Management Response

: Regional Office for West and Central Africa (Senegal)
: 2022 - 2025 , Regional Office for West and Central Africa (Senegal) (RO)
: WOMEN ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT THEMATIC EVALUATION
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Regional Office for West and Central Africa (Senegal)

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Management will maintain a focus on research and advocacy for policy change regarding women's economic empowerment, leveraging increased capacity in gender and economic policy through the addition of new economists/policy specialists. Additionally, the Regional Office plans to develop differentiated Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) offers based on country typologies, beginning with middle-income countries. Capacity in gender-responsive macroeconomic policy will see a substantial increase with the investment in economist positions. Knowledge management practices, including dissemination, will be improved, with a priority on revamping the website to enhance knowledge sharing and utilization. Efforts will also concentrate on strengthening capacities of local organizations and institutions for sustainability, with strategic partnerships being a key approach. The recruitment of a Women's Political Participation Policy Specialist is expected to contribute significantly to reigniting gender-responsive budgeting initiatives. In terms of inclusiveness, future economic empowerment policies and programs will explicitly reference disability and underprivileged groups. The Regional Project Appraisal Committee will review proposals based on a checklist that assesses consideration for the Leave No One Behind (LNOB) principle, ensuring a more purposeful and stronger application of LNOB principles in WEE programmatic and normative work.
: Approved
Recommendation: The UN Women West and Central Africa Regional Office should continue to focus on research and advocacy for policy change to address structural obstacles to women’s economic empowerment. This should also include women’s rights to decent work and social protection, macroeconomic and fiscal policies, gender-responsive budget mechanisms and women’s participation and leadership in climate change policies and implementation.
Management Response: Focus on research and advocacy for policy change has been a priority since 2021, and will continue to be so. Increased capacity of the region in the area of gender and economic policy, via 6 new economists/policy specialists, will ensure continuation and sustainability of policy work.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1.1 Strengthened human resources via staffing of the RO and COs with 6 feminist economists and/or senior policy specialists in WCA UN Women WCA 2024/02 Completed 4 feminist economists recruited (RO, Liberia, Nigeria, Mali, Niger), another recruitment process ongoing (Cote d’Ivoire); one senior gender and social protection policy advisor secured via STAR facility of FCDO;
1.2 Revamped RO communication action plan guides advocacy and includes key messages on WEE UN Women WCA (Communications) 2024/06 Completed RO communications strategy available
Recommendation: The Regional Office should elaborate an explicit WEE typology of countries of the region, based on their profile using different parameters such as their economic situation; whether they have faced terrorism and rebel uprisings; and the prevalence of refugees and internally displaced persons
Management Response: Management welcomes the recommendation about designing a typology of countries, and proposes to go beyond by developing differentiated WEE offers according to types of countries. As a first step in this direction, UN Women WCA is engaged in an internal process to develop a WEE offer for middle-income countries in the region.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
2.1 Cluster group on WEE middle income established with country Reps. UN Women WCA 2023/09 Completed
2.2. Mapping study of opportunities for UN Women positioning in middle-income countries UN Women WCA 2024/03 Completed
2.3 Experts meeting on UN Women offer in middle income countries UN Women WCA 2024/03 Completed
Recommendation: The Regional and Country Offices should progressively aim to improve contractual arrangements for their WEE personnel and strengthen their capacities in the area of gender-responsive, macroeconomic policy. While the regional WEE team’s contribution of knowledge products is unique and significant, it could improve its role as a knowledge hub on WEE and policy advice provider through the following knowledge management practices:
