Management Response

: Programme Division
: 2014 - 2016 , Programme Division (HQ)
: UN Women Sida Strategic Partnership Framework 2011-2016
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: Programme Division
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The evaluation of UN Women Sida Strategic Partnership (SPF) framework was conducted in order to capture and validate results of the programme achieved so far, recognize lessons learned and identify areas that require further support and/or strengthening. The findings provided in the report focus on the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of the evaluated programme and with the recommendations the report suggests how achievements and lessons learned can feed into future programming and agreements of similar type. UN Women appreciates the guidance given by this evaluation and also acknowledges challenges during its implementation given the scope and uniqueness of the Programme. The management response addresses the eight recommendations of the evaluation report and presents key actions for implementing these recommendations.

: Approved
Recommendation: Provide clarity to UN Women staff on the role and function of the Strategic Partnership Framework as a flexible funding modality that supports UN Women in implementing programme components in the designated impact areas as per the Strategic Plan 2014–17. Designating the SPF as a ‘programme’ using indicators from the DRF is correct but the aggregate level reporting of the latter is not useful for identifying contribution of the SPF funding modality to outcomes and outputs, and how SPF resources have been allocated within the wider portfolio of UN Women. Moreover, evaluating the SPF funding modality through standard evaluation questions applicable to a programme causes confusion, and not only among UN Women staff.
Management Response: The Programme Management Team agrees with the recommendation to provide further communication and guidance to UN Women offices on the nature of the Strategic Partnership Framework and how it works including the specificities of the distinct thematic areas. With the new Results Management System (RMS) now in place for both country level and HQ level planning, management and reporting, UN Women will be better positioned to capture country level results and how they contribute to global results under supported impact areas of the UN Women Strategic Plan on a more regular basis. The Programme Management Team also takes note of the recommendation for future evaluations and will take it into account when conducting the evaluations of the new Strategic Partnership Framework 2017-2020.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Send out communications to UN Women field offices to introduce the new Strategic Partnership Framework and elaborate on the three thematic areas covered, including the eligibility criteria and objectives specific to the three areas, monitoring and reporting requirements, and exit strategy. SPF Management Team (Technical Advisors and Programme Manager) 2017/04 Completed *SPF/H communications sent to UN Women Regional Offices in December 2016 and later in March 2017 confirming the selected countries, including the WPS funded deployments as well. *SPF/WPP has informed field colleagues through meetings and e-mails as needed, including through meetings with UN Women Country Offices' Representatives during CSW in March 2017.
Set up the new programme (SPFII) in both RMS and ATLAS to take advantage of the new corporate systems (RMS) and enhance global and country level results management and reporting and strengthen linkages with the Strategic Plan results. SPF Programme Management Team (Technical Advisors and Programme Manager). Field Offices as beneficiaries of the programme. 2017/04 Completed SPFII is set up in the RMS and ATLAS in accordance with the approved log frame and operational plan for 2017.
Ensure the TOR for mid-term and final evaluation of the SPF2 reflects the specific nature of the SPF. SPF Programme Management Team (Technical Advisors and Programme Manager) 2018/12 Completed 4th quarter of 2018 (mid-term evaluation) and 4th quarter 2020 (final evaluation) TOR for the mid-term review reflects the specific nature of the SPF. (Q1 2019) MTR final report confirms that the MTR TOR was adjusted in line with the SPFI evaluation recommendation.
Recommendation: Institutionalize the mechanism for allocating SPF funding to foster clarity, accountability and transparency at regional and country levels, while at the same time ensuring the flexibility of this funding modality is maintained. Link this to compiling a Strategic Briefing Note on Good Practice Examples where UN Women has leveraged its strategic positioning supported by effective use of SPF funding. This could arguably function as an effective advocacy tool for strengthening applications for donor funding.
