5.3.7. Project-to-Portfolio Levels

The "project-to-portfolio" node had the eighth highest level of incidence (n = 21) of relevant statements coded from the 40 participants (using the NVivo software). In terms of key word usage, this thematic (shown in Table 8) tracked "projects", "programmes" and "portfolios". In total, they were used 677 times across the 40 interviews, which equates to once every 80 words. There was wide recognition that the approach needed to be adapted but linked across the project, programme and portfolio levels, as noted by participant 27: "I think there is no 'one size fits all'. So, I think it will vary from programme to programme and be dependent on the country as well".

Special interest and importance were aligned with the node on "starting projects". The preceding survey [14] had not highlighted the importance of "starting projects well". This node was added during the interviews stage because it was often referred to as the need to use the SDG lens at the "key investment decision point", as noted by participant 26: "based on evidence frameworks, you can frame your project in a much better way to make sure the impact you get is maximized." The emphasis of getting stakeholder alignment was also mentioned by participant 19: "They want to demonstrate that their projects contribute to sustainability development goals and develop tools that make sure projects embed sustainability development at the outset, e.g., at their project inception phase".

There were some, such as participant 9, the head of sustainability for a utility company, who suggested that the SDG measurement had more relevance at the larger scale of programmes and at the organisational strategic level, represented by the portfolio office: "Thus we do it more at programme and portfolio level and less at project level. So, we have a mapping process at the portfolio level and align across project and programme SDG targets".


**Table 8.** Text analysis (NVivo) on key words' frequency: projects-to-portfolios.

Finding #10: there was evidence that SDGs can be measured at all three levels: projects, programmes and portfolios. There was special value in using the SDG lens at the start of the project to help align stakeholders around the longer-term outcomes and impacts.
