Management Response

: Bosnia Herzegovina
: 2015 - 2019 , Bosnia Herzegovina (CO)
: Country Portfolio Evaluation
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: Bosnia Herzegovina
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The evaluation was a very interesting and positive experience organized at a difficult time, given COVID-19 and the inability to convene the CO team for reflections, nor for the ET to conduct interviews with stakeholders face to face, the ET did very well. Whilst I would suggest that from an external perspective the evaluation is reasonable, however from an awareness of the complexity of the country and situation in intimate detail, it is quite hard on the team who are stretched very thin, conventional staffing does not match the time subsumed tackling the complexity and volume of relationships that have to be maintained. Indeed many issues raised by the evaluation have been initiated or addressed to some extent, but further depth is needed, the office would be more advanced or have taken a more sophisticated approach in a less complex environ. Lessons learned, conclusions are well taken, indeed the office recognizes and has been working on most of them for some time, with significant steps forward in many areas. Conclusions are similarly relevant and noted, again significant steps forward in most of these areas have been taken especially in recent years. Perhaps it is valuable to recognise the significant change with office development since 2015, over the years we have seen significant steps forward in the two more mature areas of work note-ably Eliminating Violence Against Women (EVAW) and GRB, this has resulted in more normative engagement and policy development in these areas, and significantly more thematic coordination in EVAW. Thanks to Sweden support for coordination and communication from 2019, we have seen significant advancements in coordination and knowledge sharing in 2020 despite the pressure of COVID-19 crisis. Recommendations are all very recognizable, certainly many of them are structural or linked to context in a country which is beyond the influence of UN Women, many have been addressed to a greater or lesser extent, note-ably in recent years, yet the country office (CO) needs to do significantly better, for this reason all recommendations are either accepted or partially accepted. In some areas the huge strides taken by the office simply do not come through, yet the evaluation still identifies these as areas for more increased focus. For example, the CO has a clear, well-structured approach to coordination and partnerships that is implemented systematically in practice using UN Women's convening powers to bring different actors together. Arguably the CO has been very successful in this area, for example GE is one of the few areas where international community coordination meetings have been regular held since 2015 and one of a few where government co-chairs. Whilst a step increase in financing and effort in this area could have a lot more impact, relative to other mainstreaming or coordination efforts in the country UN Women has been very effective. The evaluation does not underscore the exceptional effort that is required to coordinate in the exceptional environment that is Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the evaluation brings valuable light on a range of key issues, either areas where the office has struggled to affect change or areas where further improvement is needed. The thorough Evaluation Reference Group process was clearly appreciated by involved partners ERG members expressed their appreciation of the approach taken by the UN Women, ET and country office During a review of the draft Management Response by the Country Office with the CPE Evaluation Reference Group members made the following comments. The representative from Sweden stressed her appreciation of the open approach and learning perspective. Emphasizing the value of a clear Theory of Change and explicit referencing of UN Women contribution to improving the overall situation of women and girls in the country. Director of the Agency For Gender Equality, AGE underscored that a joint approach to coordination is highly valued and that UN Women and gender institutional mechanisms should join forces in support to continuity, generational transformation and momentum of the women’s movement in the country. The Programme Coordinator representing UNDP noted “The composite mandate places UN Women with unique comparative advantage to support SDG localization … as well as the process of EU integration in the country”. The timing of the CPE is ideal, we truly appreciate the sense of urgency to complete the CPE so recommendations could be considered properly within the Strategic Note, appropriate actions are identified for follow up, with a focus on implementation in 2021, the first year of the Strategic Note (2021 to 2025).

: Approved
Recommendation: UN Women BiH CO should underpin the next SN with a clear TOC that leads to a set of cross-thematic advocacy strategies and an agenda for leveraging its programme and policy knowledge base and convening role.
Management Response: It is unfortunate that the previous Strategic Note (SN) for 2015 to 2020 was prepared in 2014, at a time of transition for the Country Office (CO), the CO had to adjust its planned SN at short notice so that rather than cover three countries it only covered Bosnia and Herzegovina, this was also prepared at at time when Theries of Change (TOCs) were not being required as standard. However, since 2016 the flagship programme TOCs has formed a strong basis of programme design, thus a ToC approach and logic was rigorously applied to all programming, if not routinely espoused. Indeed this approach continues to strongly inform programming. The new SN (2021 to 2025) is underpinned by TOCs as appropriate. The new SN clearly articulates the intent to further expand the current practice of leveraging normative and policy through the convening role of UN Women, the importance of partnerships and coordination, use of convening powers has been scaled in recent years through a clear and defined approach to Coordination and Partnerships, supported by Sweden generous funding of a Coordination Associate within the SN. In the approach taken by the office convening powers, knowledge development, products and sharing, relationships and networking are critical elements of GE coordination, structured with four areas of focus. In the revised SN period increased emphasis will be especially placed on support to the Womens Rights movement. The four areas of coordination focus are: a) Support collaboration with and between the three GE institutions, seeking to support their influence. b) Strengthen and empower Civil Society Womens Rights organisations and movement, note-ably supporting their cohesion and influence. c) UN GE Coordination. d) Systematic coordination with the International community to increase their engagement and focus on GE. Over the period from 2015 to 2020 the CO has been through an important process of maturation and growth, two stronger areas of engagement on Eliminating Violence Against Women (EVAW) and Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) resulted. In developing the overall CO programme the CO has had to balance staying on course with envisaged theory of change / programmatic areas and being proactive and responsive to changing developmental priorities in the country. Unusually the country does not have a development strategy, the priorities of national and international development partners are highly susceptible to political influence. Significantly the programme has been influenced by the highly fragmented nature of the authorities, UN Women sought to strengthen the three Gender Institutions despite their lack of close collaboration, this has had consequences for cross thematic synergy and advocacy which the evaluation correctly identifies and needs to be addressed. In recent years the CO has made a deliberate shift to increase collaboration with line ministries, for example on GRB with the Ministries of Finance, to ensure exactly the type of cross thematic synergy that is needed. In line with the recommendations focus on cross-thematic synergy, the new SN emphasizes this cross-sector synergy and advocacy. Gender Responsive Governance with its focus on GRB, Gender Equality Facility (GEF) and Women in Leadership, specifically has baked in synergy with the same priority sectors for EU investment being supported by GEF and GRB, also parliamentarians and decision makers bringing focus to these issues. Furthermore, Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) is a strong focus of the EU priority investment sectors being supported. A conscious shift to support social ministries and EVAW through GRB is underway, however the fragmented nature of jurisdictions between State, Entity and Canton (in FBiH) has made this very difficult, this is a work in progress.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Conduct an internal and an external review of the overall TOC and outcome TOCs. Project Managers, Programme Specialist, Representative 2021/09 Completed Internal review of overall Theory of Change conducted during the UN Women BiH CO program session held in December, with the participation of the regional office Coordination Specialist and all UN Women staff who contributed to the draft new overall ToC. Outcome ToC will be revised on the cross-portfolio linkages sessions with the participation of all portfolio Managers to better streamline the transformative approach and leaving no one behind the principle. External review with the Gender Instutions and key CSO partners to be facilitated by the independent consultant.
