Management Response

: Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Thailand)
: 2020 - 2021 , Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Thailand) (RO)
: Evaluation of Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Contributions to Women, Peace and Security
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: Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Thailand)
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UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) is fully committed to advance Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in Asia and the Pacific. Notwithstanding the complexity and diversity of the region, UN Women ROAP has established a strong value addition and visibility of its contribution to the WPS agenda, especially the unique gender perspective and linkages with civil society to its partners in peace and security space. The evaluation covers the period from 2017 to 2020, which were critical years for UN Women to start establishing its footprint on WPS in the Asia-Pacific region with the large-scale funding from the Government of Japan and substantial expansion of the ROAP WPS team in 2017 with a strong focus on Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE). While UN Women ROAP and country offices have continued to provide support to the development of National Action Plans (NAP) on WPS in many countries, more efforts are required to focus on implementation and localisation of WPS in diverse and specific contexts of the Asia-Pacific region, including addressing emerging non-traditional security challenges to sustaining peace and social cohesion. The WPS agenda faces unique challenges due to a frequent misperception that it applies exclusively to conflict contexts, but also due to the underrepresentation of the region in global WPS debates. The lack of visibility of peace and security efforts in the region, other than in Afghanistan and Myanmar, which are routinely on the Security Council agenda, diminishes the importance and relevance of the region’s overall WPS agenda and undermines regional commitments. The COVID-19 crisis has clearly highlighted close linkages between traditional and non-traditional security challenges. The WPS agenda has never been more relevant than during the pandemic. COVID-19 is a threat to international peace and security as well as a conflict multiplier. The use of state emergency and militarized responses has gendered impacts. Women’s equal participation, empowerment, and gender-sensitive protection are equally necessary to mitigate those impacts as well as enable alternative responses. The evaluation aims to enhance relevance and coherence, effectiveness and efficiency and sustainability of UN Women ROAP to advance WPS in the region, inclusion of marginalised groups, as well as key lessons and menu of services that ROAP can support field offices in this thematic area of work. The findings and recommendations of the evaluation will support UN Women ROAP to sharpen its WPS portfolio to fully capitalize on its mandate and value addition with a sharper strategic focus and long-term approach based on the following key considerations: (I) Women’s leadership, representation and participation in democratic governance processes are inherently linked to security reform that is necessary for gender inclusion in peace and security sectors and decision-making, especially in the context of shrinking civic space and rising polarization in the Asia-Pacific region. In practice, this means ROAP Governance, Peace and Security (GPS) need to re-balance its focus to have a greater emphasis on broader governance linked to peace and security issues in the region; (ii) The focus on women’s participation in peace and security needs to extend beyond peace processes and emergencies to the recovery of post-conflict, post-disaster and post-pandemic societies; (iii) Addressing gaps in protection particularly synergies between regional and country-level commitment to tackling sexual and gender-based violence in conflict and post-conflict settings; (iv) More emphasis on conflict and crisis prevention and the recognition of women mediators in mitigating crises and the escalation of conflicts is required in the implementation of WPS in the region; and (v) Expanding programme collaboration with other thematic areas to address linkages of security and non-traditional security challenges, including peace-humanitarian nexus, climate-related security challenges, mass displacement, and cross-border governance issues. Detailed actions are included in the subsequent sections with a focus on enhancing co-creation of the WPS vision, strengthening UN coordination strategy, building stronger evidence with more robust monitoring and evaluation framework, incorporating the most marginalised groups of women, as well as improving ROAP services to field offices in the region.

: Approved
Recommendation: Co-create a vision for WPS in the region with UN Women offices across the region and key peace and security actors from across stakeholder types and identify UN Women’s value proposition in the Peace and Security sector. Prioritize where to focus based on sound analysis of the current situation, country needs, overall direction of UN Women WPS & HA area and UN Women’s capacity to deliver on the ground.
