Management Response

: Ukraine
: 2018 - 2022 , Ukraine (CO)
: Mid-term Evaluation of the project ‘Gender equality at the centre of reforms, peace and security’, funded by the Government of Sweden
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: Ukraine
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The purpose of the mid-stage evaluation for the project “Enhancing accountability for gender equality and women’s empowerment in national reforms, peace and security” supported by the Government of Sweden, was to assess progress towards achievement of objectives set, analyze the results achieved and challenges encountered, adjust implementation modalities as needed and incorporate changes throughout program components for the remaining implementation period, from the perspectives of relevance, effectiveness, impact, organizational efficiency and sustainability. The evaluation provided an assessment of the results achieved, and produced practical recommendations based on the overall findings from the consultations with 54 stakeholders involved in the project, out of 81 institutions the project works with. The project’s overall goal is to achieve transformative results for gender equality and women's empowerment (GEWE) in Ukraine by integrating gender and women's human rights commitments into the national reforms and peace and security processes, and by support establishing mechanisms in place for adequate financing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The project has sustained the consolidated efforts of the national institutions and women's groups to meet state commitments, including Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and Sustainable Development Goals through national reforms. The project “Gender at the center of the reforms for peace and security” is a multi-year initiative implemented by UN Women and supported by the Government of Sweden with a total of SEK 49,000,000 / USD 5,524,239 for the period of June 2017 - May 2021. The evaluation findings and conclusions are positive about all observed aspects of the Reforms project, based on the evidence analyzed and reflections shared in interviews with key informants. Specifically, the evaluation certified that there is a critical political will and demand from large number of national institutions and CSOs for integrating gender equality perspective to the reform’s agenda. The project has contributed to establishment of reforms coordination mechanisms, including institutional gender machinery and a number of reforms policies developed or revised that include gender equality provisions. There is considerable evidence of achievements and progress primarily at output level and in many results areas. The project has surpassed the originally envisioned targets, it is highly relevant and aligned to current national reforms. The intervention logic, selected methods and approaches as well as the presented theory of change is clear and appropriate for the achievement of expected results; the project is efficient, performing mostly well in achieving results in a cost-effective manner. The evaluators also noted that while at this phase, it is still premature to make evidence-based conclusions on the sustainability perspectives, there are some promising sustainability prospects. Of the 10 recommendations provided by the evaluators, UN Women is fully accepting 7 recommendations and partially accepting 3 recommendations.

: Approved
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 1
Management Response: The Results and Resources Framework (RRF) of the project is updated on quarterly basis through the Project Monitoring Framework. It is recommended to include the ‘functionality’ indicators in the RRF and the respective data should be collected and reflected in the monitoring and progress reports. There are three indicators where the targets are recommended to be revised or elaborated: 1. % of budget allocated specifically for implementation of NAP 1325 under the Outcome 2: “An enabling environment for implementation of the Women, Peace and Security commitments is created in Ukraine”. Accepted. There is no system of tracking of the state budget allocation for NAP 1325 and no costing was done by the Government which doesn’t allow to properly track the state budget allocations and expenditures. That’s why it is proposed to formulate the target based on the approximate percentage increase in state budget allocations against the baseline (baseline as of 2016 – 3%, target – 4%). 2. Adding the missing baseline information, e.g. in the case of the Indicator “number of reforms that include gender equality provisions” of the Outcome 1 “National mechanism on gender equality and key government institutions integrate gender equality provisions and priorities in national reforms planning and budgeting in line with international and national commitments on GEWE” and the output indicator 1.2.1. “number of line ministries, which apply knowledge and tools provided by the project for gender-responsive planning and budgeting”. Accepted. The missing baseline information is updated. Outcome 1 - the baseline indicator was identified as “0” based on the mapping of the national public administration, justice sector reform, and security and defence sector reform conducted by the national experts. Output 1.2.1 – the baseline indicator was identified as “0” based on functional analysis of the National Women’s Machinery. 3. To include “functionality” element in the Output 2.1 “Coordination, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for implementation of the NAP 1325 through national reforms at national and local levels are in place and include women’s groups”. Accepted. The output indicator 2.1.1. will be revised to include “functionality” element – “Government coordination and M&E mechanisms are functional and include diverse women’s groups”. The project is a mThus, the functionality of the coordination and monitoring mechanisms can be assessed through a) the regularity of coordination meetings (to be assessed through the meeting minutes) and b) its composition (to be assessed through the membership list). In the framework of the existing cooperation and partnership with the Parliament, the project will advocate with the Parliamentary Caucus “Equal Opportunities” for strengthening the oversight role of the Parliament in NAP 1325 implementation and monitoring. Given the national scope of the project, the quality of the functionality at the local level cannot be assessed. The project, however, coordinates closely with other UN Women projects working at NAP 1325 implementation at the local level. ember of the Inter-Ministerial working group on implementation of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister on European and Euro Atlantic Integration and will monitor the functionality of the group.
