Management Response

: Ukraine
: 2018 - 2022 , Ukraine (CO)
: Cluster Evaluation (Final external evaluation of the project ‘Building democratic, peaceful and gender equal society in Ukraine’, funded by the Government of Norway AND Mid-term external evaluation of ‘Decentralisation and Law Enforcement Reforms: Transformative Approaches to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Ukraine’, funded by the Government of Denmark)
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: Ukraine
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UN Women in Ukraine commissioned a cluster evaluation of its work in two projects that contributed to the three priority outcome areas of its Strategic Note. The evaluation assessed the work done to date in the following two projects: (1) “Building Democratic, Peaceful and Gender-Equal Society in Ukraine” (December 2017 – April 2021), funded by the Government of Norway; and (2) “Decentralization and Law Enforcement Reforms: Transformative Approaches to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Ukraine” (February 2018 – December 2022), funded by the Government of Denmark. The purpose of the cluster evaluation was to assess the extent to which results were achieved as per the project agreements, document lessons learned and obtain data and analysis that will help inform the future decision-making of the Ukraine Country Office (CO), donors, other UN agencies, Ukrainian CSOs and the Government of Ukraine (GoU). The cluster evaluation was conducted over a six-month period (January–June 2021) and was based on an extensive document review, key informant interviews and focus group discussions with 80 stakeholders and project beneficiaries. Some of the positive findings of the evaluation included that the projects are well aligned with UN Women’s SN and the GoU’s priorities, and that both projects were able to deliver almost all planned outputs on time, in many cases surpassing planned targets. This was highlighted as a particularly important achievement, while working in both a conflict zone and amidst national and local elections, as well as a global pandemic. The evaluation team (ET) also noted that overall UN Women and its project teams have a positive reputation and that there is a high level of national and local ownership of the interventions. The ET dedicated substantial analysis to the Community Mobilization for Empowerment (CME) approach and concluded that the CME approach has contributed significantly to increasing women’s participation in community-level decision-making and leadership. However, there is still need to adjust the methodology to take the approach to the next level of transformative change. The evaluation also noted that UN Women is clearly a leader in advancing the WPS agenda in Ukraine and specifically the localization of the WPS action plans. This approach stands as an innovative good practice that could be emulated both elsewhere in Ukraine and more globally. However, there are some potential constraints related to the financial and human resource capacity of local authorities to implement these plans. Additionally, the evaluation highlighted that at the community level women and vulnerable groups identified economic security as being more important than physical security (the latter being the focus of the projects). Regarding efforts towards EVAWG, the ET noted that the projects have achieved results, but more focus was given to GBV response rather that prevention, which is the priority in the SN Outcome 2. (“transformative changes in social norms, attitudes and behaviours [being] achieved at community and individual levels to prevent GBV”.) Targets and expected results relating to GBV were also set at a level that was too ambitious to be achieved within the timeframe and scope of the project. The evaluation also highlighted a few areas where the CO has an opportunity for growth, including a stronger emphasis on coordination between RPs and contractors, and between local government and community structures. Additionally, the ET provided several observations on where and how the M&E system could be strengthened to be more useful to the CO. Overall, the UN Women CO has found the cluster evaluation to be very helpful in better understanding the projects working in the Eastern parts of the country and of the progress against the Strategic Note. Useful lessons learnt have been highlighted and will be considered by the CO during annual work planning, ongoing implementation and monitoring, and for the development of the second CO Strategic Note (2023 – 2027) and new project documents. In principle the CO agrees with- and accepts most recommendations made by the evaluation team. That being said, there are contextual considerations that will impact its’ ability to implement all recommendations. For example, adding Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) as a fourth outcome area under the next Strategic Note (SN) will be funding dependent, and revising the ToC approaches under the next SN will need to be respectful of corporate/donor requirements. Of the 9 recommendations provided by the evaluators, UN Women Ukraine is:  accepting 5 recommendations;  partially accepting 3 recommendations;  rejecting 1 recommendation. The CO is committing to 14 action points stemming from the recommendations.

