Management Response

: Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division
: 2022 - 2023 , Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division (HQ)
: Evaluation of UNFPA / UN Women GBV 2- year Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) Allocation
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: Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division
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The CERF Global Grant for GBV response and prevention jointly implemented with UNFPA was a successful programme with innovative features including 30% direct funding to WLOs/WROs, extensive capacity strengthening activities for WLOs/WROs for service delivery and humanitarian coordination, social norm interventions in emergency contexts, and leveraging the complementarity of UNFPA and UN Women, with the GBV expertise and GEEWG expertise respectively. As the evaluation recommends, the collaboration with UNFPA and GBV AoR is to be explored further based on the programme’s lessons learnt. The strategic discussion at the global level is crucial to accelerate the collaboration to maximize synergy and complementarity. Beyond GBV response, the prevention work such as social norm interventions and livelihood support including cash-based interventions was the critical component of the programme, which enhanced recovery and resilience of the crisis-affected women in emergency settings. Building on the programme experience, UN Women aims to strengthen corporate guidance, technical support, and capacity building of UN Women personnel in social norms change and livelihood services in humanitarian settings through development of relevant policies, procedures, knowledge products, webinar and training. The evaluation included the recommendation of capacity strengthening of WLOs/WROs which supported UN Women’s project implementation in the field. Utilizing the existing policy, procedure, and guidance, UN Women HQ also increases the field staff knowledge and capacity in engaging, consulting, and training WLOs/WROs.

: Approved
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 1: STRENGTHENING COLLABORATION AND ENHANCING COMPLEMENTARITY/SYNERGY WITH UNFPA
Management Response: The CERF Global Grant project successfully enhanced collaboration between UNFPA and UN Women to take a comprehensive approach to GBV response and prevention, leveraging synergies of respective agencies’ experience and expertise. As the evaluation indicates, however, the degree and areas of collaborations varied from country to country. It is acknowledged that the further efforts are required to strengthen engagement with UNFPA at the headquarter level to reflect the lessons learned of collaboration in the project, clearly identify the future areas of collaboration to maximize the synergies and complementarity between two agencies, and communicate the strategy, direction, and guidance on the partnership to the field offices. Furthermore, joint resource mobilization and programming for GBV response and prevention are to be explored with UNFPA to build on the success of the project and secure sustained funding for the GBV work.
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Description: •Encourage collaboration from head offices: Head offices should take an active role in encouraging and facilitating collaboration between different country offices. This can be achieved through regular communication, sharing of best practices, and organizing collaborative platforms for knowledge exchange. These exchanges could be held at the regional level to allow for context-specific discussions. It is important to ensure that country offices are aware that the project is a joint collaboration and that they understand the importance of working together towards common goals. Promoting a culture of collaboration within the organization by recognizing and rewarding collaborative efforts should also be part of that effort. This can be done through performance evaluations, sharing success stories, and creating platforms for cross-functional collaboration. By emphasizing the value of collaboration, it becomes a shared responsibility at all levels of the organization. •Strengthen complementarities and synergies from head offices: Rather than leaving the identification of complementarities and synergies solely to the country office level, Head offices should actively promote and facilitate this process. Head offices can provide guidance and tools for country offices to identify potential areas of collaboration and synergies. This will ensure a more consistent and coordinated approach across different country contexts. This should not mean however that the division of roles must be the same in all countries, as agency’s strengths and experience may vary from one country office to another. It is therefore important that the areas of focus agreed upon are based on the in-country operational context. In addition, enhance communication channels between Head offices and country offices to ensure that relevant information, updates, and guidance are effectively disseminated. This will help foster a better understanding of joint collaboration efforts and enable country offices to align their implementation strategies accordingly. •Leverage the CERF funded project for joint resource mobilization at both HQ and country levels. The experience of the CERF-funded projects can be used as a business case for resource mobilization by showcasing concrete evidence of the organizations’ capacity to collaborate on GBV response, prevention and mitigation. •Systematic and clear division of roles between UNFPA and UN Women in relation to WLO/WRO engagement, based on their respective interventions, experience and partners in the countries. The division