WWF Project and Priority Programme
Technical Progress Report (TPR)
When should the reporting template be used? Who should use it?
This template is to be used when reviewing and reporting on the progress of all projects/ programmes
funded by WWF1; please see Table 1 below for guidance on the required scope and content expected in
the report, since this varies depending on the size, type and funding source of the project/ programme.
In this context, a project is defined as a set of actions undertaken by a group of practitioners to achieve
defined goals and objectives. A programme is a set of jointly managed, interdependent projects that
together address a given theme or strive towards over-arching goals. Note that if you are reporting on
behalf of a project/ programme that consists of a number of closely related (sub) projects, it may be
appropriate to consolidate your reporting into one TPR (this should be agreed with relevant donors).
Priority programmes are programmes that are recognised by the WWF network to be delivering directly
on the priority places, species, footprint areas and drivers in the Global Programme Framework.
What are the primary purposes of the technical progress report?
The main purposes of the WWF TPR and associated process are:
1. To facilitate adaptive management by projects and programmes,
2. To provide inputs to priority programme and network management decision-making processes;
and
3. To provide accountability and transparency to internal and external donors and other
stakeholders.
The template is designed to aid projects and priority programmes in analysing the progress they have
made and in generating lessons for adaptive management.2 Learning and quality reporting therefore
depend on good monitoring and analysis, and the template should be completed based on the
information obtained from regular monitoring and analysis or evaluation. To the extent possible, all
team members should be involved in reviewing progress and producing technical and financial reports,
including staff from operations, as the information requested concerns the relationship between
conservation actions and financial status. Key stakeholders (e.g. key implementing partners; government
counterparts) and target beneficiaries (to the extent possible and appropriate) should also be involved
when reviewing project/ programme progress.
The reports are also intended to support regular performance assessment, sharing of experiences and
lessons, decision-making and adaptive management at organizational (network and office) levels. Key
audiences such as programme leaders, shareholder groups, donor NOs and external donors are expected
to provide constructive feedback on reports.
What are the different sections of the report?
 Part 1, the General Narrative Report required every 6 months: due mid- year and year-end from all
projects and programmes (see due dates in Table 1 below).
 Part 2, the Monitoring Report required at year end from Priority Programmes and projects with
budgeted spend above €100K per year (see due dates below). This requires the project/ programme
1
The terms projects and programmes are used interchangeably through this document. The only case that this template should not
be used is where a primary donor (e.g. the European Commission) insists on its own format.
2 The concepts and terminology in this template are designed to comply with those in the WWF Standards of Project and
Programme Management, especially Step 4 Analyse/ Adapt.
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team to systematically review and share progress against the planned Goals and Objectives and their
associated indicators.
Note that the end of year report (due in July or August) is for the whole financial year, so the end of year
report may include an update of the information provided in the mid-year report. The analysis carried
out for the end of year report is expected to be more comprehensive and thorough than for the mid-year
report; it may be helpful to complete Part 2 first before providing summaries and reflections on overall
progress in Part 1. All the templates and the guidelines for completing reports can be found at:
https://sites.google.com/a/wwf.panda.org/wwf-international/divisions/conservation/cspu/reporting/fy14reporting
All reports should be uploaded into Insight and can also be submitted to your donors, steering bodies, and
stakeholders as appropriate. Important findings (in appropriate formats - for example local radio, village
meetings) may also be shared with key beneficiaries.
A peer review mechanism for priority programme reports is also a standard part of the reporting process and
ensures feedback to the report author(s). The process will include at least 2 reviewers per programme report
and begins as soon as the report is submitted. Reviewer’s comments are sent to the report author(s) for
response and feedback. Author(s) are able to resubmit reports with any changes that they would like to make.
Reviewers will look specifically at the Conservation Achievement KPI as well as at the narrative, so the
‘evidence’ or justification of any KPIs and monitoring information should be clearly listed. Reviewer feedback
and any exchanges with authors and reports will be located on Insight. It is noted that peer review also
happens, and is indeed strongly encouraged, between projects and offices and their donors outside of the
priority programme process.
IMPORTANT: As of FY15 (early July, 2014), projects and programmes will be able to create their reports
directly in Insight through the CPM - Conservation Project Management section. This would replace uploading
a word document (for Part I) or a word/excel table for Part II (but see paragraph below). Using Insight to
create your report is on a voluntary basis, although we strongly encourage projects and programmes to use
the system.
The improvements to the CPM system, which includes the ability to create reports, will go live in mid-June
with Webex training starting in early June so the timeline should work well for those who would like to work
with the upgraded system. In low Internet connectivity areas, there is an excel upload alternative that will
automatically populate the online system with the project/programme’s goals and objectives. Once this
information is uploaded the online monitoring plan is automatically populated with these goals and objectives
and teams only need to add the indicators, and they will be able to create a Part II report from their
monitoring plan and updated information.
