Management Response

: Multi-Country Office for the Pacific (Fiji)
: 2023 - 2027 , Multi-Country Office for the Pacific (Fiji) (MCO)
: Markets for Change End of Phase I and Mid-term Phase II Evaluation
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Multi-Country Office for the Pacific (Fiji)

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The end of Phase I and Mid Term Phase II evaluation is critical to the project and will assist in the development and design of the next Phase for the programme. A decade long project has quite a lot to offer in terms of designing the next Phase. The learnings, what worked, challenges and results will all support to strengthen the next phase of the programme. The experience of the team with this evaluation has generally been a positive one whereby having the consultants probe the team with insightful discussions, probing them to think beyond the current project and provide inputs based on their experience and implementation on the ground. The evaluation is timely as we are currently planning and designing the next phase. The evaluation will also assist the current project donors to be better informed and they will be able to make informed decisions on their engagement both with the ongoing Phase and the next Phase. The timeframe identified for most of the recommendations is 2025 - 2026 as it is crucial for the project to have a new Programme document in place by 2026 hence the bulk of the recommendations and key actions will be incorporated in the Prodoc for the next phase. Key discussions around unpaid care work, protection issues facing women market vendors, inclusion of fisherfolk and women in rural communities were conducted at length with the consultants. However, this has not been captured and remains as a gap in the recommendations

: Approved
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 1 Enhance the relevance of M4C by designing a long-term inclusive strategy and interventions to reach a greater number of vendors and farmers in existing markets, provide deeper capacity building approaches that include mentoring and coaching support, and expand to other markets including rural and district markets. Suggested key actions (i) Provide mentoring and coaching to vendors and Market Vendor Associations (MVAs) to deepen their knowledge and strengthen their operations in the longer term; (ii) Collect statistics and research the feasibility of providing childcare at the markets and for children to stay in rural women’s accommodation centers and pilot a childcare initiative; (iii) Conduct research and consultations to support the potential evolution of “Smart” markets as 24/7 operations, with diversification of products and services (health clinic, banking, nursery, etc.) and the promotion of tourism and markets as dynamic economic hubs with opportunities for women run MSMEs and access for customers and vendors with disabilities. (iv) Enhance current levels of participation and representation of M4C’s rights holders in government taskforces, committees, and platforms focused on women’s economic empowerment. This could help consolidate the role of MVAs to advocate for vendors’ rights and needs, ensure their inputs in infrastructure design and maintenance of markets and policy developments on women’s economic empowerment more generally. (v) Design and implement a strategy to provide more persons with disability access to economic opportunities at markets in collaboration with government and NGO entities such as Fiji Disabled Peoples Federation, Nuanua O Le Alofa in Samoa, People with Disabilities Solomon Islands, the Vanuatu Society for People with Disability and the Pacific Disability Forum.
Management Response: Some of the suggested key actions are already part of Phase I and II implementation.: (i) Mentoring and coaching for the market vendors is ongoing. One example of this was facilitated through our partnership with the Peace Corps for mentoring is ongoing and will be extended and strengthened in the next phase for the women vendors to deepen their knowledge and learning. (ii) Funds have been allocated for conducting research and an online monitoring system has been procured to strengthen data and statistics. Childcare at the municipal markets has been part of ongoing discussions with relevant Government authorities and at some juncture with UNICEF (Phase I of the project). (ii) Regarding the concept of 'Smart' markets (as 24/7 operations) this needs to be discussed with the Governments to see how feasible the concept is and may require adjustments since there are many factors to consider including the safety and security of women and potential family conflicts that may arise from women working such prolonged hours at the market (given that they continue to bear the greater burden of care). The project is currently supporting the revision of the market by-laws/ ordinances to ensure is they are gender responsive and better equipped to respond to the needs of market vendors throughout the process. (iv) Building on the recommendations and the work underway to support the formation and strengthening of MVAs, their recognition, participation and representation of M4C’s rights holders in government (taskforces, committees, and platforms), the M4C project will continue to strengthen the capacities of MVAs to inform policy and planning developments at the local and national levels. (v) On addressing disability inclusion and accessibility in the project, in addition to continuing our support of the incorporation of relevant disability agencies are part of the governance committees in all 4 countries. Avenues shall be explored with the relevant stakeholders to see how the stakeholders can work with the Municipal Councils to assist persons with disabilities to better access markets for economic opportunities.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, Capacity development, National ownership, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Advocacy, Knowledge management, Internal coordination and communication, Innovation and technology, Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Normative Support, Operational activities, Culture of results/RBM, Agriculture
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency, Relevance, Sustainability, Impact, Human Rights, Gender equality, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
R1.1 Inclusion of childcare at the market UN Women Markets for Change Programme 2025/12 Completed (ii.) Inclusion of childcare at the market - UN Women will engage with UNICEF, ILO, other UN agencies and relevant authorities, and MVAs to determine how these efforts can be advanced as part of the next phase of the project, building on research conducted by UNICEF and UN Women respectively.
