Management Response

: Nigeria
: 2023 - 2024 , Nigeria (CO)
: The Advanced Women Political Empowerment (WPE) Program
:
: Nigeria
:

UN Women undertook the independent midterm evaluation of the Advance Women’s Political Participation in Nigeria’ project, funded by the Government of Canada to assess progress towards implementation and achievement of project goal and objectives. The team is drawing on the analytical foundation and lessons learned highlighted in the evaluation to inform strategic focus and interventions towards increasing women political participation and representation in Nigeria for the remaining period of project implementation time frame. Findings form the evaluation are also shared with other stakeholders working to promote women’s political participation.

: Approved
Recommendation: UN Women should also consider engaging more stakeholders at the conceptualization and design stage of projects to harvest stakeholders’ inputs to the project design which is important in getting their buy-in for the project
Management Response: UN Women fully accepts this recommendations and notes that stakeholder consultation is not only critical for buy-in but also for addressing key concerns of program beneficiaries. However, it should be noted that UN Women consulted with some relevant actors from civil society and government agencies at the level of program design, their suggestions and recommendations were integrated into the proposal. Further, UN Women organized consultative meetings before commencement of implementation with different stakeholders from across women politicians, CSOs, the government and academia to secure buy-in for activity implementation. Recommendations from these consultations greatly informed the activity implementation design and workplan. For subsequent projects, UN Women will organize more robust consultations at the conceptualization stage.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: National ownership
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Conduct end-of-project evaluation, to harvest lessons and recommendations for development of next phase of the proposal UN Women 2025/10 Initiated
Consultations with project beneficiaries and other stakeholders to inform conceptualization of new proposals UN Women 2025/10 Initiated
Quarterly strategic meetings and consultations between UN Women and key stakeholders working on women’s political participation and governance reform to harvest information that will inform conceptualization of a new project document UN Women 2025/12 Initiated UN Women is collaborating with key strategic partners to organize quarterly meetings of the Women Political Participation Working Group (WPPWG), during which issues around the participation and representation of women in elective and appointive positions across all levels are discussed and important recommendations documented to inform future interventions.
Recommendation: Increase the tempo of implementation of post-election activities across the intervention states by extending the contract of the IPs for implementation of post-election activities
Management Response: UN Women partially accepts this recommendation and notes that project activities were planned and being implemented across the electoral cycle. However, intensity of activities cannot be the same as during elections because the focus of engagement differs. While the elections period is heavy with a flurry of activities, ranging from voter registration, elections campaigns etc., activities are planned to align with INEC election timetable. The focus of engagement after the elections takes a different turn as some activities might no longer be relevant. Additionally, following the elections, the project team had to take a pause to reflect, document lessons on the pre-election and elections activities to guide post-election interventions. Moreover, the 2022 annual report clearly indicates activities planned for the post-election period with a heavy focus on working with the federal and state parliaments. The delay in constituting leaderships and committees in parliament equally delayed implementation of planned post-election activities. The evaluation report fails to reflect this implementation challenge.
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Description: This project was designed based on the electoral cycle approach which implies that activity implementation will cover pre-election, during, and post-election phases. While the evaluation found that post-election activities are very limited, it is important to consider increasing the tempo of implementation of post-election activities to achieve the project outputs
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Engagement of IPs to support the implementation of post-election planned activities. UN Women 2025/12 Completed Post-election activities are well captured in the project document. These are activities geared towards legislative framework, engendering political parties, building capacity of media on gender reportage, sensitizing and raising awareness of informal sector, such as traditional and religious leaders, mentoring programme for young women, etc.
Include in the 2024 work plan planned post-election activities not implemented in 2023. UN Women 2024/06 Completed
Accelerate delivery in 2024 to ensure implementation of planned 2023 activities yet to be implemented UN Women 2025/02 Completed
Recommendation: Ensure that the established Women Resource centers are adequately utilized.
Management Response: Un Women takes note of this recommendation. The Resource Centers were established to provide access to resources such as internet facilities, and research to support women's political careers. Findings from the evaluation have highlighted the need to scale up campaigns to create wider visibility for the Resource Centers to enable as many women as possible to gain access, particularly vulnerable women, including young women and women living with disabilities. UN Women has since engaged MBNCWD and strategized on how to popularize the resource centers, which includes developing an awareness campaign.
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Description: The project established resource centers in FCT, Calabar, and Borno states. However, the evaluation found that they are underutilized due to low awareness of the centers and a lack of planned activities for the centers.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Sign an LOA with MBNCWD to support the rollout of an awareness campaign to create wide visibility around the Centers. UN Women 2024/06 Completed
Provide technical support and monitoring of activities of the Resource Centers UN Women 2025/07 Initiated
Recommendation: Consider making changes to the project activity reporting system.
Management Response: Rejected. UN Women's position is that based on the provisions of the Grant Agreement with the Global Affairs Canada, an annual report is produced and submitted. However, to keep the door informed and to also ensure the team keeps track of implementation, UN Women provides a quarterly report to the donor. These quarterly reports were made available during the evaluation. Although the quarterly reporting template is not as comprehensive as the annual reporting template, it still provides all the required information and progress made on each result area and indicator.