Management Response: The Programme Management Team agrees with the recommendation and though fund allocation mechanisms, including eligibility criteria, are already in place the programme would benefit from their further strengthening and streamlining. Distinctive nature of the programme components will need to be taken into account and good practices from the SPF1 implementation, such as allocation mechanism established under Impact Area 1, will be assessed for possible replication. The flexibility and thematic decentralization of the SPF needs to be maintained to ensure its responsiveness and allocation of resources guided by expertise. The Programme Management Team welcomes the suggestion to compile Strategic Briefing Note on Good Practice Examples and will assess the benefits of having it as a separate advocacy tool or possibility of having it embedded in the existing reporting mechanism.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Set up a mechanism/s for allocating SPF funding including the eligibility criteria, workflows, monitoring and reporting, taking into consideration existing mechanisms and distinctive nature of the three thematic areas supported through the SPF. SPF Programme Management Team (Technical Advisors and Programme Manager) 2017/04 Completed *SPF/H & SPF/WPS communications on the selected countries and basis for the allocation of resources sent to the UN Women Regional Offices in March 2017. Monitoring and reporting criteria shared separately. *SPF/WPP continues to implement the Women in Politics Fund and Women in Constitutional Reform fund. Guidelines are shared with the field offices and include details on the criteria, monitoring and reporting.
Assess the benefits of compiling a separate Strategic Briefing Note on Good Practice Examples to be used as a learning tool and an advocacy mechanism versus embedding it in the existing reporting instruments that can be then used for same purposes. SPF Programme Management Team (Technical Advisors and Programme Manager) 2017/07 Completed To be included as part of the mid-term review of the SPFII planned for Q4 in 2018. Included as one of the areas to be assessed through the MTR and finding validated.
Recommendation: Where SPF surge support is activated in response to a humanitarian need and crisis, consider focusing on programme components where UN Women has established a recognized strategic position and can further consolidate its comparative advantage, and where technical experience can be transferred to other countries in crisis. DRR/preparedness for risk mitigation, early recovery, resilience and capacity-building/training on gender in humanitarian action are particular areas where UN Women can contribute to synergy and value added and strengthen its catalytic role. Small amounts in small countries at the right time can also provide significant returns to UN Women and its ability to achieve results for women.
Management Response: UN Women is seeking to establish its added value in being present in humanitarian crisis settings, through the provision of coordination and capacity building support and through the provision of targeted programmes where specific humanitarian service gaps for women and girls are identified and are feasible for UN Women to deliver. To this end, UN Women has identified a set of core actions in humanitarian settings to guide its engagement, through coordination, capacity building, evidence-based response and targeted programming. In addition, UN Women has developed two flagship programmes addressing response and recovery (LEAP) and disaster risk management (Gender Inequality of Risk), providing consolidated, theory of change based, operational templates for UN Women’s gender equality programming in responding to and preparing for humanitarian crises. These core actions and the flagship programmes will establish UN Women’s ‘operational brand’ in humanitarian action by ensuring a consolidated and consistent set of actions and deliverable for UN Women in humanitarian contexts. This will ensure a system wide recognition of what the added value of UN Women’s presence is in the humanitarian landscape and what it is the entity will be doing to facilitate response, recovery and preparedness.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women is updating its Humanitarian Strategy in collaboration with its established internal humanitarian community of practice made up of country and regional office UN Women operatives. The new strategy will reflect the emphasis on establishing its humanitarian operational footprint. It will also develop a roadmap with timelines and indicators to deliver on these strategic outcomes. Humanitarian unit 2017/02 Completed A draft humanitarian strategy has been developed by HACRO in 2017-18. However due to on-going change management process, the current version of the strategy requires further revision. The existing strategy will be revised in the coming year reflecting UN WOMEN’s approach to humanitarian action aligning with the recent corporate management evaluation outcomes and UN WOMEN’s strategic plan. A new recommendation on drafting Humanitarian Strategy has been accepted as part of the thematic evaluation of UN Women's humanitarian function therefore this recommendation here will be retired.
Roll out both flagship programmes in 10 selected pilot countries. Humanitarian Unit 2017/04 Completed *For the Leadership, Empowerment, Access and Protection (LEAP) flagship programme, there are 30 ongoing country programmes in Africa, Asia and in the Middle-East based around the LEAP model of comprehensive service provision for women and girls out of safe spaces and/or multi-service centers. UN Women is focused on further resource mobilization to allow for further expansion of the LEAP flagship programme. Currently the focus is on: ensuring accountability for gender equality among all humanitarian actors, skills training and livelihood options, protection and enhancing women’s leadership. *For the Gender Inequality of Risk (GIR) flagship programme, the inception phase has begun in Solomon Islands in 2018, potentially to be upscaled to other countries in the Pacific and other regions. In addition, 22 pilot countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and Eastern Europe and Central Asia have developed their interventions. Components of the GIR were successfully implemented in the following countries, where either gender-responsive policy changes were introduced or livelihood support provided for women affected by disasters: Mexico, Kenya, Malawi, Bangladesh, Chile, Ecuador, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Turkey and Vietnam.
