1. Overview of APEC project procedures
Martin Brown-Santirso
APEC EGEE&C Secretariat
EGEE&C 40 Meeting
Taipei 8 – 9 November 2012

2. APEC Project Funding Main Sources of APEC Funding
APEC Operational Account (OA)
General fund used to address APEC priorities
APEC Support Fund (ASF)
Aimed at capacity building in developing APEC economies
APEC Trade and Investment and Liberalisation Fund (TILF)
Donated by Japan for project directly related to trade
Self funding
APEC financial year (FY): 1 January to 31 December
Projects exist to assist progress in the priority areas being discussed by SOM.
Started with seven projects in 1993, all self funded. Size and scope has grown since then – at 1 Jan 2010, APEC was funding 176 projects, to the value of US$15,297,009.
From 2006 – 2008, the number of projects submitted increased by 40% from 128  180. In the same period, project funding availability grew by 35%. Coupled with an average increase in funds requested of 30%, it meant that project numbers grew by only 12%: 119  134.
In 2009: 140 Submissions, 64 approved to the value of $5,230,811.

3. APEC Projects APEC Projects 2007 – 2011 APEC Projects 2012
For session 2:
31 out of 79 projects were granted funding: 39% success rate
Here mention about chances of success increase for project put through the Expert Groups.

4. Project Approval Process
Concept Note (CN) submission to forum
Proponent secures co-sponsors
Forum endorses and ranks CN
Final submission of CN & fora submits ranking to BMC
Deadline for session2 – midnight 9 June. Proponent must the final CN to the PD by this deadline. The Fora must also have completed its ranking process by this time. This means that individual groups have to set their own deadline to allow time for endorsement and ranking.
To ensure fairness and transparency, there will be no extensions beyond the midnight 9 June deadline.
IF ASKED:
Who can be a proponent: usually a government official, but can also be a academic, someone from the private sector etc. The key is that the proponent must go through an APEC group.
Submissions can be done Face-to-Face or intersessionally
Must have at least 2 cosponsors
All Concept Notes then go to the Prioritisation Phase:
Committees / SFOM will categorise relevant Concept Notes into the relevant Funding Criteria rank (Rank 1-4). Committee / SFOM members also have to prioritse within each Rank. Members will be asked to refer to the prioritisation preferences from fora / WGs / TFs etc.
Committees / SFOM will only consider Concept Notes from groups under their purview. All industry dialogue Concept Notes will be considered by CTI, SOM Concept Notes will be considered by SCE
The Secretariat will calculate the results of Ctte / SFOM ranking and prioritisation and sort Concept Notes by Fund and by Funding Criteria Rank.
Relevant Committee Ranks using APEC Funding Criteria
Votes for CN are assessed and
referred to Principal Decision Makers

5. Project Approval Process
BMC approves in-principle highest
priority CN within funding availability
Proponents with in-principle approval
invited to complete full proposal form
Full proposal endorsed & QAF done by fora
If there are insufficient funds within a particular rank under any of the Funds, the Secretariat will refer the Concept Notes in question to the Principal Decision Makers to develop an APEC wide priority list.
In developing an APEC wide priority list, PDMs must maintain the relative priority of each Committee / SFOM. This means it cannot put a Concept Note a Committee has put as priority no.2 over a Concept Note the same Committee has prioritised as no.1.
The Secretariat will use PDM’s responses to develop a single APEC wide priority list
The Secretariat will work from the top of that list down, seeing where the funding availability ends.
The Secretariat will advise BMC of which Concept Notes are of sufficiently high priority that can be funded, and recommend them for in-principle approval.
BMC grants in-principle approval, with final approval dependant on the Concept Note being expanded into a full project proposal, and that proposal being of satisfactory quality
It is estimated that the Prioritisation Phase will take just over 3 weeks to be completed.
Concept Notes with in-principal approval then move to the Quality Phase:
Successful proponents must expand Concept Notes into a full proposal (NOTE – a new proposal template is under BMC consideration)
Proponents are encouraged to work closely with their fora and the secretariat to develop a satisfactory quality proposal. The Secretariat is in the process of recruiting a new staff member that can assist proponents with developing good quality proposals.
The full proposal must reach satisfactory quality before the Secretariat recommends it to BMC to start. The Secretariat will assess projects on the basis of Effectiveness, Efficiency, Impact and Sustainability. It will be taken that members have assessed Relevance, and have found this criteria satisfactory.
When satisfactory quality is reached, the Secretariat will recommend that the project commence.
Proponents have until the next project approval session deadline to submit proposals.
If it appears that a proposal will not reach satisfactory quality, the Secretariat will notify the BMC three weeks before the next submission deadline. The BMC may choose to fund the proposal as it stands, provide additional time to the proponent to reach satisfactory quality, or revoke the in-principle approval of the Concept Note.
Secretariat finds proposal ‘satisfactory’ quality
Secretariat recommends to BMC
that the project can commence

6. APEC funding criteria Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3
Projects that specifically and significantly contributes to key APEC priorities
Rank 2
Projects that directly support the Action Plan in the APEC Leaders' Growth Strategy – includes Sustainable Growth
Rank 3
Projects that are linked to other priorities identified by Leaders and Ministers but are less closely linked APEC’s key priorities

7. Implementation
Projects must be implemented within two APEC financial years
projects approved in 2013 must be completed by the end of 2014
Requests for proposals/tenders need to be advertised on the APEC website and run tendering process.
Monitoring reports are submitted at 6 month intervals
Completion report is submitted within 2 months of project completion

8. Guidebook on APEC Projects (8th Ed.)
New version released May 2012
Facilitates consultation of PPs and POs and makes easier the arrangements for proposal submissions and travel undertakings.
Provide up-to-date templates for:
Concept notes
Project proposals
Monitoring reports
Completion reports
Guidebook and Forms: F;

9. EGEE&C Support We can help by: Promote events such as workshops
Promote participation in surveys
Promoting or reviewing tenders

10. 15 February Next steps Discuss project ideas
Put together CN and send to EGEE&C
By 18 January
Secure co-sponsors
Submit final CN to EWG before:
15 February