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Description: Update the Results and Resources Framework of the project and collect data against additional performance indicators.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Insert the IRRF and PMF baseline data. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/03 Completed The IRRF and PMF data has been updated in accordance with the recommendations.
Update the IRRF and PMF data on quarterly basis. UN Women Ukraine CO 2021/05 Completed
Support the identified government ministry to set up the monitoring and evaluation framework and budget forecasting of the 2nd NAP1325. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/11 Completed Substantive support was provided to the Ministry of Social Policy, as the key coordination institution responsible for second NAP 1325 development, to facilitate a participatory and comprehensive process with broad engagement of stakeholders at national, regional and local levels.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 2
Management Response: The proposed action requires a longer timeframe and higher budget than the available resources under the project. Also, various UN agencies have been approached by the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (SSSU) to assist with the creation of an online data system. Therefore, setting up the Gender Statistics Portal will require inter-agency coordination and dialogue with SSSU to understand their vision for the creation of the Portal, and subsequent capacity building. Thus, the project will contribute to the creation of the Portal through building the SSSU capacities required for establishment of the portal. Based on the capacity needs assessment of the SSSU (2019), the project will focus its support to the SSSU on expanding the targeted knowledge and skills and will expose the SSSU to the successful practices on gender statistics and data collection and analysis in the region. The project will coordinate with other UN agencies and donor organizations to ensure streamlined support to SSSU and avoid overlapping.
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Description: Plan creation of a Gender Statistics Portal
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Inter-agency coordination with other UN agencies to understand the scope of assistance being planned by other UN agencies to set up the online statistics system of Ukraine. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/04 Completed The UN assistance to the Government of Ukraine on establishing the online statistics system was discussed at the UN thematic task force on data. To ensure proper inter-agency coordination and joint assistance to the Government in the area of data and statistics, regular communication is maintained through meetings of UN thematic task force on data.
Seek guidance and help from the UN Women Gender Statistics Unit at the HQ and RO on setting up online gender portal in line with the UN Women corporate guidelines. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/12 Completed Consultations were held with he UN Women Gender Statistics Unit at the RO; representatives from the State Statistics Service participated in expert discussions held by the RO.
Strengthen the capacity of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (SSSU) through trainings to create gender statistics portal UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/12 Completed A series of training modules on gender statistics, data analysis and processing was held for the SSSU staff at national and local levels. Since March 2020, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the training sessions were converted into on-line module.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 3
Management Response: The recommendation is accepted with the caveat that the implementation of the functional analysis is the responsibility of the Government. The functional analysis is under finalization and will be submitted to the Deputy Prime Ministers Office (DPMO) for further consideration. First round of validation meetings has been conducted and comments addressed. UN Women is expecting to receive the final consolidated version of the Analysis and organize one final round of validation with different stakeholders. After the final validation meeting, the Analysis will be submitted to the DPMO for consideration and follow up intervention.
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Description: Finalize and validate the functional analysis of gender machinery in Ukraine.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: National ownership
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Conduct a validation meeting with the stakeholders to receive feedback on the findings of the functional analysis; Address comments and finalize the Analysis. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/02 Completed
Organize one final validation meeting with government stakeholders, Parliament and CSOs. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/04 Completed The Functional Analysis was updated based on the recent political and legal changes in the country. Updated version of the FA was provided to the Government.