Define a list of activities that support synergy across-three outcome areas in the SN. For implementation over the SN period. Project Managers, Coordination Associate Programme Specialist, Representative 2021/07 Completed Synergies between the work on GRG and WEE are clearly outlined in the SN, together with linkages between EVAW and GRG. On UN Women BiH CO office program session specifically, designed to tackle synergies across three outcome areas in the Strategic Note, the staff decided to dedicate more attention and time and designed cross-portfolio linkages and synergies office session to be held on a quarterly basis with the intent to define the list of activities and work diligently on implementation with the leadership of Coordination portfolio
Recommendation: UN Women BiH CO should develop a sophisticated engagement strategy for its stakeholders that transcends individual programmes or thematic areas to highlight its strengths and increase its credibility as a thought leader and influencer in BiH, including: Capitalizing on UN Women’s convening role to bring together key stakeholders from civil society, national, entity and local governments, international organizations and the un system to foster joint advocacy efforts; and Showcasing UN Women’s comparative advantage to the international donor community through the development of timely knowledge products and engagement on priority topics.
Management Response: With the maturation of the office development over recent years, the complexity of needing to support coordination across a wide range of partners, the need for a sophisticated engagement strategy is clear, however a structure approach has been in place since 2017 thus it is Partially Accepted. Since 2017 the office has had a clear approach and practice to Coordination and Partnerships becoming a clearly embedded strategy in 2018 to ensure an engagement strategy with stakeholders that focuses on the normative and collaborative engagement. This approach is articulated clearly in the new Strategic Note and the associated ‘Office Growth and RM Action Plan’. In BiH with the large number and wide range of relationships required to drive GEEW across governments at multiple levels, CSOs, a large international community and large UN presence a sophisticated engagement strategy that has real influence and thrives scaling synergy is essential. To this end the four pronged approach outlined below has steadily increased in sophistication, going well beyond information sharing, today we are seeing more joint collaboration on different initiatives like 16 days campaign, use of thematic meetings to brief in the international community than before. Similarly knowledge products, including technical knowledge products, policy briefs like “Gender In Focus”, and a ‘Normative Roadmap’ are becoming a standard approach to synthesise advice, support online briefs, and for use in lobbying by development partners themselves with decision makers. The CO would posit that use of this sophisticated approach, combined with improved targeted knowledge products, briefs introduced in 2020 in the face of COVID 19, and the beginnings of joint advocacy with partners, illustrate that we are already applying much of the approaches suggested by the ET. We recognize that this was significantly stepped up in 2020, in large part due to the capacity provided by full time Coordination and Communications Associates, thanks to Sweden support to the SN. This certainly this needs to continue and be a regular feature of our effort, UN Women is already referred to as the trusted advisor and thought Leader on GE in the country, this has increased following the teams effective response to COVID-19. The current practice of leveraging normative and policy through the convening role of UN Women, the importance of partnerships and coordination, use of convening powers has been scaled in 2019 and 2020. In the approach taken by the office; convening powers, knowledge development, products and sharing, relationships and networking are critical elements of GE coordination, structured with four areas of focus. a) Support collaboration with and between the three GE institutions, seeking to support their influence. In addition to regular technical engagement we have aimed to organise regular Director to Representative meetings to ensure consistency and alignment on key normative issues, in addition to consistent communication on key issues and joint involvement in some project boards, these meetings ensure a regular relationship and opportunity to discuss concerns, overcome challenges and importantly plan forward looking strategic engagement on normative issues. Maintaining this open discourse even if not as strategic as we would prefer is an important element of maintaining trust and openness in the face of shifting political priorities. b) Strengthen and empower Civil Society Women’s Rights Organisations and movement, note-ably supporting their cohesion and influence. The CO acknowledges its weakness to engage with Civil Society effectively this is a key shortcoming that must be addressed properly by the CO. Whilst Civil Society is fractured, and generally CSOs are highly localized this only points to a need for more effort by the CO, the closing CSAG meeting in November 2020 was very constructive and points to a clear way forward. Based on request, the CO will support the CSOs by providing space and opportunity for them to rebuild the women’s movement that use to function in the country. Unfortunately the CSAG established in 2018 did not provide the strategic guidance, joint advocacy or joined up thinking and approach to supporting GEEW in BiH that was planned. In the closing CSAG meeting (Nov 2020) we organised to reconvene with 20 to 25 CSO leaders to identify a new way forward where UN Women will use its convening powers to provide the space and time for Women’s Rights Organisations to define a way forward together. Create a step change in advocacy and seek to re-establish the women’s rights movement that existed previously before funding collapsed and with it a coherent movement. c) UN GE Coordination. (see recommendation 4) d) Systematic coordination with the International community to increase their engagement and focus on GE. Some years ago the International Working Group on Gender Equality (IWGE) was established with UN Women as chair, to ensure the Gender Machinery was involved fully they joined as co-chair in 2016, this provides the ideal platform for informing, briefing and discussing options and joint approaches. The IWGE includes representatives from all international organisations and bilaterals, making it very large, essentially it became more of an information sharing platform. In 2019 an informal subgroup of IWGE was established consisting of the primary actors on GE with a view to focus on joint initiatives, COVID-19 rather disrupted this process, however we have seen more joint engagement, as a result; the November 2020, 1325 SCR anniversary event was organised jointly by AGE, UN Women, OSCE, EUD, also the new ‘Deputy Chiefs of Mission network’ has taken on board GE thematic issues for joint engagement. The CO has taken a strong stance to cajole, advise and support international organisations and bilaterals to treat GEEW as their strategic priority. If large international actors with huge influence drive the GEEW agenda there is far greater likelihood of success, together