Management Response

: Multi-Country Office for the Pacific (Fiji)
: 2016 - 2016 , Multi-Country Office for the Pacific (Fiji) (MCO)
: Mid Term Evaluation of Pacific Regional EVAW Facility Fund
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: Multi-Country Office for the Pacific (Fiji)
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The 2015 Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the Pacific Fund covered the 2012-2014 implementation period. This review assessed the relevancy, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and inclusiveness of the Programme, including lessons learnt and evidences on the use of Outputs and intermediate Outcomes achieved at this stage of the Programme’s implementation. UNWomen’s Fiji MCO ‘acknowledged and agreed’ that all the 8 (eight) recommendations of the MTR be ‘adopted and actioned’ as crucial developments to improve the progress of the Pacific Fund Programme towards achieving its planned results. The core of this Management Response are summarized below as Key Actions and Timeframes in response to every Recommendation. Detail narrative is also included to elaborate more on the rational of every response and the current status of work done under each recommendation. Summary of KEY ACTIONS AND TIMELINES per each Recommendation. RECOMMENDATION 1. i. Mapping of current regional work on primary prevention and service delivery, including an analysis on needs and gaps – focused on Tier 1 countries where UNW works - Q3 (August 2016) ii. Pacific Fund Phase II Design Workshop - Q3 (July 2016). RECOMMENDATION 2. I. Pacific Fund Phase II Design Workshop - Q3 (July 2016) ii. Regular (frequency to be determined in country) meetings with DFAT in each programming country - Q3-Q4 ( July – October 2016) iii. Co-planning regional technical consultations (i.e. Primary Prevention Workshop) with DFAT and PWSPD, to further inform strategic investments - Q3 ( September 2016). RECOMMENDATION 3. I. Daily technical support from MCO - Q1 – Q 4 (January – December, 2016) ii. Technical trainings/workshops for PF Project Coordinators, at least two times per year - Q1 & Q3 ( February; September 2016) iii. Project Coordinators to attend other, outside trainings where possible- Q2 ( June 2016). RECOMMENDATION 4 I. Create specific knowledge management strategy - Q3 (September 2016) ii. Regularly collect impact stories from grantee organization - Quarter 1- Quarter 4 (January- December 2016) iii. Regularly share grantee impact stories through PWSPD website, through Nesian Tok and other channels - Q1-Q4 ( January – December 2016) iv. Create two knowledge products, on primary prevention of VAWG and on Service Delivery - Q3-Q4 ( July – October 2016) v. Regular (frequency to be determined in country) meetings with DFAT in each programming country - Q1-Q4 ( January – December). RECOMMENDATION 5. i. Hire Response & Service Delivery Specialist - Q1 -Q2, (January & May, 2016). ii. Develop a service delivery capacity building strategy to guide the Specialist work - Q3 (July, 2016) iii. Workshops on the EVAW Toolkit in PF programming countries - Q4 2015 & Q1, 2016 iv. Regular M&E visits to grantees - Q2 & Q4 ( JUNE – NOVEMBER 2016). v. Improve internal systems for information and knowledge management - Q3 - Q4 ( July - November, 2016). RECOMMENDATION 6 I. M&E Coordinator provides training to all grantees - Q2 – Q4 ( June – November 2016). RECOMMENDATION I. Pacific Fund Phase II Design Workshop - Quarter 3 (July 2016) ii. Development of Client Satisfaction Surveys with selected grantees Quarter 3 ( August, 2016). RECOMMENDATION 8. i. Update the UN Women Resource Mobilization plan and strategies Quarter 3 (August, 2016).