Work with strategic partners for the flagship pilot programmes, namely for LEAP (WFP, UNHCR) and GiR (IFRC, UNISDR). Humanitarian Unit 2017/12 Completed Partners identified, initial negotiations are ongoing and collaboration starting.
Recommendation: Taking the balance between prioritizing needs and responding to demand into account, consider allocating SPF funding to country programme or project offices rather than a country presence with limited capacity. This would contribute to achieving synergy and value added, and strengthen UN Women’s catalytic role. In turn, this would help the country office strengthen its strategic positioning, with arguably possibly positive implications for institutionalizing joint activities with strategic partners and leveraging additional funding sources, with implications for strategic use of core funding. Where SPF funding is allocated to a pilot initiative, ensure the decision is informed by rigorous risk assessment that also takes into account the role and functioning of the UNCT and commitment to supporting the deployed UN Women staff.
Management Response: While the Programme Management Team sees the benefits of synergies and value added when allocating SPF funding to fully fledged country offices, it is important to emphasize the very purpose of the strategic partnership framework with Sida that is to enable UN Women to strengthen delivery of results in a variety of contexts including conflict, post-conflict and transition countries; and to build UN Women’s internal capacity on women, peace & security, humanitarian action and women’s political participation and strengthen that of the UN System as a whole. Therefore, in the case of Impact Area 4, the deployment of Gender Advisors to conflict-affected countries currently without UN Women presence and/or conflict affected countries where UN Women has a project presence but not a country office represents a strategic investment and important instrument of the SPF programme to address demand from the Government, the Resident Coordinator or a UN mission for a gender advisor for Government/UNCT-wide support. These investments have also been strategic and targeted and have led to catalytic and sustainable change – from Guinea to Somalia to CAR – whether this has been in pushing key actors to take over the posts themselves, or in strategically positioning UN Women for new sources of resources. The greatest benefits in the area of peace and security have been in strategic placements of expertise in addition to the support to UN Women Country Offices. In the case of Impact Area 1, while support has prioritized UN Women Country presence, coordination with Regional Offices to provide support to countries with UN Women programme presence has provided opportunities to leverage resources and enhance UN Women’s coordination with UN partners on gender mainstreaming on elections programming and/or promoting women’s political participation broadly. The Programme Management Team agrees that where SPF funding is allocated to a pilot initiative (no country office presence), the decision is informed by a rigorous risk assessment that takes into account the role and functioning of the UNCT and commitment to supporting the deployed UN Women staff.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Support the decision to allocate funding to countries with no or limited UN Women presence (no presence at all and/or project offices) with a risk assessment that takes into account the role and support of the UNCT needed for the successful implementation of the programme. SPF Programme Management Team (Technical Advisors and Programme Manager) 2017/12 Completed *SPF/H and SPF/WPS - all supported offices in the cycle 1 are COs and/or ROs and three programme presences in Balkans that are already well recognized by the local UNCTs *SPF/WPP provided two small contributions to support activities in non presence countries: - A country needs assessment and programme development mission was conducted in Burkina Faso in 2016. - A small contribution to WCARO was provided to support the implementation of a Women's Situation Room in coordination with UNDP during December 2016 elections in Ghana. -SPF/HA Support to Cox’s Bazar to operate a sub-office in responding to the Rohinga crises., including a risk assessment *SPF2WPP has supported Lebanon PO to implement a multi-stakeholder roadmap to support women’s participation in June 2018 elections (details on activities and results achieved are included in the 2018 Annual Report). This has been closely coordinated with the Regional Office and ensuring coordination with UNDP Elections Programming at Country Level. Following a country needs assessment mission conducted in April 2018, the HQ WPP Unit is supporting Lebanon PO with the development of a programme document on WPP in line with the PO’s Strategic Note 2018-2022. In Niger, during 2019 and following the recommendations of the UN Nations Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) deployed in November 2018, UN Women has deployed an international expert on gender and elections and conducted a series of consultations with key national partners and stakeholders to set programming priorities and design targeted programs in line with the UN Women Strategic Plan 2019 - 2021. Within this framework, UN Women's priorities to promote and strengthen women's political participation during the current electoral cycle include: i) Provide technical support and guidance to the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment (MPFPE) in implementing temporary special measures ( the quota law and its implementing decree); ii) Support and strengthen the capacity of the National Observatory for Gender Promotion to become operational; iii) support to women’s CSOs to strengthen the political participation of women and youth, and to promote gender norms change through advocacy and awareness-raising initiatives targeting communities, political leaders and the media; iv) and capacity building of women leaders, politicians and