we are all much more influential. Major actors who have increased or adjusted their efforts as a result include; in projects and data (World Bank, Switzerland, UK), advocacy, reporting and Human Rights Council (EU and UK Ambassadors, Austria, EU Delegation, Office of High Representative). While supporting the coordination and brokering of collaboration between the government and CSOs, UN Women has to tread carefully. On the one hand supporting sustained national ownership by governments and civil society within a context of limited capacity and possibly conflicting interest, yet avoiding an over-reliance on UN Women support. It is especially important the CO use brokering capacity strategically and sparingly so as to ensure full ownership and accountability of national partners This clear structured approach to Coordination and Partnerships and use of our convening powers ensures that UN Women works well with these four groups of key stakeholders; similarly it enables normative/ policy/ knowledge/ advocacy and communication approaches tools and products to be leveraged across each of the groups more systematically.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Human Rights, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Conduct at least two International working Group on GE (IWGE) meetings in 2021 Coordination Associate Programme Specialist, Representative 2021/01 Completed UN Women is the co-chair of IWGE with the Agency for Gender Equality BiH. In 2021 3 focused meetings held in February (briefing on local election results in 2020), June (Generation Equality and Action Coalitions), and July (Tackling violence against women) with 1 planned for October (focused on Generation Equality launch of Action Coalition on Economic Justice)
Complete a mapping exercise that clarifies the GEEW priorities of UN Agencies and government partners as it relates to GEEW Normative issues. Project Managers, Coordination Associate Programme Specialist, Representative 2021/08 Completed Normative overview (data source) is in current use and is complemented with the review of existing processes led by UNCT and the government when it comes to monitoring of the implementation of local and international normative commitments.
Publish four policy briefs for use by decision makers and technical specialists, to showcase thought leadership and comparative advantage. Project Managers, Communications Associate, Programme Specialist, Representative 2022/01 Completed 4 Policy Briefs were published, and a further 4 technical policy products. Publications include 1. Protection from domestic violence and violence against women and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (August 2020); 2. Gender in agriculture and rural development and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (October 2020); 3. Rapid gender assessment of COVID-19 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (December 2020); 4. Women’s political participation and leadership in Bosnia and Herzegovina (April 2021).
Recommendation: UN Women BiH should develop an inclusive, consultative and transparent approach to strengthening its relationships with the civil society, to support their efforts to advance normative and policy transformation by: Ensuring civil society participation in programming in all thematic areas, Re-establishing the coordination of civil society through CSAG or an alternative structure, and Supporting the advocacy agenda of civil society networks advancing the principles of the Istanbul C onvention, CEDAW and other international commitments and best practices.
Management Response: Whilst UN Women has a close interactive relationship with Civil Society, womens rights organisations and human rights defenders it clearly needs to be more strategic, to quote the director of a CSO that manages a Safe-House “To outsiders it may not look as if we have a partnership between (womens rights) civil society organisations and UN Women, however we are in continuous contact, we work closely together, we have the same interests and work towards the same goals, but I agree we do need a real strategic partnership”. The extensive engagement of Civil Society within programme has inevitably more recently depended on their support and role as implementing partners, previously the relationship focused far more on norm and policy development with government. The CO continues to engage CSOs systematically in Normative processes note-ably supporting shadow reports and engagement in international for a. However, with high level policy generally meeting an acceptable or good standard for the three governments there has been significantly less demand by each government for collaborative policy and normative engagement. Frustratingly the very division of jurisdiction and responsibilities between central State and the two Entity governments has had the impact of both reducing internal government policy deliberations and has reduced BiH representation in international fora, or engagement in global and international initiatives. This has two affects firstly it means that government is significantly under-represented in discussions related to normative processes, it also means there is a lot less debate or processes in the country towards reforming or improving policy or the implementation of policy in practice. The Womens Rights Civil Society Organisations in BiH have seen their engagement and role change very signficantly, 25 years ago they were instrumental in drafting the GE Law and even the GE policy that established the three Gender Institutions in government. Subsequently as the roles of the Gender Institutions at State and Entity level have evolved and government institutions have taken over core responsibilities from civil society, such as social welfare, the respective roles and responsibilities of authorities at different levels and of Civil Society is unclear. For example, CSOs run the eight safe houses in the country, whilst policy to support survivors of violence is owned by entity ministries but they are not responsible for quality of service. Safe-houses are partially funded by Republika Srpska and by canton governments in the Federation of BiH, however there is no quality or service standard, also funding varies dramatically by Canton. Furthermore government bodies have suggested they take over running these services from CSOs but not on what grounds. Thus Womens Rights CSOs have seen a shift in their role from the normative, policy role more to a service delivery role, whilst policy is inconsistent and policy implementation remains weak. The upshot of this evolution is that government does not place a priority on normative nor policy implementation, nor engagement in international fora; Civil Society has significantly less role or influence over normative accountability and policy development. Whilst UN Women has made a concerted effort to engage civil society more systematically in international normative processes and supported shadow reporting efforts by civil society – CEDAW reporting (2014, 2019) Beijing Reporting (2015 and 2020) Istanbul convention (2020) and supported shadow reports. A push is needed to ensure Civil Society has more influence. Establishment of the CSAG in 2018 was designed to support this process however despite best attempts it did not as intended lead to a more inclusive, consultative and transparent approach to strengthening UN Women