This is under maintenance, please use the Acceptance environment


Closure is the intervention phase during which activities wind down, achievements are evaluated/assessed in depth and lessons are captured to feed into the knowledge cycle.

Actions cannot be closed until their respective individual legal commitments (contracts) are duly closed. Individual legal commitments have two closing dates: end date of activities (limit date to undertake new activities under a contract) and final date of implementation (limit date for implementation of any activity and its related payment). After the final date for implementation, there is a closing period for a given commitment during which only accounting and administrative operations are allowed.

Operational managers have several closing responsibilities, as detailed in the following table:

Closure phase: linking work flow and knowledge

What to analyse

What do I need to know?

Guides, methodologies and
tools

Final reporting by contractor

  • What do the final reports explain about intervention performance?
  • Are there any known external factors that affected intervention performance?
  • Have the performance and results of the intervention been properly captured?
  • How can it be ensured that the implementing partners convey key lessons learned in their reports?

PRAG standard templates

Final evaluation

  • Based on the monitoring and evaluation plan integrated at the design phase, is a final evaluation planned?
  • If so, have the purpose, use and intended users been well defined?

Evaluation Handbook

Evaluation in Hard-to-Reach Areas

Organisational learning

  • How do we collect, store and distribute the knowledge acquired? What are key lessons learned and best practices? Which interventions could best benefit from such lessons learned / best practices? How will these be disseminated?

Evaluation Handbook 
Capacity4dev
INTPA Academy
EU Learn

Final audit

  • Is a formal audit being undertaken?
  • After finalisation, have all assets been officially transferred to the beneficiary institutions, and has this been reflected on their books?

 PRAG Standard templates

Operational closure

  • How has the project contributed to the main SDG and other relevant SDGs?
  • Have all agreed results been achieved?
  • If not, have the reasons for non-achievement been captured?
  • Are there any lessons learned /recommendations for the future to be shared?

INTPA Companion Chapter 9: Project implementation – financial execution of contracts and operational closure

Administrative closure of contracts/decisions

  • Were all payments made and controlled?
  • Have the phases of the intervention cycle been well documented and archived for follow-up?

INTPA Companion Chapter 15: Closure of commitments

* Mandatory task.
Closure entails both administrative actions (as detailed above) and a knowledge learning process, consisting of reflection on the intervention examining its efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and impact, to draw lessons for future interventions.



Implementation