Draft Detailed budget

A detailed budget using the template provided is required for the CEO Endorsement Request Document. The detailed budget should be structured according to the budget included in the PIF. Therefore, it will be required that each component be budgeted in detail including the Project Management Costs (PMC) (i.e., salaries, travel, workshops, consultants, grants to partners, etc.). Each expense line item within each component will need to be split according to the output toward which it is contributing. The generic detailed budget template here (see under Templates below) will be modified to include the outcomes and outputs specific to each project.

Budget principles

The following points should be considered when developing the detailed budget for the CEO Endorsement Request Document:

• Budget Variance from PIF--Unless you are budgeting for a child project under a Program, there should not be more than 5% variance against the component totals included in the PIF and the component totals in the detailed CEO Endorsement Request Document Budget.
• Project Management Costs--The PMC should never be more than 5% of the total project.  (see Eligible Expenses to be budgeted as Project Management Costs).
• Project startup and closeout costs
• Projects can opt for a 3-6 month start-up period to recruit the Project Manager and Finance Manager, before project execution officially begins. Consideration should be given to the budget implications of the startup phase
• Projects often have a 3-6 month closeout phase. Associated costs  includes the final evaluation, the final project audit, the receipt and review of all sub recipient deliverables, etc.  All core staff, and associated expenses, required to complete these activities (including providing comments on the final evaluation) should be budgeted.
• The startup and the closeout phases should be included in the overall project timeline.  (i.e., if project execution takes 5 years then an additional 9-12 months should be added to the project duration for startup and closeout) This will have been reflected in the PIF.

·         Overall monitoring and oversight of the project implementation, including technical consultant activities, knowledge management Inception workshop expenses;

M&E-Activities associated with monitoring and evaluation should be budgeted as close as possible to the following guidelines:

• 5% of the GEF-funded part of project financing for projects up to USD 5 million,
• 3% for projects from USD 5 to USD 10 million and
• 2% for projects above USD 10 million.

Eligible Expenses to be budgeted as Monitoring and Evaluation include 

• Overall monitoring and oversight of the project implementation, including technical consultant activities, knowledge management Inception workshop expenses;
• Preparation of progress reports and financial reports for the project; and
• Consultation with project stakeholders.       
• Inception Workshop
• Inception Workshop Report
• Preparation of the Project Results Monitoring Plan (Objective, Outcomes, and Outputs)
• GEF Core Indicators tracking
• Project Steering Committee Meetings
• Independent Terminal Evaluation
• Lessons Learned and Knowledge Generation
• The cost of monitoring Safeguards
• Project staff dedicated to monitoring and evaluation (likely included in the above)
• Monitoring of GAP and SEP Indicators
• Arrangements for stakeholder engagement and information disclosure

• Executing Partners--The budget should describe the role of executing partners.  If a single partner is receiving $300,000 or more, a separate budget detailing the partners’ expenses by component and output will also need to be submitted.
• Programmatic expenses--If the project is part of a larger program, programmatic expenses should be incorporated into the project budget. This may include travel expenses for a program kickoff workshop, programmatic workshops/meetings, etc.
• International Waters Projects--If the project is funded with funding from International Waters (IW), 1% of the total funding from IW should be budgeted to activities that contribute to IW Learn.  This could include participation in IW Learn workshops or other activities that contribute to knowledge sharing (see IW Learn Website http://iwlearn.net/).

Expenses

In addition to project activities, the following expenses should be included in the budget:

• An annual audit (under PMC).
• A terminal evaluation is required for all full-sized projects and for medium sized projects (MSPs). A midterm review is required for all projects with a GEF budget over $2 million.  Please note that the budget for the project evaluations will be held by the WWF GEF Agency and contracted by WWF-US.
• Costs associated with implementing safeguards assessments and mitigation plans to ensure the proposed project is environmentally and socially sustainable.
• The Gender Action Plan should be referenced, and any budget implications incorporated.
• Adaptive management including Annual or semestral reflection exercises to review M&E data with key partners and suggest changes to workplan or the project theory of change for adaptive management purposes.
• Knowledge management and sharing. 
• Coordination (with Integrated Programs or Child Projects, etc.).

The following expenses should NOT be included in the budget. These costs should be included under co-financing:

• Cost recovery for staff not directly responsible for execution.

Co-financing simply refers to the financial value of the project baseline, from which the GEF project is building off. Co-financing can include the following:

When defining co-financing with partners, begin with noting the relevant existing work presented in the project baseline and then value the associated cost of that work. The value of these programs (both existing work that the project will need to use to meet project objectives as well as planned government programs over life of the project) can be counted as co-financing.

Note that while GEF requires letters of co-financing, co-financing is not a legally-binding agreement nor directly audited. Co-financing cannot be counted twice by different GEF projects. It is important to remember that GEF expects co-financing for all aspects of the project, including project management and that overall co-financing cannot be decreased from the total included in the PIF. 

The WWF GEF Agency Project Manager can assist with assessing co-finance opportunities.