Management Response

Recommendation:	The “Knocking Door Campaigns” were considered highly effective and efficient in spreading awareness. UN Women and partners should continue to leverage this successful approach for future initiatives that have a direct outreach and awareness raising component with grassroot beneficiaries. It can also be used in spreading awareness for other key areas.
Management Response:	The Knocking door campaigns were not only highly effective and efficient in spreading awareness but was also a sustained methodology used by the Government to raise awareness on other issues. The campaigns are still continuing after UN Women’s interventions supported by the Action were discontinued.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments UN Women will publish success stories from the ground highlighting the impact of the knocking door campaigns, in addition to documenting the methodology. UN Women 2018/12 Completed

Recommendation:

For future initiatives, UN Women and partners should consider conducting a mapping of services which beneficiaries need when devising engagement protocols. This can further strengthen outreach efforts. For example, among the key reasons of registering for an ID was getting health services. Hence governmental and medical centres would be an excellent place to extend awareness campaigns to, since it is a fundamental service needed. The same applies to pension related sites, elementary schools, etc.

Management Response:

Access to health services has been indeed among the reasons why women were encouraged to register for ID cards; however, the recent field visits to the beneficiaries reveal that most women were encouraged to register to get access to finance and engage in economic opportunities that would leverage family income. Husbands and male family members have also encouraged women to register for the ID cards as the eligibility of conditional cash transfer programmes like Takaful and Karama puts a higher priority for women who are in need.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments In future initiatives, UN Women ECO will continue to document women’s motivations in the design of community interventions. UN Women ECO 2022/12 Completed Through its financial inclusion programme that is built on the savings groups methodology (VSLA) funded through the Dutch embassy from Sept. 2020 till 2023, UNW Egypt has factored in a mapping study to capture the socio-economic factors of the intervention areas early on. This includes mapping the social, economic and health services in the intervention areas (i.e. information on women’s access to services, including availability of bank branches and MFIs, national post office, health services, private sector, national programs targeting the poor, women’s empowerment, etc.) and identify the gender-specific barriers to women’s access to financial and economic inclusion and empowerment. In addition, UN Women Egypt has taken this recommendation in all the new designs/ proposals drafted for resource mobilization.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that for future programming, UN Women and partners increase and support linkages between the MSMEDA (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority) and the social solidarity enterprises/joint ventures which were established through the asset transfer module, especially for holding permanent exhibitions and fairs as a sustainability mechanism for their activities.

Management Response:

The linkage has already been established, and MSMEDA was indeed a partner in the programme in their former capacity as SFD and 30,000 ID cards were issued for women who benefitted from their services. The same linkage exists with the Ministry of Social Solidarity, where there is an already signed protocol between the National Council for Women and the Ministry of Social Solidarity on joining efforts to issue ID cards for women, who will in turn benefit from social solidarity programmes.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments In future initiatives, UN Women ECO will continue to leverage the partnerships with the relevant partners to ensure that synergies are maximized for the benefit of women. UN Women 2022/12 Completed UN Women Egypt has taken this recommendation seriously and designed all its programmes around synergies with national partners including governmental entities, CSOs, and academia whenever relevant activities are implemented.

Recommendation:

UN Women should continue to expand and strengthen it awareness raising and advocacy efforts around women’s rights when working in the communities. This can be linked to an expansion of its work on engaging men and boys and other key community members in order to support women’s participation in such programming, as well as more broadly to promote gender equality and women’s rights. a. These groups should be included in social marketing and awareness activities and should encourage more men and boys to become supporters and help in programme outreach. These efforts should be a part of the social marketing of the project through a comprehensive package of awareness activities at the beginning of the project, in addition to refreshers when needed. At the beginning, UN Women should target men, including husbands and other community groups, to introduce them to the project objectives and activities, to counter their resistance and rejection to their wives’ and sisters’ participation in different project activities, particularly the VSLAs and Social Solidarity companies. b. This strategy should not only focus on the benefits of participation, but on gender equality and women’s rights.

Management Response:

This has already been happening through the knocking door campaigns, where usually the husbands and male members of the family were present in the discussion and many of them have actually encouraged their wives to register for the ID card and participate in other interventions, including VSLAs.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments UN Women will expand further on its efforts to engage men and boys in gender equality as a core part of its strategic vision and corporate strategy. UN Women ECO 2022/12 Completed UN Women Egypt has taken this recommendation seriously and ensured the integration and engagement of men and boys in all the activities as a core strategic vision to ensure the buy-in for the empowerment of women. This includes awareness campaigns, research and opinion surveys, training on gender norms, tolerance, inclusiveness, and diversity in the workplace, marketplace, and community.

Recommendation:

In future programming focusing on several thematic areas, UN Women should strengthen integration among key programme partners through the development of a unified action plan that integrates the work of all the implementing partners and promotes joint learning. This action plan should clearly state the role of each partner and the outputs and outcomes expected from them. Women beneficiaries of each model should also be involved in the strategy planning in order to ensure the feasibility and practicality of the plan from the perspective of the end-user. This could also include a. The joint development of a collective integrated project implementation strategy where the project interventions and activities complement each other to contribute to achieving the set objectives. b. The holding of quarterly or bi-annual joint meetings to discuss issues and exchange best practices and experiences among the partners to promote mutual learning and enhance integration, as well as organize exchange visits for the staff working on the programme, to share their experiences, have a common vision and learn from one another. This was recently started but should be continued, tracked and monitored.

Management Response:

As mentioned, this has indeed been commenced and has become the standard modality of work within the UN Women ECO.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments UN Women ECO will continue to foster knowledge management and information sharing across its programmes. UN Women ECO 2022/12 Completed UN Women Egypt has taken this recommendation seriously. All ongoing programmes are designed around knowledge sharing and making use of all available resources