Management Response

: Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Thailand)
: 2018 - 2018 , Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Thailand) (RO)
: Regional Office Programme Presence Portfolio evaluation
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: Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Thailand)
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Regional Office Management agrees with the recommendations in the evaluation with reservations. The RO is guided by UN Women HQ's ongoing Change Management process in systemic review of the role small presence offices play in the regional structure. Within Change Management process, the RO will continue to advocate for the expressed needs in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly a more defined and strategic role of small presence offices.

: Approved
Recommendation: UN WOMEN ROAP SHOULD ADVOCATE WITHIN THE GLOBAL CHANGE MANAGEMNET PROCESS THAT UN WOMEN CONTINUE TO PLACE VALUE ON SMALL OFFICE PRESENCES AND CONSIDER HOW BEST TO USE THESE OFFICES TO STRATEGICALLY ADVANCE UN WOMNE'S TRIPLE MANDATE AND BUILD ON GAINS MADE.
Management Response: The RO continues to advocate for a more strategic way of engaging small offices within UN Women's regional structure, guided by HQ's Change Management process.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: South-South cooperation, Alignment with strategy
Organizational Priorities: Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
INFORM the global change management process on the effective and strategic role that small presence offices can plpay within the regional framework Regional Office Management 2020/12 Completed RO continued to be highly engaged in HQ's Change Management process and advocates for the needs of the Asia Pacific region, including the need to define the role of small office presences in the regional structure through continuous discussions with HQ. RD contributed to the Change Management by being the Chair of the WG on OEEF of the next SP and through secondment of DRD (AK) to SPRED and who acts as a co-chair of the SP development WG to inform the PP's strategic and effective roles of PPs in the next SP.
Recommendation: UN Women should define a distinct strategic and catalytic role within UN Women's regional architecture for small presence offices that is unique and different from that of country offices and that can be operationalised in select modalities currently being promoted within the UN Reform. Criteria for decision-making relating to country presence, modality, and resource allocation should be done in accordance with this definition and should be flexible enough to respond to emerging opportunities - this is further discussed in Recommendation #3.
Management Response: As part of the Global Change Management process, UN Women is working to define the role of PPs in UN Women's global and regional architecture. Within the Asia-Pacific region, a large part of this discussion has been focused on the creation of a "Lower Mekong Hub" that will provide oversight over several small presence offices in the region and act as a single office with a different function from MCOs and COs. For other small presences, corporate discussions have centered on focusing on a particular thematic area (such as WPS in Sri Lanka) in line with resource availability and emerging opportunities, to ensure targeted and strategic presences that also respond to context-specific priorities.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Organizational efficiency, Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
CONTRIBUTE TO GLOBAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES AROUND COUNTRY TYPOLOGY Regional Office Management 2020/12 Completed RD contributed to the Change Management by being the Chair of the WG on OEEF of the next SP and through secondment of DRD (AK) to SPRED and who acts as a co-chair of the SP development WG. They contributed to the change management processes around country typology.
Recommendation: Based on decisions made in response to Recommendation #2, UN Women should commission a region-wide study to identify which countries in Asia Pacific will add the most strategic value to UN Women's overall regional positioning considering the current resource envelope, which may require a re-configuration of current office presence
Management Response: This is an ongoing discussion that is taking place within and outside change management.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy
Organizational Priorities: Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
REGION-WIDE STUDY TO ASSESS STRATEGIC VALUE OF ALL OFFICES IN ASIA-PACIFIC Regional Office Management, Planning unit 2020/12 No Longer Applicable RO agreed that this study would be highly useful as a way to streamline the regional structure. RO has actively contributed to the corporate-level analysis of the change management process, as the main vehicle to inform decision-making in this regard. In the absence of the global strategy, the RO could not move ahead with the regional-wide study.
Recommendation: Based on the findings and recommendations of the regional study (Recommendation #3) on where UN Women should be present, UN Women should continue to provide targeted investment and support to help small presence offices fulfill their catalytic role.
Management Response: While we agree with this recommendation, we believe there is a need to mobilize resources to be able to effectively fulfill this function; we will also explore what demand-driven support (technical / policy, coordination, normative, etc.) we can provide in countries where we are not physically present (through the NRA model) in line with the needs of UNCTs and RCs on the ground.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, Oversight/governance, Capacity development, National ownership, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
create an adjusted resource mobilisation strategy to ensure needs of small presence offices are met  Regional Office Management, HR, OM, Partnerships Specialist 2021/06 Completed Based on the findings of the study (Recommendation #3), RO created an adjusted resource mobilisation strategy together with small presence offices to ensure needs of small presence offices and the regional office are met. This was in line with HQ's future guidance on the strategic role of small presence offices.
DEFINE ROLE OF SMALL PRESENCE OFFICES AND ROLE OF RO IN SUPPORTING SMALL PRESENCE OFFICES Regional Office Management, HR, OM, Planning 2021/06 No Longer Applicable There has not been HQ guidance and consequently no regional study was commissioned. As a result, RO could not define strategic role of small presence offices together with the offices in question. RO also could not re-define how it could support small presence offices during its transition and in its new role.
develop a proposal outlining the future of lower mekong hub region Regional Office Management, HR, OM, Planning, and Concerned Offices 2021/12 No Longer Applicable The management decided not to pursue establishing the Lower Mekong hub.