CO relationship with the civil society, nor support our shared efforts to advance normative and policy transformation. Importantly with the closing CSAG meeting in November 2020 it was also very clear that Civil Society is keen for UN Women to use its convening role to help provide the space and time for Women’s Rights Organisations to reflect and together rebuild once again a genuine women's movement in BiH. The ageing nature of civil society leaders is another concern, the importance of engaging, supporting and nurturing young women's rights and feminist activists is clear. To quote a senior CSO Director “years ago we had a strong women’s rights movement amongst civil society, but when we formed a network and it was funded, we became separate organisations seeking our separate funding”. UN Women has been called to created space and time for the civil society leaders to come together and work to renew their strategic vision and alliances with a view of having stronger influence on shaping and promoting GEWE and human rights agenda in the country. The CO regards the importance of re-establishing a strong vibrant relationship with Civil Society as a top priority. A relationship where UN Women supports Civil Society to influence government, where they play a key role in normative challenges, and notebaly on monitoring and supporting the implementation of policy. Rather than re-establish the CSAG in it current form, the CO will work with Women's Rights Organisations to help them establish the approach they need to ensure that UN Women is supporting the movement and direction that they identify together, naturally we will use our full convening powers and access to decision makers in government and International Community to support the revived civil society Women’s Movement. At this stage it is unclear what form that will take.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality, Human Rights
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Define a clear path and next steps to invigorate the relationship with Civil Society, as a basis for an agreed way forward with Civil Society. Project Managers, Coordination Associate, Programme Specialist, Representative 2021/01 Completed Following the end of the last CSAG in late 2020, extensive consultations were conducted to create the revised approach toward CSO strategic engagement with UN Women BiH CO. As a result a series of comprehensive discussions have been undertaken to establish a strong relationship with Women's Rights CSOs. This will culminate with a Women's Rights CSO Convention, led and organized by CSOs in December, and a renewed relationship moving forward.
Conduct a mapping of Women’s Rights CSOs and relevant organizations for all thematic areas. Project Manager, Programme Specialist, Coordination Associate, Representative 2021/12 Completed Existing mapping has been updated to include a list of 44 civil society women's organizations that have gender equality and women's empowerment within their strategic focus of action or work with the women as beneficiaries. The mapping includes correlation to UN Women-specific thematic area and description of UN Women CO engagement.
Support a reflection and networking event held by CSOs for CSOs, in line with their request. Project Manager, Programme Specialist, Coordination Associate, Representative 2021/12 Completed On the last focused meeting of civil society held in September, the CSOs requested to continue in the format of smaller more condensed focused meetings. The third one is postponed till February, due to the sickness of the facilitator and will cover specific sessions with youth, the issues of networking, sectoral leadership, and joint advocacy among CSOs
Define and initiate a revised approach to Civil Society strategic engagement with UN Women BiH CO. All staff 2022/03 Completed Following the closure of CSAG, UN Women has initiated focused meetings with CSOs in order to facilitate time and space for women’s CSO to discuss the current state of play, challenges, and priorities for women’s movement in BiH. The focused meetings were complemented with separate discussions on UN Women’s strategic relationship with civil society organizations. Following both initiated processes, UN Women will dedicate additional efforts to pursue two complementary processes in order to initiate a revised approach to more sustainable and strategically oriented engagement with CSO.
Recommendation: Through its coordination mandate, UN Women BiH CO, in concert with the Resident Coordinator’s Office and key UN partners in BiH, should identify targeted means of optimizing its comparative advantage and complementing the expertise of other UN agencies in order to strengthen the overall implementation of the BiH normative framework related to GEEW by: Ensuring there is clarity about the scope and intent of the UN Women mandate on coordination; Identifying opportunities for collective advocacy to advance the normative framework; Targeting initiatives that support EU accession and implementing international commitments.
Management Response: Since 2015 the CO has had a prominent role on GEWE coordination with the UN Country Team, Under the framework of UNDAF 2015 - 2020, UN Women had a dual role of caretaking the planning and implementation of Results Area on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women, which covered two out of thirteen UNDAF outcomes, and planning and implementing the Gender Mainstreaming Action Plan, which contained provision for increasing UNCT capacities, commitment and delivery on gender mainstreaming and gender targeted actions. UN Women also coordinated UNCT input on CEDAW Shadow reports, gender perspective in the EU Progress Reports and the Inputs required for the Secretary General's Annual Reports on Women Peace and Security and inputs for the work of Special Rapporteurs on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Violence against Women. Since 2017 UN Women is co-chairing the re-established Gender Theme Group, a forum for the UNCT and outside government and CSO partners to deliberate on wider GEWE issues for the UNCT's advocacy and action. In the coming period the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2021 - 2025, provides a different scope for the UN coordination on GEWE, the focus is narrowed to 5 (instead of 13) outcomes and planning and implementation is vested with the single working group (PMT, instead of four Results Groups). Out of these 5 there is no specific outcome on Gender Equality. UN Women actively participates in the PMT. The Country Gender Equality Profile (CGEP) was drafted to influence the Common Country Assessment (CCA), and going forward will be adapted to support the UNCT GE position on key thematic areas. The SWAP - Gender Scorecard is being applied consistently to review UNCT planning and orient programming, implementation, resource mobilization and overall accountability for GEWE by the UNCT. Joint GE communications and advocacy efforts center around the International Women's Day and 16 Days of Activism to End Violence against women, but also includes International day of rural women, International Day of women in STEM and ensuring gender perspective in the advocacy efforts on the country specific efforts promoted by the UNCT and Resident Coordinator. Currently the CO has 7 different joint programming initiatives in different levels of development, including three linked as