Management Response

: Multi-Country Office for the Pacific (Fiji)
: 2012 - 2013 , Multi-Country Office for the Pacific (Fiji) (MCO)
: Evaluability Assessment of the Pacific MCO AWP 2012 - 2013
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Multi-Country Office for the Pacific (Fiji)

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Overall comments: The EA was an opportunity for the MCO to reflect on its programmes, the need to have a clear theory of change for its programmes and projects. It also highlighted the need to have a good communications strategy which the MCO could formulate from available information through various consultations with partners. The EA also reinforces the importance of leveraging the MCO's coordination work within the UN and also with other partners without having it as a standalone component of the Annual Work Plan. Similarly, knowledge management is already mainstreamed into the MCO's programmes and will continue to expand on producing knowledge materials on its website as a hub for information on gender equality and empowerment of women in the Pacific.Lessons learnt from the EA also informed the Strategic Note 2014 ? 2017 and Annual Work Plan. One of the issues raised in the report was "In its administration of the Pacific Regional EVAW Facility Fund, there was a concern expressed that the MCO had not made the case that the portfolio of grants being given to NGOs would actually achieve the outcome of eliminating violence against women." It must be noted that UN Women has never stated that the grant support and capacity development components of the project would result in eliminating VAW in the Pacific. Under the Pacific Regional EVAW Facility Fund project the focus is to support governments and CSO partners provide better services to survivors and also to provide evidence based prevention work. In essence, UN Women attempts to assist governments and CCSOs to adopt and implement EVAW policies, legislation, improved services for survivors and prevention of violence against women. The Theory of Changes is embedded in the approved project document from HQ, a vital element before final approval of project document. The EA recommendations contributed to the way forward for the MCO to fulfill its mandate, the essence of policy and normative work supported by effective implementation as it contributes to the improvement of livelihoods to women, men and children in the Pacific. The EA was timely as the findings were able to inform the development of new programme and project documents in particular the Access to Gender Justice in the Pacific (AGJP) programme, EVAW programme and the Markets for Change project. Each of these prodocs now have a Theory of Change (TOC) and a sound M & E results framework. Lessons from the EA has set the platform upon which other pending programme documents such the Increasing Community Resilience (IREACH) and the broad Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) programmes will build on. It is also acknowledged that the MCO needs to devote more attention to monitoring particularly structured monitoring and regular reporting work. The MCO will continue to focus on the global mandate of UN Women on policy and normative work and implementation of these policies for very practical reasons. Findings from the EA was shared with UN Women Regional Office and with input from the Programme teams at MCO and also from the Regional Office provided the gist for the Management Response (MR). The management response addresses the main recommendations in the main evaluation report with references to the approved key actions outlined in the Annual Work Plan for 2014 and the Pacific MCO medium term Plan 2014 - 2017.

: Approved
Recommendation: Recommendation 1: The MCO should put more emphasis on its role of coordinating the UN-system around gender equality and women?s empowerment. Coordinating on gender equality and women?s empowerment should be done in a proactive, planned manner. In leading coordination of the UN system on gender inequality, the MCO should build the desire within the UN system for it to review UN initiatives for gender sensitivity and opportunities to take a gendered approach. The MCO should work to develop a demand for its stamp of approval to be on projects and products. Having a primary funder could help the MCO in this endeavor. The MCO should see itself as being able to deliver quality assurance and bring a gender dimension to UN-system initiatives.
Management Response: Management Response: Partially accepted. Coordination: UN Women Pacific MCO?s coordination role will be clearer. UN Women will clearly identify the organization?s niche first and reduce the expectations that it is responsible for all the work on GEEW in the Pacific. Therefore, UN Women has Mapped, reviewed and communicate existing and potential UN Coordination structures for GEEW to align with UNDAF cycle, UNDAF coordination needs and the identification of Joint Programmes.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018), Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018), Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018), Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1.1 Mapping of the implementation of the Gender Equality Outcomes of the Pacific UNDAF 2013 - 2017 UN Gender Group 2013/12 Completed The mapping exercise was completed as part of the annual review of the Pacific UNDAF
1.2 Review and communicate existing and potential UN Coordination structures for GEEW to align with UNDAF cycle, UNDAF coordination needs and identification of Joint Programmes. UN Gender Group 2014/05 Completed the Gender Group, chaired by UN Women monitors Outcome 2 (Gender Equality) and the gender components of the other 4 outcome areas of the Pacific UNDAF 2014 - 2017
1.3 Facilitate consultations with key stakeholders for the designing of the new EVAW Joint Programme for Kiribati and Solomon Islands EVAW 2014/05 Completed the consultations for the EVAW JP for Solomon Islands and Kiribati have been completed.