Management Response: More efforts are required to co-create a vision for WPS in the region. The recommendation resonates with the team including key issues and steps that can be taken to ensure greater coherence across global, regional and country levels as well as a stronger linkage between peace, security and humanitarian work. Key considerations include: • Ensure that future GPS programming builds on existing work where significant progress has been made, and contributes to advancing Sustainable Development Goals 5, 10, 16+ at the country level, particularly through the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. • Ensure that ROAP GPS keeps track of political and policy developments in “Our Common Agenda” and support its implementation, particularly elements pertaining to gender, Agenda for Peace, trust building, justice and climate action. • Deepen understanding and calibrate GPS programmatic response to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on gender equality in the region. Particular attention will be made to align and prioritize regional and country needs based on the specific regional context to inform the global strategies and plans. This includes exploring other potential thematic linkages such as climate-related security and natural resource management. Efforts will be taken to identify key strategic entry points, partners and donors, leveraging collaboration across teams and complementary expertise across different thematic areas to offer more comprehensive development solutions e.g. both policy/programme interventions in the next SN. ROAP will identify mechanisms/tools for meaningful feedback and dialogue with country offices in the region as well as key partners, including donors to co-create a project/programme that also responds to national demands/priorities, enhance ownership and continued partnership across the board.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, National ownership, Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Operational activities, Culture of results/RBM, Humanitarian action
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency, Relevance, Sustainability, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Develop a vision paper reflecting a common Theory of Change for the UN in AP region on Governance and WPS. Conduct mapping CO priorities on governance, peace and security (under their SN-AWP) and developing survey and/or tool to collect feedback and response from CO to identify regional priority areas for advancing governance, peace and security as part of the development of ROAP SN 2022-2026. This includes inputs/feedback to inform: 1) regional programme strategies; 2) prioritization based on UN Women's comparative advantage at the national and regional levels; 3) matching potential resource mobilisation opportunities at the regional level resources, donor priorities and country-level priorities to the extent possible; 4) identification of key areas of support or menu of services (e.g. capacity building/training/proposal development, knowledge management/exchange, facilitate south-south and triangular cooperation, among others) ROAP GPS team, Regional Advisor GPS in close collaboration with Regional Advisors on DRR and Humanitarian Action, Regional Advisors on Gender and Statistics, and COs/PPs 2022/12 Completed Covered under the Governance Peace and Security (GPS) regional framework.
2. Explore opportunities for co-creation regional project/programme with COs, potential UN partners and donors to address a peace-humanitarian nexus, including expert group consultation to inform SN development and joint programme priorities in this area focusing on mapping of engagement in preparedness, conflict prevention and anticipatory action to inform programme approach along the nexus ROAP GPS team, Regional Advisor GPS in close collaboration with Regional Advisors on DRR and Humanitarian Action, and COs/PPs, and HQ PSHA Section 2022/12 Completed Consultations with CO/NRAs, CSOs and donors held throughout 2022.
3. Explore opportunity for co-creation regional project/programme with COs based on identification of UN Women value addition and entry points to address gender and climate-related security in natural resource management and resilience-building. This will be actioned through consultation with COs, donors, potential UN partners, stakeholders at the regional and country levels. ROAP GPS team, Regional Advisor GPS in close collaboration with Regional Advisors on Climate Change and Regional Advisors on DRR and Humanitarian and COs/PPs 2022/12 Completed Natural resource management paper developed, and consultations and validation workshop conducted.
4. Explore potential programme development to advance gender equality and inclusive and participatory democratic governance with particular focus on women's leadership and political participation, establishing inclusive and accountable institutions, and financing for gender equality such as gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) ROAP GPS team, Regional Advisor GPS in close collaboration with HQ Governance unit and COs/PPs 2023/12 Completed Firstly, GRB is a one of the core components of the GPS framework, under the Governance Pillar. For example, UN Women organized a Regional Workshop on Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) from 12-13 June 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand, with 11 countries from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific participating. The workshop aimed to reinforce UN Women’s leadership in GRB, facilitate knowledge sharing among country offices, assess current GRB strategies, explore alignment opportunities, and strategize on advancing GRB implementation in Asia and the Pacific. The workshop concluded with a commitment to strengthen technical assistance at the country level, enhance cross-country learning, and allocate more resources to this strategic initiative. Secondly, under a new initiative named ‘Beijing+30 Activation project’ supported by the Government of Korea/MOGEF, UN Women will build on the new Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) General Recommendation 40 on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems, issued in October 2024. The project will support national governments to translate international commitments into national action and the convening of government and civil society in a “whole of society” approach to inclusive governance. Emphasis will be placed on young women's leadership and intergenerational exchange to strengthen the feminist movement, empower future young women leaders, and create an enabling environment for women in power. Women traditionally marginalized and excluded from leadership and decision-making spaces, will be supported to engage in the Beijing+30 review process at critical junctures and reflect on the outcomes of the Regional Review and CSW69 on priority actions required to achieve women’s equal and meaningful participation and leadership in decision-making. UN Women will also support these actors to re-strategize the Beijing+30 commitment on women in power and decision-making, taking into account General Recommendation 40, and identify novel approaches and strategies to be piloted at local and national levels for results to be achieved within 12-18 months. These pilots and results will be consolidated and shared at the regional level. The regional component of the project will cover South and South-East Asia, with national-level implementation in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Nepal. This project is developed in accordance with the strategy of the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific to Advance Inclusive Governance in Asia and the Pacific Region (2022-2027) and integrated into UN Women’s Regional Framework Towards Peaceful, Inclusive Societies: Advancing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and Inclusive Governance in the Asia-Pacific Region (2023-2027). This framework directly supports UN Women’s corporate strategies, including the Strategic Note of the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (2022-2025). Additionally, it aligns with the Strategic Notes and Annual Work Plans of UN Women offices in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Cambodia, which are coordinated with their respective United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks.