R1.2 Disability Inclusion UN Women Markets for Change Programme 2025/12 Completed Expansion of scope of work with persons with disabilities, as target beneficiaries will be explored by the project team with UNDP and Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), in consultation with Government (ministerial level and market management).
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 2 Explore further partnerships with UN technical agencies that can add value to the efforts made by UN Women to empower women market vendors in terms of their institutional knowledge, expertise, established networks and seek stronger partnerships with national government technical agencies, private sector, NGOS, and Pacific-level platforms on initiatives to further empower market vendors and their associations and women’s economic empowerment generally. Suggested key actions: (i) Work more with FAO, IFAD, ILO, UNICEF, and WFP to make joint project submissions for funding to support farmer vendors on climate resilient agriculture, sustainable livelihoods and entrepreneurship and in exploring economic diversification strategies for women market vendors; (ii) Strengthen partnerships with UN agencies and financial institutions for financial and digital literacy and climate insurance; (iii) Clarify communication, monitoring, and reporting lines within and between UNDP and UN Women at country and Pacific regional levels; (iv) Mobilize UN agencies to support a specific gender equality and women’s empowerment outcome for the next UNCT Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework; (v) Support intercountry M4C exchanges and Pacific platforms on women’s economic empowerment and climate change with UN Women (M4C/WRD) taking a more active and leading role on applying a gender lens on climate resilience; (vi) Improve coordination on digital innovation efforts and value chains with the relevant UN and government agencies and NGOs operating in this space.
Management Response: (i) Agree with the recommendation to further explore and strengthen partnerships with UN agencies to add value to the project. Discussions have been ongoing with some of the other UN agencies e.g. UNICEF, IFAD, ILO, FAO, WFP to pool technical expertise and resources to strengthen the existing project. Plans are in place to use this approach to inform the design and development of the next phase of the project (ii) Engagement with UN agencies and financial institutions for financial and digital literacy and climate insurance was done in both Phase I and Phase II. UNDP as a responsible party has also supported engagement on digital innovation efforts together with UN Women and we recently concluded a partnership with UNCDF on expanding access to parametric insurance for the market vendors. (iii) Communication, monitoring and reporting mechanisms with UNDP has been in place since the Phase I, and we will continue to strengthen the same, building on recommendations from this process. (iv) The recommendation to mobilize UN agencies to support a specific gender equality and women’s empowerment outcome for the next UNCT Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework is noted. Efforts were made on the same, in the development of the current Pacific-wide UNSDCF (2023-2027), but this was not successful. We will continue to explore opportunities for advancing the same, with the support of other UN entities. (v) Regarding the recommendation to support intercountry M4C exchanges and Pacific platforms on women’s economic empowerment and climate change, this aligns well with how the M4C and Women's Resilience to Disasters (WRD) team have collaborated in the past on project activities targeting the preparedness of markets and market vendors - for disasters. Additionally, the teams have collaborated in responding to different crises (COVID-19 and natural hazard events (Vanuatu)). In line with this recommendation, we will explore further opportunities for building the components of the M4C project that can support the resilience of markets and market vendors, to different kinds of shocks. . A scoping study has already been planned to support further thinking in this area, to ensure that our efforts under this project, better contribute to climate adaptation and mitigation efforts in our project countries. (vi) Coordination on value chains with the relevant UN and government agencies and NGOs will be strengthened. UNDP as the responsible party under the project has been working on value chains in both Phase I and Phase II. The plan for the next Phase is to expand the area of engagement under value chains.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, Capacity development, Advocacy, Knowledge management, Internal coordination and communication, Innovation and technology, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Partnership, Normative Support, Operational activities, Culture of results/RBM, Organizational efficiency, Climate change, Agriculture
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency, Sustainability, Gender equality, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
R2.1 Further explore and strengthen partnerships with UN technical agencies to add value to the programme UN Women Markets for Change Programme 2031/12 Initiated UN Women will continue convening discussions with relevant UN agencies to add value to the project, and we will be conducting a scoping study for the next phase in which we will be exploring opportunities to leverage the mandates of other UN agencies to support the stronger integration of climate action - and enhancing both the productivity and resilience of market vendors in contexts that are highly vulnerable to natural hazard events and other kinds of crises.
