Report writing Objectives of reports Enable the donor

Report writing

Objectives of reports • Enable the donor to visualise the operations achieved over the funding period • Convince them of the relevance of the expenses • Explain and justify any changes during the project’s implementation compared to the initial proposal • Explain the difficulties encountered which may have prevented the funded organisation from achieving certain results/objectives of the project

Format of reports • The funding guidelines or the contract usually mention the presentation requirements: – frequency and dates of submission, – writing framework to be followed, – proofs of payment to be submitted. • Apart from certain EC budget lines and some national cooperations, donors don’t usually have a template for reporting. • All reports must consist of a narrative part and a financial one (pay attention to audits).

Content of the narrative report • Summary of the approved project – context – objectives and main activities of the project • Achievements over the given period – activities undertaken – clearly explain the share of expenditure made compared to the initial budget – if it is a co-financing contract, give an update on the other donors • • Possible difficulties and/or delays Objectives of the future phase / sustainability of the action Other issues (e. g. result of an evaluation, survey) Conclusions / recommendations / lessons learned

Content of the financial report • Any significant gaps between the initial budget and the expenses made have to be explained. • In intermediary reports, you should explain the authorised modifications so as to inform the donor • Any amendments to the contract should be introduced in a report but formally asked in a separate document. The financial report should be consistent with the narrative part and not surprise the person who has read the narrative

Annexes • • • Map Statistics Photos with comments Eventual newspapers articles Relevant samples of the work done (quotations from the training, course curriculum, workshop programmes, awareness-raising material, etc) • Agreements with partners and/or ministries (if they have not been enclosed in the project proposal)