Global Accountability and Tracking of Evaluation Use - GATE System

Management Response

Management Response

Commissioning Unit:	Ukraine
Evaluation Plan:	2018 - 2022 , Ukraine (CO)
Evaluation Title:	Final External Evaluation of the project ‘Gender equality at the centre of reforms, peace and security’, funded by the Government of Sweden
Evaluation Type:	Final Evaluation-Programme Evaluation
Unit Responsible for Providing Management Response:	Ukraine
Overall Management Response: UN Women in Ukraine commissioned a final evaluation of the project “Enhancing Accountability for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in National Reforms, Peace and Security in Ukraine” (May 2017 – February 2022), funded by the Government of Sweden. The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the extent to which results were achieved as per the project agreement, 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 evaluation was conducted over a seven-month period (May–November 2021) and was based on an extensive document review, more than 60 semi-structured interviews, two focus group discussions and an online survey of capacity development activity with 191 participants. Some of the positive findings of the evaluation included that the project remained highly relevant to the national priorities in the area of GEWE as well as the international human rights commitments of Ukraine from its design stage through its implementation. It was also noted that the project had some notable and impactful successes, particularly in the WPS sector, and laid solid foundations in the area of governance. The evaluators also highlighted several areas for improvement such as refining and reducing the number of partnerships with national institutions to ensure in-depth and targeted investment in the implementation of new strategies and policies. They also mentioned the need for more dedicated resources to M&E, a focus on social norms change, an emphasis on securing funding for GEWE commitments and integrating more work with civil society and the private sector. Overall, the UN Women CO has found the final evaluation to be very helpful in better understanding how UN Women is working with partners at the national level on two areas of the Strategic Note related to governance (SN Outcome 1) and WPS (SN Outcome 3). 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, the availability of funds and the willingness for cooperation of key stakeholders. Of the 8 recommendations provided by the evaluators, UN Women Ukraine is:  accepting 7 recommendations  partially accepting 1 recommendation The CO is committing to 19 action points stemming from the recommendations. - 12 action points are the responsibility of the next phase of the evaluated project (subject to funding approval) - 7 action points are the responsibility of the CO UN Women in Ukraine commissioned a final evaluation of the project “Enhancing Accountability for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in National Reforms, Peace and Security in Ukraine” (May 2017 – February 2022), funded by the Government of Sweden. The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the extent to which results were achieved as per the project agreement, 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 evaluation was conducted over a seven-month period (May–November 2021) and was based on an extensive document review, more than 60 semi-structured interviews, two focus group discussions and an online survey of capacity development activity with 191 participants. Some of the positive findings of the evaluation included that the project remained highly relevant to the national priorities in the area of GEWE as well as the international human rights commitments of Ukraine from its design stage through its implementation. It was also noted that the project had some notable and impactful successes, particularly in the WPS sector, and laid solid foundations in the area of governance. The evaluators also highlighted several areas for improvement such as refining and reducing the number of partnerships with national institutions to ensure in-depth and targeted investment in the implementation of new strategies and policies. They also mentioned the need for more dedicated resources to M&E, a focus on social norms change, an emphasis on securing funding for GEWE commitments and integrating more work with civil society and the private sector. Overall, the UN Women CO has found the final evaluation to be very helpful in better understanding how UN Women is working with partners at the national level on two areas of the Strategic Note related to governance (SN Outcome 1) and WPS (SN Outcome 3). 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, the availability of funds and the willingness for cooperation of key stakeholders. Of the 8 recommendations provided by the evaluators, UN Women Ukraine is:  accepting 7 recommendations  partially accepting 1 recommendation The CO is committing to 19 action points stemming from the recommendations. - 12 action points are the responsibility of the next phase of the evaluated project (subject to funding approval) - 7 action points are the responsibility of the CO
Management Response Status:	Approved

Recommendations

Recommendation : 1

Recommendation:	Recommendation 1 - Partnerships
Management Response:	UN Women Ukraine is fully committed to ensuring that all activities are strategic and contribute towards a long-term vision. The CO agrees that ongoing work with national stakeholders needs to be more in-depth and targeted towards the implementation of new strategies and policies (rather than the development of new strategies). There are many opportunities for this in the coming years, including key partnerships to the DPMO, Ministry of Social Policy, National Agency of Social Services and Government Commissioner for Gender Equality Policy, to support the implementation of the new ‘State Strategy on Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men by 2030.’