: Approved
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 1 The Pacific Fund should develop strategic, thematic areas of focus, including funding evidence-based and/or evidence-generating interventions, in order to maximize impact and focus capacity building efforts. UN Women should consider evolving the Pacific Fund from being a project with the goal of “general EVAW capacity building of organizations” to being a more “strategic, thematically focused entity” that directs financial resources, capacity building, and support to grantees that are able to identify, engage in, and address key gap areas (e.g. primary prevention, secondary prevention, expanding service delivery access in general and particularly in rural areas, and implementation of EVAW legislation) in response to VAW and to promote EVAW at the national levels. In order to inform the strategic areas of focus, UN Women should conduct a thorough needs and gaps analysis across the primary areas of VAWG programming, including primary and secondary prevention and service delivery in target countries. In addition, the Pacific Fund should invest in programming that uses an existing evidence base to inform intervention development. If the evidence base is weak, UN Women should work with grantees to develop more rigorous monitoring and evaluation plans to coincide with implementation. The sum of Pacific Fund grantees’ work should actively contribute to the evidence base in the Pacific around what works to stop violence, reduce further harm, and access hard to reach populations with services. Strengthening evidenced-based approaches and evidence-generating interventions is key and important to the Pacific Fund.
Management Response: MANAGEMENT RESPONSE: AGREED. UNW agrees that there is a need to focus on addressing key gaps in EVAW programming across the region. A country by country analysis outlining the national EVAW context in Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Fiji, Nauru, Tonga and Samoa is currently underway (all of these countries align to the Pacific Fund countries). This analysis will be complete by July 2016. In addition, UNW anticipates undergoing a Pacific Fund Phase II design workshop with DFAT in mid-July, which will provide critical guidance for the future operations and decisions regarding grant making investments moving forward. Given the diversity of programming in the region, thematic areas of focus must be country driven and driven by specific factors such as: scale and scope of the problem; current state of response and prevention programming underway; and an analysis of what different donors, particularly DFAT, is already funding. The Pacific Fund is committed to funding evidence-based and evidence-generating interventions. Most recently, the Pacific Fund conducted a project design workshop with our current/past grantee Talitha (in Tonga), to ensure the interventions are in-line with current evidence and best practice related to adolescent girls social and economic empowerment programming. Involvement at this early stage of the process also ensures that M&E processes are well established to ensure evidence can be both generated and captured by the intervention. The current process in place for open funding calls presents a challenge to this kind of intensive support however. One recommendation is to create a two-step process, with the first step being a brief concept paper submitted by the lead agency. After initial selection by the RPAC, the selected grantee would then work on a fully fledged proposal, with support from the Pacific Fund team to ensure evidence-based programming and/ or evidence-generating project design. This change in process would require careful thought to ensure that it does not slow down the process of granting, and should be discussed in more detail in the Phase II design workshop.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Mapping of current regional work on primary prevention and service delivery, including an analysis on needs and gaps – focused on Tier 1 countries where UNW works. Pacific Fund Team 2016/08 Completed With the Pacific Fund coming to a formal closure in June 2018, its 10 years of EVAW programming in the Pacific has enabled evidence-based interventions in Vanuatu, SOI, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and Kiribati, focussing on Service Delivery and Primary Prevention Work in rural communities. The new phase of UN Women EVAW Programming is rolling out in January 2018. UN Women’s experience in the region has shown that to effectively prevent and respond to VAWG across all levels, from the community to the policy level, a comprehensive, transformative approach is required. UN Women is strategically placed to leverage investments from multiple donors to advance a coordinated, transformative approach, through providing technical advisory services, utilizing our convening role to advance regional priorities, and supporting primary prevention and social norm change evidence building in select countries. This is what drives the new UN Women EVAW Programme.
Pacific Fund Phase II Design Workshop EVAW Specialist, PF Temporary manager & team, DFAT 2016/08 Completed Scheduled meeting with donor for the end of July. New EVAW Program to begin in 2018
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 2: UN Women should provide more substantial grants to a smaller pool of grantees in order to improve value for money and avoid duplication of funding to grantees that are also supported by DFAT. UN Women can improve value for money by streamlining administration and support for a smaller pool of grantees that receive larger, more substantial grants. Not only will this improve value for money in terms of time spent on grant administration and support, as opposed to quality technical support, it can also maximize the impact of the Pacific Fund and grantees’ work in countries by allowing for a more comprehensive, well-funded approach to EVAW programming. Critical to the success of this recommendation is being able to support core funding of organizations, as well as activities. This includes funding staffing, operational, and monitoring and evaluation core costs. This recommendation further advances that UN Women should carefully analyse funding already being provided to potential grantees in order to avoid duplication of funding grantee activities and/or core costs already being covered by DFAT. One important strategy to avoid duplication is ensuring that DFAT remains on the NSCs and RPAC to manage and reduce the risk of duplication of funding to grant applicants. There are also opportunities for UN Women to develop more strategic partnerships with Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development at the national level to not only avoid duplication of effort, but also to be much more strategic and targeted in terms of moving a comprehensive EVAW strategy forward on the ground.
