Management Response

: Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division
: 2024 - 2025 , Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division (HQ)
: Corporate evaluation of UN Women’s support to violence against women (VAW) prevention and response
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Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division

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UN Women welcomes the Corporate Evaluation of UN Women’s approach to violence against women prevention response: Navigating changes in global and regional contexts., which sought to analyze UN Women’s response to violence against women at country, regional and global levels, in the context of global conflicts and emergencies, including during the COVID-19 pandemic and the global pushback on gender equality and women’s human rights. The evaluation aimed to assess the adaptability and effectiveness of UN Women’s work, including its efforts to address the needs of those most marginalized and at higher risk of experiencing violence against women, and examine the coherence of the Entity’s work with that of other UN actors in this space and its efforts to ensure sustainability. The evaluation provides valuable findings that will inform corporate programmatic thinking and practice on UN Women’s work on violence against women and girls (VAWG) prevention and response, including in ongoing global VAWG programmes (e.g. Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces for Women and Girls Global Initiative, Spotlight 2.0, Essential Services, VAW Data, ACT to End Violence against Women and Girls, initiatives on Prevention and addressing Technology-facilitated Violence against Women and Girls (TF VAWG), Generation Equality and its corresponding Action Coalitions. It will also feed into the development of the next UN Women Strategic Plan (2026-2029) and strengthen the implementation of the Gender Equality Accelerator (GEA) on Ending Violence against Women and Girls (EVAWG). For the full overall management response, see attached document at : https://gate.unwomen.org/EvaluationDocument/Download?evaluationDocumentID=10451
: Approved
Recommendation: Evaluation Recommendation 1: Continue to refine and roll out existing guidance, and develop further guidance, frameworks and tools to adapt and strengthen EVAWG programming in response to persistent and emerging priorities (e.g. across the HDP nexus and in response to growing TF GBV).
Management Response: UN Women accepts this recommendation and is already working to implement it through, for example, finalizing the draft UN Women Strategy for Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Across the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus and developing a corresponding dissemination and socialization plan for UN Women personnel on its operationalization. UN Women is already contributing to the development of methodological approaches for data collection at global, regional, national and subnational levels to advance evidence-informed policy and programme action, as well as its advocacy in global and regional normative fora with key stakeholders on the importance of addressing TF VAWG and strengthening governments’ capacity to work in this area.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support, Operational activities, Humanitarian action, Urban agenda (safe cities and safe public spaces), Climate change, Youth engagement
UNEG Criteria: Relevance, Gender equality, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Develop guidance and tools to address complex country-level challenges, e.g., providing EVAWG prevention and response support across the HDP nexus (this also includes dissemination and socialization among UN Women RO and CO personnel on the above-mentioned Strategy for Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Across the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus) and strengthening support for hard-to-reach groups of women in situations of vulnerability. Lead: EVAW Support: ROs, COs, WPSH 2029/12 Initiated Regular updates will be provided up until the end of 2029.
Develop a global work plan on TF VAWG, including and building upon ongoing activities at global and country levels such as advocacy with key stakeholders, capacity-strengthening of governments and civil society, supporting the development of methodological approaches for data collection and generating research and evidence to fill knowledge gaps, advancing international norms and standards on preventing and addressing TF VAWG through informing intergovernmental policy processes and outcomes and piloting innovative approaches to prevention and responses. Lead: EVAW with Support: COs, ROs 2025/12 Initiated
Disseminate good practices on the linkages of climate and EVAW in knowledge products and global policy advocacy fora, including as part of cross thematic programming/joint programmes, and in other global EVAW initiatives. Lead: EVAW, with support of COs and ROs. 2029/06 Initiated Regular updates will be provided up until the end of 2029.
Recommendation: Evaluation Recommendation 2: Further enhance global, regional and country-level support to WROs and grassroots/smaller CSOs working on VAWG prevention and response, including through a diversified donor/partner base.
