Management Response

: Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Thailand)
: 2023 - 2023 , Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Thailand) (RO)
: Final Evaluation of the Safe and Fair Programme: Realizing Women Migrant Workers’ Rights and Opportunities in the Association of South-East Asian Nations
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: Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Thailand)
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Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region (2018 – 2023) was part of the Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls, a global, multi-year initiative between the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN). The ILO and UN Women implemented the project, in collaboration with UNODC, with the overriding objective of ensuring that labour migration is safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region. Starting at the inception stage, an Evaluability Assessment to ensure that the programme design met minimum standards for monitoring and evaluation was conducted. The Mid Term Evaluation of the programme was undertaken from January –August 2021. The programme which was initially meant to end in December 2022, was granted a one-year extension and concluded in December 2023. In December 2023, an independent Final Evaluation (FE) of the programme was conducted. This document serves as the Management Response to the findings of the FE. ILO and UN Women, in discussion with UNODC, welcome the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the independent final evaluation. The Safe and Fair Regional Management Team was pleased to note the overall evaluation finding that Safe and Fair is addressing a critical need to bring together gender equality, anti-trafficking and labour migration actors to end violence against women migrant workers and is filling important gaps with respect to protecting the rights of women migrant workers to a life free from violence and harassment, including trafficking. The Regional Management Team noted that there are further opportunities for increased synergies with other UN labour migration and programmes in the region. The Regional Management Team also noted the finding that the programme successfully encouraged the active engagement of women migrant workers and has provided opportunities for them to use their voices and better connect with each other. The support to women’s networks and unions for women migrant workers will continue to further foster their empowerment. The Safe and Fair Programme has generated significant knowledge sharing on violence against women migrant workers, gender and labour migration, and overall rights of women migrant workers that has helped to raise awareness of the rights of women migrant workers and further target its programming. The Regional Management Team also acknowledges and supports the stakeholders’ interest in a stronger regional approach to further promote cross-country knowledge exchange and stakeholder networking. Safe and Fair has addressed a wide range of women migrant worker needs, including shifting needs because of COVID-19, across countries of origin and destination. Safe and Fair has effectively contributed towards strengthening legislation and governance frameworks to protect the rights of women migrant workers, including when they experience violence. The Safe and Fair Programme has strengthened the capacity of service providers to respond to the needs of women migrant workers and has increased access to essential services across their migration journey. Safe and Fair will continue to harness and strengthen its established partnerships and collaborations with women migrant workers, ASEAN Member States’ government authorities, ASEAN institutions, and workers’, employers’ organisations, civil society and community-based organizations at the national and regional level to replicate and upscale the results of the six years of programme implementation. The Regional Management Team notes that the Safe and Fair Programme reflects strong joint programming and UN Reform principles that facilitate achieving results that are greater than the sum of its parts with room to improve the efficiency of the joint working arrangements and coordination mechanisms; as well as the monitoring and reporting of joint results. Finally, it should be noted that half of the programme implementation period was profoundly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic which had unprecedented repercussions for all the countries in the programme. Despite the challenges it brought forth, SAF was able to achieve and surpass all the targeted results.

: Approved
Recommendation: Ensure that future regional joint programming on EVAW and labour migration is designed cohesively, empowers national-level leadership, encourages regional level cross-border work, and leverages potential synergies with other UN programming.
Management Response: The Regional Management Team recognizes the importance of regional joint programmes with strong components of cross border work on issues such as labour migration, gender mainstreaming and EVAWG. Depending on the country and location of implementation of activities and within the organisational mandates of each agency, there are varying levels of delegation to national offices. However, irrespective of the level of delegation of authority, national teams and constituents are always fully engaged in planning and implementation of activities and this will be continued.