Description:	RECOMMENDATION 1 – UN Women should refine and reduce the number of partnerships with national institutions—and subsequently, the project’s GEWE reform agenda—in order to ensure in-depth and targeted investment in the implementation of new strategies and policies. A more narrowed focus, based on a thorough analysis of vulnerabilities and determinants, defined through extensive structured and continuous consultations with the national partners, including CSOs, would allow for more in-depth technical support in regard to GEWE policy implementation and monitoring. To do this, UN Women should focus on targeted technical support to the head of the NWM and its role in supporting the implementation of the new State Strategy on Ensuring Equal Rights of Women and Men and potentially in supporting the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention). This would require continual updates to the functional capacity of the NWM, specifically in regard to coordination, accountability and reporting. UN Women is advised to rebalance its strategic policy and capacity development support to ensure proper focus on the budgeting and implementation of policies and programmes. As many programmatic decisions in Ukraine are and will be further delegated to the local level, UN Women is advised to advocate that any new GEWE strategies, policies and programmes have the appropriate budget allocations, well-identified parties responsible for their implementation and clear reporting and monitoring procedures. UN Women is strongly advised to partner with other international partners supporting strategic aspects of decentralization reforms to ensure that GEWE is well reflected in new public administration arrangements. Key technical support should be given to relevant institutions in regard to monitoring the new state strategy indicators, ensuring and tracking budgeting allocations. In addition to ongoing partnerships with the head of the NWM through the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Government Commissioner for Gender Equality Policy, the Ministry of Social Policy should be considered as an avenue for targeted technical support. In 2017, the CEDAW Committee expressed its concern that “the administrative reform of 2010 and the related restructuring has weakened the national machinery for the advancement of women and resulted in a lack of continuity in gender equality policies.” The Ministry of Social Policy’s departments working in policy reform and implementation both lack capacity due to frequent changes in the structure of the Ministry, systemic understaffing and limited budgetary funding. However, the recently established central executive body, the National Agency of Social Services, will take over policy implementation factions and will have territorial branches in all regions of Ukraine, offering a unique opportunity for targeted technical support for policy implementation. UN Women should remain open to emerging priorities, but a clear and co-designed project scope with the key representative of the NWM can help limit non-strategic use of programme resources and foster a sense of ownership with external stakeholders. Actions for consideration: • Conduct an updated functional analysis of the NWM, and use its results to inform future project design in regard to targeted technical support of the NWM for improved coordination, reporting and accountability as it relates to the implementation and monitoring of the new State Strategy on Ensuring Equal Rights of Women and Men. Part of the functional analysis can include a review of the numerous capacity assessments of state institutions that have been conducted to date in order to help identify specific areas for future technical support. • Facilitate co-designed processes for future reform projects with key stakeholders from the NWM to maximize buy-in and reduce the risk of ad hoc requests that jeopardize the efficient use of project resources. • Explore and exploit synergies with other projects implemented by UN Women and other partners that have a considerable local presence to pilot new GEWE solutions. • Support the newly established National Agency of Social Services in defining their responsibilities in regard to implementing the new State Strategy at the regional level. • Advocate for ensuring that any new GEWE strategies and policies have implementation plans that include the timetable for delivering a policy, the roles and responsibilities of all those involved in delivery and the resources allocated to the policy (including money, skills and infrastructure), and discuss how potential barriers are to be tackled and how performance is to be reported and monitored to ensure appropriate accountability. • Ensure that the engagement of national and international UN Women consultants with the NWM and other partners is time limited, has specific deliverables, with the exact scope of work, and outlines the reporting and accountability requirements.
Management Response Category:	Accepted
Thematic Area:	Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles:	Alignment with strategy
Organizational Priorities:	Partnership
UNEG Criteria:	Effectiveness, Relevance

