Management Response

: Regional Office for East and Southern Africa (Kenya)
: 2018 - 2021 , Regional Office for East and Southern Africa (Kenya) (RO)
: FINAL EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT “CONTRIBUTING TO THE ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN AFRICA THROUGH CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE - 2019-2021” IN MALAWI, NIGERIA, SOUTH AFRICA, AND UGANDA.
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: Regional Office for East and Southern Africa (Kenya)
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The Regional Office notes that the different Country offices have taken note of the evaluation findings and set in place mechanisms for improvement in areas that are within the realm of the each of the country offices. Overall, Malawi, Uganda and Nigeria Country offices agree with the evaluation findings, and the rich lessons from the evaluation report. In South Africa, the Impact of Covid 19 pandemic derailed the implementation of the project. Nevertheless, the identified actions will be implemented within the framework of each country office Programme framework.
: Approved
Recommendation: The evaluation validated the relevance, alignment, and overall effectiveness of the WEE through CSA by working with local implementing partners. The project in the four countries have resulted in increasing women agricultural productivity and income. However, challenges still exist, especially in addressing the root causes of gender inequality and sustaining women economic empowerment at local and household levels. As part of strengthening its work on this area, UN Women (ESARO and COs) – through a country Strategic Note (CO portfolio) should develop a long-term vision/strategy to build on the achievement of the CSA, that promote multi-stakeholder and multisectoral collaboration to further strengthen GEWE in general and WEE in the four countries. UN Women ESARO should continue working with the Standard Bank Group and seek to identify other strategic partners, to design another phase of the project (phase 2).
Management Response: Management is in full agreement with the above recommendations. UN Women fully recognizes the need for having a ToC backed by evidence, not only from the previous works, but also through empirical research. Additionally, UN women agrees that the development of futures ToC should be participatory and inclusive, bringing on board all stakeholders relevant to the project. The country teams thus plan to put in place mechanisms, such as but not limited to. 1. Having specific country office staff with strong research expertise available to support the development and design of TOCs using evidence from existing literature and 2. Through the process of developing the ToC, identify a series of systemic and clearly defined outcomes and cross-cutting principles, relevant to the thematic area targeted.
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Description: To sustain positive project results and increase impact, the Standard Bank Group should consider providing additional support, through UN Women, to cooperatives/ business groups formed through the project to link them to markets, emerging new technologies effectively, and financing. This should include investing in effective, accessible, and resilient digital platforms for marketing women's products (as a way of adapting to COVID-19 pandemic and other risks).
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Develop project proposal for second phase of the project and scaling up in new project locations; Uganda CO management team, and WEE Programme Specialist 2022/12 Ongoing
DevelopcCountry strategy for addressing GBV and other social norms that negatively affect women in CSA initiatives. Uganda CO-CSA Programme Analyst, with support from EVAW team at RO 2023/12 Ongoing
Undertake and generate policy brief and guidelines on aqua-culture and its dimensions on gender equality and women’s role for advocacy at national and regional level. Uganda CO-Programme Specialist- Women Economic Empowerment 2023/12 Ongoing
Conduct brown Bag sessions on the development of RBMs for staff Nigeria CO -Management 2022/12 Completed
Conduct capacity Strengthening of Programme Managers in understanding and developing integrated and holistic programmes based on empirical evidence Nigeria CO - Management 2022/12 Completed
ESARO will continue to seek strategic partners for WEE for future programming on climate resilient agriculture in ESAR. This will not be limited with the Standard Bank Group and may include a different selection of countries in the region. ESARO WEE Policy Specialist 2023/06 Ongoing
Recommendation: UN Women ESARO and COs should explore whether and how they can draw from country project-specific interventions and lessons learned more effectively to inform overall organizational learning and theory building to strengthen a system-wide approach to strengthen GEWE in various countries in the region.