Recommendation: As part of the ROAP coordination strategy, ensure coordination for WPS area is clearly outlined, explaining how ROAP will engage in WPS coordination with the UN system and beyond and how these efforts seek to influence partners with established key performance indicators that can meaningfully measure progress.
Management Response: ROAP management acknowledges the need to leverage the coordination mandate of UN Women to enhance the strategic positioning of UN Women to lead on WPS in the region. This includes combining its triple mandate more effectively and leveraging the complementary expertise of other UN agencies in the peace and security space in the medium to long term. ROAP can leverage its triple mandate, particularly coordination to position of UN Women to lead the UN system on WPS in the Asia-Pacific. This can be built on the regional programme, “Empowering women for sustainable peace: preventing violence and promoting social cohesion in ASEAN” (Advancing WPS in ASEAN), jointly implemented by ROAP and UN Women Indonesia CO. Through this regional programme with ASEAN, UN Women has already started to coordinate with UN partners to have an informal exchange on WPS issues/updates on a quarterly basis as well as to have a coordinated UN system support to ASEAN in advancing WPS, and explore potential opportunities to collaborate with other regional intergovernmental bodies in the Asia-Pacific region as well as potential cross-regional learning. This can provide a potential building block to build and expand the Community of Practice (COP) on WPS In the Asia-Pacific region linked to existing regional coordination mechanisms. Within ROAP, efforts will be made to establish closer collaboration with the Strategic Planning and Coordination to leverage the current coordination mechanisms within the UN system. At the regional level, UN Women can build on existing partnerships with UNODC, UNDP, UN DPPA-DPO, and UNOCT among others who are active in promoting WPS in the region to ensure collaboration and complementary value.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, Oversight/governance, Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Relevance, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Establish regular exchange/quarterly UN coordination meeting to advance a joined-up UN approach to support ASEAN in advancing WPS, including potential establishment of knowledge exchange and/or community of practice, including potential connection/expansion with the AP regional coordination mechanism jointly with ROAP Strategic Planning and Coordination team ROAP GPS team in close collaboration with Indonesia CO Governance WPS team, UN partners, ROAP Strategic Planning and Coordination 2022/12 Completed ASEAN Coordination mechanism established- co-chaired by GPS and DPPA.
2. Conduct mapping of women organisations and CSO partners on governance, peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region (linking this with other mapping exercises in relevant thematic areas) and identify concrete entry points to support the regional network of civil society to advance WPS and/or WPS-HA in the region. ROAP GPS team in close collaboration with Indonesia CO Governance WPS team, UN partners, ROAP Strategic Planning and Coordination 2022/12 Completed Initial mapping initiated. Stocktaking of partner organisations to be developed under the GPS regional framework
3. Conduct mapping of different UN efforts related to WPS In the region and identify synergies and partnerships in areas of complementary strengths ROAP GPS team in close collaboration with Indonesia CO Governance WPS team, UN partners, ROAP Strategic Planning and Coordination 2022/12 Completed Initial mapping initiated under the GPS regional framework
Recommendation: Continue building an evidence base on what works to build social cohesion, reduce marginalization, and ensure peaceful societies by translating the NAPs and other normative level efforts into action through coordinated efforts. Based on the vision and priority areas articulated, and applying innovation principles, WPS team to drive a regional programming approach for translating NAPs into action in which UN Women country offices (in consultation with key stakeholders) are invited to make their pitch for project models to be tested. Several models could be selected and implemented across the region based on need, interest, and capacity of offices. Through robust indicators and monitoring and evaluation framework, the lessons can feed into the scaling up of the most effective approaches across the region. The models must have clear plans for ensuring sustainability or exit strategies.
