Project Board
SPIRES will be governed by a project board. This board will constitute MMERE, MECDM, partner SIG ministries and invited representatives from beneficiary groups such as civil society and local communities, as may be relevant or applicable, and UNDP-SOI. Senior government officers at levels of permanent secretaries, undersecretaries and the UNDP-SOI Country Manager will be represented in the Board. This Board is specifically established by the project to provide management oversight of project activities and is to be chaired by MMERE. The Board will review progress and evaluation reports, and approve programmatic modifications to project execution, as appropriate and in accordance with GEF/UNDP procedures. Policy recommendations will be discussed and recommended for consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers and Parliament. The Board will be chaired by the MMERE under a NIM arrangement or at least co-chair the Board as may be deemed proper and agreed upon. Non-state stakeholders will also be represented on the Project Board if need be as observers, namely from the private sector, academic and research institutions, NGOs, and CSOs which will be selected according to the relevance and applicability to SPIRES objectives. The Project Board will meet four (4) times per year or as and when required.
The Project Board is responsible for making by consensus, management decisions when guidance is required by the Project Manager, including recommendations for UNDP/Implementing Partner approval of project plans and revisions, and addressing any project level grievances. In order to ensure UNDP’s ultimate accountability, Project Board decisions should be made in accordance with standards that shall ensure management for development results, best value money, fairness, integrity, transparency and effective international competition. In case consensus cannot be reached within the Board, the UNDP-SOI Country Manager (or their designate) will mediate to find consensus and, if this cannot be found, will take the final decision to ensure project implementation is not unduly delayed.
The specific responsibilities of the Project Board include:
- Provide overall guidance and direction to the project, ensuring it remains within any specified constraints;
- Address project issues as raised by the project manager;
- Provide guidance on new project risks, and agree on possible countermeasures and management actions to address specific risks;
- Agree on project manager’s tolerances as required;
- Review the project progress, and provide direction and recommendations to ensure that the agreed deliverables are produced satisfactorily according to plans;
- Appraise the annual project implementation report, including the quality assessment rating report; make recommendations for the workplan;
- Provide ad hoc direction and advice for exceptional situations when the project manager’s tolerances are exceeded; and
- Assess and decide to proceed on project changes through appropriate revisions.