Key Actions

	Responsible	Deadline	Status	Comments
1.1 Initiate a new functional analysis of the NWM. The functional analysis should identify key areas to prioritize in future programmatic work, and it should include a review of the capacity assessments of state institutions that have been conducted to date.	UN Women CO	2022/12	No Longer Applicable	Due to the escalation of war in Ukraine this key action is no longer a priority for the CO. Other knowledge products and analyses have been conducted in 2022 which have been deemed more relevant to the evolving context.
1.2 Facilitate co-designing workshops with key stakeholders from the NWM as part of the development of the new UN Women Strategic Note. Where appropriate, develop and sign MoUs on agreed cooperation.	UN Women CO	2022/12	No Longer Applicable	A 1-year interim Strategic Note was developed for 2023 to align it with the transitional framework. Relevant stakeholders were consulted in the process. Due to the escalation of war a full scale-design workshop was not possible.
1.3 Conduct a discussion with all projects implemented by UN Women, to explore possibilities to pilot new GEWE solutions at the local level, with lessons learnt/ opportunities identified from the project evaluation.	UN Women CO	2022/12	Completed	Due to the escalation of war in Ukraine there has been a pressing need to pilot new initiatives. The CO has expanded significantly in 2022 with new initiatives such as Safe Spaces being piloted.
1.4 Explore cooperation opportunities with the newly established National Agency of Social Services.	UN Women CO	2022/07	Completed	Work with the new agency has been explored by the CO and there are plans to expand on cooperation in 2023. In the context of the full-fledged war this is an important ministry to work with,
1.5 Advocate and provide technical support to ensure that the new ‘State Strategy on Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men by 2030’ has an implementation plan that includes the timetable for delivering a policy, the roles and responsibilities of all those involved in delivery and the resources allocated to the policy (including money, skills and infrastructure), and discuss how potential barriers are to be tackled and how performance is to be reported and monitored to ensure appropriate accountability.	UN Women CO	2022/12	Completed	To be completed by phase two of the project (still pending approval from the donor). The strategy is still pending approval by the Cabinet of Ministers.
1.6 Ensure that all ongoing and new contracts of national and international UN Women consultants with the NWM and other partners are time limited, have specific deliverables, with the exact scope of work, and outlines the reporting and accountability requirements.	UN Women CO	2022/12	Completed	This recommendation has been taken fully on board.

Recommendation : 2

Recommendation:	Recommendation 2 - Budget Commitments to GEWE
Management Response:	The CO agrees that closer cooperation with the Ministry of Finance is needed to ensure that GEWE policy implementation has appropriate budget allocations. The CO believes that the best way to do this, is to build on efforts by existing projects and initiatives that have made important strides in this area.

Description:	RECOMMENDATION 2 - UN Women should ensure a strong and well-funded project component on advocacy and capacity development for budget commitments to GEWE in all its new projects, as appropriate. A key challenge linked to GEWE policy reform is in regard to budget allocations for GEWE policy implementation and the international and national commitments thereof. UN Women should consider key partnerships with the Ministry of Finance in order to advocate, in partnership with other NWM partners, for adequate GEWE financing. Actions for consideration: • Establish partner relationships with the Ministry of Finance to ensure that any new GEWE state strategies, policies and programmes have the appropriate budgets. • Advocate for the Government to increase, track and publish domestic public allocations and financial resources for gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s rights at the national and subnational levels.
Management Response Category:	Accepted
Thematic Area:	Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles:	Capacity development, Advocacy
Organizational Priorities:	Partnership
UNEG Criteria:	Effectiveness, Sustainability, Impact