Management Response: UN Women takes note of this recommendation and is already working to implement it through UN collaboration in EVAW Initiatives. For example, UN Women has developed the ACT to End Violence against Women and Girls Programme to enhance support to women’s rights movements and organizations and to strengthen strategic advocacy on EVAW through building multisectoral coalitions. UN Women also manages the UN Trust Fund to End VAW on behalf of the UN system, which allows for a synergetic and complementary approach to the EVAW agenda through supporting demand-driven civil society-led initiatives through the consolidated grant-giving processes of the UN Trust Fund with interagency partners.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Advocacy, Capacity development, South-South cooperation, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Effectiveness, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women will continue to strengthen the capacity of women’s rights and other civil society organizations on VAWG prevention and response, facilitate women’s movement-strengthening, coalition-building at global, regional and country levels and support their meaningful participation in national and international decision-making processes, including through initiatives such as the EU-UN Women ACT End Violence against Women Programme, Spotlight 2.0, and the Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces for Women and Girls Initiative, and as part of the Gender Equality Accelerator on EVAWG, and its linkages with other GEAs. Lead: EVAW, with support of ROs, COs, Civil Society Section, UN Trust Fund to End VAW. 2029/12 Initiated Regular updates will be provided up until the end of 2029.
UN Women will leverage its convening role and comparative strengths to support women’s rights and other civil society organizations through its advocacy efforts and networking, e.g., convening the UN Interagency Network on EVAWG, where it will continue to advocate for durable funding solutions, including through domestic financing, for these organizations, or by engaging through coalitions/networks of non-governmental organization partners, and the private sector to support implementation of their work, especially in contexts where UN Women is less able to provide direct funding support. Lead: EVAW with support of ROs, COs, Civil Society Section 2029/12 Not Initiated Regular updates will be provided up until the end of 2029.
Recommendation: Evaluation Recommendation 3: Continue to roll out comprehensive frameworks on prevention and response that focus on social norms change at multiple levels and further refine and/or develop new tools/guidance to support institutional norms change, including through multiple strategies to engage with men and boys.
Management Response: UN Women partially accepts this recommendation. From 2020 to the beginning of 2022 UN Women had to re-programme funds to support partners in the implementation of survivor-centred services online and offline given the increase of VAWG in many countries during the global pandemic of COVID 19. UN Women already places a strong focus on male engagement to end VAWG, as part of its overall work on social norms change. In its current Strategic Plan, UN Women has focused on transforming institutional practices and harmful social norms including by working with multiple sectors (security, sports, media, religious/faith-based organizations, policing, technology, transportation and urban planning, several commodity sectors in the agricultural value chain, etc.) and this will remain a strong focus in its forthcoming Strategic Plan (2026-2029).
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Advocacy, National ownership, Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support, Agriculture, Youth engagement, Operational activities, Engaging men and boys, Urban agenda (safe cities and safe public spaces)
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Through its GEA on EVAWG, UN Women will continue to develop and strengthen strategies that engage men and boys to transform patriarchal masculinities at the community, and especially institutional level, including through the roll out of the UN Women guidance on Transforming Patriarchal Masculinities: Learning from Practice in several regions, sharing promising practices and lessons learned in prevention initiatives. UN Women will explore with its partners whether additional guidance may be needed to strengthen social norms work in cross thematic initiatives. Lead: EVAW with support of: ROs, COs, UN Trust Fund to End VAW, and PAPDU 2029/12 Initiated Regular updates will be provided up until the end of 2029.
UN Women will continue to synthesize lessons learned from concerted approaches to change social norms at multiple levels (individual/community/institutional) in the area of EVAWG, including through engagement with experts in networks on prevention; non-governmental organization consortia of partners on EVAWG, and UN global initiatives (e.g. essential services including gender-responsive policing, and safe cities and safe public spaces networks, Spotlight 2.0), and other initiatives. Lead: EVAW with support of COs and ROs. 2029/06 Initiated
Recommendation: Evaluation Recommendation 4: Strengthen and adapt approaches to foster more comprehensive and longer-term EVAWG programming at the country level
Management Response: UN Women accepts this recommendation. UN Women is a strong partner in UN Joint Programming modalities (e.g. the Joint Programme on VAW Data, Joint Programme on Essential Services) where the joint management of programming with strategic partners which are common to multiple UN entities, as well as established relationships, offer an opportunity to build these partnerships to scale. In Spotlight 2.0, UN Women co-chairs the Advisory Board, together with the UN Development Cooperation Office, to advise the UN Deputy Secretary-General on the strategic direction of the initiative and assumes a technical coherence role at country level. This is an area that UN Women will work to strengthen at the country level, including where UN Women leads/chairs donor gender thematic groups. In the context of the development of their next Strategic Plans, UNDP, UNICEF, UNPFA and UN Women are aiming to further strengthen their joint work in pursuit of strategic and coherent results on EVAWG that are both harmonized and standardized. UN Women is also seeking to deepen its collaboration with other UN entities in its forthcoming Strategic Plan (2026-2029), and expand its range of partners, across and outside the UN system, e.g., with the private sector, research networks, etc.