Submit the finalized and validated functional analysis to the DPMO for their consideration. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/04 Completed The Functional Analysis was updated following the recent political and legal changes in the country. The FA was submitted to the Office of the Deputy-Prime Minister of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 4
Management Response: The current government priority to set up the Centre for Gender Education or Centre of Excellence for security and defence sector has been discussed with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Since such endeavor will require a long-term planning and resources, it is agreed that firstly, there is a need to establish a common understanding amongst all the stakeholders, undertake capacity assessment and scoping for the establishment of the Centre for Gender Education. This initiative requires multiple stakeholders’ joint ownership. Therefore, UN Women, based on the scope of the project, offers to provide the support through sharing the best practices, supporting consultations with the national and international partners and learning from their experiences, and build on the learnings and findings from the ongoing research study on “Understanding masculinity in security sector institutions” undertaken in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior, and development of the methodological recommendations for integrating gender priorities in the security and defence sector higher education institutions. The establishment of centre per se (for e.g. the Nordic Centre for Gender Mainstreaming (NCGM)), is beyond the scope of the project.
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Description: Provide support for establishment and thematic capacity development of the Centre for Gender Education for military forces of Ukraine
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Assist in developing the concept note; initiate sharing of the best practices through consultation with the Nordic Centre for Gender Mainstreaming (NCGM) and other experiences. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/04 Completed The draft concept note was developed with substantive project contribution; the concept note has been submitted to the Government consideration.
Support the organizing of consultations with stakeholders on the establishment of the centre. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/07 Completed Consultations with stakeholders on the establishment of the centre were held by the DPMO with the project support.
Share the findings of the ongoing work on Masculinity study in the security sector with the actors leading the design of the concept of the Centre for Gender Education; develop methodological recommendations on integrating gender in higher educational institutions of the security and defence sector. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/10 Completed The methodological recommendations were developed and provided to the DPMO. The project will continue capacity-building support to the Higher Educational Institutions of Security and Defence Sector to facilitate applications of the recommendations. The Masculinity study in the security sector is prepared, the final report with recommendations will be shared with the national stakeholders in 2021.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 5
Management Response: Currently, the project is already undertaking the capacity building and “gender literacy” activities with the Ministry of Justice, State Statistics Service, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Veterans Affairs, Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced People (IDP), and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the same time, the work on institutionalization of gender equality (GE) trainings was already started by the project through developing and approving three curricula by the National Agency for Civil Service (NACS), training of trainers of training centers/institutions of vocational training for civil servants and providing corresponding official training courses. The efforts of the institutionalization of GE education for the civil servants will be further intensified through the curricula analysis of the training centres under the aegis of NACS. The findings of the analysis will be utilized to integrate GE priorities in the respective curricula. Both approaches will complement each other, will be inter-linked and fine-tuned in terms of topics, support materials, additional informational sources, tools, etc.
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Description: Maintain gender literacy activities within each line ministry and institution, but link and fine tune them with the GE educational course of the the National Agency for Civil Service (NACS).
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Continue the capacity building and ‘gender literacy’ activities with the Ministry of Justice, State Statistics Service, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Veterans Affairs, Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/12 Completed
Institutionalization of GE education for the civil servants will be further intensified through the curricula analysis of the training centres under the aegis of NACS. The findings of the analysis will be utilized to integrate GE priorities in the respective curricula. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/12 Completed
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 6
Management Response: State Statistics Service of Ukraine (SSSU) will be assisted through establishing system for the blended learning experience. Online training courses will be introduced in combination with the in-person trainings. The Reforms project has initiated collaboration with the UN Women Staff Training Centre, to adapt the interactive, online courses ‘I Know Gender’. These modules will be adapted and integrated in the learning and capacity building of the civil servants, through the National Agency for Civil Servants (NACS), and Ministry of Interior.
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Description: Support development of the blended learning format on GE for the civil servants.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Reach out to UN Women Staff Training Centre to receive guidance and clearance for adaptation of the training modules on I Know Gender, and I Know Gender- WPS. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/02 Completed
Conduct consultations with the National Agency for Civil Servants (NACS) and the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (SSSU) to institutionalize the training modules to identify sustainability gaps and develop mechanisms that would allow for the government ownership. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/04 Completed The round of consultations on institutionalization of the training modules was held with the National Agency for Civil Servants (NACS); the training manual on Gender Statistics is currently being finalized jointly with the NACS and the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (SSSU).