: Approved
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 1 – Review Program Focus
Management Response: In 2022 the Country Office (CO) will be developing a new Strategic Note (SN) to guide programmatic work over the coming years in line with the international UN Women Strategic Plan, the national Government’s priorities, the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), and needs/priorities of rights-holders. The CO is pleased to have evidence from the cluster evaluation that economic empowerment is a key priority for women and vulnerable groups in Eastern Ukraine. At the stage of developing the next SN (2023-), the CO will consider expanding its current thematic areas and include WEE in coordination with other UN agencies under the new UNCF. In the meantime, the CO plans to integrate WEE into current SN where possible and appropriate, in order to address economic security as a barrier to women’s meaningful participation.
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Description: To accommodate women’s and vulnerable groups’ identified priority needs for economic security, the CO should incorporate WEE as a new outcome area into its next SN. At the same time, the evaluation found a strong need and justification for the CO to continue working in the three existing outcome areas (Governance, GBV and WPS). That being said, it will be important to not spread resources too thin, across four SN outcome areas. This means that the CO will need to find additional financial resources to be able to take on all thematic areas effectively. Alternatively, if the CO moves forward to address economic security, it will need to make decisions about which components of the other three outcome areas to deprioritize. Such a decision should be made in consultation with a variety of stakeholders and duty bearers and in consideration of the findings and recommendations of this report. For example, UN Women could consider concentrating on GBV prevention and consolidation of local 1325 action plan implementation, as opposed to expanding its work on CME Actions for consideration: o Consider adding WEE as a fourth outcome area to the next SN, in order to respond to the needs prioritized by women and vulnerable groups. o Adjust the scope of the SN outcome areas to realistically correspond to the financial resources available to achieve these components. o In addition to WEE, prioritize work on GBV prevention, localization of UNSCR 1325 and gender-responsive planning and budgeting (if continuing the CME approach).
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, Knowledge management, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Relevance, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1.1 Integrate a component to support WEE into the next phase (2022-2024) of the Norway funded project on WPS in Eastern Ukraine. UN Women Ukraine 2021/12 Completed Self-help groups will be given small grants for income generating activities.
1.2 In close consultations with UN agencies identify entry points for UN Women to support WEE under the new UNCF and UN Women CO SN. UN Women Ukraine 2022/10 Completed
1.3 In preparation of new SN to pilot partnership with the selected private sector partners on empowering women, including in value chain and work place through WEPs. UN Women Ukraine 2022/04 Completed
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 2 – Review Theory of Change
Management Response: The CO will take into consideration the suggested ToC options provided by the evaluation team during the development process of the next SN. The options provided are helpful tools to situate different projects and thematic streams into a long-term approach and goal. The CO fully agrees that social norms change require a longer-term approach, that work with civil society is heavily based on volunteer labour, and that indicators/outcomes/outputs need to be more realistic in seeking incremental changes. These will be taken into consideration during the planning for the next Strategic Note and beyond. This recommendation will need to be balanced with UN Women corporate guidelines and individual donor requirements.
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Description: It is recommended that UN Women use the three ToC options outlined in the annexes of this report as the basis of discussion to revise its ToC related to SN Outcomes 1, 2 and 3 to: i) take a longer-term approach to social norms change; ii) acknowledge that community mobilization approaches are heavily based upon women and men’s volunteer labour; and iii) to unpack and track the related change processes using a more incremental, phased approach. Actions for consideration: o Review SN priorities in the next planning period to ensure that they align with the priorities of both the GoU and community stakeholders and beneficiaries, and select the programme streams in the ToCs which best fit these priorities. o Add a related ToC stream focused on WEE to the overall programme approach model developed for eastern Ukraine and other regions as part of the development of the CO’s next SN. o Develop ToC indicators based on the programme approach that the CO has been developing that track different stages and types of gender-transformative change over a 10-year period. o Ensure that UN Women present the overall approaches used in the projects currently being funded by the Governments of Canada, Norway and Sweden and the EU as an overall programme with its own overarching ToC, and be transparent about asking different donors to fund different components of this programme.