R2.2 Improve coordination on value chains with the relevant UN and government agencies and NGOs operating in this space. UN Women Markets for Change Programme 2026/12 Initiated Coordination with the relevant UN and government agencies and NGOs will be strengthened. The plan for the next Phase is to expand the area of engagement to support women and women-owned businesses, highlighting opportunities and gaps in accessing productive resources such as land, finances, assets, social protection, and investments in knowledge and innovation. Expanding support to skills building, including value addition, marketing, and market linkages, as well as job opportunities for women in the green, blue, including creative economies.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 3 Recommendation 3 Continue to strengthen and expand MVA membership in the four countries and increase the proportion of rural farmers as MVA members and as MVA executive committee members in Fiji. In addition, design a comprehensive, demand-driven and inclusive training plan for diverse women vendors and farmers; secure resources for its implementation; and execute a plan to increase participation of women vendors in existing M4C markets and to expand to smaller marketplaces across the four countries. Suggested key actions: (i) For MVAs to function well, design and implement a monitoring system and governance training to support MVAs in following the law on associations and their constitutions. (iv) Explore the potential for establishing national organizations/federations of MVAs to strengthen their participation in national policy issues affecting marketplaces and women’s economic empowerment more generally; (v) For training content, refer to vendor demands such as for product diversification and valued added products, digital online marketing, food handling for health and hygiene, MSME startup for food processing and handicrafts, cooperative development, market management, and climate resistant cropping methods; (vii) Continue working with private sector for expanding delivery of financial and digital literacy training programmes to more women vendors; (ix) Adopt TOT approach and longer-term mentoring/follow-up in collaboration with technical government and UN agencies and the private sector for a larger cohort of vendors, new vendors and farmers for training on financial literacy, digital literacy, business skills, and smart resilient agriculture. Use existing SIYB trainer networks, retired civil servants, CSOs as potential trainers;
Management Response: (i) The project has in place continued support mechanisms to strengthen and expand MVA membership and voice in the four countries and increase the proportion of rural farmers as MVA members and as MVA executive committee in all 4 M4C project countries. Trainings have been demand-driven and inclusive training plan for diverse women vendors and farmers in Phase I and Phase II and will continue to be a strategy moving forward. The trainings identified above are already part of the ongoing trainings, but the scope to roll-out the same has been limited by available resources. We have made this a priority in our resource mobilization efforts and will continue to do so. (iv) The concept of establishing cooperatives have already been introduced to the MVAs in Fiji. With the support from the Ministry of Women and the Department of Cooperatives in Fiji the first market vendor cooperative has been established with the women market vendors from the Suva municipal market. The project saw this as one avenue through which to both strengthen the functionality of MVAs, and the benefits that accrue to members of MVAs, as well as to give them voice in national matters. The project will explore with MVAs, their interest in establishing national-level federations. (v) - (ix)are all appreciated. The M4C project has been conducting trainings with support from UNDP on: product diversification, valued addition, online marketing, food handling for health and hygiene and climate resistant agriculture. Trainings on family business models was proposed under the current project, but due to funding limitations, it has not been possible.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, Capacity development, National ownership, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Knowledge management, Innovation and technology, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Partnership, Normative Support, Operational activities, Culture of results/RBM, Climate change, Agriculture
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Relevance, Sustainability, Gender equality, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
R3.1 Expand to smaller markets UN Women Markets for Change Programme 2025/12 Completed The project will continue with its efforts to expand the scope and number of project sites for the next phase however this will depend on thorough research, analysis and extensive consultations with key stakeholders. The trainings, capacity development and technical support by the project will continue. Governments of other Pacific countries have also shown keen interest to be included in the project. Inclusion of other Pacific countries need to be included in the recommendation.
