Management Response

: Regional Office for West and Central Africa (Senegal)
: 2022 - 2025 , Regional Office for West and Central Africa (Senegal) (RO)
: Evaluation of the Affirmative Procurement Project
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: Regional Office for West and Central Africa (Senegal)
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UN Women WCARO commissioned a final evaluation of the regional project "Women’s Economic Empowerment through Affirmative Procurement Reform in West Africa," implemented in Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal from March 2022 to March 2025. The evaluation provided critical insights into the project's achievements, challenges, and lessons learned across six OECD-DAC evaluation criteria: Relevance, Coherence, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Sustainability, and Gender Equality and Human Rights. The evaluation confirmed that the project was highly relevant and responsive to national and regional priorities for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. It contributed to legal and policy reforms, capacity strengthening of both public and private institutions, and the support of women-led businesses to access procurement markets. However, the report also highlighted areas for improvement, notably the need for a more robust “Leave No One Behind” strategy, enhanced outreach to marginalized groups, sustainable financing strategies, and strengthened inter-agency coherence. The recommendations from this evaluation will inform the design of the next phase of the program and support broader UN Women strategic priorities, including economic justice, governance, and inclusive growth.

: Approved
Recommendation: Continue and expand capacity building and systemic change efforts to improve women-led businesses’ access to public procurement.
Management Response: UN Women agrees that capacity building remains central to promoting inclusive economic participation. The focus for the remainder of the year will be on post-training support activities to strengthen women’s access to procurement opportunities. This will be considered in the formulation of a potential phase 2, resources permitting.
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Description: UN Women agrees that capacity building remains central to promoting inclusive economic participation. The focus for the remainder of the year will be on post-training support activities to strengthen women’s access to procurement opportunities. This will be considered in the formulation of a potential phase 2, resources permitting.
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
Provide post-training support to women entrepreneurs through follow-ups and networking events UN Women WCARO & COs 2025/12 Not Initiated Includes technical support, ‘Meet the Vendor’ events and guidance on procurement.
Recommendation: Foster stronger external coherence through deeper collaboration with UN agencies and other stakeholders.
Management Response: Strengthening inter-agency and multi-stakeholder collaboration is key to advancing system-wide gender-responsive procurement. This will be considered in the formulation of a potential phase 2, resources permitting.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Key Action not added.
Recommendation: Expand scope of interventions and strengthen sustainability through improved funding and stakeholder engagement.
Management Response: UN Women will seek additional donor support and explore co-financing modalities. Sustained engagement of public and private institutions will be prioritized to maintain the momentum of policy reforms.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Develop and submit new funding proposals (We-Fi, AfDB, others) UN Women WCARO 2025/12 Initiated Exploring multi-donor basket fund for scale-up integrating the care economy and green transition nexus
Recommendation: Improve financial and human resource strategies for sustainable project implementation.
Management Response: UN Women recognizes the need for a more balanced staffing structure and will consider this in the design of a potential Phase 2 of the programme. Regarding financial management, current practices are aligned with UN Women’s standards and donor requirements; efforts to strengthen reporting mechanisms are ongoing.
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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: Effectiveness, Efficiency
Key Actions
Key Action not added.
Recommendation: Enhance inclusivity by targeting vulnerable groups and addressing intersectional inequalities.
Management Response: This recommendation will be considered in the formulation of a potential phase 2 in alignment with donor priorities. For the Phase 1, It was not included in the original project scope, which focused on women entrepreneurs, mainly formal WSMEs.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Key Action not added.