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Impact, Relevance, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
2.1 Consider the suggested ToC options and planning considerations, provided by the evaluators during the development of the next Strategic Note. UN Women Ukraine 2022/07 No Longer Applicable Due to the escalation of war in Ukraine this key action is no longer relevant for the CO and there will be an interim Strategic Note for 1 year, not including a ToC
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 3 – Strengthen Coordination Process
Management Response: The CO agrees that coordination has been a challenge in Eastern Ukraine and there is need to strengthen this both internally and with external counterparts. The CO will develop a coordination note/plan, which clearly lays out how the UN Women projects in Eastern Ukraine will systematically coordinate with other UN Women projects, relevant UN agencies, Responsible Parties, and other stakeholders. The CO will also refrain from the practice of joint PCAs shared by several projects, which will greatly facilitate coordination and avoid confusion among partners.
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Description: It is recommended that UN Women develop more systematic mechanisms to coordinate RP activities at the oblast and community levels. Actions for consideration: o Convene regular quarterly meetings with all RPs working in the same regions to coordinate interrelated project/programme activities and include UNDP personnel working on similar approaches in these regions in these quarterly meetings.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Partnership, Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
3.1 Develop a Coordination Note/Plan for work in Eastern Ukraine. This will include a responsibility matrix, which clearly delineates roles and responsibilities, as well as the frequency of coordination meetings. The plan should clearly lay out how coordination should be done with: - UN Women projects (internally) - Responsible Parties and consultants - Relevant UN agencies - Government partners - Other stakeholders UN Women Ukraine 2022/04 No Longer Applicable Due to the escalation of war in Ukraine this key action is no longer a priority for the CO. Geographical coverage, funding and projects have shifted.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 4 - Strengthen CME Approach
Management Response: The CO agrees with the evaluation team that the CME methodology needs to be strengthened to emphasize a stronger gender analysis and intervention for more transformative results. During the first few years of UN Women’s work in Eastern Ukraine the CME methodology has been very successful in mobilizing women to be engaged in grass-root advocacy and local development projects. The CO sees this as an important first step in the process for gender transformative results. As the work now continues, a greater emphasis will need to be placed on tackling various gender dynamics at local level, in order to take these results to the next level. Additionally, the work with self-help groups will have a greater focus on the Women, Peace and Security agenda by strengthening efforts towards women’s economic security and community security.
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Description: It is recommended that UN Women revisit the CME approaches to (1) make additional investments in capacity-building with SHGs to improve the quality of community gender analyses and help them prioritize recommendations to local authorities; (2) facilitate greater involvement of these governments in the community gender analysis process; (3) place a stronger focus on gender analysis based on women’s human rights and power relations; (4) adapt curricula to focus on reflections on internal attitudes and behaviours with regard to gender norms and inequalities; (5) put an increased focus on engaging men and boys in all of these processes; and (6) ensure that a higher percentage of community grant projects are allocated to activities that directly contribute to increased GE and GBV prevention. Actions for consideration: o Revise the CME methodology to find effective ways to build on women’s increased participation and community-level leadership to advocate for gender-transformative change at the welfare, rights and equality levels. o Ensure that community needs assessments/profiles are also focused specifically on barriers and opportunities to GEWE and take a more qualitative analytical approach to supplement the simple identification of what are priority needs of vulnerable groups and the general community. o Should the CO decide or need to deprioritize its work in some of its focus areas, consider working with other UN agencies to ensure that the key elements of these focus areas are still covered in the work being done.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Impact, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
4.1 Conduct a review of the CME methodology to strengthen the approach for next level results. Take into consideration the points mentioned by the evaluation team. The review should clearly highlight existing gaps and develop practical tools for strengthened implementation. UN Women Ukraine 2022/04 Completed
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 5 - Strengthen Research Dissemination Plans
Management Response: The CO agrees that the dissemination of knowledge products could be strengthened by the CO as a whole, for better internal and external decision making. Doing so will support the leveraging of generated evidence for greater results. Overall, the CO will be striving to have fewer knowledge products of higher quality and with greater opportunities for thorough dissemination and communications outreach.