R3.2 Expanding training content and rolling out TOTs UN Women Markets for Change Programme 2031/12 Initiated (v) - (ix) Under the next phase, we will explore the menu of trainings that can be availed under this project, and how they can be consolidated. We will also explore how we can work with government technical agencies to support such trainings - for the longer-term sustainability of such efforts. This will build on lessons learnt from past trainings and our collaboration with the WRD program, including on family business models, community climate resilient ecosystems and cooperative development, taking into account the potential benefits to the livelihoods, voice and agency of women market vendors in all project countries. Additionally, the recommendation for a TOT approach will be explored by the project team and based on findings it shall be considered in the design of the next Phase.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 4 Continue to collaborate with national and local governments, partners, and donors and ensure consultations and inputs from MVAs for marketplace maintenance and infrastructure upgrading and renovation of markets to ensure that the design and construction are gender-responsive and climate-resilient. Suggested key actions: (i) Clarify the respective roles of the Councils/Local governments and MVAs on the maintenance of equipment and facilities provided by UN Women through M4C; (ii) Document and compare the varying market stalls fees/fees for sanitation blocks in the four countries and promote dialogue among MVAs, market managers, and local governments on appropriate and affordable fee structures that provide adequate revenue for the basic maintenance of market facilities. In addition, explore practical means to ensure that vendors are not incurring financial loss in sales due to time spent away from their stalls for electronic fee collection; (iii) Advocate for resource mobilization to upgrade market infrastructure to combat rising temperatures (fans, ventilation, solar panels, shelter, etc.) and provide assistance to women farmer vendors and their families on climate resilient agriculture; (iv) Work with MVAs on monitoring the effectiveness and implementation of the recently introduced climate micro-insurance in collaboration with UNDCF, and especially its impact on vendors’ socio-economic security; (v) Continue to monitor and review the uptake and use of rural women’s accommodation centres for rural women and assess the need for any changes and further development of such centres (e.g. in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu); (vi) Propose UN Women partnerships with donors and governments (national and local), on advancing gender responsive infrastructure development and upgrading of markets. (vii) Convene donors for coordination and resource mobilization on M4C.
Management Response: (i) The transfer of assets is diligently undertaken, with documentation put in place after assets are transferred to the Councils/ Local Governments and MVA's (ii) The varying market staff fees and all other market related fees continue to be the subject of the ongoing review of the market By-Laws. (iii) and (vi and vii): These recommendations are appreciated and the suggested key actions. However, this is subject to the priorities of development partners. Support for direct infrastructural development and basic repairs/maintenance and enhancements is limited. The M4C project team have also been advocating for greater domestic investment in the market infrastructure to support the livelihoods of market vendors across all project countries. All efforts are in place and will continue to be a priority in advocating for inclusive consultations for market infrastructure and promoting gender responsive infrastructure development and upgrading of markets. The level of infrastructure support relies largely on donor interest and government plans. (iv) Engagement with UN agencies and financial institutions for financial and digital literacy and climate insurance was included in both Phase I and Phase II. UNDP as a responsible party has also supported engagement on digital innovation efforts together with UN Women and we recently concluded a partnership with UNCDF on expanding access to parametric insurance for the market vendors. This insurance cover assisted some market vendor farmers in Fiji whereby they were compensated for the damages to their crops following natural disasters.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, National ownership, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Advocacy, Innovation and technology, Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Partnership, Normative Support, Operational activities, Culture of results/RBM, Climate change, Agriculture
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency, Relevance, Sustainability, Human Rights, Gender equality, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
R4.1 Resource mobilization for infrastructural works and other support UN Women Markets for Change Programme 2031/12 Initiated UN Women will continue to advocate for investments towards climate resilient infrastructure support in its next phase, as a key priority for governments and development partners. We recognize that government-led infrastructure support needs to be secured for the sustainability of these efforts, noting the high vulnerability of countries in this region to natural hazard events. This will include investments to address maintenance works and upgrades to improve the safety, security, and accessibility of markets, all of which will continue to be supported by the project.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 5 Leverage M4C’s marketplaces initiatives as a catalyst for broader women’s economic empowerment and support national policy frameworks that facilitate the transition from an informal to formal economy and advance women’s economic empowerment across the four countries. Suggested key actions: (i) Continue support and advocate for the finalization and adoption of gender responsive and gender friendly market by-laws and regulations; (iii) Work with national government agencies on coordinated policy developments related to MSME development and development of rural vendors cooperatives together with climate change to economically advance women market vendors and women in the informal sector; (vi) Strengthen research, interventions and partnerships around agricultural value chains, value additions, supply and demand and local economic development, including in the tourism sector; (viii) Optimise efforts to improve marketplaces by linking with initiatives for blue, green and creative economies and the care economy.