Management Response: MANAGEMENT RESPONSE: AGREED. UN Women welcomes this recommendation not only on the grounds of good investment, but also in terms providing more quality technical support from the team to grantees. New grants awarded in 2016 through limited country-specific calls (i.e. Tonga and Papa New Guinea), are in line with this recommendation, resulting in 1 grantee per country and awards at or near the maximum allowable under the Funds’ operational guidelines ($100,000 USD). In the medium to long term this change will result in fewer grantees and more efficient grants administration; however the Fund notes that this change will take time to have a significant effect, with 17 active grants as of May 2016 (projected to be 14 active grantees by the end of the year). In the meantime, tracking and quality control around tranches, reporting tools and compliance has been given more attention and general improvements have been observed in Quarter 1 of 2016. UN Women agrees that awarding a smaller number of larger grants has the potential to support more comprehensive and coherent programming across the region. The Pacific Fund is open to changes to allowable expenses, which should be discussed at the upcoming Phase II design workshop, and which will need to conform to UN operating procedures. Current expenses are capped on a percentage basis, e.g. 15% for M&E, 10% for project personnel, 3% for technical assistance and consultancies, which with a larger grant size becomes an adequate sum to allow for quality external evaluation of interventions. It is imperative that the Pacific Fund be able to support core costs to grantees. DFAT remains on the selection committee for new grantees at national level NSCs and the RPAC (regional) and is heavily involved in processes and determination of grantees in limited calls, reducing the risk of duplication of funding. More systematic consultations with DFAT have increased at the regional level, e.g. in Quarter 1 around the support for grantees’ activities after TC Winston, MTR and with regards to the next phase of the fund. UN Women is also working on building a stronger working relationship and regular communications with PWSPD, e.g. sharing information and impact stories from grantees and the EVAW Specialist is a member of the reference group for two DFAT bodies of work, including the counselling review and the EVAW Road Map.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Pacific Fund Phase 2 Design Workshop EVAW Specialist, PF Temporary manager & team, DFAT 2016/08 Completed To include discussion on modality for future calls in line with this recommendation New EVAW Program to begin in 2018
Regular (frequency to be determined with DFAT at country level) meetings with DFAT in each programming country EVAW Programme Specialist, Temporary Pacific Fund Manager, Project Coordinators 2016/10 Completed
Co-planning regional technical consultations (i.e. Primary Prevention Workshop) with DFAT and PWSPD EVAW Programme Specialist 2016/09 Completed Planning is underway between UN Women, PWSPD and DFAT on the Regional Primary Prevention workshop and rolling out a SASA! Training in PNG. Regional Primary Prevention Workshop held November 2016.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 3: Increase investment in Project Coordinators as a key strategy for reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and ensuring sustainability. The transition of having skilled staff at the country levels to support grantees is a strategic approach that if functioning well, can reduce costs and increase efficiency, and better ensure sustainability of the Pacific Fund. In order to be successful, UN Women must systematically build the capacity and professional development of PCs at the country level, ensuring they have the skills needed to provide both basic and advanced technical assistance and capacity building to grantees. Areas of expertise required include: grant financing/budgeting and reporting, development of work plans and expected outcomes, baselines and results-based monitoring and reporting, and gender responsive and human rights-based approaches to EVAW. This can allow PCs to more effectively monitor and assess grantees’ project activities and provide improved guidance and advice. PCs should also receive training to better understand the UN system, including all of the templates and reporting forms, and what is allowed financially. If the Pacific Fund’s focus is also revised to include primary and secondary prevention of VAWG, PCs need technical training to understand primary and secondary prevention concepts and approaches, as well as tertiary prevention concepts and approaches, including referral pathways for survivors of violence.