Management Response: During 2017-2020, ROAP has made a tremendous contribution to innovative regional policy research/studies and knowledge products that provide a stronger gender perspective in peace and security policy dialogues in the region. This has been demonstrated by greater visibility of UN Women contribution to WPS, particularly on gender-responsive conflict prevention and PVE strategies led by ROAP WPS. Nevertheless, more efforts are required to translate evidence and policy, particularly the implementation of NAPs which remains a challenge globally. Management partially accepted this push to drive a regional programmatic approach for translating NAP into action. ROAP will re-focus technical support on NAP financing and monitoring and evaluation of NAPs and relevant frameworks, as well as potential scale-up of community-driven initiatives and/or innovative project models that have been tried and tested. Based on the key findings and conclusion from the evaluation, the ROAP management recognizes that there is room to further enhance regional knowledge and evidence creation that can inform tangible actions to build social cohesion and peaceful societies and the need for greater knowledge management as well as facilitation of field offices to exchange and share good practices and approaches that can be adapted into diverse contexts of the Asia-Pacific region. Management agrees with the recommendation to have a more strategic approach to knowledge production, communication and advocacy of the findings and policy recommendations to influence policy/decision making processes at the regional and national levels. Nevertheless, pilot and integration of the Communication for Development (C4D) approach to ensure greater results on institutional and behavioural change require substantial investment and strategy of the organization across UN Women's policy/programme Interventions. While ROAP GPS can contribute to the thinking, investment and corporate position in this area of work, C4D goes beyond the scope of the ROAP GPS team. This is still largely unexplored and needs further investment in the communication functions of UN Women to go beyond programme communication.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Knowledge management, National ownership, Innovation and technology, Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Normative Support, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency, Relevance, Sustainability, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Enhance linkages between governance, peace and security portfolios particularly around knowledge and evidence creation within the team, leveraging closer collaboration gender data and statistics to build relevant data and evidence ROAP GPS team, Regional Advisor GPS in close collaboration with Regional Advisors on DRR and Humanitarian Action, Regional Advisors on Gender and Statistics, and COs/PPs 2022/12 Completed The GPS regional framework outlining linkages between WPS and Governance portfolios but insufficient. Enhanced collaboration with Stats team planned.
2. Develop stronger and more coherent monitoring, evaluation and research plan (MERP) within governance, peace and security portfolios comprised of stronger performance, monitoring framework of individual projects/programmes, including appropriate allocation of budget for M&E, particularly project review and evaluation that captures key lessons learned ROAP GPS team in close collaboration with Monitoring and Reporting and Evaluation teams 2022/12 Completed PMF and MERP have been developed under the GPS regional framework.
3. Invest in a dedicated M&E and knowledge management analyst/specialist for the governance peace and security team to look at cross projects/programme linkages in terms of lessons learned, knowledge management, establishment of a community of practice (COP) and more regular exchange/sharing of good practices, discussion of key topics of interests, challenges/opportunities in the region ROAP GPS 2023/12 Completed An international GPS ROAP consultant is partly dedicated to M&E and knowledge management analysis. An Asia and the Pacific WPS staff coordination and strategic planning group has been established and meets regularly. During these meetings, countries have the opportunity to exchange ideas, learn from one another, and interact with regional colleagues. Occasionally, HQ colleagues are invited to join these discussions.
4. Invest in communication and advocacy post that helps to enhance and distinguish programme communication from advocacy to influence the WPS agenda at the regional and national level; potentially collaboration and leverage from collaboration with ASEAN programme to advance this area of work jointly and expand to cover the region ROAP GPS in close collaboration with Regional Communication Team and ASEAN-WPS Communication Officer 2023/12 Completed Communication and advocacy consultant is on board to enhance advocacy to influence the WPS agenda and works closely with the ASEAN-WPS communication officer
Recommendation: WPS team in collaboration with ROAP focal point to develop a toolkit for enhancing capacity of implementing partners on how to identify, engage in defining appropriate programmatic approaches and indicators for measuring progress over the longer-term, including social norms change, and monitor and report in collaboration with the target population including the most marginalized groups, such as women with disabilities, women affected by conflict-related sexual violence, women-headed households, ethnic minorities, and LGBTIQ persons.
Management Response: Targeting women of the most marginalized and disadvantaged groups, LGBTIQ networks, and social norm change are considered the major challenges of UN Women's work to achieve gender equality and empowerment of women and girls across the board, not only for WPS. Despite the challenges in data availability and measurement to identify and target the most marginalised groups especially women affected by conflict-related sexual violence, management is fully committed to enhancing this work in close collaboration with HQ tools/guidance as well as support country offices and field offices in the region to ensure the principle of leaving no one behind. More specifically, this includes stronger collaboration with gender data and statistics to use data and evidence in defining appropriate programmatic approaches and indicators for measuring progress as well as an intentional and strategic approach to engage men and boys to become WPS champions and more men’s leadership for greater gender inclusion in peace and security sectors and decision-making in the region.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Engaging men and boys, Culture of results/RBM, Normative Support, UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Human Rights, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Liaise with HQ on the development and adaptation of existing toolkits and/or guidance to enhance engagement with the most marginalized groups, particularly women with disabilities (UN disability inclusion and intersectionality), ethnic minorities, and LGBTIQ (e.g. ROAP tool for SOGIESC inclusion in WPS-HA settings). ROAP GPS (including Regional Advisors and A2J Programme Specialist/focal point on UN disability inclusion and intersectionality), focal person on LGBTIQ inclusion, HQ, COs and field offices 2022/12 Completed An International Consultant on Governance Peace and Security and intersectionality with a focus on disability inclusion has been recruited full-time. She provides expert insights, guidance, and tools to enhance the engagement of the most marginalized women, particularly women with disabilities.