potential women candidates. *SPF2WPS: • Philippines: It is planned to fund national programme officers in the Philippines (based in Manila and Cotabato) to support the UNCT, as well as implementation of UN Women's programming on peace-building and transitional justice. Further technical support is provided to Philippines programme staff by the Women, Peace and Security Programme Specialist in UN Women's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific based in Bangkok. • The Sida funding has supported expansion of UN Women's programming presence on peace and security issues, particularly in the area of preventing violent extremism (PVE). UN Women is now extending it's PVE regional programme into the Philippines for 2018. • By May 2018, we expect to have 7 staff working on peace and security issues, with three positions funded by Japan and one international position funded by Australia. • Yemen: In recognition of the challenges raised by the evaluation of the 2011-16 SIDA programme of placing senior gender advisors within a UNCT structure without support, UN Women deployed a Country Programme Manager (CPM) to Yemen in 2017 with a skeletal structure of Yemeni technical and support staff, to enable her to effectively support the UNCT and HCT, and to roll out critical programming on women’s engagement in political dialogues and humanitarian action. • To provide further backstopping support, the UN Women Regional Office for Arab States appointed a dedicated team of ‘desk officers’ to the Yemen operation, who provide real time support on operational and technical issue. The CPM works with a SIDA funded UN Women national gender advisor to the HCT, who sits within OCHA in Sana’a. This person is both supported by OCHA, but also by the UN Women Yemen team, in her work and operations.
Recommendation: Given the importance of sex-disaggregated data for evidence-based advocacy and promoting dialogue, increase human resource capacity and financial investment in this area, which in turn can be expected to strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of SPF-funded initiatives as well as having implications for implementing the SDGs.
Management Response: While the Programme Management Team agrees with the importance of sex-disaggregated data for evidence-based advocacy and programming responses, it is important to note that this is a global problem in relation to the generation of gender statistics broader in scope than the SPF. A UNW initiative to strengthen sex-disaggregated data is the Flagship on Gender Statistics which aims to address interrelated policy, technical, legal and c capacity challenges which limit the production of gender statistics at a national level. This Programme will support governments to improve the production of gender statistics to monitor the SDGs, inform policy and ensure accountability. In relation to Impact Area 1, a key result area of the Flagship of WPE is to oversee research and knowledge generation aimed to fill knowledge and data gaps on political participation. Support to Country Offices will also include as a priority area building capacities to enhance sex-disaggregated data collection and analysis on key niche areas related with women’s political participation (i.e. technical support to Electoral Management Bodies on sex-disaggregated data collection; research and implementation of tools for measurement violence against women in politics; women’s political participation at local level, in line with SDG indicator 5.5.1b).
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Support the decision to increase human resource capacity and financial investment on promoting sex-disaggregated data collection and analysis, on key areas of programming. SPF Programme Management Team (Technical Advisors and Programme Manager) 2017/12 Completed SFP/HACRO : Discussion papers completed on cash-based interventions; the use of blockchain technology in humanitarian situations; and GBViE. Each of these include focus on evidence based programme planning, developed through collection and use of SADD and context gender analysis. SPF/ WPP: Priorities on knowledge generation to fill data gaps in two key areas: Violence Against Women in Politics (VAWP): UN-Women has bolstered human resources to advance UN-Women’s work on VAWP. In coordination with UN Partners (i.e. OHCHR and UNDP), SPF/WPP will examine indicators and data collection methods for VAWP measurement and monitoring. (please see below further details on current advances on this area under Recommendation 8). Global monitoring of the SDG indicator 5.5.1b: UN-Women has bolstered human resources to oversee the work on 5.5.1b. Through the SPF, WPP will support national capacity building on data collection for women’s representation among voters, candidates in local elections, members of local executive bodies, and leadership positions in local government. The data is expected to be provided by primary producers of official statistics on women’s representation in local government, including Electoral Management Bodies and/or National Statistical Offices. Women in Politics Map: produced jointly with IPU every two years provides data on women members of parliament, ministers and Heads of State and/or Heads of Government. UN-Women also conducts monthly tracking of Women Heads of State and Heads of Government. SPF2/WPS: UN Women Peace and Security devotes core funding to a statistics specialist. During 2017, that P/S specialist accepted a detail position with Statistics and Monitoring section of UN-Women to complete the now published SDG Report, Turning Promises into Action: Gender Equality in the 2030 Agenda For Sustainable Development. The WPS normative framework includes indicators that are reported upon annually. P/S is exploring future alignment of the WPS indicators with the SDG indicators and works with UN entities, Member States, and regional organizations to populate and refine reliable indicators. This process of refinement will continue through the 2020, 20th anniversary of the WPS agenda.