2
Table 1: Summary of Project Reporting Requirements
All Priority Programmes respond to Parts 1 and 2. For all other projects and programmes expectations are outlined below, according to financial thresholds. In
addition, please pay attention to the ‘Notes’ column. Reporting requirements will be written into grant agreements.
Project/
Part 1 (A)
Part 2
Primary audience(s)
Recommended feedback Notes
programme
(Narrative)
from audiences
(annual budget)
Every 6 months
Year end Programme team
Adaptive management and
WWF TPR required in all cases
I Priority
Programme
(28th Feb and 31st
August)
only
(31st
August)
lesson sharing
Shareholder Groups
(including network
donors)
Conservation, Operations
and Partnerships
Committees
Actions and minutes from
SHG management meetings
CSPU (Conservation Strategy & Performance Unit) is a primary
audience because it has responsibility for pulling together the
Annual Global Conservation Programme report and because
this team organizes the peer review process.
Actions and minutes from
network management
meetings
CSPU
II
Projects greater
than €100k p.a. (B)
Every 6 months
(31st Jan and 31st
July)
Year end
only
(31st
July)
Project team
Network donor
Global Priority Programme
(where ‘accepted’)(C)
Senior Managers
III Projects less than
€100k p.a. (B)
Every 6 months
(short report, 31st
Jan and 31st July)
No
Programme review,
discussions and scorecards;
Global Conservation Report
Adaptive management and
lesson sharing
Project team
Actions and minutes from
Programme team
management meetings;
Priority Programme Report;
written feedback on TPR (D)
Adaptive management and
lesson sharing
Network donor
Global Priority Programme
(where ‘accepted’) (C)
Senior Managers
Brief written feedback on
TPR
Provided that the Implementing office, Priority Programmes
and/or and relevant donors agree:
 If a compulsory primary donor format exists, no WWF TPR
would normally be expected though submission of the
technical report (using the donor’s template) is still required
 Consolidated WWF TPRs for a programme can be produced
where the programme comprises several jointly managed,
interdependent projects.
Sections 2 and 5 of Part 1 may be omitted at the discretion of
the projects/programme and based on prior agreement with
network donors, though their completion is advised.
Accepted projects are those that a programme leader has
reviewed through the offer and acceptance process and
indicated that he/she ‘accepts’ the project as part of the
programme portfolio. If a project is accepted, this is
formalized and written reports and feedback are expected.
Donor requests for TPRs are to be formalised in grant
agreements and commitment to written feedback is expected
from the donor.
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PROJECT/PRIORITY PROGRAMME TECHNICAL REPORT TEMPLATE
PART 1: GENERAL NARRATIVE REPORT (DUE EVERY 6 MONTHS)
Required for projects and priority programmes. Recommended length: 6 pages.
Questions 2 and 5 (asterisked *) may be omitted if the project and network donors agree to this.
However, it is noted that omission of these sections will reduce the level of detail and the lesson learning
potential of the report so their completion is encouraged.
Remove the description of each section before finalising your report. This report is for the current
financial year reporting period only. This report is meant as a summary report and should provide links to
other documents that will help in understanding the full scope of the project or programme’s work.
Project/ Programme Name:
Project/Programme Number(s):
Web Link(s) to project/programme
strategic plan or other useful
documents
Reporting Period:
Project/Programme Start Date
(FY):
Report Completed by:
Date Report Completed (MM/YR):
1) Outcomes and Impacts Achieved
Describe key results in terms of outcomes and impacts3. Succinctly share results in relation to the
goals (impacts) and objectives (outcomes) defined in your strategic plan. Also briefly and specifically
state what role the project/WWF played in bringing about the results (refer to the theory of change
to enable the reader to better understand WWF’s contribution, and the role of partners). Include
important unexpected outcomes, and any exceptional achievements such as up scaling, replication,
and multiplication of results.
Describe any effects, both positive and negative, on beneficiaries4 (including indigenous peoples
involvement where applicable), and where possible quantify the number of beneficiaries (direct and
indirect) with data disaggregated by gender.
2) Effective Implementation of Work Plans and Budgets*
Provide a brief (max. 1 page) summary of progress of the project/ programme work plan. The aim
of this part of the report is to describe whether you were able to implement your work plan
according to schedule and if not why not, and what you were or are able to do to get back on
schedule, so highlight any areas that are well behind schedule and explain the main reasons for
divergence from your initial planning. This would include the major points from the variance analysis
(from your financial report) including the reasons for any major over- or under-spends and major
variances related to activity implementation; explain any important consequences and remedial
actions that will be taken.