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Description: UN Women Ukraine should require the development of dissemination and adaptation plans for relevant research conducted in collaboration with key partners. These plans would outline steps for dissemination to key internal partners and external stakeholders, including strategies, time and resources, to adapt key approaches based on findings from any formative research Actions for consideration: o Review existing projects using the same programme approach to determine which knowledge products need to be included in a dissemination and programme/project implementation adaptation plan. o Include resources and plans in these dissemination plans to ensure that all major knowledge products are translated into Ukrainian and/or Russian so they can be shared with Ukrainian stakeholders and project/programme beneficiaries.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
5.1 Review which existing knowledge products need a more detailed dissemination plan, and then develop these. Dissemination plans should clearly indicate how the KPs will be used by various projects in upcoming implementation and where translation is required. The CO will ensure that the detailed dissemination plans are duly developed for each KP onwards (based on the UN Women corporate guidance on developing knowledge products). UN Women Ukraine 2021/12 Completed
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 6 - Strengthen Approach to M&E
Management Response: The CO agrees that M&E should be strengthened within the UN Women team and with Responsible Parties. Project documents could benefit from being revised to incorporate more underlying assumptions and considering different levels of results, as suggested by the evaluators. The CO has started taking active steps towards strengthening M&E for the CO as a whole and this will be of high priority moving forward for both the Danish funded project and the second phase of the Norway funded project. This recommendation will need to be balanced with UN Women corporate guidelines and individual donor requirements.
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Description: It is recommended that the CO (1) continue working actively to strengthen UN Women and RP staff capacity in M&E; and (2) revamp current and future log frames to include indicators that track intermediate results that are contributing to long-term results; and (3) ensure that monitoring results and research findings are used to inform programme and project implementation. The overall focus should be on designing M&E systems that capture the different phases and types of gender-transformative change. Actions for consideration: o Review the log frame and underlying assumptions of the ToC for the Decentralization and Law Enforcement Reforms project to determine where related adjustments could be made, particularly at the outcome level. This would involve adding new indicators at the outcome level that can be used to track different types of gender-transformative change, as opposed to replacing existing indicators. This would apply particularly to intermediate-level results related to capacity-building activities, such as those stemming from the future teaching of the unified police curriculum. o Review the underlying assumptions of the ToC related to how long specific types of gender-transformative change are required to be enacted for the next phase of the Building Democratic, Peaceful and Gender-Equal Society project to ensure that project results both build on the foundation of the previous phase and are realistic with regard to what the project can achieve. o Review the proposed log frame for the next phase of the Building Democratic, Peaceful and Gender-Equal Society project to ensure it includes intermediate-level indicators that reflect different types and levels of transformative change as well as the medium-term results generated by capacity-building activities. o Develop a more unified and streamlined approach to monitoring, evaluation and reporting based on a programme approach, particularly where RPs are implementing the same approaches in the same regions for more than one donor under the umbrella of UN Women projects.
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
6.1 Discuss with donors the possible revision of indicators and assumptions of the ToC for the Danish funded project and phase 2 of the Norway funded project, in line with suggestions from evaluators. UN Women Ukraine 2022/04 No Longer Applicable It was agreed with the projects that project indicators and ToC would not be changed, but rather the M&E frameworks for the projects have been strengthened and will collect additional evidence adding on to the existing logframe.