Recommendation: Recommendation 2: To be more influential in the climate change arena, the MCO should strategically aim to instill a gender dimension into projects being conducted by other UN agencies.
Management Response: Management response: Partially Agreed. Gender, Climate Change and DRM Programme Disseminate and consult on Gender, Climate Change, and Disaster Risk Management Strategic Framework within UN Women (the MCO, the RO and the HQ) and with other UN agencies and key partners. In partnership with other UN agencies, develop country specific Programmes for selected countries together with the resource mobilization strategy.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018), Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018), Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018), Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Internal coordination and communication, Advocacy, Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Climate change
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
2.1 Conduct scoping and mapping exercises to determine capacity building requirements (training, simulation exercises etc.) in 7 PICTS IREACH 2014/04 Completed Although formal scoping has not been completed, key stakeholder (NDMO, Red Cross and gender focal points) have been contacted in 4 PICTs for assessment of their training needs. Responses have been received from three countries.
2.2 Collaborate with UNFPA and OCHA to facilitate a simulation exercises for Gender focal points in 1 PICT IREACH 2014/09 No Longer Applicable This has been removed from the amended workplan, due to ongoing competing demands on the time of gender focal points. The viability of the gender focal points model and current membership list is under assessment.
2.3 Collaborate with UNOCHA to promote inclusion of gender analysis in Post Disaster Needs Assessments in at least 2 PICs (Fiji & Samoa) IREACH 2014/12 Completed Fiji and Samoa – both PDNA had input from UN Women on gender analysis. In addition, protection assessments have been supported in Tonga, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji.
Recommendation: Recommendation 3: The MCO should reinforce its ability to carry out policy-related work. The MCO should become a hub for information on the status of women and gender inequality. The degree to which the MCO can offer services to particular countries in the region varies. A minimum of services provided to all countries should be making available high quality information on pertinent topics on a timely basis. The MCO, for example, could provide snapshots and white papers on pertinent gender issues which would allow for global and regional expertise to be available at the country level. It could be a driver for the collection and analysis of data related to the status of women and girls and gender inequality.
Management Response: Management Response: Partially Accepted. Overall Programme Approach: The MCO would reinforce its ability to carry out policy related work in the four programme areas namely AGJP, WEE, EVAW and IREACH to fulfill its mandate on policy and normative frameworks such as CEDAW, Beijing Platform for Action, UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security etc. The MCO would become a hub for information on the status of women and gender inequality. To fulfill this commitment a substantive part of 2014 MCO Annual Work plan is devoted to building new knowledge in the area of gender equality in the Pacific. High Quality Information ? knowledge management is already mainstreamed into the MCO?s programmes which will continue to expand on producing knowledge materials on its website which is a hub for information on gender equality and empowerment of women in the Pacific. Communication Strategy ? the MCO will develop its communications and media strategy. Theory of Change, M&E frameworks and baseline data collection - All MCO programmes that are being developed have strong emphasis on M&E. 2014-2017 Development Results Framework and 2014 AWP focus on delivery of country based programming in 14 countries with strong alignment to the country based UNDAF Results Matrices. Each of the following programmes: Access to Gender Justice in the Pacific, Markets for Change project, EVAW now has a Theory of Change respectively. Programmes will continue to pursue data collection and analysis to inform policies and programmes.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018), Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018), Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication, Knowledge management, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Capacity development, Not applicable, Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
3.1 Deliver on planned knowledge products under WEE and Advancing Gender Justice in the Pacific Programme AGJP WEE 2014/12 Completed Knowledge products for AGJP include DVDs on Women's political participation, Publication on FAQs on CEDAW. For WEE information packages for the target markets in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu developed and distributed and available on website.