3
A result is linked to the desired future state of a target (e.g. goals) or factor- e.g. objectives associated with threats,
drivers, opportunities. Results include impacts, which are linked to targets or goals, outcomes that are linked to
threats, drivers and opportunities and associated objectives. Outputs are linked to activities. Not all projects will
demonstrate an outcome or impact every year – impacts, in particular, usually take a few years to achieve.
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Many projects aim to achieve conservation via social development processes and/ or deliver human wellbeing via
ecosystem services.
4
3) Challenges and Strengths Affecting Performance
Discuss briefly the challenges and/ or strengths both internally (e.g. management processes,
capacity, donor support) and externally (e.g. stakeholder behaviour, stakeholder engagement) that
enabled or hindered performance. Aim to specifically mention cases where the support and/or
funding of particular donors or organizations helped to widen or deepen impact, or to leverage
additional funds or support from others, and highlight the most significant challenges or
opportunities you will face over the next 6-12 months that require the network’s attention. Where
relevant, describe any other important financial matters e.g. future funding challenges or
opportunities (and projections), and their consequences.
4) Adaptive Management
Describe any major adaptations/changes that will need to be made or that you have made in
terms of objectives, strategies and financial management. The changes that you describe should be
a result of your analyses and might link closely to the challenges and strengths identified above.
Please attach, or provide a link, to the latest versions of your action plan (e.g. summarised in a log
frame format) and monitoring plan if changes have been made. Also add any specific ideas on how
the WWF network (including your office) can help you address the challenges, build on the
strengths and improve your project/programme’s performance.
5) Sharing of Lessons Learned*
Describe a small number (2-3) of key lessons that you have learned and believe are important to
share with others. These lessons may relate to the strategies or approaches used, internal capacity
and coordination, experiences with partners and stakeholders, policy engagement, replication
options, the project context, understanding of (and responses to) potential climate change impacts,
or any other issue. Explain if and how you are sharing these lessons with others. Many of the lessons
may relate to Section 3 on challenges and strengths or Section 4 on adaptive management. It is
important that lessons tell a story; a bullet point such as: “It is important to involve all governments”
does not provide enough information to be helpful to others.
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PART 2: MONITORING REPORT (YEAR END ONLY. SUBMIT AS EXCEL OR WORD TABLE).
The monitoring report requires the project team (and key partners/stakeholders where possible) to
systematically review their monitoring data and identify results (see Section 1 of Part 1- Narrative report)
against the planned goals and objectives, using associated indicators. This analysis should help the team
assess the sequential outcomes and the impact of their work. It will also enable the teams to take the
right adaptive action. Data should be collected during the course of the year as part of ongoing project
management; this data is the key ingredient for the monitoring report. There should be regular analysis
and reflection (at least on a quarterly basis).
A conservation achievement rating (the Conservation Achievement (KPI) is included in the Monitoring
Report, and serves to assess progress towards the stated long-term objectives. For Priority Programmes,
this KPI helps Conservation Committee and other WWF decision-making bodies to assess conservation
performance across the global portfolio. Perhaps, the most important use of the Conservation
Achievement KPI is for programmes and projects themselves to help assess their own progress and have
a backdrop for discussions around adaptive management.
Programme teams should also identify any monitoring data that contribute to any of the common
indicators to improve the capture of outcome and impact data across the portfolio; this will help us to
track progress towards the 2020 goals described in the Global Programme Framework and gain insight
into WWF’s cumulative impact.
PROCESS
1. Prepare a monitoring report table using goals, objectives and indicators from strategic plan (see
Table 2). The Monitoring Report table should contain all programme goals and objectives from your
latest strategic plan (as opposed to your annual work plan). Keep the goals and objectives separate
from each other. Include information in all the columns of the Monitoring Report to the extent
possible. You may submit the Monitoring Report table as a separate document in Excel if you prefer
(an Excel version of the table is available and its use is encouraged). You may include additional
columns if appropriate (e.g. to show longer-term data trends).
2. Highlight the priority long-term results (objectives) that you are working towards. The Conservation
Achievement rating is calculated based on progress towards a few key long-term objectives in order
to focus the rating and reduce the amount of work required of you. A long-term objective is one that
directly contributes to the improved status of the conservation target(s). Usually it will relate to a
direct threat, indirect threat, driver or opportunity. If you have a results chain, long-term objectives
tend to be found on the right-hand side. Examples of long-term objectives include: (1) “By 2016, the
number of elephants killed in the landscape in retaliation for crop-raiding and human loss of life has
been reduced to 2 cases per year”; or (2) “Governments, industry, and other stakeholders in selected
priority regions adopt ecosystem stewardship as the basis for spatial planning and any new
development in the Arctic.” You should also include your goals in the monitoring report.