Management Response: Management is in full agreement with the above recommendation and will be ready to join forces with the RO to package recommended KP. Moreover, under our knowledge management strategy, UN Women will draw from the lessons learned to inform our programming, policy development and establishing a community of practice as a hub for sharing best practices at national level and will be a vital part of such knowledge hub at the regional or global level when created. Additionally, UN Women recognizes the need to include baseline information associated with interventions implemented in various sectors. We do acknowledge that this baseline information provides a basis for measuring impact of interventions and benchmark justification for scale up of interventions.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Organize and facilitate communities of practice for CO program staff and IPs based on findings from evaluations and monitoring data. Malawi CO- WEE Program Specialist 2023/12 Completed The country office holds monthly meetings involving staff and IPs to review progress and develop plans. After each and every monitoring visit, the program team discuss and IPs findings/observations and make recommendations. We had the Country Portfolio Evaluation and findings informed the SN development process.
Document and disseminate the project results to the rest of the countries Uganda CO-Programme Specialist, Women Economic Empowerment, with technical support from Communications department 2022/10 Ongoing
Conduct bench marking visits to successful fish farming projects Uganda CO-WEE Team (Programme Analyst) 2023/04 Ongoing
Develop Country Gender Profile to detail the characteristics of women in Nigeria, including expanding gender administrative data as well as gender data disaggregated by sex through a Time Use Survey Nigeria CO -WEE Team 2023/06 Ongoing Nigeria's first CGP was developed and validated in 2023. The expanded gender administration data - time use survey is in the initiation phase. The survey is expected to begin in 2024
Integrate Lesson learned from the CSA intervention into other new and ongoing project strategies. SAMCO program specialist 2022/12 Completed
ESARO to publish a results report for all countries in the region for the period 2018-2022 ESARO WEE Policy Specialist 2023/06 Ongoing
Recommendation: UN Women ESARO and COs should continue to support women's economic empowerment and gender equality activities at sub-national and community levels, with clear advocacy, communication, and implementation plans to address the institutionalization (transformation) of gender equality and women's empowerment at local government and community levels. Besides, there should be a targeted/comprehensive support to local government leadership and institutions (i.e., state/district councils) to increasing their capacities in providing extension services to the women groups that the CSA project supported.
Management Response: In Malawi, the country office has resources to support women empowerment and gender equality activities currently through the ASWAP II Program but does not have specific resources to support advocacy plans and provision of extension services to the women groups in the areas that were targeted by the Standard Bank Project. Additionally, within UN Women Strategic Note, these aspects have been embedded and UNW will work collaboratively with all its partners, including Government counterparts at national and local levels to promote WEE and gender equality in its programmes. Furthermore, UN Women Nigeria CO recognizes the scalability and sustainability potentials of the project. The results from the pilot phase of the project indicates both human and environmental impact on small holder farmers in Niger and Ebonyi state. The CO also acknowledges the need for both vertical and horizontal scale up of the intervention in regards the agriculture value chain to be targeted and the beneficiaries. UN Women CO would ensure scaling up of intervention reflected in the new SN from 2023- 2027.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Embed CSA as part of their plan and strategy As well as Present the proposal to donors/private sector institutions based on intelligence report packaged for the Country Rep. by resource mobilization focal point. Uganda CO-Programme Specialist, Women Economic Empowerment, with technical support from Communications department 2023/12 Ongoing
Develop a capacity building / training Programme based on assessed needs for the LG and Women Cooperatives. Uganda CO-CSA Programme Analyst, with support from EVAW team 2023/06 Ongoing
Develop a capacity building / training Programme based on assessed needs for the LG and Women Cooperatives. Uganda CO-CSA Programme Analyst, with support from EVAW team 2023/06 Ongoing
Develop of a new CSA project document for scale up Nigeria CO -WEE Team and Management 2023/12 Completed A new CSA project has been developed for scale-up, with the aim of increasing women's access to goods and services, ultimately leading to improved livelihoods and economic opportunities. The expanded scope of the project includes three key areas: a. Access to credit b. Women's leadership and agency in the agriculture sector c. An increased number of value chains, including crops and small ruminants.
