Key Actions by:

S1
S2
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S6
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Standard 6: Early transition and start-up planning (including pre-award).

Transition from the design/proposal team to the project start-up team and plan and conduct early start-up activities.

Phase:

Category:

Operations and program planning and management

Key Action 1	Document the rationale behind the project design and budget decisions to facilitate start-up and handover to the project start-up team.
Who	Proposal transition manager; proposal development team members
When	Throughout proposal development process with final documentation compiled immediately after proposal submission Update documentation as needed during donor review and final notification

Key Action 2	Develop CRS and partner-level plans and budgets for early start-up activities.
Who	Project manager/chief of party; key operations and program staff from the proposal development team and any project staff available at the time of plan development; country representative and other members of the CRS senior management team; staff from each partner/consortium organization
When	No later than one month before the anticipated project start date Earlier for larger, more complex and other strategic projects As soon as possible for emergency projects

Key Action 3	Organize CRS- and partner-level internal handover from the proposal team to the start-up/implementation team.
Who	Proposal transition manager and project manager/chief of party; members of the proposal development team and start-up/implementation team
When	Handover Briefing: In the first week of the project manager’s onboarding Handover Meeting: Prior to the project design validation meeting and start-up workshop and as soon as possible following project approval once key members of the start-up/implementation team are in place

Key Action 4	Conduct partner capacity assessments and prepare for capacity strengthening.
Who	Project manager/chief of party or other individual trained in CRS’ approach to partner capacity assessment; staff with partnership and capacity strengthening expertise from the country program, region, or headquarters (including partner safeguarding focal point); country representative and senior management team; technical advisors and subject matter experts from programming, finance, and other operations
When	Follow the schedule laid out in the early start-up plan; conduct the assessment by the end of the first quarter at the latest. Ideally CRS and each partner conducts an initial capacity assessment during the design phase. In such cases, the start-up phase assessment will: Complement the preliminary design phase assessment. Update that assessment based on additional information about the project. Serve as the first comprehensive assessment of capacity and needs related to the project.

Key Action 5	Set up an appropriate project governance structure.
Who	Project manager/chief of party (PM/CoP); country representative; country program senior management team; partner senior leadership; other stakeholders as appropriate
When	Set up the governance structure so that it is operational within the first month after project approval: For externally funded projects, set up the structure no later than three weeks after learning of the donor’s intent to fund. For other projects, within three weeks of project start-up.