3. Common indicator. If your indicator is linked to one of the common programme indicators (listed at
https://sites.google.com/a/wwf.panda.org/wwfinternational/divisions/conservation/cspu/reporting/fy14-reporting)
you should add the number of the indicator to this box (e.g. S1 for habitat cover, R1 for size of
protected areas, etc.). By selecting an indicator from the menu we will be able to ensure data from
your report is captured in global level portfolio analyses.
4. Formulate a conservation achievement rating for each of the long-term objectives in the
monitoring report. The rating should be made in relation to your annual planned intermediate
results (PIRs) for the current year. To rate each objective/result, compare your current status against
6
the planned result for the year and use the scoring guidelines below to assign the most appropriate
rating. Make sure that the planned PIRs indicate clear progress towards achievement of the objective,
and hence that the theory of change is working. It is important for the project/ programme team to
use its judgment and to be as objective as possible. Ratings range from 1 to 7, and fractional ratings
are also possible, for example, a rating of 4.50. The ratings will be turned into percentages for use in
the Global Conservation Programme report.
5. It is very important to give a justification for your ratings. This serves to clarify the evidence for
your rating and for your result.
6. Calculate an overall conservation achievement rating for the project/programme based on a simple
average (arithmetic mean) of the individual scores for the objectives that you have included in your
report.
ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE
7. Focus on providing quality information on progress against goals and long-term objectives.
Reporting on any short-term objectives should be kept simple and light. (Short-term objectives do
not directly lead to an improvement in conservation target status, but constitute steps toward
achieving the long-term objectives; examples may include “Establishment of a roundtable for
sustainable whitefish management by 2013”; or “X fishing associations agree to adopt the use of
circle hooks by 2015”. There may be several short-term objectives leading to a long-term objective).
These can also be part of the planned intermediate results in the case of footprint programmes for
instance. Indicators at goal level, and for some objectives, may not be measured annually, so not all
objectives will have a planned result for every year. For example, for biological indicators, and some
socio-economic indicators, measurement will likely be at longer intervals. Where no new information
is available, state Not Rated (NR) and when the next measurement/assessment is due.
8. Please provide more detailed information as needed (but be strategic in your choice) and attach as
additional documents (e.g. additional monitoring data, graphs, diagrams, reviews or evaluations).
9. Social/ poverty/ gender data / indigenous peoples. Where possible and appropriate, data should be
disaggregated by gender. Disaggregation by age and other social groupings should also be
considered.
Scoring Guidelines for Conservation Achievement KPI ratings
Descriptor
The planned intermediate result for the current FY has been entirely met (or almost) and
demonstrates clear progress towards the objective, or the objective has been achieved
entirely.
There were moderate shortcomings in the achievement of the planned intermediate result
for the current FY.
The achievement of the planned intermediate result for the current FY is very low
There was no planned intermediate result for the current FY, therefore it was Not Rated.
Rating
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
NR
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Table 2. Monitoring Plan and Report (including Conservation Achievement KPI)
Goals
Good goals are
SMART and
linked to
biodiversity,
human welfare,
or footprint
reduction.
Indicator
(what you are
measuring &
the metric)
Columns in black
indicate information to
draw directly from your
monitoring plan
Key Long-term
Objectives
Indicator
(what you
are
measuring &
the metric)
Common
Indicator
(add the
number of
the
common
indicator
you
contribute
to)
Common
Indicator
(add the
number of
the
common
indicator
you
contribute
to)
Baseline
(value &
date)
Current status this
year
(“What result the project
planned to achieve by this
time”)
(“what result was
achieved by the time of
this report”)
FY
FY
FY
State appropriate dates
for PIRs at goal level
(annual measurement is
unlikely at this level)
Baseline
(value &
date)
(see guidelines above for completing the table; An Excel version is available and preferred)
Planned Intermediate Result
(PIR)
Planned Intermediate Result
(“what result the project
planned to achieve by this
time”)
EndEndEndFY13
FY14
FY15
These should be
based on what is
in your strategic
plan
Overall Conservation Achievement Rating (based on long-term objectives
Planned Final
Result (value &
date)
Columns in red indicate
information specific to
the TPR
Where no new data
available, state when
next measurement
due.
Current status this
year
(“what result was
achieved by the time
of this report”)
What are the
milestones you
intend to reach to
achieve the
objective? PIRs are
needed to help track
progress against
long-term
Planned Final
Result (value &
date)
Conservation
Achievement
Rating
Justification(s)
for rating
Did the current
status meet
the planned
result?
How did you
choose the
rating that
you gave?
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