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Description: Design future programming holistically with UN agencies fully engaged across programming elements. This includes ensuring that all UN agencies are accountable for promoting GEEW. UN agencies should jointly plan, report, and have ownership over all programming results regardless of which agency is leading certain programming elements. Hire sufficient staff (ideally one representative from each UN agency) to support programming at the national level. Further engage and empower Country Office Representatives across programming countries to take a leadership role in fostering national-level stakeholder engagement and buy-in among programme stakeholders. Strengthen the strategic engagement of RCs as programming partners to facilitate greater programming collaboration with other UN agencies working across the region and to generate strengthened cross-border collaboration. Harness opportunities to expand each agency’s partnership base by effectively sharing partners and directly engaging with the other agency’s traditional partners. Further invest in the capacity of staff working at the regional level to develop regional-level synergies and foster cross-border collaboration among governments, service providers, and CSOs. Increase and scale-up opportunities for stakeholders from across countries to meet both virtually and in-person to strengthen their working relationships with the aim of generating increased cross-border collaboration and synergies. Include outputs in programming frameworks that reflect collaboration with other UN agencies across the region in an attempt to increase collaboration and generate synergies across UN programming. Specifically, generate outputs that capture efforts to increase the gender responsiveness of other UN labour migration programming across the region. Strengthen the collaboration between UN Women, ILO, and the UNODC by further engaging the UNODC in future EVAW and labour migration work and by providing funding to UNODC to execute programming activities
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: National ownership, Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Support the implementation of SOPs developed under the SAF Programme that protect the rights of WMWs and increase their access to VAW services. UN Women 2025/12 Initiated
Build on the relationships with government partners, employers’ organisations, service providers, and CSOs established under the SAF Programme to continue supporting collaborative work across VAW and labour migration actors to strengthen policies and frameworks as well as VAW referral systems that protect the rights of and serve WMWs. ILO, UN Women and UNODC 2026/12 Initiated
Scale-up and/or replicate capacity development support to first responders (family members, embassies, consulates, employers organisations) so that they are equipped and capable to help WMWs who are experiencing exploitation or violence (including apps like My Journey App in Cambodia). UN Women, ILO and UNODC 2025/12 Initiated
Continue to support programming initiatives that directly empower WMWs and that support WMW organising as well as strengthen support for women’s rights movement building. ILO, UN Women, UNODC 2025/12 Initiated
Continue to support governments and CSOs to collect and use disaggregated labour migration and EVAW data (including data disaggregated by gender, type of violence, and sub-group of vulnerable WMW). UN Women and ILO 2025/12 Initiated
Recommendation: Strengthen future MEL systems in EVAW and labour migration programming to be more responsive to the needs of programming stakeholders, including women’s civil society, by simplifying the reporting processes for implementing partners and designing communications products that are tailored to the specific needs of different stakeholder groups.
Management Response: The Regional Management Team takes note of the findings related to the strong monitoring and evaluation system set up by the project and the challenges shared by the stakeholders regarding the reporting needs. Monitoring and reporting form an integral part of the accountability of the project and its partners to the beneficiaries as well as in relation to the donors. All efforts to strike a balance between simplifying the reporting processes for implementing partners and ensuring robust due diligence will be taken. Further efforts to design communications products that are tailored to the specific needs of different stakeholder groups will be explored provided the resources are available for this.
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Description: Simplify the results reporting processes for implementing partners, including women’s networks and civil society, by requiring less complex and less regular activity reports. Advocate among ILO and UN Women HQ as well as donors for more flexible financial and reporting requirements, including the possibility of providing cash advances to small-scale women’s civil society groups to facilitate the implementation of programming. Design communications products that are tailored to the specific needs of different stakeholder groups and that clearly articulate the value-added of the programme as well as progress towards achieving outcome and impact-level results. Develop tools and systems to more systematically collect monitoring data after awareness-raising sessions to understand what concepts WMWs and members of their community have learned and what additional challenges at the institutional level need to be overcome to ensure that women engage in safe labour migration practices.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Capacity development, Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Simplify the results reporting processes for implementing partners, including women’s networks and civil society, by requiring less complex and less regular activity reports. ILO and UN Women 2026/12 Initiated 2024 onwards in future joint programmes as relevant
Advocate among ILO and UN Women HQ as well as donors for more flexible financial and reporting requirements, including the possibility of providing cash advances to small-scale women’s civil society groups to facilitate the implementation of programming. ILO, UN Women and UNODC 2024/12 Not Initiated 2024 onwards in future programming
Design communications products that are tailored to the specific needs of different stakeholder groups ILO UN Women UNODC 2024/12 Not Initiated 2024 onwards in future programming where resources permit
Develop tools and systems to more systematically collect monitoring data after awareness-raising sessions to understand what concepts WMWs and members of their community have learned and what additional challenges at the institutional level need to be overcome to ensure that women engage in safe labour migration practices ILO and UN Women 2024/12 Not Initiated 2024 onwards in future programming
Develop tools and systems to more systematically collect monitoring data after awareness-raising sessions to understand what concepts WMWs and members of their community have learned and what additional challenges at the institutional level need to be overcome to ensure that women engage in safe labour migration practices ILO and UN Women 2024/12 Not Initiated 2024 onwards in future programming
Recommendation: Advocate for increased investment among donors to support social norms work to end violence against women when designing labour migration and EVAW programming to further address the root causes of violence against women.