2. Incorporate clearer strategy for engagement of men and boys to promote social norm change and greater gender inclusion in peace and security sector in the new programme development, including stronger indicators to measure progress (e.g. the HQ Engaging Men and Boys Checklist can provide useful criteria as well as further consultation with national/local partners in achieving this will be the key focus in programme development and implementation in the next phase with clearer indicators). ROAP WPS in close collaboration with Strategic Planning, Monitoring/Reporting and Evaluation teams 2022/12 Completed Mainstreamed throughout the GPS regional framework
3. Build gender data and evidence-based on multiple deprivation analysis that provides insights on who is lagging behind and what are the potential challenges/opportunities to inform WPS work to promote resilience, conflict prevention, resolutions and recovery in the region (use data to inform WPS programmatic approach e.g. potential use of both official statistics as well as big data/use of technology to collect data for peace and security with particular attention to resilience markers/indicators) ROAP GPS; Regional Advisors on GPS and Gender Statistics, relevant COs/PPs 2023/12 Completed LNOB is one of the guiding principles in the GPS regional framework. Knowledge products have been produced to provide insights on the marginalization from a gender lens and identify emerging issues, challenges and opportunities to inform WPS work, including climate security and cybersecurity. A big data analysis was conduced for recent trends in online hate speech and misogyny for the selected countries to inform the WPS programming.
Recommendation: ROAP to clearly articulate and demonstrate how regional programming efforts could enhance efficiencies across countries and take concerted action to enhance organizational efficiency of WPS efforts through diversification of the donor base and modalities, capacity building, and dedicating time to assessing the best value for money approach.
Management Response: As ROAP is moving towards the next SN, a strong focus will be placed on enhancing organizational efficiency and effectiveness and demonstrate 'value for money' in our programmatic approach including in advancing WPS in the region. Management agrees with this recommendation. Given that WPS is one of the largest portfolios in the region, particular attention will be made in line with evaluation findings and recommendations to continue to diversify donor base and modalities, support to country offices to enhance capacity to advance WPS across the Asia-Pacific region with a sharper focus/prioritization. The successful implementation of key actions under this recommendation will also largely depend on all the actions under the four previous areas of recommendations
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Move away from a small project approach driven by specific donor interests and short-term funding (12-18 months) to develop a multi-year programmatic approach co-created with the donor(s) with a more comprehensive theory of change (TOC) that will help to consolidate small projects/programmes into a broader TOC and regional programmes with a stronger mechanism for results-based monitoring and reporting, including baseline and milestone targets that can measure meaningful changes at the regional and country levels. ROAP GPS in close collaboration with Strategic Planning and Coordination, Monitoring and Reporting team 2023/12 Completed The GPS regional framework developed with a more comprehensive TOC and PMF. Webpage link: https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/focus-areas/peace-and-security/governance-peace-and-security
2. Develop a resource mobilisation strategy for governance, peace and security team to diversify donor base for governance, peace and security work/explore potential collaboration with HQ colleagues to identify potential synergies to support CO to access both vertical funds, traditional and non-traditional donors ROAP GPS team in close collaboration with Partnership and Resource Mobilisation team 2022/12 Completed Consultations with donors conducted, the RM strategy to be developed under the GPS regional framework
3. Promote cross-team collaboration by establishing a dedicated focal point/function within the team that coordinate risks and risk management across project staff under ROAP GPS. ROAP GPS in close collaboration with Monitoring/Report and Operation teams 2022/12 Completed A dedicated focal point to undertake gender risk analysis has been appointed and is working across regional teams and country offices to highlight and promote joint up risk management and escalation.
4. Conduct HR review based on the functional needs, requirements of the ROAP GPS team to come up with a rational HR structure that includes cross-functional positions, such as M&E/Knowledge Management/Communication Officers ROAP GPS in close collaboration with HR Business Partner/team 2022/06 Completed New HR structure developed under the GPS regional framework which includes cross-functional positions, and TORs for experts will be developed