Management Response

: Regional Office for East and Southern Africa (Kenya)
: 2022 - 2025 , Regional Office for East and Southern Africa (Kenya) (RO)
: Developmental Evaluation of UN Women’s Work on The Care Economy in East And Southern Africa
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Regional Office for East and Southern Africa (Kenya)

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UN Women ESARO welcomes the evaluation findings and fully accepts the recommendations, committing to scale up care economy programming guided by the global Transform Care initiative and the 5R framework of Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute, Reward, Represent and Resource care. Through stronger cross-thematic collaboration the regional office will strengthen convening spaces, deepen integration of social norms, social protection, and decent work across interventions. The organization will further strengthen regional knowledge development, measurement of care outcomes, and the use of evidence-based tools to support Country Offices and partners.

: Approved
Recommendation: With “TransformCare” as a foundation, scale programme coverage on decent care work, social norms, and social protection
Management Response: UN Women ESARO acknowledges the recommendation to strategically scale up programming that integrates decent care work, social norms transformation, and social protection using the global TransformCare project Theory of change as a foundation.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women's economic empowerment
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women ESARO will provide targeted technical assistance and capacity-building support to at least 3 country offices and 1 regional partner to design and implement care-economy programmes aligned with the TransformCare TOC. This will include capacity-building initiatives to targeted country offices utilizing the organization’s care economy training manuals, policy briefs and other key documents. Regional Policy Specialist – Women’s Economic Empowerment 2026/12 Initiated
Recommendation: Pursue thematic intersections where need exists and strengthen cross-thematic work on the care economy
Management Response: UN Women ESARO acknowledges the recommendation on exploring and advancing cross-thematic collaboration to strengthen the care economy.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women's economic empowerment
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women ESARO will hold at least 2 cross-thematic events with lessons from HQ, regional, and country-levels (including in humanitarian and EVAW units) to highlight intersectionalities of care economy. Regional Policy Specialist – Women’s Economic Empowerment 2026/12 Initiated
Recommendation: Establish and strengthen regional and national convening spaces.
Management Response: UN Women ESARO acknowledges the importance of coordinated platforms for advancing the care economy agenda and commits to strengthening existing convening spaces and establishing new ones where needed. Where appropriate and as resources allow, UN Women will work with regional institutions, governments, UN agencies, civil society, and private-sector partners to facilitate regular knowledge exchange, policy dialogue, and joint action at both regional and national levels to advance care-related priorities.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women's economic empowerment
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women ESARO will engage key regional and national actors (including donors, UN agencies, national governments and AU organs, private sector entities, and civil society organizations) to strengthen national and regional convening spaces as appropriate and within the confines of available resources. Regional Policy Specialist – Women’s Economic Empowerment 2026/12 Initiated
Recommendation: Strengthen regional knowledge development and management, including formal knowledge products as well as more tacit knowledge
Management Response: UN Women ESARO acknowledges and agrees to the critical role of knowledge development and management in advancing the care economy agenda. The organization will strengthen regional knowledge systems by producing formal knowledge products, such as policy briefs, training manuals, and guidance tools, while also capturing and sharing tacit knowledge through lessons learned, peer-to-peer exchanges, and communities of practice.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women's economic empowerment
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women ESARO will support at least 3 Country Offices to each develop a knowledge product to advance care economy programming in the countries. Regional Policy Specialist – Women’s Economic Empowerment 2026/12 Initiated
Recommendation: Strengthen measurement of the contribution of UN Women’s programming to target care outcomes.
Management Response: UN Women ESARO acknowledges the importance of robust monitoring and evaluation to demonstrate the impact of its programming on care-related outcomes. The organization will strengthen measurement with specific indicators being included in the new ESARO Strategic Note.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women's economic empowerment
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women ESARO will introduce specific indicators into the ESARO Strategic Note that will support measurement of care targeted outcomes. Regional Policy Specialist – Women’s Economic Empowerment 2026/12 Initiated
Recommendation: Strengthen work on social norms by integrating social norms considerations into all care programming; targeting institutions and not only communities in norms change; and by adopting a holistic approach to changing norms by pairing social norms interventions with efforts to improve care infrastructure and reform policies
Management Response: UN Women recognizes that addressing social norms is critical to achieving sustainable change in the care economy. The organization will integrate social norms considerations using the organizations social norms framework into care-related programming, targeting both institutions and communities, where appropriate and where resources allow.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women's economic empowerment
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women ESARO will include social norms as part of the care economy training package in enhancing capacity building in at least 3 countries. Regional Policy Specialist – Women’s Economic Empowerment 2026/12 Initiated