Key Actions

	Responsible	Deadline	Status	Comments
2.1 - Conduct consultations and lessons learnt sessions with different projects and initiatives which have worked with the Ministry of Finance on gender-responsive budgeting (including the GRB project funded by Sweden, implemented by NIRAS) and identify a few strategic entry points for next steps that are within UN Women’s capacity to support.	UN Women CO	2022/12	No Longer Applicable	Due to the escalation of war in Ukraine this key action is no longer a priority for the CO.
2.2 – Conduct advocacy activities (consultations with NWM and CSOs, meetings with international partners etc.) for the Government to increase, track and publish domestic public allocations and financial resources for gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s rights at the national and subnational levels.	UN Women CO	2022/12	No Longer Applicable	Due to the escalation of war in Ukraine this key action is no longer a priority for the CO.

Recommendation : 3

Recommendation:	Recommendation 3- LNOB
Management Response:	The CO fully supports this recommendation and would like to make this an even greater priority in the coming years.

Description:	RECOMMENDATION 3 - Ensure that any policy reforms promoted by UN Women explicitly promote the ‘leave no one behind’ principle to impact the lives of women in marginalized communities and those with intersectional challenges, such as rural women, Roma women, women with disabilities and LBTQI+ women. UN Women is advised to continue its work on gender-disaggregated statistics to inform the development of policies and support targeting the most vulnerable groups and women and, at the same time, increase decision makers’ awareness of quality disaggregated data so that any new data will reach ‘fertile ground’. Future GEWE policy reform work should seek to strike an important balance between targeted support to duty bearers and the increased visibility and engagement with CSOs who represent the most vulnerable women and girls. This likely will require UN Women to work with new organizations outside of the GEWE CSO paradigm that will likely require additional capacity development support. In particularly, focus should be given to ensuring representation from rural areas and creating regional-level platforms into which these groups can input policy reforms and programme design. In this regard, continued support with respect to UNSCR 1325 should build upon national-level successes to focus on addressing the needs of conflict-affected women in eastern Ukraine. WPS has been an area of immense success for the project as well as an area of strategic interest among donor groups. As such, UN Women should continue this work but with a refined strategy, focusing on the implementation of defined actions as well as the capacity development of CSOs to support this implementation and related accountability. Actions for consideration: • Identify CSOs that support and represent the most vulnerable groups of women and that have limited institutional capacity to engage in policy dialogue with the national and regional authorities. Seek flexible partnership arrangements to allow for these CSOs to partner with UN Women through better-established organizations with long-standing relationships with the UN Women. Develop plans to support these organizations to strengthen their capacities to engage in GEWE policy development and monitoring, including in advocacy. • Continue work on disaggregated gender statistics, and support their use in policymaking. • Continue work in WPS, and focus on the implementation of the NAP 1325 in the regions and particularly in regard to a focus on women affected by conflict, including IDPs and survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.
Management Response Category:	Accepted
Thematic Area:	Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles:	Capacity development, Alignment with strategy, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities:	Normative Support, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria:	Impact, Effectiveness, Relevance, Human Rights, Gender equality

Key Actions

	Responsible	Deadline	Status	Comments
3.1 – Conduct a workshop for UN Women staff on how to operationalize and integrate the ‘leave no one behind’ principle into all facets of project work, taking into account a joint UN Policy Paper on LNOB (2022) . The workshop should aim to collectively identify key action steps that UN Women projects can take to better support most vulnerable groups of women that have limited institutional capacity, to engage in policy dialogue with national and regional authorities. The workshop will also focus on identifying the support needed to specific CSOs and engaging different women’s groups. This should also include a specific discussion on how to continue working on the WPS agenda vis-a-vi the ‘leave no one behind’ in order to reach different groups of women affected by conflict.	UN Women CO	2022/12	No Longer Applicable	No longer necessary for the CO due to context changing and changes in team capacity
3.2 – Continue the partnership with the State Statistics of Ukraine, and efforts to advocate for the further disaggregation of statistics and usage of data in policy-making. Conduct a workshop/ round-table discussion with key national duty-bearers on the importance of disaggregated gender statistics in policy-making, with an emphasis on LNOB.	UN Women CO	2022/12	No Longer Applicable	Due to the escalation of war in Ukraine this key action is no longer a priority for the CO. The CO will revisit this cooperation and recommendation in 2023, to see if this can be picked up again.

