Management Response

: Egypt
: 2018 - 2018 , Egypt (CO)
: Final Evaluation of Promoting Women's Employment by Creating Safe and Women-Friendly Workplaces Programme (Women's Employment Promotion Programme - WEPP)
:
: Egypt
:

UN Women will continue to strengthen and build the capacity of rural women to ensure their integration in the market labor force, while securing safe working environments for them.

: Approved
Recommendation: More inclusive measures are needed in future projects that include men beneficiaries (future husbands) at community level as well as field officers/ middle managers at the agribusiness firms.
Management Response: UN Women will carry this out through various awareness raising and advocacy activities that target men more specifically in coordination with local community-based organizations. At community level, these activities could target youth and adolescents in schools and clubs as well as young men in secondary and tertiary education. Activities could include on-the-ground advocacy campaigns that promote women as workers and leaders in the agricultural sector, break gender stereotypes and address barriers to women’s employment.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Youth engagement, Engaging men and boys
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Implement awareness raising and advocacy activities engaging men and boys through UN Women's various programme portfolios UN Women 2022/12 Completed UNW Egypt has designed and mobilized funds on programmes where men and boys of the intervention areas are engaged in the activities to ensure their buy-in. In addition to designing social media campaigns and holding webinars (post-COVID) where men are engaged in discussions on gender issues.
Recommendation: Continue to focus on interventions that provide spaces for vulnerable rural women to engage with men and hence facilitate social cohesion between them.
Management Response: UN Women will promote the implementation of joint income generating projects such as cooperatives, or farming ventures that will help open-up windows for integrating and retaining women in the paid economy.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Cluster women in joint income generating projects that they run and manage by themselves UN Women and stakeholders involved in women's economic empowerment programmes 2022/12 Completed UNW Egypt successfully designed and mobilized funds to implement activities on financial inclusion where women are clustered in groups to save and access credits as well as collectively running and managing income generating activities by themselves within their local context.
Recommendation: Work at policy level to push for legislation that ensures secure and safe working environment and social protection for women working in the agriculture sector, whether they are seasonal or permanent workers.
Management Response: This could be done through coordination between the Agriculture Committee at the Parliament and the relevant ministries and the National Council for Women (NCW). Activities should also include securing medical and social insurance and pension scheme for working women in the agriculture sector.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: National ownership
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Impact, Sustainability, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Discussion with NCW to lobby for seasonal agricultural workers to receive social insurance and pension schemes UN Women and stakeholders involved in women's economic empowerment programmes 2022/12 Completed UN Women Egypt has taken this recommendation seriously and communicated with NCW through its current national 3-year programme on the financial inclusion that taregets rural women (220,000) in cooperation with the Central Bank of Egypt. In addition, through UN Women's Decent work for women joint programme with ILO, there is a whole outcome on the policy level with the Ministry of Manpower to ensure that Egypt has gender sensitive labor laws that provides for safety and non-discrimination of women in the labor market. UN Women also works with the private sector intensively through a pool of experts on the WEPs to ensure safe working space for women in different industries including the agribusiness sector.
Recommendation: Plan beforehand career advancement opportunities including capacity building and skills development for women workers – similar to other men employees –to retain skilled women and achieve equality in job opportunities and associated benefits, inside the firm
Management Response: Following up with agribusiness firms in the project to implement action points
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Effectiveness, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Coordination for exchange visits with peer firms, either in Egypt or abroad, via collaboration with the commercial chambers Agribusiness firms 2022/12 Completed The WEPP has already ended in 2018, so exchange visits with peer firms are not accessible through UNW. However, knowing the added-value for exchange visits with peer firms, UNW Egypt has designed such visits in other programmes as may be relevant.
Organize a workshop moderated by a national HR expert to support the design phase of policies for women’s career advancement Agribusiness firms 2022/12 Completed UN Women designed various interventions with different partners to help women serve on corporate boards, build their skills for managerial roles, in addition to mapping labor market to bridge the gap between private sector needs and the expectations of female technicians with the aim to increase employability opportunities for female TVET graduates and their career advancement in growth oriented and non-traditional sectors .
Conduct an annual assessment report on employees’ benefits and compensation packages to help plan ahead appropriately Agribusiness firms 2022/12 Completed Annual assessment on employees benefits and compensation packages are done separately by the companies/ private sector. UN Women can't run this assessment report due to confidentality reasons by companies' respective HRs.
Recommendation: Build a training of trainers (ToT) team of women specialized in the technical practices required for the farming and packaging operations to train new workers and raise awareness on available benefits and existing mechanisms / policies.