Management Response: (i) The project is currently advocating for and supporting the finalization and adoption of gender responsive revised market regulations. The project team has been working closely with the relevant Ministries, Councils and market vendors to ensure a consultative process is undertaken from the commencement to the conclusion on the bylaw revision process including the implementation of the new/revised regulations. (iii) Governments and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) already have policies in place specific to MSMEs that include support to business management plans and startup capital. The project has engaged the service providers to engage with the market vendors and will continue to further coordinate initiatives from both the public and private sector on the same. (vi) We agree with the recommendation to conduct research, interventions and partnerships around agricultural value chains, value addition, and supply chains in the tourism sector. (vii) - (viii) Digital literacy and use of online platforms have already been introduced and the market vendors are utilizing their smart phones to do business online. They are also using this modality to communicate wider and better for networking and expanding/enhancing their business. Communicating not only with their respective market vendors but with vendors from other markets and other Pacific countries as well.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, National ownership, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Advocacy, Knowledge management, Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Normative Support, Operational activities, Climate change, Agriculture
UNEG Criteria: Relevance, Sustainability, Human Rights, Gender equality, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
R5.1 (vi) Conduct research, to inform interventions and partnerships around agricultural value chains, value addition, supply chains in the tourism sector. UN Women Markets for Change Programme 2031/12 Initiated UN Women is planning a scoping study to conduct research on opportunities for women's economic empowerment in the Tourism sector which we hope to leverage to inform interventions under the next Phase. This is also linked to suggested action (viii).
R5.2 (viii) Optimise efforts to improve marketplaces by linking with initiatives for blue, green and creative economies UN Women Markets for Change Programme 2031/12 Initiated The above indicated scoping study will be exploring in the mentioned areas so the upcoming next Phase can include efforts to improve linkages between efforts to advance women's economic empowerment, and for and efforts in the blue, green and creative economies. On support to the care economy, please see the Key Actions under Recommendations 1 and 6.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 6 Broaden the approach to women’s economic empowerment by identifying intervention actions with different groups of women vendors (permanent resellers, rural women vendors, farmers) and relevant institutions as partners along the food supply chain (“farm gate to table” concept) and investing in women’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) development with a more inclusive outreach to representatives of marginalized groups. In addressing women market vendors’ empowerment, M4C Phase I succeeded in reaching vulnerable women in the informal economy and in particular women farmers coming to markets to sell their produce. For Phase II, there is still a challenge to reach more rural women in locations far from city and town markets, to engage men farmer vendors on gender equality, and to include persons with disabilities in the promotion of marketplace-based economic opportunities. Suggested key actions (v) Design a strategy to reach out to the LGBTQI+ community for advocacy on non -discrimination and inclusion in training and economic opportunities in marketplace settings; (vi) Address women’s unpaid work as a component of empowerment strategies, by reviewing the need and demand for childcare arrangements at markets and in rural women’s accommodation centres.
Management Response: (i) M4C will continue to build on lessons learnt in its efforts to advance the rights of all women and girls, to see how we can strengthen our approaches to advance the rights of the LGBTQI+ community. (ii) Addressing women’s burden of unpaid care and domestic work is a key priority for UN Women and a scoping study will be undertaken that provides a detailed situational analysis of the existing policies, plans, and practices to respond to this issue.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, Capacity development, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Operational activities, Agriculture, Engaging men and boys
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Relevance, Sustainability, Impact, Human Rights, Gender equality, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
R6.1 (vi) Addressing women’s burden of unpaid care and domestic work UN Women Markets for Change Programme 2031/12 Initiated Addressing women’s burden of unpaid care and domestic work is a key priority for UN Women and as indicated in response to Recommendation 1 (Key Action (ii)). UN Women will continue to engage with UNICEF, ILO and other UN agencies and relevant authorities, and MVAs to determine how these efforts can be advanced as part of the next phase of the project, building on research conducted by UNICEF and UN Women respectively.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 7 Address bottlenecks in disbursement of funds and speed up expenditure of allocated funds, strengthen monitoring, evaluation and reporting capacity by hiring M4C staff with Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) expertise and conduct research to produce knowledge products for sharing M4C results, models, guidelines and training materials. Suggested key actions: (i) Review and streamline UN Women’s internal procedures, procurement and staff recruitment processes; (ii) Organize a Pacific Islands focused staff training on Quantum system; (iii) Prioritize and agree on acceleration plans to speed up delivery for Phase II, especially for Samoa and Solomon Islands; (iv) Organize training internally for project officers of the four countries with assistance of MCO M&E officer and UN Women ROAP; (vii) Hire a consultant to identify and analyze models that could be upscaled and replicated and lessons learned from over a decade of M4C interventions and to produce a publication for sharing and discussion of future approaches and strategies; (viii) Create WEE specialist position in addition to M4C Project Manager to enhance technical capacity, knowledge management and institutional memory, strategy and policy development, and provide overall support to UN W projects, partnerships, and resource mobilization efforts.