Recommendation : 4

Recommendation:	Recommendation 4 - M&E
Management Response:	The CO agrees that ongoing and future work by UN Women, needs a stronger and more robust monitoring and evaluation system. The CO has already taken important steps towards strengthening the overall emphasis on M&E and will continue to do so going forward.

Description:	RECOMMENDATION 4 - Strengthen internal M&E, tracking and reporting by allocating more budget and dedicated personnel and by improving the quality and relevance of M&E systems. There is a need to strengthen the project’s M&E architecture and reinforce the culture of a results chain, so that monitoring and measuring the midterm (outcome-level) and long-term (impact) changes would become an integrated approach and a valued exercise that can be undertaken systematically. Realistically formulated results, proper planning, communication, improved coordination and effective monitoring can keep the project theory of change and RRF relevant and useful throughout its cycle. The results framework for upcoming projects should have a consistent set of indicators that are relevant to the expected outcomes, as well as have adequately specified baselines, targets, intermediate milestones and time frames. UN Women can be held accountable for meeting its targets only if the indicators can credibly be attributed to UN Women. UN Women is advised to improve the linkages of its projects’ results frameworks, with more focus on long-term results and impacts. Theories of change should be well articulated, should be interlinked so that it provides clear and elaborate change pathways, and should provide justification for the selected course of action so that the stakeholders are able to trace a clear and compelling storyline from the outputs expected to the outcome indicators and to specific indicators in the national plans and programmes. It is advisable to strategically invest in strong M&E systems. Given the length and budget of the project, the M&E budget should reflect the costs spent not only on decentralized evaluations but also on monitoring. The M&E plan should reflect data collection activities, such as national surveys, external legislation analysis and institutional capacity assessments, that could be used to inform decision-making and planning of the project team and the participating institutions. Actions for consideration: • Develop a theory of change that is more flexible in responding to the emerging needs throughout the course of the new project’s implementation. It is advisable to introduce a practice of reviewing theories of change mid-cycle to ensure their relevance and effectiveness and inform corrective actions if needed. • Secure resources for a full-time M&E specialist to enable comprehensive M&E, with a focus on new policy initiatives. • Identify outcome-level indicators to track future reform work to understand the impact of the policy intervention on the lives of the most vulnerable women and girls, with a focus on targeted beneficiaries (e.g. the use of new skills acquired, following training on gender mainstreaming in policymaking). Identify at least two or three indicators per outcome, using various data sources (primary and secondary). • Develop corresponding tools to monitor the project’s progress towards attaining new goals, such as the effectiveness of online-based interventions, in light of the fact that some activities were cancelled or revised to address the realities posed by COVID-19.
Management Response Category:	Accepted
Thematic Area:	Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles:	Knowledge management, Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities:	Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria:	Effectiveness, Impact, Efficiency

Key Actions

	Responsible	Deadline	Status	Comments
4.1 – Budget for a CO M&E Analyst to provide technical support and oversight to all projects on M&E.	UN Women CO	2022/07	Completed	Completed, budget reserved for 2023
4.2 – Ensure that each project has a dedicated M&E focal point, who is responsible for ensuring that monitoring is done consistently and in accordance with best practice, closely aligned to the project’s results framework. The M&E focal point should work closely with the CO M&E Analyst.	UN Women CO	2022/07	Completed	Completed
4.3 – Develop a detailed M&E Framework, plan and data collection tools for the next phase of the project, which clearly outlines how to most effectively track results on an ongoing basis, and in accordance with recommendations from the evaluation. The plan should for example include a review of the ToC at the mid-point of the project, and indicators that adequately track the impact of policy interventions on the lives of the most vulnerable women and girls.	UN Women CO	2022/02	Completed	Completed in a full Project Monitoring Framework for the project

Recommendation : 5

Recommendation:	Recommendation 5 - Women's Economic Empowerment
Management Response:	The CO is very keen to keep working on- and upscaling efforts to strengthen work with the private sector and Women’s Empowerment principles. The CO sees this as a unique and powerful opportunity to make meaningful impact on the lives of women and girls, through non-traditional partners.

