. Discuss how your project coordinates and involves local authorities and relevant departments, how you work with the private sector, if not already explained in section 2 or 3.
This section describes progress in terms of policy influence if not already considered in a specific outcome. It explains the evolution of the context and the major events related to policies relevant to the project.
Please see a proposed approach for analyzing policy influence in the document named: “POLICY INFLUENCE REPORTING GUIDELINES FOR IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS”. This approach may require significant analytical work and must be adopted only by projects with a significant policy component. Check with your LIFT focal point whether it is relevant for your project.
If relevant to your project this section explains issues related to conflict sensitivity and how the project deals with them. Please refer to the “LIFT CONFLICT SENSITIVE PRINCIPLES”.
6. GENDER
This section describes how your project is mainstreaming gender and what the main achievements are. Gender should not be considered only in terms of participation, but also in terms of empowerment. It should explain how gender differences are investigated and recorded during project implementation, how gender differences inform decisions made in project planning and implementation.
The following five questions have been developed, based on LIFT’s Gender Strategy, to guide you in what is required when reporting on gender.
1. How does the project contribute to women’s increased knowledge and skills?
• Do women have equal opportunities to make use of the acquired knowledge and skills compared to men?
2. How does the project actively involve and advocate for increased women’s participation in decision-making? (please define decision-making)
• How meaningful is this participation in decision-making? (please define meaningful)
• What direct or indirect impact does increased women’s participation have on the project goal?
3. How does the project contribute to women’s equal access to and control over the resources within the project context?
• Consider differences between access to and control over resources.
4. How does the project promote or increase the focus on gender equality within Livelihood and Food Security policies? (please define the policies)
• What benefits did women and men receive from such increased gender focus in such policies?
5. What approaches and pathways have proven most effective to contribute to each of the above questions 1-4?
7. CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES
This section discusses other cross-cutting issues relevant for your project that have not been considered in other sections such as inclusiveness, climate change and environment, etc.
8. SUSTAINABILITY AND EXIT STRATEGY
This section explains the progress the project has made toward the project major objectives in terms of sustainability if not already explained in above sections; and how your project expects local institutions to build on project results and the potential for scaling up.
The project exit strategy should be reviewed periodically.
9. VALUE FOR MONEY (VFM) and efficiency
This section describes how the project is achieving VFM and the challenges. The key VFM elements to be considered are:
- the mechanisms for identifying and controlling cost-drivers
- the comparison of expenditure versus budget
- the comparison of expenditure versus outreach
- the comparison of expenditure versus performance for specific interventions / outputs / outcomes (cost effectiveness)
- the potential for replication and scaling-up
For investments that generate monetizable benefits, you may provide detailed cost-benefit analyses and/or return on investment calculations (or refer to the calculations provided in section 3).
10. PROJECT MANAGEMENT / OPERATIONAL ISSUES
This section describes any operational issues and risks that need to be reviewed in view of the progress described above. This includes partnership relations, project governance, human resources, budget, and other issues as required.
a) Partnership
b) Project governance
c) Human resources
This section describes capacity building activities and results for your and your partner staff if not already explained in sections above.
d) Budget
Explain here whether the project is following the expected expenditure rate or if there are some discrepancies and why. Explain what specific activities are significantly over or under spent. Discuss it in relation to the budget plan and work plan.
Note that budget amendments require a specific change process and approval from LIFT.