Management Response: (i) - (ii) This Due to changes in the corporate financial management system, some initial challenges were experienced by the M4C team. These have since been resolved and both the team and office have put in strategies to address the recurrence of these challenges, such as updating teams' workflows, and conducting dedicated trainings for teams on Quantum, in addition to providing on-going support to teams as needed. (vi) This is accepted and the M4C team have taken action to strengthen the MERL for the project by way of investing in an online monitoring and survey application that not only collects data but also has features to analyze the data and developing reports. M4C team also continues to mobilize funds for a dedicated M&E role in the team. (vii) The need for a consultant has been captured earlier and we have short term consultancy identified to provide this information, which will then be used to develop the next phase. (viii) The position WEE Specialist/M4C Regional project Manager is already in existence. It would benefit the project to get a technical WEE consultant on board in the next Phase to add value to the project team and this modality will also assist with capacity development of the project team in the long term. Knowledge management and institutional memory, strategy and policy development is an ongoing process and efficiently using existing knowledge and resource portals will address these issues. It will not necessarily be addressed by creating another position.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, Capacity development, Knowledge management, Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Operational activities, Culture of results/RBM, Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency, Sustainability, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 8 Develop a transfer plan for each country across all outcomes for when the M4C project comes to an end in 2026. Suggested key actions: (i) Identify criteria and undertake assessments for extension, expansion or exit based on the “extension-expansion-exit” approach of Phase II project document; (ii) Identify the government departments and agencies, M4C PMC, NGOs, private enterprises and networks that can take up key project activities; (iii) Consult with duty bearers and rights holders on how the PWC or similar structure could become an ongoing mechanism for reporting, sharing, networking and accountability. (iv) Document independent MVAs models which can be transferred to local town, city, and district marketplaces. (v) Continue to engage with national authorities on SOPs and to finalize the adoption of regulations for markets and their eventual enforcement that can guarantee the safety and economic security for women vendors and farmers over the longer term; (vi) Consider introducing a more strategic and sustainable capacity building approach such as training of trainers (TOT) on financial literacy and business skills together with ongoing follow-up of cohorts to reach more vendors, especially rural vendors; (xii) Provide support to development of MVA cooperatives as a key means to sustain women vendors and entrepreneurs accessing credit, grants and loans; (xiv) Advocate more strongly for gender budgeting at national and local government levels for women’s economic empowerment.
Management Response: i) - (v) have been incorporated as part of the ongoing Phase II project strategy and implementation. (vi) On this key action, through our partnership with UNDP, we are engaging with the private sector on financial literacy, business management (including accurate record keeping). The modules are updated as per the vendors' needs, at no added cost to the project. Through this collaboration we have also been able to commence with community-based trainings which are now reaching the greater rural vendors and communities. (xiv) This is a key priority for the M4C project. Advancing gender responsive budgeting has been advanced as part of our work with government stakeholders and we will be looking to focus our efforts in this regards, going forward (as part of the next Phase).
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy, Capacity development, National ownership, Advocacy, Knowledge management, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Normative Support, Operational activities, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency, Relevance, Sustainability, Human Rights, Gender equality, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
R8.1 (xiv). Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) UN Women Markets for Change Programme 2031/12 Initiated The M4C team will explore how we can expand our work on GRB, and link these efforts with our work in the area of Inclusive Governance (and collaboration relevant line ministries across our program countries) , for the next Phase.