Management Response: Follow up with agribusiness firms in the project for the implementation of action points.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Selection of qualified women trained through the project and capitalize on their skills Agribusiness firms 2022/12 Completed TOT programmes have already been designed in all intervention areas and programmes to ensure knowledge transfer and peer to peer reviews. This is also built on the local context to ensure the right selection of women trainers/ trainees.
Recommendation: Follow-up on the implementation of the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs)
Management Response: UN Women will advocate for the adoption and application of the WEPs by the private sector
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Effectiveness, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Participate in events and activities to promote WEPs UN Women 2022/12 Completed UNW Egypt has uptaken the promotion of the WEPs in all of its programmes on economic empowerment and engagement with the private sector. It's worth to note that since 2018, the number of WEPs signatories in Egypt has increased by 35.29%
Recommendation: Develop a business case to document strong evidence and success stories of the participating firms who adopted the WEPs
Management Response: UN Women reflected the WEPs through "the business case for improving women's working conditions in the agribusiness sector in Egypt"
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Publish and disseminate the business case through public events, UN Women website, social media etc. for others to replicate the model in the private sector UN Women 2022/12 Completed UN Women has already developed and published the business case on the agribusiness firms and the return on investment by improving the working conditions of women in the agriculture sector. The business case is promoted and used as a reference for other private companies to join the WEPs. The business case is already published on UNW Egypt website available at https://egypt.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2019/04/the-business-case-for-improving-women-working-conditions-in-the-agribusiness-sector-in-egypt and is already references on other UNW Egypt platform (i.e. twitter and FB)
Recommendation: Future programming should focus on needs assessments on firms value chains and market demand, direct implementation through CBOs rather than INGOs, and plan for sufficient duration of the inception phase, develop a robust M&E system since inception
Management Response: This recommendation has been taken into account for upcoming programmes in the pipeline.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Effectiveness, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women ECO is moving towards having a call for proposals to invite CBOs based on the Annual Work Plan and progress indicators are define in the inception of all programmes in the pipeline. In addition, UN Women is identifying entry points for women's economic opportunities, and building their soft and technical skills and job related capacities for its ongoing and upcoming programmes. UN Women is also ensuring an ample time for the inception phase of its programmes. UN Women 2022/12 Completed UNW Egypt has already factored in an inception period of 3-5 months in all its new prodocs since 2016. UNW Egypt is also building and designing programmes on women's needs in the intervention areas based on available data and network with on-ground expertise. This is also done in a comprehensive manner where the national counterpart (NCW) is involved and engaged in the implementation to ensure maximum results.
Recommendation: Future programming focusing on women’s economic empowerment may benefit from incorporating income-generating interventions and saving groups, known as the village savings and loans associations (VSLAs) that can address the priority needs of vulnerable rural women and provide an opportunity for women to learn about basic financial management, how to save money and access peer supported credit.
Management Response: The VSLA modality and financial literacy are being implemented to adress the needs of vulnerable women in rural areas.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women is mobilizing resources for financial inclusion of the established VSLAs. UN Women 2022/12 Completed UNW Egypt has successfully mobilized 6,000,000 USD funded equally by the EU and the Dutch to implement and contribute to the national financial inclusion programme that is implmented in close coordination with the National Council for Women and the Central Bank of Egypt. The programme is for three years from Sept. 2020 till Dec. 2023
Recommendation: Coordinate with NCW to provide recognition for agribusiness firms that adopt gender sensitive policies and women friendly workplaces
Management Response: UN Women is lobbying with NCW to provide recognition for agribusiness firms adopting gender sensitive policies and women friendly work places
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Effectiveness, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Talks and discussions were initiated with NCW on all possible incentives for agribusiness firms. UN Women 2022/01 Completed UN Women Egypt is currently working closely with MOIC and NCW to advance the WEPs among the private sector and connect them with the government's "closing the gender gap accelerator" which provides WEPs signatories with international and national recognition.
Recommendation: Develop a platform for all initiatives on women’s empowerment activities and projects.
Management Response: UN Women initiated a website that includes UN Women's portfolio on women's empowerment activities in Egypt.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
The website is developed and regularly updated with all UN Women's programme activities and information such as briefs, fact sheets, etc. UN Women 2022/12 Completed UNW Egypt has its own running website that is regularly updated with all UN Women's programme activities and information such as briefs, fact sheets, etc. https://egypt.unwomen.org/en