Management Response: The Regional Management Team concurs on the importance of increased investment to support social norms work, especially as it requires long term investment and sustained efforts. While changes in social norms take time, integrating approaches to eliminate harmful attitudes, practices and norms related to the acceptability of violence and the need to hold perpetrators accountable with partners is central to reaching these longer term aims.
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Description: ? Share information with donors on the importance and potential benefits of including social norms work into EVAW and labour migration programming as part of advocacy efforts to strengthen donor investment in social norms work that promotes GEEW. This investment should include sufficient financial resources as well as targeted efforts to design and implement strong social norms measurement tools. ? Use information-sharing sessions on safe labour migration practices in migrant worker communities as an entry point to bring women and men together to discuss gender equality concepts including ending IPV. ? Increase investment in changing attitudes towards WMWs and promoting gender equality concepts among government officials, first responders, service providers, youth groups, and potential perpetrators of violence. Greater investment may involve devoting more human resources at regional and national levels, as well as support to partners and investment in activities.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Human Rights, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Share information and advocate with donors on the importance and potential benefits of including social norms work into EVAW and labour migration programming as part of advocacy efforts to strengthen donor investment in social norms work that promotes GEEW. ILO, UN Women 2025/12 Initiated 2025 onwards in future programmes
Use information-sharing sessions on safe labour migration practices in migrant worker communities as an entry point to bring women and men together to discuss gender equality concepts including ending VAWG-IPV. UN Women, ILO 2025/12 Not Initiated 2025 onwards in future programmes
Increase investment in changing attitudes towards the acceptance of violence and WMWs, promoting gender equality concepts and creating safe workplaces without violence and harassment among labour migration government officials, unions, employers organizations and potential perpetrators of violence. ILO, UN Women 2025/12 Not Initiated 2025 onwards in future programmes
Recommendation: Further promote the sustainable development of migrant worker communities including the reintegration of WMWs as a strategy to end violence against women.
Management Response: The Regional Management Team concurs on the importance of promoting sustainable development of migrant workers’ communities and importance of effective the reintegration of WMWs back into countries of origin.
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Description: ? Provide financial literacy training and facilitate business generating opportunities to families and community members of WMWs to support the effective use of remittances in improving the sustainable development of migrant worker communities. ? Scale-up and further expand livelihoods support to WMWs, their families, and community members, which includes entrepreneurship training and opportunities as well as skills development. ? Continue to scale-up and further support skills recognition among WMWs so that the skills that they develop in destination countries can be recognized in their country of origin. ? Support MRCs to use a whole-of-community sustainable development approach that supports not only migrant workers but also their family and community members who are left behind. ? Implement community-based initiatives that challenge negative social attitudes of WMWs who have left their communities to work abroad and provide accessible psychosocial support to help WMWs to socially reintegrate into their communities upon return. ? Support WMWs to care for their children when they are left behind in countries of origin or brought with them to countries of destination.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities, Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Implement community-based initiatives that challenge negative social attitudes about WMWs who have left their communities to work abroad and provide accessible psychosocial support to help WMWs to socially reintegrate into their communities upon return. ILO, UN Women 2025/12 Not Initiated 2025 onwards in future programmes depending on availability of funds
Seek to engage UNICEF to support WMWs to care for their children when they are left behind in countries of origin or brought with them to countries of destination. UN Women 2026/12 Not Initiated This requires discussion with UNICEF and possibly a dedicated project focused on the issue in both countries of origin and destination
Recommendation: Continue to strengthen holistic support to WMWs across their labour migration journey to protect and respond to VAW while investing in improvements in the quality and reach of services for WMWs including those who have experienced violence.
Management Response: The Regional Management Team concurs on the importance of supporting women migrant workers’ across their labour migration journey to the extent possible with availability of resources. The importance of investing in improvements to quality and reach of essential services is well noted and accepted. Advocacy on this front will continue. The decision to migrate irregularly or get into the status of irregularity is a complex one.
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Description: ? Continue to address incentives that WMWs face to migrate through irregular channels. This includes advocating among governments and recruitment agencies for faster processing times and reduced fees of visas and other paperwork. ? Partner with other UN agencies such as the WHO, UNFPA, and UNDP to increase the quality and availability of legal and health services available to women, including WMWs. ? Further engage employers to strengthen their capacities as first responders and improve the safety of work environments for WMWs. ? Provide financial savings and planning support to WMWs before their employment contract ends to facilitate a safe return to their country of origin to re-migrate through regular channels. In addition, advocate among governments to simplify the application process to re-migrate through regular channels.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Gender equality, Human Rights, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Partner with other UN agencies such as the WHO, UNFPA, and UNDP to increase the quality and availability of legal and health services available to women, including WMWs. UN Women, ILO, UNODC 2026/12 Not Initiated 2025 onwards in future programmes depending on availability of funds.