of roles should be informed by each agency’s programming in a given country to best leverage existing partnerships. The collaboration should involve joint capacity development plans, addressing the identified needs of selected organisations. Consider engaging additional partners such as OCHA for training sessions on humanitarian architecture and capacity strengthening relevant to accessing pooled funds to increase quality funding and sustainability of efforts to enhance the breadth and effectiveness of capacity-building efforts. •Complement existing interventions: Identify opportunities for all actors in the field to complement each other's existing interventions. Look for areas where the strengths of one actor can enhance the effectiveness of another actor’s ongoing initiatives, as observed in Bangladesh, where UN Women's multipurpose women's centres were complemented by UNFPA-funded midwives, creating a comprehensive and integrated support system. Collaborative approaches like this can improve service delivery and outcomes.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Humanitarian action
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Discuss with the Humanitarian Division of UNFPA HQ, reflect project lessons learned and clearly define the complementarity and synergy two agencies will further leverage in GBViE. Humanitarian Section 2024/09 Not Initiated
Discuss with the Humanitarian Division of UNFPA HQ for the opportunities of further joint programming/collaboration, and determine resource mobilization opportunities for GBViE. Humanitarian Section 2024/12 Not Initiated
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 2: INCREASING ENGAGEMENT AND CONTRIBUTION TO GBV AOR
Management Response: The CERF Global Grant enabled UN Women to provide GBV survivors and women at risk with muti-sectoral services, including critical protection services in complementarity of UNFPA services. The UN Women engagement with the GBV AoR at the country, regional, and global levels, however, tends to be ad-hoc with no clear corporate guidance. The corporate-level discussion, including with the EVAW Section, is to be held to enable strategic engagement with the GBV AoR at the global level, and consulted and communicated at the field level to leverage the resources available at the GBV AoR and for UN Women to contribute to the UN system-wide coordination for GBV response and prevention. The complementarity between the GBV AoR and GiHA is to be further explored and identified as well.
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Description: •Contribute to the GBV AoR in order to enhance ongoing efforts related to fostering cross-agency collaboration with additional UN agencies and GBV actors: UNFPA and UN Women can take part in existing initiatives led by the GBV AoR to encourage collaboration and information-sharing among other actors involved in similar projects in the same geographic locations. It includes taking part in regular meetings, workshops, or working groups where agencies can come together to discuss challenges, exchange ideas, and identify opportunities for collaboration. These interactions can promote a culture of learning, trust, and cooperation among agencies. •Share learning across agencies: Leverage existing mechanisms - in particular resources such as the global GBV AoR website, its Community of Practice and Helpdesk or existing sharing opportunities through the Global Protection Cluster - to share the learning and experiences from the project with other agencies and stakeholders. This sharing of knowledge, in particular the lessons learned and best practices, can help improve coordination and collaboration among agencies and contribute to the broader GBV community in countries. Similarly, collaborative platforms for knowledge exchange and learning should be established/strengthened at regional and country level. •Ensure consistency and coherence through mainstreamed training sessions in collaboration with the GBV AoR: Strengthening capacity when collaborating with new partners on addressing gender-based violence is of paramount importance, as the quality of services delivered hinges upon this crucial foundation. While maintaining a certain level of flexibility, mainstreaming the training sessions would ensure a certain level of consistency and coherence. The capacity building activities could be organized in several modules, clearly distinguishing training aimed at strengthening organizational capacities from technical components. These efforts should build on the forthcoming GBV AoR capacity strengthening strategy (2023) which includes activities specifically targeting WLOs/WROs and other local GBV actors, such as accompanying WLO/WROs to take on GBV coordination leadership roles and training on GBViE technical standards and guidance. The training sessions should always be paired with regular technical support to ensure that organizations have the opportunity to receive guidance and refine their practices when they implement activities and ensure complementarity with training/capacity strengthening interventions for local actors across other relevant humanitarian coordination platforms such as Gender in Humanitarian Action. •Build on GBV AoR efforts to jointly identify needs and lead actors: Facilitate a collaborative process among agencies to jointly identify priority needs, conduct service mapping, and identify key gaps in service provision and referral mechanisms. This collaborative approach will ensure a comprehensive understanding of the operational context and enable efficient allocation of resources. Assign lead roles to the agency best equipped to address each specific area of intervention based on their expertise and capacity, while building on ongoing interventions.