Management Response: MANAGEMENT RESPONSE: AGREED. UN Women notes that since the Project Coordinators have been hired, we have seen improvements in grantee performance, operationally and technically, and agrees that investment in these staff is likely to improve efficiency. Improvements in grantee performance are evidenced in part by the improvement of compliance and quality of reports/reporting from grantees in Quarter 1 2016. Internal capacity building of PCs is largely delivered by specialists from the MCO-based team and service contractors. This informal support mostly consists of one- to- one technical support on issues identified by PCs. Fiji MCO staff are in contact on almost a daily basis with in-country PCs. To strengthen capacity support and technical knowledge of PC’s, UN Women will initiate twice yearly technical trainings, bringing together all PCs with MCO-based staff. Incorporating these technical EVAW trainings into pre-existing meetings, i.e. the Annual Work plan Meeting (conducted for the first time in January 2016) and annual EVAW team retreat, ensures efficient delivery of the capacity development support. Recognizing the existing capacity of the Project Coordinators, UN women will also aim to include peer-to-peer learning in these training sessions. In 2016, one Project Coordinator (from Tonga) has also been selected to participate in FWCC’s RTP training, and UN Women continues to explore additional more intensive training opportunities for PC’s, including the upcoming Primary Prevention Workshop.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Daily technical support from MCO PF team (Manager, Grants Administrator, M&E Coordinator) 2016/12 Completed
Twice annual technical trainings for PF Project Coordinators EVAW Specialist and PF Manager 2016/09 Completed Q1 completed, Q3 in planning stage. PF Project Coordinators role no longer applicable as PF Project has ended
Project Coordinators to attend other, outside trainings where possible EVAW Specialist, PF Manager and team 2016/09 Completed One PC attending RTP in June 2016
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 4 UN Women should strengthen the Pacific Fund’s knowledge management and communications systems. This evaluation revealed systems of effective knowledge management have been strengthened since 2012; but, more can be done to strengthen and expand knowledge management and effective communication of results. The Pacific Fund is in a unique position to promote critical knowledge about EVAW interventions and insights from a wide range of organizations and activities across Pacific Island countries. In recent years, UN Women has regularly used visits to grant recipient organizations and their target communities as an opportunity to hear and capture stories in a coherent manner to create insightful knowledge products. The importance of sharing these stories cannot be understated; in fact, donor agencies require evidence of impact and individuals’ stories are quite powerful. In addition, and perhaps even more critical, is the need for the Pacific Fund to improve knowledge management systems and products with the aim of offering new insights and learning in order to improve the overall knowledge base on EVAW programming in the Pacific. Furthermore, the evaluation revealed the UN Women Pacific Fund team needs to develop a more robust donor specific communication strategy to ensure better communication and partnership with DFAT around all aspects of the project. It is important that the communication plan and strategy focus on more direct and regular communication between the UN Women Pacific Fund team and DFAT officers and gender focal points in each of the countries about the Pacific Fund and the grantees. One of the best practices was found in Tonga where UN Women meets on a monthly basis with the DFAT gender focal point to update them on the Pacific Fund and grantees’ activities and accomplishments; this approach should be replicated in other countries.