Recommendation: Continue to support the rights of undocumented WMWs and domestic workers while increasing programmatic focus on LGBTIQ+ migrant workers, WMWs with disabilities, and WMWs from climate-affected communities when designing and implementing EVAW and labour migration programming.
Management Response: The Regional Management Team concurs on the importance of continuing support to better protect the rights of undocumented WMWs and domestic workers and focus on LGBTIQ+ migrant workers, WMWs with disabilities, and WMWs from climate-affected communities when designing and implementing EVAW and labour migration programming.
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Description: ? Continue to use human rights frameworks and calls to support all women regardless of legal status as strategies to increase legal protections and service provision to undocumented WMWs. ? Continue initiatives to support the rights of domestic workers, including their organising. ? Draw on the Safe and Fair produced study A Beautiful but Very Heavy Jacket: The Experiences of Migrant Workers with Diverse SOGIE in ASEAN to design programming that targets the specific needs of LGBTIQ+ migrant workers. ? Collaborate with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and IOM who are working on the nexus between climate change and migration to design targeted programming to support WMWs affected by environmental issues and climate change. ? Include initiatives into future programming that support women with disabilities to engage in labour migration and that support the unique needs and vulnerabilities of WMWs with disabilities (both physical and cognitive).
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Alignment with strategy
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities, Normative Support, UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Human Rights, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Continue to use human rights frameworks and calls to support all women regardless of legal status as strategies to increase legal protections and service provision to undocumented WMWs. ILO, UN Women, UNODC 2026/12 Initiated 2025 onwards in future programmes
Draw on the Safe and Fair produced study A Beautiful but Very Heavy Jacket: The Experiences of Migrant Workers with Diverse SOGIE in ASEAN to design programming that targets the specific needs of LGBTIQ+ migrant workers. ILO, UN Women 2026/12 Not Initiated 2025 onwards in future programmes
Collaborate with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and IOM who are working on the nexus between climate change, migration and violence against women to design targeted programming to support WMWs affected by environmental issues and climate change. ILO, UN Women 2027/12 Not Initiated 2025 onwards in future programmes where the issue is relevant
Include initiatives into future programming that support women with disabilities to engage in labour migration safely, mindful of additional risks of violence, and that support the unique needs and vulnerabilities of WMWs with disabilities (both physical and cognitive). ILO, UN Women 2027/12 Not Initiated 2025 onwards in future programmes where feasible
Recommendation: Include mechanisms that allow for more flexibility to modify the programme design and implementation approaches throughout EVAW and labour migration programme implementation in response to stakeholder feedback and changes in operating context.
Management Response: The Regional Management Team recognizes this concern being raised during the evaluation process by stakeholders. While changes in activities and strategies are possible and were adopted during the implementation of SAF, revisions in project design, targets, may require changes to the agreement with the donor. Such revisions to agreement would require time and may result in the whole programme implementation coming to a standstill affecting the beneficiaries even more.
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Description: ? Work with donors during the programme proposal and design phases to build in flexibility to make modifications during implementation based on stakeholder feedback and important changes to the operating context. This will help to ensure that programming continues to be aligned with the changing needs and priorities of rights holders such as WMWs. ? Use stakeholder engagement platforms such as the Safe and Fair Programme’s RPAC, NPACs, and CSO Reference Group as opportunities to receive stakeholder feedback and implement suggested changes regarding programme design and implementation approaches. This will help to ensure that stakeholders, including women’s civil society, remain engaged throughout programme design and implementation.
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Advocacy, Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Relevance, Gender equality, Human Rights
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Engage donors as part of the programme design and inception phase, alongside stakeholders, to create a shared understanding of the needs for flexibility during implementation. Advocate with donors during the programme proposal and design phases to build in flexibility to make modifications during implementation based on stakeholder feedback and important changes to the operating context. This will help to ensure that programming continues to be aligned with the changing needs and priorities of rights holders such as WMWs. ILO and UN Women 2026/12 Initiated
Continue to use platforms such as RPAC, NPACs, and CSO Reference Group as opportunities to receive stakeholder feedback and implement suggested changes regarding implementation approaches within terms of the agreement. ILO, UN Women 2024/02 Overdue-Initiated 2025 onwards in future programmes
Recommendation: Ensure that future regional joint programming on EVAW and labour migration is designed cohesively, empowers national-level leadership, encourages regional level cross-border work, and leverages potential synergies with other UN programming.