More detail
Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: National ownership, Capacity development, Resource mobilization, South-South cooperation
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities, Normative Support, UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Effectiveness, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN-Women will develop key indicators to specify how UN-Women plans to deliver results and measure results jointly with key UN-Women partners under the next SP IRRF. Lead EVAW, with support from SPRED, UNSCD. 2029/12 Initiated An update will be provided in December 2025 and additional updates will be provided on a regular basis from 2028 to the end of 2029.
To improve synergies between EVAWG programming with other thematic areas, UN Women will continue to convene regular meetings to identify cross-thematic entry points with EVAWG work and develop programming that integrates cross-thematic outcomes at the country level, through strengthening its Strategic Note and annual planning processes. Lead EVAW, support from ROs, COs, UN Trust Fund to End VAW. 2029/06 Initiated Regular updates will be provided from Q4 2025 to June 2029.
UN Women will promote the collection of comprehensive, disaggregated data on marginalized groups of women and girls at global, regional and country levels and the development of standardized frameworks and/or guidance to assist ROs and COs in conducting comprehensive needs assessments and systematic analyses. Lead: EVAW with support from ROs, COs, Research and Data. 2029/12 Not Initiated
UN Women will continue to leverage its resources and make use of existing government EVAWG budgets for EVAWG programming and advocate for the additional allocation of government funds towards EVAWG work through gender-responsive budgeting. Lead: EVAW with support from ROs, COs, UN Trust Fund to End VAW, SPD. 2029/12 Initiated
Recommendation: Evaluation Recommendation 5: Building on UN Women’s role as convenor in the EVAWG space, continue to strengthen the multistakeholder approach and scale up successful pilot initiatives at the country level.
Management Response: UN-Women continues to implement comprehensive approaches to ending VAWG in public (online), and private spaces, including through the convening of a wide range of strategic multi-stakeholder partnerships with, inter alia, national and local governments, women’s groups and associations, community leaders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, academia, development partners and the UN, which have a shared advocacy agenda, including through joint programming, and at multiple levels.
More detail
Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Advocacy, Knowledge management, Internal coordination and communication, Innovation and technology, South-South cooperation
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Normative Support, UN Coordination, Operational activities, Urban agenda (safe cities and safe public spaces)
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability, Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Through its Gender Equality Accelerator (GEA) on EVAWG, UN Women will support the expansion, scale up and/or adaptation of catalytic EVAWG initiatives on creating safe public spaces, prevention, support to women’s rights movements, advocacy improving access to services and support for the implementation of laws and policies at the country-level, in partnership with governments, the UN system, research institutions, the private sector, women’s rights and other civil society organizations and platforms such as the Generation Equality, Action Coalitions (AC). Lead: EVAW, with support from ROs, and COs. 2029/12 Initiated Regular updates will be provided up until the end of 2029.
UN Women will document good practices and include ‘impact’ stories which highlight opportunities and challenges of UN Women’s coordination and convening role and share how these are overcome to support the implementation and acceleration of transformative EVAWG results. User-friendly and interactive multi-media formats will be considered in the production and dissemination of high-level messaging. Lead EVAW, with support from ROs, COs, and Communications Teams. 2029/12 Initiated
UN Women will inform and integrate high-level messaging in UN and UN partner-led global and national fora, including those organized as part of Generation Equality ACs and the 16 Days of Activism on GBV, on the impact of coordination and convening for the achievement of normative and operational results, including across thematic areas that include EVAW, as part of integrated programming, including through such initiatives as the EU-UN Women ACT End Violence against Women Programme, Essential Services, and Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces for Women and Girls Programme in collaboration with UN Trust Fund to End VAW. Lead: EVAW, with support from ROs, COs PPID, EDO, Communication Teams 2029/12 Initiated Regular updates will be provided up until the end of 2029.