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Description: Rejected. The project team adopted annual reporting of project progress. So far, only one annual report for 2022 was available, while all other progress that the project may have made in 2023 was not captured due to the annual reporting systems adopted. This evaluation recommends that the project adopt a quarterly reporting system to avoid underreporting of project progress
Management Response Category: Rejected
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Impact, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Key Action not added.
Recommendation: Recruitment of staff to support project implementation.
Management Response: At the time of evaluation, most positions were filled by UN Women except the SB3 position, because the staff who had initially occupied the position resigned. Nevertheless, the recruitment for a replacement was well underway as at the time of evaluation and has now been occupied following the conclusion of the recruitment process. Additionally, a staff was was temporarily deployed to fill in the gap. This information was made available to the evaluator. Despite the delay in onboarding some of the positions, especially recruitment of a substantive P4 position, the UN Women took measures to fill in the gap by having the Regional Advisor on WPP to step in. This recommendation implies that there existed a significant gap in staffing, and undermines efforts made by UN Women to ensure adequate staffing as indicated in the project design.
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Description: The evaluation found that the planned number of staff for project implementation based on the project design was not complete at mid-term. UN Women should put measures in place to ensure that all relevant staff are available to support project implementation.
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Recruitment for a replacement of the resigned SB3 position. UN Women 2024/06 Completed The recruitment for a replacement for the resigned SB3 was well underway as at the time of evaluation, but is now complete, and the position has been occupied following the conclusion of the recruitment process.
Recommendation: Consider awarding new contracts in phase 2 of the project for the airing of radio programmes on Women Political Participation.
Management Response: UN Women recognizes the importance of mass media in shaping opinions and awareness creation. Which is why significant investments were made to engage women radio to engage with the media. Contrary to the assertion that the project team has not leveraged radio programs to create awareness, UN Women through its implementing partners deployed the use of radio to create awareness, radio jingles, vox pops, live radio broadcasts of programs were all implemented to create awareness on WPP and mobilize support for women's leadership ahead of the 2023 general elections. UN Women takes note of the recommendation to award a new contract for media engagement to sustain radio programming.
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Description: Radio programmes are effective not only in informing people but also in creating awareness regarding many social issues including WPP. The project team was strategic in engaging Women Radio as IP but it has not leveraged the comparative advantages of radio programmes in informing people and creating awareness. Hence it is recommended that new contract should be made awarded for airing of radio programmes on WPP.
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Launch a competitive process for engaging a new IP to sustain media engagement, including radio programming. UN Women 2024/01 Completed
Sign new contract with selected IP and monitor implementation of project activities UN Women 2025/07 Completed Ongoing implementation monitoring of new IPs to ensure delivery is on time, on scope, and on budget.
Recommendation: UN Women should consider sustaining the coordination among partners supporting the implementation of activities related to WPP.
Management Response: UN Women fully accepts this recommendation. UN Women had established the Women's Political Participation Partners’ Working Group to support coordination amongst donors, development partners and CSOs working to promote women political empowerment to avoid duplication of efforts and to build synergy. While the working group has been able to achieve some strides around coordination, there are some challenges in coordinating the group. There is a need to expand the group to bring in more organizations to be part of the working group and further strengthen the structure and to enhance the operations of the working group at state level
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Description: The evaluation found that the project is coherent with several projects by other partners related to WPP. However, the evaluation believes that this should be sustained to continuously build synergy with other projects being implemented at the national and state levels
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Knowledge management, Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Organize a retreat of the working group to strategize around collaboration and strengthen structure. UN Women 2024/09 Completed
Extend invitation to other organizations to be part of the working group UN Women 2025/01 Completed Done. UN Women now plays a coordinating role in the women political participation (WPP) working group, providing technical expertise towards advancing women's leadership roles at the national and state levels in Nigeria.
Recommendation: Provide better disability inclusion.
Management Response: UN Women is committed to the principle of leaving no one behind in its programming. Although efforts have been made to include persons living with disability in project activities, the response and participation has been low. UN Women will be more intentional in reaching out to women living with disabilities who face multiple intersecting discrimination, first by being female and living with disability. UN Women will reach out to the network of women living with disability to be part of programming and ensure women in politics living with disability are able to access the resource centers and are enabled.
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Description: Adequate provisions should be made for PWD such as the provision of braille for blind participants and provision of interpreters for persons with hearing impairments
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Human Rights
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Engage different networks of women living with disabilities to benefit from and participate from project activities UN Women 2025/12 Initiated Ongoing. As a result, a memo on "special seats for persons with disabilities" was submitted to the national house of assembly after a national consultation as part of the commemoration of the 2024 International Day of Persons with Disabilities.