Projects under preparation

What this stage is

Preparation is where a concept becomes a proposition an institution can assess. It is the longest stage on the ladder — four rungs, covering full feasibility, engineering and statutory approvals, the commercial structure, and the search for capital. It is also the stage most development programmes underfund, and the reason a pipeline stalls is far more often that preparation was never completed than that money was never available. A project that leaves this stage carries a feasibility study, an environmental and social screening, a preliminary design, a live approvals register, a settled risk allocation and a financing plan.

No initiative has reached this stage. Status follows readiness, and readiness advances only when the evidence for the next step exists. An empty list here is an accurate statement of where the portfolio stands, not an omission — and it will stay empty until a record holds the evidence named below.