Management Response: MANAGEMENT RESPONSE: AGREED. The Pacific Fund acknowledges the evaluations’ recognition of improvements in this area since 2012, and agrees that knowledge management and communication can be further strengthened. A whole knowledge management strategy needs to be developed with the implementation led by the M&E and Knowledge Management Coordinator. PF Project Coordinators are being supported to produce stories from grantee organisations and beneficiaries, ensuring that stories are captured from a range of countries, communities and grantees. In response to the evaluation, UN Women has ensured that stories are regularly shared with PWSPD Newsletter and UNW Pacific social media sites as well as the with the Pacific Fund’s Nesian Tok Subscribers. The Fund is working to improve its Knowledge Management Systems with the aim of strengthening and expanding knowledge management and effective communication of results, and a Communications Strategy is currently being developed. Priorities in the communication strategy include more coordination, visibility and clarity in collecting, sharing, use and management of knowledge products. In addition, UN Women will produce two knowledge products in 2016, one on primary prevention and one on survivor-centred response. Both products will synthesise global best practice and Pacific-specific contextual information, with accompanied dissemination plans. As noted in the response to Recommendation 1 and 2 above, there has been an increase in communications with DFAT in 2016, which will be a continued priority for UN Women ongoing. At the country level, UN Women proposes to institute regular monthly or quarterly meetings between UNW Country Programme Coordinators and DFAT country level representatives to ensure effective relationships and timely communication.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Knowledge management, Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Impact, Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Create specific knowledge management strategy M&E Coordinator 2016/09 Completed
Regularly collect impact stories from grantee organisations Pacific Fund Project Coordinators 2016/12 Completed
Regularly share grantee impact stories through PWSPD website, through Nesian Tok and other channels Pacific Fund Project Coordinators and M&E Coordinator 2016/12 Completed
Create two knowledge products (with attached dissemination plan), on primary prevention of VAWG and on Service Delivery Prevention of VAW Specialist, Response & Service Delivery Specialist 2016/10 Completed
Regular (frequency to be determined at the country level) meetings with DFAT in each programming country Pacific Fund Project Coordinators 2016/12 Completed
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 5 Capacity building of grantees requires moving away from “one-off” trainings and to a focus on individuals, and towards systematic approaches and institution strengthening. To build capacities of organizations in the Pacific to EVAW, the Pacific Fund should focus on building and retaining the capacity of organizations for the long term by focusing on capacity building organizations, rather than training individuals. To accomplish this, UN Women needs to explore ways to bring trainings to the grantees (similar to what is being currently done with the model of delivering primary prevention and organizational and management trainings in-country, and the provision of in-country mentoring by RRRT) versus sending individual members of grant recipient organizations to trainings. PCs should also be provided with advanced capacity building training so they can provide both basic and advanced technical assistance to grantees on a regular basis following trainings. UN Women should also continue to invest in cost-effective and proven models of capacity building for grantees, such as FWCC’s RTP and RRRT’s Lobbying and Advocacy Training and Mentoring Programme. UN Women should engage with RRRT to expand their trainings for grantees to focus specifically on building their capacities to support, monitor, and advocate for the implementation of EVAW legislation and policies. And, government grantees need trainings that focus specifically on building the capacities to facilitate, coordinate, and manage implementation plans of EVAW legislation and policies. Findings from this evaluation revealed capacity building needs to be considered as a continuous activity in the Pacific and should not be a “one-off.” Capacity building should be tailored so that trainings are tiered; in other words, the capacities of grantees can be enhanced with consecutive and additional enhanced trainings (e.g. separate basic and advanced primary prevention training). Sustainability demands that UN Women be able to deliver capacity building to grantees on a regular and ongoing basis over the long term.