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Humanitarian action
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
The corporate-level discussion to determine strategic priorities for the engagement with the GBV AoR at the global and field levels, including consultation with relevant field offices. Humanitarian Section 2024/06 Not Initiated
The discussion and identification of the complementarity between the GBV AoR and GiHA Humanitarian Section 2024/12 Not Initiated
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 3: STRENGTHENING PROJECT DESIGN, MONITORING AND REPORTING CAPACITIES OF PARTNERS, ESPECIALLY WLOS/WROS
Management Response: Through the CERF Global Grant, UN Women successfully built capacities of WLOs/WROs to deliver services for GBV response and prevention. It is acknowledged, however, that WLOs/WROs, especially smaller organizations, still have limited resources and capacities, and tend to struggle implementing, monitoring and reporting with quality. In order for WLOs/WROs to sustainably secure funding from inter/national organizations and delivery quality services, including through UN Women, their capacities, especially in monitoring and reporting should be further strengthened. The relevant internal resources, including partner management policy and procedure are to be socialized with the field offices to provide WLOs/WROs with standardized and effective capacity development training. It is also to be ensured that the field offices consult with WLOs/WROs in the project design/development phase to accommodate their needs and priorities, as per corporate guidance.
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Description: •Flexibility for smaller organisations, in particular WROs / WLOs and women-led networks: Recognise that the reporting requirements may pose challenges for smaller organisations and provide additional support, guidance, and capacity-building opportunities to assist these organisations in understanding and meeting these requirements. Tailor reporting templates and processes to accommodate their specific capacities and context. •Sensitivity to WLOs and local partners: Acknowledge the unique needs and capacities of women-led organisations and local partners when designing indicators and engage in meaningful consultations and collaboration with these organisations to ensure indicators are relevant and useful for their work. This means exchanges on indicators need to take place during the inception phase between Head offices and country offices. •Prioritise joint monitoring and build monitoring capacities at global and country levels: Significant efforts were invested in the design and use of indicators in the context of the CERF-funded projects, which was underlined by UNFPA and UN Women representatives at HQ and country levels but also by partners. In view of the challenges faced in some cases to fulfil the monitoring requirements, it should be considered to invest in strengthening monitoring capacities, not only for the agencies but also for the partners involved in the project. •Engage WROs and WLOs in Outcome Development: Involve relevant stakeholders, including implementing partners and survivors/service users and WLOs/WROs in particular, in the development of outcome statements. Seek their input and feedback to ensure that the outcomes accurately reflect their needs, priorities, and aspirations based on their knowledge of the challenges faced by women and girls and overall gender-specific aspects. This collaborative approach can help create a sense of ownership and alignment among all stakeholders and could moreover inform future programme design for any similar projects.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Humanitarian action
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Corporate guidance on partnership management with WLOs/WROs are communicated with the field offices. Humanitarian Section 2024/06 Not Initiated
Specific challenges in strengthening capacity of WLOs/WROs at the field level are shared, discussed, and addressed in spaces such as the Community of Practice and addressed by HQ Humanitarian Section 2024/12 Not Initiated
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 4: ENHANCE PROGRAMME QUALITY OF SOCIAL NORM CHANGE IN HUMANITARIAN SETTINGS
Management Response: One of the CERF Global Grant’s distinctive features was to address social norm change in humanitarian settings. Though baseline data collection was hampered by the impact of COVID-19, as the evaluation recognized the measurement of social norms in humanitarian settings was a great asset that can be enhanced for future programming. In order to strengthen the social norm change initiatives as a critical part of GBV prevention, and the LEAP Gender Equality Accelerator, the capacity for EVAW in humanitarian action at the global level is strengthened to provide more practical guidance and training to the field offices, including through leveraging the existing global frameworks for development contexts.
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Description: •Clarify objectives for changing social norms and make use of existing frameworks: When designing interventions targeting social norms, formulate clear and specific objectives. This will help provide a shared understanding among partners and stakeholders in different countries. Selecting a stronger focus and/or providing guidance to country offices on how to approach the outcome (i.e., clear articulations of the intended scope, approach, and activities related to the outcome), will ensure greater coherence and effectiveness in addressing social norms. Programmatic guidance based on existing frameworks and evidence driven strategies should also address any potential conceptual disagreements and provide clarity on how to interpret and operationalise the outcome statements. Making use of existing global frameworks (such as RESPECT) also includes exploring the adaptation of these established frameworks to the unique challenges of humanitarian settings. •Focus Outcome Statements on Specific Objectives: Consider framing outcome statements in terms of specific objectives that are more tangible and actionable. For example, instead of a broad outcome on social norms, focus on specific objectives such as sensitising communities around gender equality, conducting awareness-raising campaigns on women's rights, or promoting behaviour change towards gender-based violence prevention. This approach provides clearer direction and facilitates programmatic implementation. •Baseline and endline measurements: Emphasise the importance of establishing baseline and endline measurements for the different impact indicators. In this regard, the survey on social norms conducted as part of the CERF-funded project appeared to be an innovative initiative as gender surveys are not a standardised practice in humanitarian contexts. Ensuring baseline and endline data are collected will provide a clear starting point and enable the evaluation of progress and impact achieved through project activities. It is important to ensure high quality of any forthcoming data collection tools and methods to ensure that baseline and endline data are captured accurately.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Humanitarian action
