Management Response

Recommendation:	There is need to continue with the project until at least after the elections to consolidate the gains made to date, keep the momentum created by the project and to address the significant gender gaps that still remain in South Sudan.
Management Response:	The UNW CO has a robust resource mobilisation strategy aimed at diversifying funding sources aimed at increasing women engagement and participation in the political processes, including elections and beyond.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments UN Women have already mobilised resources for a similar project under Peacebuilding office (PBFO) focusing on women leadership and political participation to increase women engagement and participation in electoral processes as well as constitution making process Program specialist Women Political Participation (WPP) 2025/12 Ongoing

Recommendation:	Consider Restoring the IGAD Senior Gender Advisor Position as the advocacy momentum created by the project has slackened leading to slow implementation of some of the provisions of the revitalised peace agreement such as engendering of the new constitution, security sector and electoral reforms.
Management Response:	Consider Restoring the IGAD Senior Gender Advisor Position as the advocacy momentum created by the project has slackened leading to slow implementation of some of the provisions of the revitalised peace agreement such as engendering of the new constitution, security sector and electoral reforms.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments The recruitment plan is to have a gender advisor who will provide technical support to drive momentum to push recommendations of gender related provisions in the revitalised peace agreement, including electoral processes. UN Women is formalizing to recruit an international staff to be place under RJEMAC to provide gender technical support advocacy work to ensure the implementation of the gender provisions as contained in their revitalised peace agreement, including the electoral processes. Program Specialist, Women Political Participation, Program Specialist WPS 2024/01 Overdue-Not Initiated

Recommendation:

The UN Women South Sudan should consider: a. Expand Coverage of Rural Areas: Expand project activities to cover more rural areas in line with the Leaving No One Behind guiding principle as it is in rural areas where the peace and security concerns of women and girls are higher compared to urban areas b. Enhance participation of PWD in the project through budgeting and providing for their special needs such as mobility, assistive devices and helpers. c. Disaggregate project data by disability status so that the level of inclusion or exclusion and participation of PWD in the project can easily be determined. d. Increase male participation and engagement in the project through conducting more gender awareness dialogue sessions and peace and security capacity training targeting more men and boys and traditional and religious leaders particularly in rural areas.

Management Response:

The above recommendations have been well captured in various projects which have just started being implemented, expanding on the coverage of project implementation areas of operations through engaging the implementing partners (IPS) and responsible partners (RPs)

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments The above recommendations are part of UN Women's work in South Sudan - as detailed in the Strategic Note, and contribute to building local and grassroots capacities to empower women and girls, including people with disabilities; the CO strategic interventions under Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and key project focused intervention eg. Constitution making process (CMP), Women leadership and political participation and Climate security focus on engaging men and women, including PWDs and all the selected institutions both at national and state levels in the electoral processes through civic education and awareness, public dialogue sessions capacity building etc. Gender data and statistics is one of the strategic outputs of UNW CO strategic note. Under different projects being implemented including the WORLD BANK funded project, AfDB bank and PBFO funded projects, there are components related to strengthen interventions and partnership with the CSOs, especially women led organisations and MGCSW, Peacebuilding ministry to enhance local capacity to promote gender equality and women empowerment, especially in the electoral processes. Disability assessment is one of the planned activities to be conducted whose outcome will form position paper to inform constitution making processes and electoral processes. WPP Specialist, WEE Specialist and EVAW Specialist 2024/12 Not Initiated

Recommendation:

The UN Women South Sudan should consider: a. Accessible Communication Products: Develop communication products that are easily accessible and consumable by grassroots communities by producing them in the language spoken by the community; in a format that is easily understandable by the less literate and accessible to PWD such as pictorials and audios; and using communication mediums that the marginalised have access to (IPs and CBOs) b. Continue with Community Awareness and Training: there is need for continued awareness programmes on gender equality, human rights and participation of women in peace and security processes as part of efforts to breakdown gender barriers. Changing attitudes is a process that takes time and therefore need long term investment(IPs and CSOs) c. Increase project and UN Women visibility by implementing more robust media strategies including: creating social media pages such as Facebook and Twitter; creating a network of journalists for training on gender responsive and sensitive reporting; media monitoring to determine extent to which women’s issues are reported on by the media and source of news disaggregated by gender; and using media monitoring results to identify gaps for further training of journalists

Management Response:

The above recommendations are part of UN Women's work in South Sudan -communication is highlighted in the Strategic Note, and CO has already revised the communication strategy and yet to be rolled out. Disability is one of the focus of CO project focus, ensuring LNOB

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments The UNW CO has finalised the communication strategy and has the communications officer on board to steer the publicity and communications efforts. Some of the IPS have been trained in communications. UNW Co has rolled out the communication strategy and also the process of recruitment of an international communication specialists to increase visibility of the UNW work, including providing technical support to training key stakeholders on gender responsive trauining and sensitive training. under CMP project, a number of journalists have been trained on gender related issues including on reporting. The roadmap to engage the journalists and media has been developed by the communications unit. WPP Specialist, WEE Specialist and EVAW Specialist 2024/12 Not Initiated