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 7
Management Response: The study visits and thematic trainings will be coupled with a ‘back-home action plans’ by the participants.
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Description: Encourage development of the Back-Home Action Plans by the participants after the study visits and/or thematic trainings.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Design and apply the back-home action plans for all the participants of study visits. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/04 Completed The back-home action plans for all the participants of study visits facilitated by the projects were developed; implementation of the back-home action plans are regularly discussed at the coordination meeting with project stakeholders.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 8
Management Response: The Reforms project is supporting the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Office to establish the Civil Society Platform for consultations in policy making, for e.g. involve civil society in the preparation of the 2nd NAP 1325, and in the Security sector reform. Based on the civil society capacity needs assessment, the capacity building actions will be undertaken in collaboration with Ukrainian Women’s Fund to build capacity of the CSOs on monitoring of the policy implementation with regards to gender equality and women’s rights. The partnership with media will be strengthened through the ongoing collaboration with the Public Broadcasting Company to train the journalists on gender sensitive journalism. The journalists will be capacitated to highlight the policy reform needs from gender equality perspective, however, policymaking per se is not the role of the media.
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Description: Promote participation of the CSOs and media in policy making and public M&E systems.
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Support the civil society platform led by the DPM for consultations with the civil society. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/12 Completed
Share the findings of CSO capacity needs assessment with the government and CSOs and support capacity building of the civil society. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/12 Completed The findings of the CSO capacity needs assessment were shared with the CSOs and government to build the capacity of CSOs in key skills and knowledge gaps in advocacy.
Continue the partnership with the Public Broadcasting Company to strengthen the media engagement and capacity building on gender sensitive journalism. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/12 Completed
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 9
Management Response: Flexibility and support the government as per the evolving needs has been the Reforms project’s strength. In view of the recent changes in the leadership of the government and parliament, and the subsequent changes in the leaderships within the partner organizations, the project will attempt to prioritize the selection of partnership. However, given the efforts invested in building these partnerships, and the results achieved, it will be difficult to curtail the partnerships. Nevertheless, efforts will be made to continue strengthening the ongoing partnerships, rather than creating new collaborations. The criteria for the new partnership prioritization will be developed in case new partnerships need emerge that are critical to the programme’s effective delivery.
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Description: Agree on criteria and apply prioritization in selection of partnerships in the remaining part of the project.
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Continue to strengthen the current partnerships with Government, Parliament and CSOs. For HeForShe, and the partnerships with the government, the efforts will focus on the leadership being with the partner/ stakeholder, while UN Women playing the facilitative role. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/12 Completed Funding available to continue the ongoing partnerships.
Establish a criteria for selection of new partnership if deemed critical for the project’s success. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/07 Completed The new concept on partnership for HeForShe with a set of criteria for selection of new partnership was developed.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATIONS 10
Management Response: The partnership with National Agency for Civil Service (NACS) is already in place. However, the partnership agreement (Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)) as per the ongoing UN Reform as well as UN Women’s corporate guideline, is an institutional partnership mechanism, and not a project-based partnership modality. Therefore, while the partnership will continue, and will be further strengthened, it will not be done through a signed partnership agreement/ MoU. This is also partially addressed under the recommendation 5 and 6.
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Description: Sign a Partnership Agreement with the National Agency for Civil Service (NACS) and consolidate gender literacy sustainability prospects
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Organize a meeting with the new leadership of NACS to discuss the priorities of the collaboration between UN Women and the National Agency for Civil Service (NACS). UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/04 Completed The meeting with the new leadership of the National Agency for Civil Service (NACS) to discuss the priorities of the collaboration between UN Women and the NACS was held (28 February 2020). Regular coordination meetings between UN Women and NACS are held at the technical level on regular basis.
Initiate work with the National Agency for Civil Service (NACS) and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (DPMO) to pass the Government Order mandating the gender equality online course for all the civil servants. UN Women Ukraine CO 2020/10 Completed A number of consultations between UN Women and NACS were held to discuss institutionalization of GEWE provisions in trainings for civil servants. The MOU with the NACS outlining the key strategic areas of work, including on-line courses related to GEWE, is in the process and is expected to be signed by the end of 2020.