Description:	RECOMMENDATION 5 - Scale up work with the private sector and specifically as an avenue for sustainable approaches to women’s economic empowerment. The private sector is a vital stakeholder in achieving global goals for women’s economic empowerment. With access to networks of financial, physical and social capital, the private sector creates and shapes opportunities for women across all industries and sectors. The private sector not only creates jobs, but it also provides an important pathway to self-reliance and sustainability. It remains important that the private sector recognizes its role in promoting women’s economic empowerment through better business practices in areas such as safe working environments, hiring and recruitment, and technical training. Likewise, to leverage the strengths of the private sector and accelerate women’s economic empowerment nationally, public and non-governmental actors alike must partner and engage with the private sector. The project successfully engaged with a number of private sector actors working in Ukraine, specifically under its HeForShe campaign using the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). The WEPs provide guidance to businesses on how to promote GEWE in the workplace, marketplace and community and are informed by international labour and human rights standards; as such, the principles are grounded in the recognition that businesses have a stake in, and a responsibility for, GEWE. Given the expressed need of improved economic empowerment opportunities for women, upscaling successes in private sector engagement in this regard is strategic as well as innovative in the Ukrainian context. Traditional women’s economic programmes focus on access to education, financial support, training and employment opportunities rather than taking a more integrated approach based on a human rights framework that delivers the broader conditions necessary for women to thrive. Lastly, there is an opportunity and desire to increase collaboration and improve communications between the women’s rights sector and corporations working on women’s economic empowerment programmes. Actions for consideration: • Invest in research to highlight a context-specific business case for gender equality within a few targeted private sector models prevalent in Ukraine. • Develop concept notes on projects that could emerge out of successful partnerships or initiatives implemented as a part of the project and that could be offered to a range of donors and included in the upcoming Strategic Note (e.g. women’s economic empowerment with the private sector; HeForShe in targeted government institutions; combating sexual harassment in public and private institutions). • Upscale (and document) UN Women’s promotion of the Women’s Empowerment Principles with private sector actors in Ukraine to foster business practices that empower women. These include equal pay for work of equal value and zero tolerance for sexual harassment in the workplace.
Management Response Category:	Accepted
Thematic Area:	Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles:	Capacity development
Organizational Priorities:	Partnership, Engaging men and boys
UNEG Criteria:	Sustainability, Effectiveness, Relevance

Key Actions

	Responsible	Deadline	Status	Comments
5.1 – Integrate a component on women’s economic empowerment and more specifically the promotion of the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) with private sector actors in Ukraine, in the second phase of the project. The new component should focus on upscaling and documenting progress made on working with WEPs, and should invest in research to highlight a context-specific business case for gender equality within a few targeted private sector models prevalent in Ukraine.	UN Women CO	2022/07	Completed	Completed

Recommendation : 6

Recommendation:	Recommendation 6 - Civil Society
Management Response:	The CO agrees that there is opportunity to strengthen work on expanding the scope and capacity of women’s civil society in Ukraine. This will be incorporated by the CO into the new Strategic Note and as part of the second phase of the project.