SAMCO continues to support and has incorporated women’s economic and gender equality activities at sub-national and community levels in the new Strategic note. SAMCO Programme Specialist 2022/12 Ongoing
ESARO held a Regional Knowledge Sharefair on the Care Agenda in November, 2022 which included 15 countries. This included clear linkages between the regional, national, sub-national linkages on gender equality and women’s empowerment and support required for women (including those in groups) ESARO WEE Policy Specialist 2022/12 Completed
Recommendation: UN Women ESARO and COs should capitalize on its mandate by building on its comparative advantages to lead in developing joint GEWE and WEE programmes in the regions and jointly mobilize adequate resources for effective implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of such programmes.
Management Response: The COs agree with the recommendation. In Uganda, the Country office management team and WEE team agree on the need to continue with resource mobilization initiative. While UN Women Nigeria CO recognizes the need for strengthening both internal and external M&E systems for the CSA project. UN Women Nigeria CO is in the process of recruiting senior level M&E specialist ( SB5) for CO and would provide necessary support for future interventions.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Mobilize resources for effective implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting for CSA Projects Malawi CO- Programme Specialist -WEE 2023/12 Completed The country office has not been to secure funding specific for CSA Projects. However, there are ongoing efforts to mobilize resource for the Women Economic Empowerment and all other program components.
Develop proposals and concepts for CSA projects Uganda CO-Programme Specialist-WEE, with technical support from Communications department. 2022/12 Ongoing
Develop proposals and concepts for CSA projects Uganda CO-Programme Specialist-WEE, with technical support from Communications department. 2022/12 Ongoing
Continue maintaining visibility and donor engagement as part of resource mobilization activity Uganda CO - Deputy Country Representative 2022/12 Completed
Develop the capacity of project managers and M&E staff on monitoring and evaluation Nigeria CO-Management and WEE Team 2023/06 Ongoing
SAMCO will input into the prodoc for a new iteration of the climate resilient agriculture and particularly looking at blue and green economies SAMCO Program Specialist 2023/06 Ongoing
ESARO is developing a new iteration of the climate resilient agriculture and particularly looking at blue and green economies. The draft prodoc will be shared with all countries in the region for inputs in early 2023. ESARO WEE Policy Specialist 2023/06 Ongoing
Recommendation: Future projects should, in a consultative manner, develop a clear plan to promote effective collaborative research, knowledge sharing and learning for effective CSA in general and women's economic empowerment in particular. UN Women ESSARO, COs, agricultural research institutions, and other relevant stakeholders in the respective countries and regional levels should initiate and support such partnerships to increase research outputs and share information on gender and CSA in the region.
Management Response: The recommendation is accepted. UN Women values knowledge management and related products, premised on research and evidence generation, to inform actions and policy. To this end, MaCO is currently developing its 4-year WEE Programme and research and knowledge management will be a key component. While it is also noted that sharing of project reports with the HQ is a global UN Women regulation.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Mobilize resources to support advocacy plans and provision of extension services to the women groups in the areas that were targeted by the Standard Bank Project. Malawi CO- WEE Programme Specialist 2023/12 Completed The country office has not been to secure funding specific for CSA Projects. However, there are ongoing efforts to mobilize resource for the Women Economic Empowerment and all other program components.
Uganda CO to develop Knowledge product on CSA Uganda CO- Programme Analyst 2023/12 Ongoing
Seek collaborative opportunities with CSA research institutes and Universities Uganda CO- Programme Analyst 2023/06 Ongoing
Seek collaborative opportunities with CSA research institutes and Universities Uganda CO- Programme Analyst 2023/06 Ongoing
Develop a digital platform “Buy from Women” Nigeria CO- Programme Specialist- WEE 2023/12 Ongoing The digital platform called "Buy from Women" has been developed to expand women's access to markets in Nigeria. This platform aims to support female smallholder farmers in Enugu and Niger states promote their agricultural produce. The Nigeria Country Office has also initiated the process of expanding the scope of the digital platform to include access to credit, essential services, and inputs, allowing women to expand their businesses and improve their livelihoods.
SAMCO will share information on good practices and learning from the program in the community of practice facilitated by the regional office. SAMCO Program Specialist 2023/12 Ongoing
ESARO will be publishing 2 research reports on agriculture in the region in 2023 ESARO WEE Policy Specialist 2023/06 Ongoing