Management Response: The Regional Management Team recognizes the importance of regional joint programmes with strong components of cross border work on issues such as labour migration, gender mainstreaming and EVAWG. Depending on the country and location of implementation of activities and within the organisational mandates of each agency, there are varying levels of delegation to national offices. However, irrespective of the level of delegation of authority, national teams and constituents are always fully engaged in planning and implementation of activities and this will be continued.
More detail
Description: ? Design future programming holistically with UN agencies fully engaged across programming elements. This includes ensuring that all UN agencies are accountable for promoting GEEW. UN agencies should jointly plan, report, and have ownership over all programming results regardless of which agency is leading certain programming elements. ? Hire sufficient staff (ideally one representative from each UN agency) to support programming at the national level. ? Further engage and empower Country Office Representatives across programming countries to take a leadership role in fostering national-level stakeholder engagement and buy-in among programme stakeholders. ? Strengthen the strategic engagement of RCs as programming partners to facilitate greater programming collaboration with other UN agencies working across the region and to generate strengthened cross-border collaboration. ? Harness opportunities to expand each agency’s partnership base by effectively sharing partners and directly engaging with the other agency’s traditional partners. ? Further invest in the capacity of staff working at the regional level to develop regional-level synergies and foster cross-border collaboration among governments, service providers, and CSOs. ? Increase and scale-up opportunities for stakeholders from across countries to meet both virtually and in-person to strengthen their working relationships with the aim of generating increased cross-border collaboration and synergies. ? Include outputs in programming frameworks that reflect collaboration with other UN agencies across the region in an attempt to increase collaboration and generate synergies across UN programming. Specifically, generate outputs that capture efforts to increase the gender responsiveness of other UN labour migration programming across the region. ? Strengthen the collaboration between UN Women, ILO, and the UNODC by further engaging the UNODC in future EVAW and labour migration work and by providing funding to UNODC to execute programming activities.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Advocacy, National ownership, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Human Rights, Gender equality, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN agencies should jointly plan, report, and have ownership over all programming results regardless of which agency is leading certain programming elements. Further engage and empower Country Office Representatives across programming countries to take a leadership role in fostering national-level stakeholder engagement and buy-in among programme stakeholders. ILO, UN Women, UNODC 2025/12 Not Initiated 2025 onwards in future joint programmes as relevant
Hire sufficient staff (ideally one representative from each UN agency) to support programming at the national level. ILO, UN Women, UNODC 2025/12 Not Initiated 2025 onwards in future joint programmes as relevant
Strengthen the strategic engagement of RCs as programming partners to facilitate greater programming collaboration with other UN agencies working across the region and to generate strengthened cross-border collaboration. ILO, UN Women and UNODC 2025/12 Initiated Where relevant, RCs will be involved in projects. Otherwise, ILO, UN Women and UNODC will keep RCs informed through their UNCT engagement.
Harness opportunities to expand each agency’s partnership base by effectively sharing partners and directly engaging with the other agency’s traditional partners. Collaborations through joint events enable opportunities to connect partners and networks. ILO, UN Women, UNODC 2030/12 Not Initiated This may not be possible due to management reasons or when partners lack capacity technically
Further invest in the capacity of staff working at the regional level to develop regional-level synergies and foster cross-border collaboration among governments, service providers, and CSOs. ILO, UN Women, UNODC 2025/12 Initiated
Increase and scale-up opportunities for stakeholders from across countries to meet both virtually and in-person to strengthen their working relationships with the aim of generating increased cross-border collaboration and synergies. ILO, UN Women, UNODC 2025/12 Not Initiated 2025 onwards in future joint programmes as relevant
Include outputs in programming frameworks that reflect collaboration with other UN agencies across the region in an attempt to increase collaboration and generate synergies across UN programming. Specifically, generate outputs that capture efforts to increase the gender responsiveness of other UN labour migration programming across the region. ILO, UN Women, UNODC 2024/03 No Longer Applicable This is the work of the UN Network on Migration and part of UNSCDFs. This is beyond the scope of individual projects
Strengthen the collaboration between UN Women, ILO, and the UNODC by further engaging the UNODC in future EVAW and labour migration work and by providing funding to UNODC to execute programming activities ILO, UN Women, UNODC 2025/12 Initiated