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The interagency group which commissioned the Joint Evaluation of Joint Programmes on Gender Equality in the United Nations System ("the entities") considers this evaluation to be a valuable contribution to improving understanding of how to make joint programmes on gender equality most effective. The overall experience of the entities suggests that when motivated by a clear rationale and well-designed, Joint Programmes can work well for promoting gender equality and that they can have a track record of producing results, and this is confirmed by the evaluation. Joint programmes are an important modality for funding gender equality and women?s empowerment programming, helping to advance gender equality when participating organizations work on areas no single entity could do alone as gender inequality is a complex and multidimensional development challenge. As with all funding modalities, the joint programme modality benefits from predictable sources of funding. However, as the evaluation also makes clear, joint programmes need not be the default option, and entities need to consider a range of options when seeking to work better together on gender equality, and appreciate that it is may not always be the best modality for cooperation, and its effectiveness is dependent on context. This is well captured by the evaluation and the corresponding recommendation for the entities (including the seven lower level recommendations for operationalizing the overarching recommendation) provide useful guidance in that regard. The entities also note that Joint Programmes on Gender Equality can be a means for advancing coherence within the UN more generally, and helping to bring us together around, for example, efforts to promote gender equality in the context of the post-2015 development agenda. Overarching evaluation recommendation to United Nations entities: Ensure a clear strategic rationale for joint gender programmes - firmly ground designs in development effectiveness efforts at country level. Management response to overarching recommendation : The entities agree with this recommendation and welcome the emphasis on ensuring that designs of joint gender programmes are firmly grounded in development effectiveness efforts at the country level. It should be noted that there is currently an ongoing inter-agency process to revise and improve shared guidelines for joint programming where this and other related issues are being addressed. It should also be noted that in early 2014 and based on the experience of some of the entities on joint gender programmes, and including the preliminary findings of this evaluation, the manual ?Making Joint Gender Programmes Work ? Guide for design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation? was launched. In addition to the overarching recommendation, the evaluation provided seven lower level recommendations to help operationalize the overarching recommendation. This management response will respond to each of the seven in turn.
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