Sign-off

Quality assurance

A thorough and coherent strategy is key to a positive collaborative environment that enhances the quality and efficiency of UN operations at country level. The BOS Task Team has been created, in part, to assist UNCTs in maintaining a desired level of quality in the development and implementation of the BOS.

In an attempt to facilitate the sign-off step, the BOS will be reviewed for quality assurance by a member of the BOS Task Team. This review is intended to ensure key aspects of the BOS process are followed and, when necessary, changes are introduced.

The quality assurance review is a mandatory step ahead of the sign-off and should be completed within 7-10 working days. Any delay can be escalated to DCO at regional and HQ level. For more information, please refer to the Quality Assurance Standard Operating Procedures available in the online platform.

Once all the steps of the BOS progress bar have been completed, OMT Chairs will be able to submit the final draft for quality assurance validation in the sign-off page of the platform.

Sign-off meeting

The endorsement of the strategy is fundamental to the collaborative implementation of services at country level. This step is only possible once the BOS has been reviewed and cleared for the sign-off by the BOS Task Team.

The sign-off meeting includes the OMT Chair, the UNCT and the RC. In this meeting, the OMT Chair is responsible for presenting the BOS to the UNCT for final endorsement. Once endorsed by the UNCT, the BOS is ready to be signed-off by the RC through the online platform. The RC signs-off on the BOS on behalf of the UNCT. As such only the RC’s registered account will enable the sign-off on the BOS online. The RC reports the completion of the BOS as part of their annual reporting obligations. Below is a depiction of the roles and responsibilities of the sign-off meeting:

Roles	Responsibilities

An agenda for the sign-off meeting would typically include:

• Introduction – the purpose of the meeting, as well as the overall proposed value (quality and cost) of the BOS;

• Accountability Framework Organigram – the responsibilities and levels of accountability of all actors;

• Results Framework – agreed set of common services (existing and new) – highlighting KPIs, targets, and involved agencies;

• Implementation Plan – defined activities, responsibilities, timeframes, and budget to implement each common service identified;

• Budget - common budget requirements and proposed resource mobilization approaches;

• Monitoring and Review Plan – outlining all responsibilities for the monitoring, reporting, and review plan.

The online platform generates summary reports for each step of the BOS to support presentation to the UNCT for endorsement. The sign-off is not finalized until the box the RC completes all the steps of the sign-off page. A link to final report will be sent to all staff registered through the accountability framework.

For more detailed information on completing the sign-off step in the BOS platform, please click here.