Management Response: MANAGEMENT RESPONSE : AGREED The Pacific Fund has now engaged the full complement of technical experts, providing wrap-around capacity development in prevention, response/service delivery, organisational development, and advocacy and lobbying, and enabling UN Women to provide continuous and systematic capacity building and support to grantees. Support is delivered through in-country trainings and workshops (allowing multiple members of organisations to attend), and through organisation-specific mentoring, both remotely and in-person. Project Coordinators are involved in all work with grantees in their country, ensuring that they also benefit from capacity development through the visits, which will increase the long-term sustainability of capacity support to grantees. In some areas, e.g. financial and narrative reporting, the Pacific Fund is looking at a cascaded training approach whereby PCs are trained to give basic trainings for grantees. Areas of focus for institutional strengthening in 2016 include monitoring and results-based reporting and baselines and baseline assessment to form part of project design during call for proposal. A key achievement for capacity building of grantees in 2015 was the finalisation and launch of the EVAW Toolkit, ‘How to design projects to end violence against women and girls’. In Quarter 1 2016, the EVAW Toolkit was rolled-out in all programming countries with a few organizations adapting these models as part of their organizational and management development strategies for their projects in-country. UN Women also continues to perfect its internal systems for storage, reporting and information management system to complement its service delivery to grantees at every level.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Advocacy, Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Impact, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Hire Response & Service Delivery Specialist PF Manager 2016/08 Completed Completed in Quarter 1 and 2 ( February and May, 2016)
Develop a service delivery capacity building strategy to guide the Specialist work Service Delivery Specialist , PF Manager 2016/08 Completed
Workshop on EVAW ToolKit in PF Programming Countries Organizational Development Service Contractor 2016/08 Completed This was conducted in Quarter 4 2015 and Quarter 1 2016
Regular M&E visits to Grantees M&E Coordinator and PF Project Coordinators 2016/11 Completed
Improve internal systems for information management Organisational management consultants, M&E and Grants Coordinator. 2016/11 Completed This would include things like: • Creating a Document Storage Management system in place which includes the capture, storage, classification, indexing, maintenance, use, security, and retention of documents both at regional and at country level • Creating an electronic system and use of a cloud hosted project management website that allows sharing of information between the regional and country offices • Efficient tracking system for grantees progress against their goals and thus allows us to monitor improvements and also assess the competency gaps • Capacity building tailored to the needs for each of the grantees • Quarterly financial tracking system that ensures that risk of financial mismanagement is minimised
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 6: UN Women should invest in developing a robust monitoring and evaluation system to more effectively measure results and impacts. Results-based monitoring and reporting functions are vital elements of Pacific Fund operations; however, mere recording of facts and figures will not suffice. In 2012, improvements made to progress reports have improved monitoring and reporting of grantees; however, there is still a need for capacity building of grant recipients to strengthen their abilities to conduct baselines and carry out results-based monitoring and reporting of their activities. Grant recipients also need capacity building to understand how to collect data related to indicators and project outputs, outcomes, and goals. Capacity building should also focus on improving grantees’ recording keeping and documentation systems that would serve to strengthen results-based monitoring and reporting. Improvement can also be made to the progress reports by simplifying them to make them more manageable for grantees; ensuring the information captured is more meaningful for the UN Women Pacific Fund team. The UN Women Pacific Fund team should also explore ways to do more regular monitoring and evaluation of grantees. This requires more regular site visits to grantees by UN Women’s Pacific Fund MEL Specialist and ensuring PCs have the capabilities to carry out monitoring and evaluation on a more regular basis. PCs should also be trained to provide grantees with technical assistance with results-based monitoring and reporting.
Management Response: MANAGEMENT RESPONSE: AGREED. In 2015, the Pacific fund contracted a consultant to work with selected (new) grantees to collect baseline data and create baseline reports. From 2016, Pacific Fund staff are paying particular attention to new grantees, ensuring that baseline data is collected as part of programme activities and that new project designs are compatible with an RBM approach. In late 2015/ early 2016, templates for proposals, progress reports and final reports were simplified, leading to improved data reporting as well as positive feedback from grantees. Having completed hiring of the M&E Coordinator in January 2016, the Fund is also moving forward with increased support for grantees in data collection in quarter 2 and beyond, including support to all new grantees with the development of their project designs, baseline data and training on results-based reporting on their monitoring activities. This will also include technical support to active grantees with the analysis of their baseline surveys already conducted as well as their end line data and analysis. In addition, M&E field visits per programming country will begin in Quarter 2 and 3, to ensure comprehensive reporting and quality programming,. UNW recognizes the need for field monitoring visits to verify and support project progress, to build closer relationships with grantees and answer more in-depth questions relevant to reporting and program quality, such as the social impact assessments at the end of the year.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities, Partnership, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Redesign of proposal and reporting templates to improve data collection. Organisational management consultants, Grants Coordinator, M&E Coordinator 2016/08 Completed Completed in Quarter 4 2015 and Quarter 1 2016