elements of the joint UNCT COVID-19 response offer. The ET findings related to the UNCT are noted and disconcerting. They appear to suggest a lack of common understanding by UNCT members and UN agencies as to the key role of UN Women in relation to key areas such as coordination on Gender Equality. They also reflect the continued challenge by the CO to ensure increased efforts in joint advocacy and joint programming. Whilst we complete concur with the need to better lever our relationships with the RC, with UN partners and better optimize use of our comparative advantage on GE, there is no doubt that we will need to keep trying to find different avenues to advance forward. The need for further clarity on the scope and intent of UN Women mandate on Coordination is especially interesting, not only has the Representative UN Women played a prominent and supportive role on the UNCT, but the current Representative has had one to one sessions with all UNCT members with a standard presentation to brief them on our role and seek their advice on how UN Women can better collaborate and support their efforts. Indeed in 2018 UNICEF and UN Women had a concerted joint effort ahead of the new UNSDCF to place normative priorities at the heart of the UN planning process stressing the need to ensure normative alignment. We acknowledge the need to address this challenge indeed the CO has placed significant effort into supporting joint initiatives with UN partners to illustrate this we refer to CO efforts to promote support joint communications and advocacy in support of the Secretary Generals UNiTE / 16 days campaign. Certainly in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, extensive efforts were placed in briefing UNCT and communications group, provide social media packs; generally, we have seen more engagement on the campaign from international development partners than the UN. In 2020 for the first time two UN agencies (UNFPA, UNHCR) firmly engaged in a joint campaign. Despite agreement to move forward on the Common Chapter in 2018 note-ably on 16 days, only UNFPA joined joint efforts 2 years later. Perhaps there is a structural issue within the United Nations. We note the increased engagement of different UN agencies on Gender Equality, also the targeted programme communications efforts of different agencies and the very limited interest in joint programming. It seems likely that there is a specific conflict of interest where-in larger UN Agencies see no need or value to collaborate on Gender Equality, and thus nor to collaborate on Joint Advocacy or Programming that could dilute agency branding or control. We raise this since we can continue to brief and lobby, but it seems unlikely that this will further shift UN agency willingness to embrace UN Women role on GE. The ETs note of the import of targeted initiatives that support international commitments and EU accession is underscored by the CO. Leveraging the role of the Resident Coordinator (RC) as a champion for Gender Equality is a top priority, the incoming (March 2020) RC is very strongly supportive of Gender Equality and is keen to see the entire UN System leveraging and scaling the impact on GEEW Agenda. With this in mind UN Women is taking every advantage to use the three UN priority frameworks for action, ‘Western Balkans Action plan on Peace and Security’, ‘Executive Committee Decision on BiH’ and ‘Secretary General's Political engagement strategy on GBV’. As a result of prolonged transition, conflict risks and as a result of shadow pandemic of increased violence against women, it is recognized the UNCT will need to place increased attention to women's voices and vision involving more women in political and economic decision making and enabling national and local systems for prevention and protection from GBV - these are all natural spaces for UN Women leadership and contribution. The critical importance of EU integration processes for the country and EU accession for Gender Equality has long been recognized by the CO. Since 2015 the CO has been in liaison with the EU to establish the Gender Equality Facility (GEF) project, focused on ensuring that GE is mainstreamed in all aspects of sector focused pre-accession financing provided to the country. The CO lobbied hard with partners and succeeded in ensuring gender equality was placed among the 14 priority areas in the key 2019 EU Opinion paper on BiH candidacy, a huge achievement. It is clear that EU integration will provide a unique source of momentum for GEWE work by the UN and other partners. Initiated with start-up funding from UN Women and Sweden, now EU Delegation funding, the GEF project finally started with earnest in October 2020. GEF will significantly strengthened capacities to support gender institutional mechanisms, EU integration Institutions and line ministries to increase gender perspective in legislation reform, strategic planning and programming of ALL pre-accession funds.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Human Rights, Gender equality, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Brief RC and new UNCT members not previously briefed one to one on UN Women Coordination role. Programme Specialist, Representative 2021/07 Completed Dedicated briefings have been conducted systematically, including the RC, and incoming Representatives for UNHCR, and IOM in 2020. Also WHO in 2021. GTG members and other UN staff systematically briefed in 2021 on the UN Women Coordination role with appropriate supporting documentation.
Prepare updated slides, diagrammes and text that stressing UN Women coordination mandate for use by all staff with external colleagues. Coordination Associate Programme Specialist, Representative 2021/08 Completed The existing presentation has been updated and is in the process of a second update given the new Strategic Note. This has been used extensively with UN colleagues, Ambassadors, and Government counterparts to great effect.
Three joint initiatives at some stage of development with partner UN agencies. Project Managers Coordination Associate Programme Specialist, Representative 2021/10 Completed UN Women has leading or supporting a range of joint initiatives in 2020 and 2021. Including 4 joint communication efforts with a further 2 ongoing. Also 7 joint programmes or joint programming initiatives: IT Girls (UNICEF, UNDP), Women in Agriculture (FAO), SDG Finance (UNDP, UNICEF, UNESCO, WHO). Joint project with UNFPA (lead): Comprehensive sustainability of ending violence against women infrastructure. Joint initiatives - Generation Equality (UNFPA), 16 days of activism (IOM, UNHCR, UNPFA). Roadmap on WPS (All UNCT). Joint UNCT Tackling Violence - currently at mapping stage with involvement of 9 UN Agencies: UNESCO, IOM, UNFPA, ILO, UNHCR, UNDP, UNICEF, OHCHR, UN
UN Women will coordinate the annual revision of Country Gender Equality Profile to ensure that it supports UNCT priorities and action. Coordination Associate, Project Managers, Programme Specialist Representative 2021/01 Completed Country Gender Equality Profile finalized end of 2020 and updated in 2021 taking into consideration COVID19 implications on UNCT actions in key GEWE areas.
Recommendation: UN Women BiH CO should build on the momentum created by its leadership and creativity in the Covid-19 response to showcase its technical expertise with gender mainstreaming, data analysis and advocacy to donors and stakeholders.
