Management Response

Recommendation:

UN Women should strengthen and scale-up its community level interventions by developing linkages for trained women to local governance/peacebuilding structures (Ref. Outcome 2).

Management Response:

UN Women recognizes the importance of engaging with a diverse group of women and young women peace actors as part of project implementation. During the third phase of the project, UN Women will ensure that the reach of project participants is further diversified, including by engaging with women actors from the community level. At the regional level, UN Women will undertake a mapping exercise of WPS actors, including civil society and community-based organizations (CSOs/CBOs), activists, and women peacebuilders, in the region, including in project countries. The mapping will benefit both the Regional Office as well as country offices, in ensuring a wide and diverse group of WPS actors are engaged in project implementation, including in capacity building trainings. At the country level, UN Women Country Offices will ensure enhanced support in connecting women participants of capacity building trainings to local governance and peacebuilding structures. UN Women will also undertake Training of Trainers exercises to amplify the projects impact on community level.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments Upscaling the programme’s activities through collaboration with multiple donors and regional/local stakeholders. ROAS & COs 2025/12 Initiated Linking trained women to local governance/peacebuilding structures, such as local councils. RO/COs 2025/12 Initiated Training significantly higher number of women mediators, advanced trainings in mediation techniques, and support to placement/integration of trained women mediators in local/national structures. RO/COs 2025/12 Initiated

Recommendation:

UN Women should revise the programme Theory of Change to include clear objectives, assumptions, activities, and indicators to better assess progress and effectiveness. It should also revise the results framework to measure the influence of regional activities on country-level action, improve target setting and reformulate some of the indicators to capture results.

Management Response:

As part of its project management responsibilities, UN Women Regional Office will review the Phase II Results Framework and the Theory of Chance in close coordination with project Country Offices to ensure that all lessons learned from Phase II monitoring and evaluation work inform the development of the Phase III Results Framework and Theory of Change. UN Women Regional Office will closely collaborate with project country offices in the development of the Phase III Results Framework and Theory of Change and will ensure that new indicators are develop that enhance the capturing of project intended results. UN Women will also coordinate closely with project Country Offices to ensure the setting of realistic targets for Phase III of the project.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments Develop a more comprehensive and detailed ToC that includes clear objectives, assumptions, activities, and indicators to better assess progress and effectiveness, as well as explain the relationships between pre-conditions and desired outcomes at the community level. RO 2023/06 Completed The percentage change is identified, and the number of people to be reached is also provided. Also, the new log frame should be developed with more detailed indicators so they can be easily measured. RO 2023/06 Completed

Recommendation:

The programme should put in place a structured mechanism for regular exchange of experience and knowledge to enhance sharing and coordination between the Regional and Country office(s). It should also develop a communication strategy and plan to guide external and internal communication.

Management Response:

UN Women recognizes the need to ensure systematic coordination on the project between the Regional Office and project Country Offices and to enhance project monitoring, communication and visibility. UN Women Regional Office will develop a detailed monitoring plan and a monitoring tool for the project phase III results framework, to ensure that enhanced support on monitoring of project results is provided to country offices, and that the regional office maintains an adequate oversight of project implementation overall. Moreover, UN Women Regional Office will develop a communications plan for the project which will detail how the visibility of the project results and of the donor contribution will be enhanced in Phase III. Finally, UN Women Regional Office will undertake enhanced coordination between project country offices by organizing periodic calls between project focal points to enable the exchange of knowledge, best practices, lessons learned and challenges in the implementation of the project across the six countries.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments A structured approach to monitoring and communication between the Regional Offices and COs will help to improve efficiency and effectiveness of UN Women's operations in the region. A clear communication strategy will also ensure that UN Women's programs and initiatives align with the needs and priorities of the programme countries. RO/COs 2025/12 Initiated Clearly defined criteria will ensure support to most vulnerable segments of beneficiaries, including PWDs. beneficiary targeting should include clear criteria for inclusion of vulnerable groups, especially people with disabilities (PWDs).

Recommendation:

UN Women should explore the possibility of replicating the Jordan pool funding model to other programme countries to improve sustainability.

Management Response:

UN Women will look for opportunities for pooled funding mechanisms for NAPs in project countries to ensure complementarity of project Phase III funding. This may not result in the establishment of a pooled fund mechanism in each project country but could instead result in mobilization of complimentary funding for the implementation of NAPs at country level. UN Women will undertake a context sensitive approach in each project country, which will largely determine the feasibility of establishing new pooled fund mechanisms. In addition, UN Women Regional Office will support country offices in the region, including beyond those involved in the project, to exchange knowledge and learn from the Jordan model, to support the replication of the model elsewhere in the region.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments Replicate the Jordan pool funding model to other programme countries. Added sources of funding can ensure greater level of support to stakeholders and involve more beneficiaries, thereby contributing to overall sustainability. RO/COs 2025/12 Initiated

Recommendation:	Given the addition of an extra country to Phase III, UN Women should review its staffing structure and tackle the issues associated with high staff turnover.
Management Response:	For Phase III of the project, UN Women Regional Office will closely coordinate with country offices to review project staffing structures at country level and to identify existing gaps and needs, in order to enhance sustainability of project staffing. UN Women will also discuss sustainable staffing modalities with the donor, as needed.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments UN Women should create financial provisions for added staff at country level RO/COs 2025/12 Initiated

Recommendation:	UN Women should measure influence of regional activities on country-level action, to the extent possible.
Management Response:	UN Women will consult COs on the efficiency of regional knowledge products and interventions. UN Women ROAS will organize regular coordination meetings to brief on regional progress and updates.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments Develop an M&E mechanism that measures the impact of regional activities at the country level. This can also be measured through survey responses from CO level stakeholders. RO 2025/12 Initiated

Recommendation:	The Programme should develop a strategy for engaging men to achieve a sustainable gender transformation. It should have a disability inclusion strategy
Management Response:	UN Women recognizes the importance of engaging men and boys in achieving sustainable gender transformative results. UN Women will review the RRF to ensure the inclusion of indicators measuring disability inclusion and sex disaggregated data.

Key Actions Responsible Deadline Status Comments Develop a strategy for engaging men to achieve a sustainable gender transformation. RO/COs 2025/12 Not Initiated Develop a disability inclusion strategy and monitor the implementation of the same. RO/COs 2025/12 Initiated Develop guidelines to ensure beneficiary targeting include clear criteria for inclusion of the most marginalised and vulnerable groups and individuals. Collect data to assess progress and results regarding changes in their lives RO/COs 2025/12 Initiated