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Recruit a Programme Specialist for managing the portfolio of Humanitarian Action/EVAW Humanitarian Section 2024/05 Ongoing
Roll out and socialization of the UN Women Strategy for EVAW across the HDP nexus Humanitarian Section 2024/06 Ongoing
Develop the CERF learning paper on social norm programming as a knowledge product for the field offices Humanitarian Section 2024/09 Ongoing
Organize a joint webinar of EVAW-HA to socialize with the field offices the UN Women’s resources on the social norm programming, including the Internal Guidance Note by the Humanitarian Section, and the approach paper on social norms. Humanitarian Section 2024/09 Not Initiated
Contribute to the corporate discussion on developing a comprehensive tool for measuring social norms from a humanitarian action perspective Humanitarian Section 2024/12 Not Initiated
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 5: INCREASING EFFECTIVENESS OF LIVELIHOOD SERVICE IN HUMANITARIAN SETTINGS
Management Response: The CERF Global Grant allowed UN Women to foster recovery and resilience building of crisis-affected women with a variety of livelihood activities including cash-for-work and cash assistance. The resource mobilization for the LEAP Gender Equality Accelerator, of which the livelihood assistance is a key component, is to be accelerated to secure sufficient resources. The corporate policy/procedure on programming livelihood services in humanitarian settings, in particular cash-based interventions, is to be rolled out. In addition, the partnerships with other UN agencies which work on livelihood in emergencies, particularly with unique knowledge and capacities, are to be strengthened to enhance collaboration and joint-programming.
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Description: •Allocate sufficient resources to livelihood activities: Livelihood initiatives require substantial investment to be effective. In particular, ensure that skills development training programmes are of sufficient duration to provide participants with the relevant skills and knowledge. Additionally, provide adequate grants or financial support that enables participants to initiate their chosen livelihood activities. Insufficient resources and time may hinder the long-term success and sustainability of livelihood programmes. In the same line of thinking, income generating activities should include coaching and ongoing support (such as technical advice, business management skills, and access to market information) to participants. Regular monitoring and follow-up can help address challenges, provide guidance, and maximise the impact of livelihood activities. While the success of livelihood intervention is highly dependent on the characteristics of local markets, it is recommended to conduct market assessment simultaneously with humanitarian needs assessments. •Tailor livelihood approaches to local realities: Adapt the choice of livelihood activities based on the specific opportunities and context of the targeted areas. Consider the local economic conditions, available resources, and market demands. Tailoring the approach ensures that livelihood initiatives align with the local realities and have a higher chance of success. It may involve selecting from various options such as skill development, economic support, cash for work, cash assistance, or vouchers, based on what is most suitable and feasible in the given context. While customisation of the approaches is paramount when it comes to livelihood interventions, it remains essential to ensure a shared understanding of the meaning of livelihoods in emergencies across agencies. •Collaborate with experienced organisations: Partner with organisations that have prior experience and expertise in implementing livelihood programmes in the targeted areas. Collaborating with established local or international organisations that specialise in livelihood interventions can bring valuable knowledge, resources, and networks to the project and help ensure that livelihood interventions are based on relevant data and research and results in viable livelihood activities. Additionally, consider engaging development-oriented actors who have a long-term focus on sustainable livelihoods. This should build on the growing body of evidence on the role of livelihoods in ending violence against women and on the OECD-DAC recommendations on the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus. Such collaborations can lead to more sustainable and impactful outcomes by leveraging existing expertise and resources including on issues of complementarity of GBV and livelihood interventions.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Humanitarian action
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Accelerate efforts in resource mobilization for the LEAP Gender Equality Accelerator Humanitarian Section 2024/12 Ongoing
Roll out of the cash-based interventions (CBI) policy and procedure Humanitarian Section, Internal Policy Management Team 2024/09 Ongoing
Roll out of the cash-based interventions (CBI) policy and procedure Humanitarian Section, Internal Policy Management Team 2024/09 Ongoing
Socialize the CBI policy and procedure with the field offices through webinar, ensuring protection from GBV/social norms mainstreaming in CBIs Humanitarian Section 2025/03 Not Initiated
Identify areas of collaboration and action plans with other UN agencies working on livelihood in emergencies, especially WFP and FAO Humanitarian Section 2025/03 Ongoing