Management Response: With the advent of the COVID-19 crisis, despite the impact on the team the CO was quick to consider how it could most effectively respond. In the face of government partners unable to work at the offset of the crisis and with the support of Sweden the CO quickly organised itself to re-programme and put in place two waves of a Rapid Gender Assessment. With UNCT COVID-19 Socio-Economic Impact Assessment and Response Offer under development, UN Women’s early action to support safe-houses (EVAW) and rural women and entrepreneurs (WEE), and emergency re-budgeting analysis (GRB), ensured that thanks to the GE Coordination approach (see Recommendation 2) we were able to be amongst the first agencies to brief the international community and government on challenges and needs with the response, including introduction of “Gender in Focus” an new policy brief to bring decision makers up to speed with the situation quickly. As a result of this UN Women was able to add significant value to UNCT COVID-19 Response offer applications to the MPTF, recognition of the added value by the incoming Resident Coordinator, and international community is appreciated. As the ET point the office has been building on this momentum. “Gender in Focus” and associated online technical policy briefs to the international community continue, the next knowledge sharing brief is due in early 2021 focused on a second round of budget analysis, this time focused on advice for improving 2021 budgets. The CO plans for this to be a regular feature of knowledge management efforts. Furthermore, in collaborating with the RC and noting the need to involve women in building-back-better and building-back-equal post COVID-19 is being used to further elevate attention on Women Peace and Security; Women’s Political Participation and role in Decision Making, also stressing the need for an increased focus on Women’s Economic Empowerment. The CO focus on utilizing the existing Coordination and Partnership approach in place to brief stakeholders through the COVID-19 crisis has been very effective at raising awareness as to the outsized impact on women. In the early days this levered improved coordination by international development partners to support safe-houses in the face of the Shadow Pandemic of Violence Against Women, more recently there it has stimulated renewed interest in both advocacy on budgeting and in funding the structural challenges around the economic empowerment of women. Faced with a dearth of valuable gender disaggregated data, the value and importance of the Rapid Gender Assessment is difficult to over-exaggerate. It is clear that the CO needs to overcome the challenge of fragmented stats authorities, minimal systematic administrative data collection and the associated political barriers, to find an effective approach to increase targeted disaggregated data collection through embedding surveys in programmatic interventions. It is important to note that political barriers currently restrict acceptance or publication of the 2013 census data (supported by UNFPA) and prevent implementation of the MICS survey (with UNICEF), a broader improved approach to long term data collection is a real challenge that the UN is yet to resolve.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Advocacy, Capacity development, Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Continued use of point-in-time knowledge products supporting immediate action Project Managers Programme Specialist 2021/12 Completed Ongoing preparation of focused policy and point analysis work going forward has been hugely beneficial to ongoing work. 2020 three Policy briefs published in 'Focus on GE', all linked to COVID crisis. Further three Budget analyses of important authorities assessed how emergency budgets did not meet social needs. In 2021 this work is ongoing. Detailed Mapping analysis was prepared specifically focused on all actors and gaps in tackling violence against women, as part of a push to address Legislative, Protection, Prevention, and Prosecution needs. In 2021 one 'Focus on GE" policy brief has been prepared with a further two before the end of the year.
Development and use of specific communication product for use by development partners to support joint communications in at least one campaign. Communications Associate, Coordination Associate, Project Managers, Programme Specialist 2021/01 Completed In 2020 and 2021 the CO has systematically upped its approach to support communications and joint advocacy. Specifically developing joint campaigns with WHO and UNFPA to celebrate women heroes on the frontline, strongly engaged on joint UNCT awareness campaigns during COVID, and implemented a strong 16-day campaign with a social media package. In 2021 the launch of Generation Equality and three Action Coalitions, including one by UNFPA is bringing together many actors, UN, and partners. Both this campaign and 16 days campaign have strong social media packages for use by partners to scale engagement.
Ensure at least one issue of GEEW priority and concern is placed high on the agenda of development partners and UN Agencies. Coordination Associate, Project Managers Programme Specialist Representative 2021/12 Completed Two major GEEW issues are being addressed at the highest levels note-ably Building Back Equal post-COVID 19, including within the WPS Roadmap endorsed by the Executive Committee. Following the Nisam Trazila movement (local me-too) UN Women has consistently sought to ensure joint attention to the issue of sexual violence, its capture in ACtion Coalition focus, and a joint planning process to address violence across the UN. The work continues.
Recommendation: UN Women BiH CO should explore and prioritize innovative opportunities to reinvigorate stakeholder interest in GEEW and refocus attention on critical thematic areas including WPS and WEE.
Management Response: Over the years UN Women BiH CO has sought to support innovation through its ongoing work, this has become more viable as the CO has expanded its operations, clearly such efforts need to be positively encouraged, promoted, scaled and certainly brought to bare in areas where there is limited impact, attention or interest. It is important to note that innovation comes in many forms (for some examples of recent innovation see below), most recently COVID-19 crisis has led to a lot of innovation. Including dramatic improvement in our ability to conduct online workshops, knowledge sharing and conferences. Also the direct provision of budget analysis to government and international stakeholders to lobby for increased attention to social issues in emergency and new budgets. • Use of the 16 days campaign to initiate a competitive process to spur development of innovate technical solutions to support women survivors of violence (2017) as part of ongoing programming. • Creating a safe space for citizens to meet and get advice from local service providers on a bus plying regular routes, municipality by municipality through the 16 days campaign 2018, an approach replicated by Serbia CO in 2019. • Developing a mentorship network to support young women in ICT and applying the Women's Empowerment Principles to support development of workplace and HR standards in the IT companies, (2019 to 2020) but also to turn business leaders into advocates. • Supporting Roma women networks and mediators to broker the trust between minority women and service providers (2018 to 2020) • Supporting women's CSOs to use behavioral insights in planning and delivering activities in support to prevention of EVAW (2018 to 2019). With the limited interest from donors there has been extensive effort to amplify attention to Women Peace and Security (WPS) and Womens Economic Empowerment (WEE) in particular. On WPS UN Women has conducted confidential research on women's role in supporting or preventing extremism, used for direct lobbying, the research is confidential due to the sensitive nature of findings. Support was provided to the Coordination Board for the implementation of the Action Plan on UNSCR 1325, also to the Ministry of Defense for gender responsive policy making, action planning and budgeting. The CO has presented at international conferences in BiH lead by the UK, Nato and EUD. For WEE this included leading development of a joint programme on economic empowerment of women (with UNDP, ILO and IOM). Also support to the economic empowerment of CRSV survivors through adapted economic empowerment schemes and their integration into existing government programmes. More recently it has ensured support to women owned businesses and analyzed resilience factors that can be addressed through future government intervention and CSO advisory and material support programmes. In a further effort to revive a focus on WPS the CO is supporting a political intiative with the UNCT and RC, in follow up to the Executive Committee decision on BiH (July 2020) to UN Women CO is leading the drafting a roadmap to strengthen WPS in BiH. Designed around building-back-better, building-back-equal post COVID-19, this will include a focus on: women’s role in decision making, especially on economic policy; women's political participation note-ably strengthening the voice of women through networks; also driving a shared focus on Women's Economic Empowerment. The future focus on WPS will center around amplifying women's role in political and economic decision making and women's alliances aimed at promotion of progressive sustainable peace agenda. The work on women's economic empowerment will center around the critical potential of women's entrepreneurship in transforming economic position of individual women and overall participation of women in the economic activity.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Peace and security (SPs before 2018), Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Leverage existing programming to develop a focus one new emerging area such as Climate Change, Social Cohesion. Project Managers Programme Specialist 2022/03 Completed The CO has taken the opportunity to work with GRB to open up discussions on Climate Change, in conjunction with Serbia CO (who have a lot more engagement on the topic) BiH is developing this focus through ongoing programming. A work in progress.