Recommendation: Ensure the phasing-out process and exit strategy included in SPF-funded projects include explicit and practical steps for post-project sustainability, for example through timely leveraging of funding sources that may also enable scaling-up and replication of the SPF funded project model.
Management Response: The Programme Management Team agrees with the recommendation and notes that the concept of sustainability and exit strategy was a key feature and expectation of the first Strategic Partnership Framework. The results and lessons learnt of SPF1 include several examples of how the SPF was used in a catalytic manner and used to leverage other resources. This good practice will be further elaborated in the next phase. There will be a policy of decreasing contributions over time whereby it is expected of participating offices and units to include a transition strategy from SPF support. Participating offices will be expected to submit a plan showing how they will resource positions and programmatic activities where applicable from other sources of funds over time, making these positions sustainable. This will mainly apply to deployments supported through the SPF as the nature of support provided through the Women in Politics Fund for example, does not necessarily require plans for post-project sustainability or other resources.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
The mechanism for allocating SPF funding will include, where applicable, a requirement for applicants to submit plans for post-project sustainability including funding from other resources. SPF Programme Management Team (Technical Advisors and Programme Manager) 2017/04 Completed *WPS - Requests for using SPF/WPS related support include a plan for mobilizing further resources or other solutions - with SPF being used as catalytic support. Several post that are being funded through SPF2 are co-funded with other funding sources, thus reducing the dependence on one funding source only. In addition, In WPS, all HQ staff managing SPF related support are in their performance discussion requested to report how they are contributing to creating systems and sustainable approach (and not an ad-hoc action). *WPP - WiPF and WRCF guidelines require alignment with the COs approved AWPs and indication of additional resources available
Recommendation: Note that institutionalizing SPF-funded positions and long-term deployments requires timely follow-up on alternative funding sources. The experience of the flexible SPF funding support could be used as a model to encourage other donors to invest in human resource capacity and the country level. Advocacy on this needs to showcase successful experiences where the SPF funded position had positive multiplier effects.
Management Response: UN Women agrees that the SPF flexible funding model and investment in human resource capacity of UN Women had positive multiplier effects. UN Women will therefore explore at the HQ level interests of other donors to follow the Sida partnership model, and will also encourage its Country Offices to showcase SPF results as part of their resource mobilization efforts. UN Women is of the opinion that the donor’s support and advocacy within the donor community would be very beneficial as well.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Showcase SPFI results, especially benefits of investments in human resources capacity of UN Women, to other donors. SPF Management Team (Technical Advisors and Programme Manager) and UN Women Offices receiving the SPF funds. 2017/12 Completed *SPFII/WPS (majority of staff deployments are funded under the WPS component of the programme): *In order to bring the global programming framework in line with UN Women’s new strategic plan, UN Women will update the Global Facility programme by the end of the second quarter. The Global Facility provides an operational framework to streamline support to UN Women’s country offices in crisis settings through technical assistance and seed funding. The Global Facility has been a vital complement to the SPF to enable strategic and catalytic programming to accompany the capacities deployed under the partnership. * Several of UN Women country offices, including Papua New Guinea, Mali, Yemen, Guatemala, Colombia and Liberia, have successful mobilized resources through the Peace-building Fund leveraging the capacities provided by the SPF. Availability of technical expertise has contributed to increasing UN Women’s positioning within UN Country Teams and increased confidence in the entity’s ability to deliver impactful results at country level. * In collaboration with the Strategic Partnership Division, a brief on the results of the SPFI and SPFII, is to be developed in Q3 of 2018. 2018 Dec update Issue included in the MTR TOR which confirmed the need to continue discussions with other donors to provide flexible funding with the recommendation to further enhance collection of impact-oriented stories, stories on added value of the flexible approach, and UN Women unique approach, to support these discussions therefore the recommendation will be included and addressed as part of the management response to the MTR in 2019.