Description:	RECOMMENDATION 6 - Expand work with women’s civil society to continue the strategic shift away from the focus on bilateral implementing partnerships towards movement-building in a way that addresses genuine concerns of women and implements the policies that address their needs. UN Women is advised to advocate for a need to introduce legislative provisions for CSO involvement in GEWE policy discussions and monitoring and to facilitate regular meetings of organizations representing vulnerable groups of women with respective national partners, ministries and other central executive bodies. Proactive measures should be adopted to consult groups that are traditionally excluded or underrepresented. Additional training may be provided to the staff of the NWM components on how to manage the policy consultation process with women’s organizations, including the development of clear and well-focused documents for consultations with stakeholders, working with individual organizations to solicit their feedback, analyse the feedback received and address the inputs received in policy and programmatic work. Training can be provided to organizations representing and supporting the most vulnerable groups of women at the local and regional on such topics as advocacy and persuasiveness skills in working with decision makers, taking into consideration the realities of the decentralization process. Actions for consideration: • Provide guidance to national, regional and local partners on the logistics of GEWE public engagement, including the time frame and costs, the tools to capture the feedback and gather information, the risks and other implementation considerations. • Evaluate the capacity of CSOs to advocate for the implementation of key GEWE policy and programme reforms. • Support regional events with GEWE CSOs operating at the regional level, targeting specifically CSOs representing and supporting the most vulnerable women.
Management Response Category:	Accepted
Thematic Area:	Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles:	Capacity development, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities:	Partnership, Normative Support, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria:	Effectiveness, Sustainability, Impact, Human Rights, Gender equality

Key Actions

	Responsible	Deadline	Status	Comments
6.1 - Integrate a component on strengthening women’s civil society, in the second phase of the project. The new dedicated component should focus on movement-building in a way that addresses genuine concerns of women and implements the policies that address their needs. The new component should incorporate recommendations from the evaluation, including providing guidance to stakeholders on GEWE public engagement, supporting regional events with GEWE CSOs, and supporting the capacity development of CSOs to advocate for their priorities.	UN Women CO	2022/09	Completed	Completed
6.2 – Coordinate support for events in various regions in Ukraine with GEWE CSOs targeting specifically CSOs representing and supporting the most vulnerable women.	UN Women CO	2022/09	Completed

Recommendation : 7

Recommendation:	Recommendation 7 - Social Norms
Management Response:	The new UN Women Global Strategic Plan contains a stronger emphasis on social norms change, and the CO anticipates that this will also be identified as a key priority for the new CO Strategic Note. In order to most effectively take this work forward as suggested by the evaluators, the CO sees that a review of work done to date and an internal discussion on the best ways forward is needed, in order to create a roadmap on next steps.

Description:	RECOMMENDATION 7 - Ensure that any new initiative of UN Women has concerted and specific programming around institutional social norms change that will promote broader buy-in for GEWE initiatives. As part of this, future projects should include support to targeted institutions for combating sexual harassment (such as what was done with the National Agency for Civil Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs) and strategically engaging with men. UN Women should build upon successes in GEWE policy reform by creating an enabling environment for policy implementation. Addressing key internal institutional barriers to effective GEWE policy buy-in will be crucial. As such, new programmes working with national government institutions and stakeholders should seek to address personnel biases and stereotypes in regard to GEWE as well as institutional culture, practices and internal policies that are contradictory to GEWE policies and that prevent these institutions from ‘walking the talk’. A key aspect of this work should be on the design of future advocacy and mass media approaches. Specifically, these communication efforts should be designed to align with predefined target groups and relevant key messages by target group to ensure overlap with other interventions and their target beneficiaries and stakeholders. Actions for consideration: • Conduct a thorough stakeholder analysis to identify key target groups within defined beneficiaries, and conduct rapid research to highlight effective messages for these groups to promote GEWE in targeted institutions (for example, using HeForShe). • Select specific sub-thematic areas and activities within which to focus social norms change strategies, prioritizing those that allow for leveraging work in other areas for maximum effect. Strengthen and adopt new monitoring methods that provide evidence of the effectiveness of social norms change efforts over time.
Management Response Category:	Accepted
Thematic Area:	Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles:	Oversight/governance, Capacity development, Advocacy
Organizational Priorities:	Normative Support, Partnership, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria:	Impact, Sustainability, Effectiveness, Gender equality

Key Actions

	Responsible	Deadline	Status	Comments
7.1 – Conduct a review of how the CO has worked with social norms change during the past few years to identify opportunities to take this work forward. This review should seek to identify key stakeholders/target groups and opportunities for testing effective messages. The report should also highlight specific sub-thematic areas and activities within which to focus social norms change strategies, as well as options for better monitoring of such activities/results.	UN Women CO	2022/12	No Longer Applicable	Due to the escalation of war in Ukraine this key action is no longer a priority for the CO.