Leverage Gender Responsive Budgeting to develop a focus on Women’s Economic Empowerment Project Managers GRG Programme Specialist 2021/06 Completed Following the efforts that stemmed in large part out of GRB, WEE is now an established portfolio of work with three projects moving forward. Including a focus on Rural Women with FAO, supporting policy based on practice to support Entrepreneurs and IT Girls.
Conduct intersectionality analysis and develop practical targeting principles that can be applied to future programming. Coordination Associate Communications Associate Programme Staff Operations Manager Representative 2022/03 Completed UN Women BiH CO conducted an intersectionality session whereby each of the program portfolios discussed concrete targeting principles that could be applied to future programming. The team dedicated time to discussing BiH context analysis and adaptation of the intersectionality principles into the development results framework.
Recommendation: UN Women BiH CO should enhance the knowledge management, monitoring and reporting capacity of its staff and partners.
Management Response: Since 2016 the office has employed a strategy of expanding programmatic reach significantly through engagement of implementing partners within the government and CSOs. This has been combined with the thorough approach to adapting the organizational standard operating procedures and Investing in the organizational capacity building of the Implementing partners. In selected areas the office has also invested significantly in knowledge generation and thought leadership, both to inform own programming and influence involvement of other stakeholders. The office has also strived to improve own capacities to capture progress and Impact and report on changes it has targeted. There is a recognition that further investment and prioritization of results-based reporting and visibility of CO interventions and partnerships is needed. Going forward the CO recognizes the need to invest in knowledge management, monitoring and reporting capacity of both its staff and the partners. The key proposed actions are discussed below and the strategy on each of these important areas is as follows: • Knowledge Management: Knowledge generation, sharing and management has become an increasing element of the CO process in recent years, in part this was planned by mature programmes note-ably in EVAW and GRG publishing findings, evidence, and providing greater outreach to partners, it is noted that the evaluation found this expertise and knowledge is truly appreciated. In 2020 the more active recognition of staff expertise, the publishing of more consumable policy briefs, provision of expertise briefs to government and international community have become a more regular feature. The CO plans to maintain this consistent investment in knowledge generation in key programmatic areas as an underpinning of the evidence-based programming and support to effective partnerships in support to GEWE in the country. A key feature of ongoing knowledge management will also be the regular exchange and ideas generation across the thematic portfolios and providing though leadership in the coordination with the UNCT, government, CSOs and international development partners; • Team building: Since late 2019 the office has undertaken a range of efforts to increase individual accountability, increased ownership by Project Managers and improved communication across the office. Despite the extreme pressure on the team in 2020 with the COVID-19 crisis, we have seen a noticeable improvement in collaboration and cross team support. In continuation of this process the CO plans to facilitate an iterative process to support transformative team leadership to increase the role of team in vision, strategy and building the culture of the office going forward. • Monitoring and Reporting Capacity of the staff and partners: The CO has followed project-based monitoring and reporting as well as corporate standards and requirements for quarterly and annual reporting. The limitations of the current efforts have been recognized as well as the need to invest time and resources in learning and establishing improved practices.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM, Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Specific action to improve reporting through capturing impact stories Communications Associate Programme Staff 2021/09 Completed In 2020 UN Women comms has intensified efforts to capture impact stories and amplify these through UN Women's social media channel, primarily through web articles (police officers spark a movement to fight violence against women) but also exemplifying positive narrative of women efforts and women-led businesses in local communities in COVID19. Impact story has also been captured in annual reporting for the first time.
Organise the safeguarding of time on meeting agendas regularly for, reflection, brainstorming & ideation. All UN Women staff 2021/09 Completed The extensive self-awareness development process for staff on development and reflection was conducted whereby UN Women BiH CO team development and reflection encompassed sessions on creating a psychological space; mindfulness, reflection, and experiential learning; the foundation of critical reflection and decision making; co-created learning lessons on cultivating the team. Program portfolio meetings will seek to apply techniques in the effort to redesign the meeting form.
Conduct team building activities to encourage staff to align to the strategy, vision of the CO; All UN Women staff 2021/09 Completed Retreat conducted but given the difficult situation with COVID a focus was placed on team building and the critical importance of support for each other workwise at this difficult time.
Annual cross-thematic prioritization session to specifically determine top actions to take. Project Managers, Programme Specialist, Representative 2021/08 Completed On the UN Women BiH CO office session held on December 16 and 17, the office discussed cross-thematic linkages and has decided to follow up with a set of meetings throughout 2022 quarterly, whereby cross-thematic linkages will be discussed among portfolios with the leadership of Coordination. These efforts will help streamline the coordination portfolio through programs and help develop the intersectional links and actions
Conduct training for staff and implementing partners on programming and results-based management. All UN Women staff 2021/09 Completed Training on results-based management completed with the participation of 12 EVAW implementing partners and 8 UN Women staff in April 2022. The training covered topics: Results, Theory of Change, Measuring results (Indictors), Creating monitoring plans, Data collection tools, Results reporting, and data visualization.