6.2 Develop a Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the next phase of the Norway funded project, which considers the complex contextual needs/approaches to M&E and how to support the strengthening of capacity of Responsible Parties. UN Women Ukraine 2021/09 Completed
6.3 Review monitoring and reporting plans for the remaining period of the Danish funded project to ensure it is unified and streamlined with the CO approach. UN Women Ukraine 2022/04 Completed
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 7 - Expansion of UN Women Field Offices
Management Response: The CO acknowledges that further discussions on its field presence and staffing is needed to ensure an efficient and strategic approach. The projects need a clearly defined approach to what level of technical advice is appropriate to provide to stakeholders and project beneficiaries. This would involve reviewing the financial resources around staffing and consulting with the team on the field as well as partners to determine priorities. The CO believes that an open dialogue on capacity needs would be more appropriate than an assessment.
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Description: It is recommended that UN Women Ukraine expand its field presence and project teams to include an M&E officer, as well as GBV prevention and GRB expertise to both reduce its dependence upon external consultants and to increase its visibility and value added at the regional and local levels. Actions for consideration: o Discuss strategic and human resource considerations with project teams and CO staff regarding the optimum role for UN Women to play at the field level and the most effective ways to do so (i.e. determine what level of technical advice the project teams and UN Women staff should be providing to stakeholders and project beneficiaries). o Conduct a capacity assessment of CO staff to determine key gaps in expertise, and develop a human resource plan to address these gaps.
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Oversight/governance
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities, Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
7.1 Consult the UN Women field team on their needs for technical support and gaps in capacity, and incorporate learning needs into individual work plans of staff. Targeted trainings on GRB and other topics will be made available for the programme team, including field-level colleagues. UN Women Ukraine 2021/12 Completed
7.2 As part of the second SN development, review financial resources to assess the possibility of more field staff for UN Women projects. UN Women Ukraine 2022/12 Completed
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 8 - Conduct Gap Analysis
Management Response: The CO agrees that a thorough mapping exercise is needed to shape the selection of- and work in new communities and regions. This should take into account who is currently doing what and the thematic gaps relating to UN Women’s mandate. The CO is committed to involving partners in determining both the thematic areas of focus and geographical coverage of projects
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Description: It is recommended that UN Women, in coordination with other key partners, commission a gap analysis and mapping of actors in any future target communities in eastern Ukraine working specifically in thematic areas in UN Women’s SN. Actions for consideration: o Use the analysis to identify who is doing what currently and what are the major gaps in relation to UN Women’s mandate, specifically focusing on EVAWG and WEE. o Present the results of the analysis to hromada officials to inform the selection of target communities as well as the development of UN Women Ukraine’s next SN.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, UN Coordination, Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
8.1 Through relevant government and donor coordination mechanisms for development projects, coordinate on the coverage for various thematic areas. Use this to inform selection of regions/communities. UN Women Ukraine 2022/04 Completed
8.2 Conduct a local mapping exercise of existing partners and needs in communities using a specifically developed criterion for the selection of new communities. UN Women Ukraine 2021/12 Completed
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 9 - Institutionalization of Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting Processes
Management Response: Whilst the CO also sees the importance of institutionalizing gender responsive planning and budgeting processes at all levels of government, this is a very large undertaking that falls outside the scope of current projects and resources. The CO will continue to work with grassroots women and CSOs to support them in demanding gender considerations into budgeting and planning processes. Through various UN Women projects, authorities at different levels will also continue to participate in trainings and other capacity development events, that will strengthen their abilities to integrate the needs of women and men into planning processes and resource allocations.
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Description: As a means of strengthening sustainability and the depth/breath of gender-transformative results, it is recommended that UN Women review how to further elevate its approach to capacity-building with duty bearers related to gender-responsive planning and budgeting to a higher-level focus on the institutionalization of these processes and related changes, working with all three levels of government. Actions for consideration: o Review proposed project objectives for the next phase of the Building Democratic, Peaceful and Gender-Equal Society project to potentially include more systematic institutionalization of gender-responsive planning and budget processes. o Continue work with the Ministry of Finance and the MCTD to support the development of budgeting processes and accountability systems at the regional and local levels that will facilitate the tracking of expenditures on gender-responsive measures by local authorities.
Management Response Category: Rejected
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: National ownership
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Key Action not added.