Recommendation: Capitalize on UN Women’s strategic positioning during the process of developing the SDGs and effectively contributing to the mainstreaming of gender in targets and indicators by providing guidelines for UN Women staff to link the SDGs with SPF-funded programme interventions in Impact areas 1 and 4.
Management Response: The Programme Management Team agrees with the recommendation. In the case of Impact 1, the SPF will support the implementation of the Global Technical Support Facility (GTSF) that will oversee the Implementation of the Flagship Programme on Women’s Political Empowerment (FPI WPE). Grounded in a comprehensive Theory of Change based on the achievements and lessons learned to date including those from the implementation of the SPF 2012-2016; the FPI is designed to advance implementation of UN-Women’s Strategic Impact Area 1, as well as to guide countries towards reaching SDG Target 5.5: to “ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.” For the Impact area 4, the SPF funding supports the FPI on WPS and whose core aim is to further implementation of SDGs 5 and 16. SDG indicators were used in the development of the flagship which will help ensure the SPF2 is contributing to this overall and also ensure UN Women COs use of SDG compatible indicators. Similarly, the outcomes of the humanitarian flagship programme initiatives (LEAP and GiR) aim to ensure gender equality and women’s empowerment in both crisis response and preparedness contexts. They aim to break the poverty linked cycle of recurring crisis by enhancing the response and recovery prospects for women and girls, as well as establish their resilience.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Through the Flagship global facility, link support to the implementation of SDGs, normative and technical work on women’s political participation at the global level to the regional and national levels through the provision of high quality policy and programmatic support to countries and regions, including through the targeted interventions funded with the WiPF mechanism. SPF Management Team (Technical Advisors and Programme Manager) and UN Women Offices receiving the SPF funds. 2017/12 Completed SPFII is instrumental to advance two priority areas of the FPI on WPP directly linked with implementation of SDGs 5: Violence Against Women in Politics (VAWP) The SPF has enabled UN-Women to advance in this area supporting: engagement with academia and global partners in academic conferences and symposiums, and public hearings; a jointly-published programming guide on Preventing Violence Against Women in Elections with UNDP; awareness-raising through participation in side events with the Inter-Parliamentary Union at CSW 61; and partnership-building with the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Its Causes and Consequences (SRVAW) and OHCHR. Within this partnership, UN-Women and the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women convened an Expert Group Meeting on Violence Against Women in Elections (VAWE) in March 2018 and provided the space for a diverse, specialized and influential group of 40 experts to identify institutional, advocacy and legal means to address Violence Against Women in Politics. UN-Women has provided substantive contributions to the Special Rapporteur’s upcoming report on this topic to the 73rd UNGA. Support country programming to promote gender responsive electoral frameworks and arrangements includes as a priority area, the development and/or implementation of initiatives to monitor VAWP. Countries supported in 2018 with seed funding to advance on this area are Afghanistan, Bolivia, Bangladesh, Sierra Leon and Zimbabwe. Monitoring SDG indicator 5.5.1b UN Women PP Unit has led the development of the methodology to measure indicator SDG indicator 5.5.1b including through extensive research on local government organization in 120 countries, mapping of current practices in national data collection and regional data compilation, and wide consultation with national and international stakeholders through the means of technical and expert group meetings, regional workshops, and presentations in international fora of statisticians. As a result of these efforts, the indicator was recently re-classified by the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDG) from Tier III (indicators for which the methodology or data collection standards do not yet exist) to Tier II (indicators with developed methodologies and data collection standards but for which data are not yet widely available). The reclassification of the indicator as Tier II gives new impetus to countries to include the indicator in their strategic and development plans and regular programmes of data production and use. The consistent use of the proposed methodology across all countries will also enable a key achievement: the first-ever global measurement of women’s representation in local government. SPF WPP has prioritized support to build national institutional capacity to ensure regular and systematic availability of statistics on women’s political participation at local level and their use for policy making. Data collection is being coordinated with UN Regional Commissions in three regions: Western Asia (ESCWA), Europe and Central Asia (UNECE), and Africa (UNECA). Support to country programming provided through the funding mechanism (WiPF) will also be aligned with SDG 