Recommendation : 8

Recommendation:	Recommendation 8 - Stereotypes and Capacity Development
Management Response:	The CO agrees that this is an important priority, and that a greater focus on gender stereotypes and implicit bias is necessary. Most of the actions for considerations have been addressed in the key actions by the CO However, the CO does not see the suggested activity to develop a network of high-level men in targeted government institutions, as the best way to proceed with this work. There is already ongoing work to engage men through the HeForShe campaign, EU4GE project on combatting gender stereotypes, and local activities on engaging men in GE initiatives. The CO will continue using this approach.

Description:	RECOMMENDATION 8 - Include specific modules (as relevant for various target groups) on implicit bias and gender stereotypes in future national-level reform project capacity development approaches. In conjunction with Recommendation 5, UN Women should ensure that all training methodologies and approaches used in future national reform projects include training materials and modules that address issues related to implicit biases and gender stereotypes, including specifically issues of sexual harassment in the workplace. These topics should be given sufficient time in a standard training package and should also include other evidenced-based, adult learning methodologies proven to foster critical reflection necessary for shifting personal attitudes and beliefs. UN Women should ensure the adequate adaptation of different training content and methodology according to the target audience, specifically with regard to age. Part of this work should include a thorough review of the capacity development materials to date in order to ensure an adequate focus on these topics, integrated both as stand-alone sessions as well as integrated across all relevant modules and ensuring that relevant methodologies are employed to maximize effectiveness. As part of this, UN Women should consider reviewing the qualifications of contractors who develop and facilitate trainings. An important aspect of this work will be to ensure that training participants include men in equal number. In the majority of institutions that partner with UN Women at the national level, high-level officials and key decision makers are men. In that regard, it is crucial to ensure that they are targeted for this training and are enlisted to support future GEWE policy work. Actions for consideration: • Hire an expert to conduct a review of previously developed institutional training modules to ensure that they adequately address issues related to unconscious bias and gender stereotypes of the individuals in those institutions. • Continue collaborating with the National Agency for Civil Service and other relevant partners to institutionalize gender trainings across all sectors and at the regional and local level. Develop training modules in such areas as the prevention of violence in the workplace. • Have UN Women consider developing online courses and trainings for local and regional partners responsible for the implementation of strategies and policies and to explicitly address bias. Implementers, including men, must thoroughly understand the policy, its rationale and its intent and should not have any biases to ensure effective implementation. • Develop a network of high-level men in targeted government institutions who are trained in GEWE, anti-discrimination, sexual harassment policies and the importance of equal representation in staffing. In this regard, it will be important to have both men and women as training facilitators.
Management Response Category:	Partially Accepted
Thematic Area:	Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles:	Capacity development
Organizational Priorities:	Operational activities, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria:	Effectiveness, Sustainability, Impact, Gender equality

Key Actions

	Responsible	Deadline	Status	Comments
8.1 - Hire an expert to conduct a review of selected institutional training modules (under NACS) to ensure that they adequately address issues related to unconscious bias and gender stereotypes of the individuals in those institutions.	UN Women CO	2022/12	No Longer Applicable	Due to the escalation of war in Ukraine this key action is no longer a priority for the CO.
8.2 – Incorporate plans to continue collaborating with the National Agency for Civil Service to institutionalize gender trainings across all sectors and at the national, regional and local level. This collaboration should include developing online training modules on GEWE, such as addressing implicit bias.	UN Women CO	2022/07	No Longer Applicable	Due to the escalation of war in Ukraine this key action is no longer a priority for the CO.