Annual session conducted specifically to strengthen CO’s data collection. Programme Staff 2021/12 Completed CO convened a data collection session to discuss challenges related to the collection of data, in lieu of the intersectionality principle, understand current issues related to the alignment of SN indicators with SP indicators, and agree on the next steps related to indicators revision in RMS in 2022 and 2023.
Office team building exercise to be conducted. All UN Women staff 2021/12 Completed Bosnia and Herzegovina office team development and reflection encompassed sessions on creating a psychological space; mindfulness, reflection, and experiential learning; the foundation of critical reflection and decision making; co-created learning lessons on cultivating the team.
Recommendation: UN Women BiH CO should ensure that a gender-transformative lens is applied to the SN including the incorporation of human rights, fundamental un principles related to GEEW and a cross-portfolio strategy particularly targeting women and girls experiencing social disadvantage.
Management Response: The CO acknowledges the need to apply a Gender-transformative lens to the country programme and recognizes that whilst there has been extensive effort to apply a focus on Human Rights/ Leave No-One Behind/ focus on those experiencing social disadvantage, in some areas that this could be strengthened significantly with a more comprehensive approach. The maturation of the office to a fully fledged programming, from 2015 to 2020, with two strong areas of engagement (EVAW and GRB) makes this a viable and an important priority for the office in the coming Strategic Note. We note that with office growth over this period the importance of, and effort required to improve strategic focus on healthy partnerships, coordination with different stakeholders, to navigate the political challenges of governmental structures and engagement; that the need and effort to focus on these priorities should not be underestimated. The CO recognizes that it has been applying the more detailed approach of a gender transformative lens within the more mature EVAW portfolio, noting that whilst it is more complex to weave into other areas of focus such as within the Gender Response Governance portfolio, this early experience provides an opportunity to lever such experience across the programme. The evaluations highlighting this need is appreciated, we note that the need to consciously focus on and ensure Gender transformative change is a challenge for UN Women and gender focused institutions and organisations more broadly. With this in mind the CO acknowledges the need to review and better address transformative change in a structured systemic manner over the SN period leveraging the advantages of different portfolio’s to directly support women and girls experiencing social disadvantage. The CO acknowledges the need to bring on board external expertise to develop a systematic approach to transformative change, in a manner that can be applied across our programmatic, coordination and normative areas of engagement and with development partners. In support to Implementation of the SN 2021 - 2025 the CO plans the following: • To undertake research that will assess, map and make recommendations to meaningfully understand the needs of women in vulnerable groups, with a focus on groups not previously addressed in the SN. This will help raise engagement with partners on this issue, but also improve the CO own efforts to apply a Gender Transformative lens. • To develop an explicit strategy for how the CO will incorporate women in marginalized groups across the portfolio, with measurable expectations, clarifying an approach and tools that can be applied by both UN Women and partners in civil society and government. • To go ahead with planning implementation and monitoring of implementation or application of the approach, identifying a way for partners, especially civil society and government to play a key role in monitoring/ assessing impact and effectiveness of the approach. With the intent that the approach becomes a learning experience for all active parties over time.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Advocacy, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Alignment with strategy, Innovation and technology
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Human Rights, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Conduct research, assessment and mapping to meaningfully understand the needs of women in vulnerable groups and to make recommendations for next steps. Project Managers Programme Specialist Representative 2021/09 Completed Instead of conducting research, assessment, and mapping, UN Women BiH CO conducted a team practical intersectionality session with a rapid needs assessment of women in vulnerable groups in order to make recommendations on how to best incorporate findings into the programming per each of the three portfolios (EVAW, WEE, and GRG). The office will employ additional efforts to undertake research that will provide further in-depth analysis of women in vulnerable populations.
Develop an approach or strategy to ensure marginalized groups are incorporated into different programmatic elements across portfolios. Project Managers Coordination Associate Programme Specialist Representative 2022/03 Completed During the intersectionality session, through practical exercise, the portfolio teams have each developed unique strategic approaches on how to best ensure marginalized groups are incorporated into programmatic elements across portfolios.
Include intersectional perspective in analytical work ensuring that the analysis conducted by the CO covers the specific situation of vulnerable and marginalized women Programme staff 2021/12 Completed Following the intersectionality session and drawing upon conclusions from the portfolio team group work, UN Women BiH CO will ensure that the intersectionality perspective is embedded in the analytical work recognizing specific situations of vulnerable and marginalized women per different thematic areas. The team will analyze future work applying an intersectional lens with 8 intersectional enablers through internal reflexivity and principles of Dignity, choice, and autonomy: Accessibility and universal design: Diverse knowledge: Intersecting identities: Relational power: Time and space, Transformative and rights-based
Develop principles for targeting programme interventions that include intersectionality perspective All UN Women staff 2021/12 Completed During the UN Women BiH CO intersectionality session, the team has utilized a toolkit with 8 intersectionality enablers to discuss principles that could be applied to future programs interventions, subsequently integrating the intersectionality perspective.
Develop a framework for monitoring normative advancements Programme staff 2021/09 Completed UN Women has developed a normative overview as the primary source of information that outlines the current ongoing normative process and priorities globally led by the government and UNCT which serves as a framework for monitoring normative advancements and implementation of local and international normative commitments.
Conduct staff learning on gender transformative approaches All UN Women staff 2022/03 Completed UN Women BiH CO organized a dedicated session as an integral part of the office session on transformative approaches, with upgraded capacity building for staff in terms of engaging HQ lecturers (Anna Golub). The transformative approach was also tackled during the session on revised approaches to programming and revision of ToC in terms of aligning the current UN Women SN with UN Women global SP and understanding the transformative power of each of the 7 global outcomes. It was noted that many programmatic approaches in the office take a long term transformative approach including in areas of EVAW, Governance, and WEE