5 implementation. Update Dec 2018 Key results on SDG 5.1.1b monitoring in 2018: Improved global knowledge of women’s political participation at local level, by increasing the availability of comparable quality data on SDG indicator 5.5.1b on women’s representation in local government. UN Women, conducted the first global data compilation covering 167 countries and territories. The data compilation was undertaken with the support of the Statistics Divisions of UN Regional Commissions and it involved (a) building a sustainable partnership with the UN Regional Commissions, (b) development of data request forms customized for the organization of local government in 70 countries, and (c) quality checks and follow-ups on all responses received as of December 2018. Data reporting and quality checks are expected to continue in 2019. Improved global knowledge on local government organization, through development and sharing of local government profiles with national stakeholders. As part of the work on SDG indicator 5.5. UN Women developed in 2018 40 additional profiles of local government organization by reviewing constitutions, local government acts and other relevant legislation. Furthermore, summaries of profiles and the list of relevant legislation on local government were shared, for validation, with statistical offices, as part of the quality assurance mechanism for the data compilation process. Improved capacity among National Statistical Offices to measure and report data on women’s political participation at local level. This result was achieved through training and expert presentations in statistical fora, including (a) the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics (IAEG-GS) in the Arab Countries & Regional training workshop to improve use of existing data for monitoring gender equality and women’s empowerment (organized by ESCWA and Jordan Department of Statistics, 16-20 October 2018); (b) the UNSD/SIAP Training Workshop on Gender Statistics for SDG Indicators (targeting countries in Asia and the Pacific, 16 November 2018); and (c) the UN Women side event on Measuring women’s political participation using electoral administrative sources (organized at the 7th Global Forum on Gender Statistics, 16 November 2018). Improved partnership and user-producer dialogue among national data stakeholders on SDG indicator 5.5.1b in Asia. A workshop dedicated to SDG indicator 5.5.1b, organized in collaboration with UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, brought together 20 representatives from Statistical Offices, Electoral Management Bodies, Women’s Ministries, and National Development Commissions in 6 Asian countries with elected local government (28 March 2018). Increased knowledge among UN Women Regional and Country Offices on local government organization and the methodology of SDG indicator 5.5.1b was targeted through a UN Women-wide Webinar, induction sessions for colleagues in two regional offices (West and Central Africa and Latin America), involvement of regional offices (in Latin America and Asia-Pacific) in some of the activities conducted, and updates through the internal SDG knowledge portal. Increased awareness on SDG indicator 5.5.1b among representatives of UN Member States, civil society organizations and UN entities through participation in a side event on women’s political participation at the sixty-second session of CSW (12-23 March 2018) organized by Mexico. EGM on VAWP report available here: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2018/egm-report-violence-against-women-in-politics-en.pdf?la=en&vs=4036 Special Rapporteur’s report available here: http://undocs.org/en/A/73/301
Continue to use the FPIs as the template for WPS and Humanitarian Action programming, thus aligning SPF support and overall programming with SDG targets. SPF Management Team (Technical Advisors and Programme Manager) and UN Women Offices receiving the SPF funds. 2017/12 Completed *SPF/HA: Extensive support provided to COs and ROs to align programming to FPIs and link to the SDGs. The UN Women Strategic Plan (2018-2021) contributes to the SDG targets related to humanitarian and DRR, including target 11.5. The GIR programme accelerates the path towards realization of the SDGs through its emphasis on prevention and resilience, with a specific focus on targets 11.5 and 13.1. *SPF/WPS: The UN Women Strategic Plan (2018-2021) highlights UN Women’s contribution to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development across all impact areas, including women, peace and security. At the working level, UN Women, Peace and Security has also aligned its annual work plan with that Flagship Programme on women’s engagement in peace, security and recovery, streamlining internal monitoring of activities, outputs, and outcomes towards the goal of more peaceful and gender equal societies. P/S interfaces with UNW country and regional offices weekly, providing integrated support. UNW P/S is currently exploring efficient and useful ways of capturing this support – both its scope and thematic content to provide relevant and timely support to RO/COs. These efforts are being streamlined through our Community of Practice focal point who has launched the WPS COP and continues to update a shared intranet platform with relevant normative frameworks, common questions, and soon to be released webinars on topics requested by country and regional offices.