Management Response: The region’s capacity in the area of gender responsive macroeconomic policy is expected to increase substantially as a result of the investment in 5 posts of economists financed by the core unallocated balance funds. This puts WCA as the region with the strongest capacity on gender and economics in UN Women (see action 1.1). __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • In relation to the specific knowledge management practices recommended by the evaluation, WCA has already implemented a number of them including compiling an inventory of knowledge products, joining research institutions in priority areas to generate high quality knowledge (e.g. Gender and Green Economy chapter in IMF edited book); and others will be implemented gradually. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • One recommendation that will be prioritized is the one pertaining to the dissemination of knowledge. WCARO has invested heavily in knowledge production for WEE in the last 3 years, but the bottlenecks for becoming a more impactful knowledge hub lie in the dissemination and use of knowledge produced, and in particular, the poor state of UN Women’s Africa website. Revamping the website and improving dissemination of UN Women’s research is a priority for the region’s Senior Management and communications team.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
3.1 Revamping of UN Women’s Africa website in order to improve dissemination and impact of knowledge products UN Women WCA Communications 2024/09 Over due Needs assessment of WEE websites conducted;
3.2 Development and implementation of WCA WEE communications strategy with emphasis on capitalization and dissemination of knowledge produced in the key priority areas (care economy, green economy, entrepreneurship) UN Women WCA and COs 2024/12 Completed
3.3 Recruitment of knowledge management specialist UN Women WCA 2024/06 Overdue-Initiated
Recommendation: In general terms, for sustainability, it is crucial to focus on building the capacity of local organizations and institutions, especially in rural areas, providing them with the necessary skills and knowledge to sustain and scale up programmes. To ensure long-term viability, the Regional Office should assess programmes such as gender-responsive budgeting and Women in Cross-Border Trade that have experienced a decline, marked by a decrease in their scope and funding despite their continued relevance and necessity in the region. This review could help to generate innovative ideas aimed at reigniting gender-responsive budgeting initiatives within the current context, potentially as stand-alone initiatives or as integrated components of ongoing interventions in multiple countries.
Management Response: The region will maintain a focus on strengthening capacities of women and government partner institutions to ensure sustainability. We will continue a strong partnerships policy with strategic actors - regional institutions (e.g. RECs, AfDB, etc.), governments, women organizations, and the private sector when relevant, as the best approach to scale up impact and ensure sustainability. The region expects that the ongoing recruitment of a Women’s Political Participation Policy Specialist will contribute to reignite gender-responsive budgeting interventions. Synergies at the country and regional level between the WEE and Governance and Political Participation portfolio will be established when appropriate to leverage GRB as an instrument for gender responsive economic policy reform. The focus of Women in Cross-Border Trade initiatives has shifted from programmatic – partly due to lack of donor resources; to policy/normative and it has taken a central role in advocacy and reform pursued by WCARO in the context of the region’s work on improving women’s access to the opportunities generated by AfCFTA.
More detail
Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
4.1. Leverage national and regional feminist economists for increased work on GRB and Women in cross-border Trade initiatives when relevant at the country and regional level UN Women WCA and UN Women COs 2025/12 Completed Most economists are already in place (see status of 3.1 for details)
Recommendation: The WCA Regional and Country Offices should go beyond being nondiscriminatory by ensuring their economic empowerment policy and programme proposals refer explicitly to disability and under-privileged groups to facilitate inclusiveness at the implementation stage for the poorest and most marginalized.
Management Response: We welcome the recommendation and will undertake in the future a more purposeful and stronger application of LNOB principles in WEE programmatic and normative work in the region. At the normative level, development of gender responsive social protection policy will be prioritized. At the programmatic level, increased attention during programme formulation will be paid to key target groups such as persons with disability. The RO is revamping its Regional Project Appraisal Committee (RPAC), the entity tasked to review proposals. RPAC review processes will be based on a checklist that assesses consideration for LNOB among other criteria.
More detail
Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
5.1. Recruitment of a gender and social protection advisor in Cote D’Ivoire to support integration of gender in national social protection strategy CDI CO 2025/12 Completed ToRs for the advisor under development; Policy dialogue with government for revision of SP strategy launched in December 2023
5.2 Organize peer learning session on lessons applying LNOB principles to WEE programming targeting WCAR WEE CoP in the context of WCARO WEE Learning Week 2024 WCA RO 2024/09 Completed
5.3 Ensure that RPAC checklist includes LNOB criteria and monitor its consistent integration in WEE proposals WCA RO 2024/12 Overdue-Initiated