M&E Coordinator Provides training to all grantees M&E Coordinator and PF Project Coordinators 2016/11 Completed
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 7: UN Women should use the Pacific Fund to support grant recipients to implement their projects in a manner that strengthens the right of participation among target groups/beneficiaries. This evaluation revealed that since inception, the Pacific Fund has committed to strengthening grantees’ abilities to understand and apply gender responsive and human rights-based approaches to EVAW, and has given some attention to strengthening strategies that consider the rights of participation of target groups/beneficiaries. Still, however, target groups are often treated as relatively passive “audiences” to reach and “beneficiaries” that receive services. This is especially problematic in awareness-raising and/or protection projects, where project approaches are often fully pre-defined and extended to target groups, rather than engaging target groups in defining the content and direction of the projects. In addition, protective services for survivors of VAW are often established and offered with little input from the women that access these protective services, including their input into the type of and quality of services. This alignment with gender responsive and human rights-based approaches needs further attention. Based upon these findings, it is recommended that the Pacific Fund consider how it can help grant recipients implement their projects in a manner that strengthens the right of participation of target groups as agents of change, informed participants, and valuable rights-holders. This recommendation is also based on the hypothesis that ownership is key to sustainability, and the right of participation of target groups is widely agreed upon and accepted as a “best practice.” While it sounds straightforward to ensure that rights to participation be respected, it requires skills that are not common for most grantees. Grant recipients need training to improve their capabilities to engage with target groups in project design and to ensure proper ethical protocols are followed, especially when involving survivors of VAWG.
Management Response: MANAGEMENT RESPONSE: AGREED. The Pacific Fund management recognizes that grantees require support in strengthening the rights-based approach to their work, especially in the design stage of projects. The current granting process presents a challenge that requires revamping in order to improve programme design, as a detailed programme design has already been developed as part of the granting application requirements. One possibility may be to create a two-step process, with the first step being a brief concept paper submitted by interested applicants for initial short-listing selection. After initial shortlisting selection by the RPAC, presumptive grantees would then be required a fully-fledged proposal, which would be supported by the PF team to ensure sound design based on evidence, inclusion of human rights based approaches, and participation of intended beneficiaries. This change in process would require careful thought to ensure that it does not slow down the process of granting, and should be discussed in more detail in the Phase II design workshop. In terms of ensuring continued use of a rights-based approach to programming through the life of each grant, the M&E and technical specialist continue to work with grantees to gather feedback from beneficiaries and to be responsive to that feedback. In particular, the newly hired Service Delivery Specialist will work with selected grantees to ensure that Client Satisfaction Surveys are developed and implemented, in the second half of 2016.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Pacific Fund Phase II Design Workshop EVAW Specialist, PF Temporary Manager and Team, DFAT, Senior Management, UNW 2016/08 Completed New EVAW Program to begin 2018
Ongoing support for data collection Organizational Management Consultants, M&E and Grants Coordinators 2016/12 Completed Details on support for data management in Recommendation 6
Development of Client Satisfaction Surveys with selected grantees Response and Service Delivery Specialist 2016/08 Completed
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 8: UN Women should advocate for additional donors for the Pacific Fund to ensure its sustainability. In the Pacific, there is a high degree of commitment from a limited number of organizations/institutions to work on VAWG and to implement EVAW initiatives. Currently, UN Women’s Pacific Fund is reliant upon only one donor, Australian DFAT, leaving sustainability of the Pacific Fund at real risk. Given this reality, UN Women and the Pacific Fund would benefit from diversifying the donor base of the Pacific Fund by looking for other partners to invest in the Pacific Fund going forward. This recommendation is important if UN Women intends to sustain the Pacific Fund, as well as expand and strengthen the Pacific Fund and EVAW efforts based upon the findings and recommendations of this mid-term evaluation.
Management Response: MANAGEMENT RESPONSE: AGREED. UN Women has developed an internal resource mobilization strategy which includes a donor diversification strategy for EVAW programming, of which the Pacific Fund is a key component. In April and May 2016, the EVAW Specialist had meetings in Washington D.C. and New York to discuss with UN Women HQ staff strategies for diversifying donors within the Pacific, both through the US Government as well as private foundations. There are on-going discussions with donors in the region.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Implement the UNWomen Resource Mobilization plan and strategies EVAW Programmes Specialist, Deputy Representative and Country Representative 2016/11 Completed