3.2 Develop a knowledge portal under UN Women Asia Pacific Website and other communication tools to promote and track the use of the MCO knowledge products Communications Team 2014/09 Completed the knowledge portal is now in use.
3.3 Develop and start implementation of a knowledge management and communication strategy and plan of action for MCO . Communications and Programme Teams 2014/07 Overdue-Initiated there is a draft knowledge management and communication strategy in place.
Recommendation: Recommendation 4: The MCO should use its website to disseminate information on the status of women and girls in its service area. On its website, the MCO should have current information on gender inequality, including studies and best practices from other sources, synthesized and easily available. The MCO should assure that all countries under its auspices have credible and reliable baseline statistics on violence against women. The MCO should make sure that a Family Safety Survey is or has been conducted and analyzed using rigorous standards in each of its countries. In the short-term, it could assure that a Family Safety Survey is undertaken in Samoa by working with/contracting with Samoa Bureau of Statistics.
Management Response: Management Response EVAW Programme: Partially accepted. The MCO would ensure that all countries under its auspices have credible and reliable baseline statistics on violence against women. In the Pacific, the division of labour within the UN in the Pacific, UNFPA is responsible for conducting Family Health Surveys (FHS) which is based on the WHO methodology. FHS with UNFPA?s leadership with support from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) have been completed in 6 Pacific island countries with plans to conduct FHS in 4 other countries. The MCO provides support for data analysis of the findings to inform National policies and Action Plan to EVAW. Considering that this is a prevalence study it is not feasible to have it more frequent than at least once in 20 years hence it is not viable to conduct another FHS in Samoa in the near future.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018), Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018), Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018), Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
4.1 Provide technical support for data collection, sharing and analysis on Violence against women and girls (VAWG) EVAW 2014/06 Completed Through the UN - Government Joint Programmes, UN Women is collaborating with the Government and UN agencies to improve data collection. UN Women partners with the Pacific Islands Forum Sexual and Gender Based Violence Reference Group which is implementing a costing exercise on VAWG services in Kiribati and Solomon Islands. UN Women provided technical expertise and resources to this exercise.
4.2 The MCO will support mapping and costing work implementation of multi sectoral essential services to survivors of VAWG EVAW 2014/09 Completed The Pacific Fund assists funded organisation to improve data collection, sharing and analysis for EVAWG programmes.
4.3 Provide in depth instructions to Virtual knowledge centre to End VAWG, Say NO, P4P and the SG?s database on VAW EVAW 2014/09 Completed UN Women provides and tracks technical assistance through sharing corporate on line resources on EVAW, particularly through the Virtual Knowledge Centre. The other two sites are no longer available.
Recommendation: Recommendation 5 : The MCO should build a media strategy. A common issue that arose in interviews was that outsiders were not aware of issues or of the MCO?s response to or work on gender inequality issues. A part of the media strategy could include a lecture series on gender equality issues which would bring together various stakeholders.
Management Response: Management Response: Accepted. UN Women Multi Country Office is a recognized hub of knowledge on achieving gender equality and women?s empowerment in the Pacific.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018), Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018), Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Knowledge management, Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
5.1 Develop and start implementation of a knowledge management and communication strategy and plan of action for MCO including 14 countries Communications Unit 2014/03 No Longer Applicable The strategy will be finalised in the first quarter of 2014 with implementation to be on going from this point forward.
5.2 The MCO will ensure the production of high quality knowledge products on women and gender equality in the Pacific. Communications 2014/07 Completed Knowledge products such as radio drama series, programme factsheets etc. have been produced.
5.3 Ensure production and publication of high quality Annual reports for UN Women Pacific. Communications Unit 2014/03 Completed 2013 Annual report for Fiji MCO completed and published.
Recommendation: Recommendation 6: The MCO should build its evaluation capacity and aim at developing thorough evaluation plans for each of its areas of work. A. As funding evolves for each of the proposed areas of work and the programme of work becomes more certain, respective monitoring and evaluation plans should be formed. B. A Theory of Change and a Program Logic Model should be developed for each area of work. C. Literature reviews based on each programme of work?s Theory of Change should be developed. The literature reviews should be a part of each evaluation plan. D. Evaluation should contribute to the state of knowledge of the impact of the MCO?s and partners? activities, and in the consideration of outcome measures, consideration should be given to the opportunity for comparability with the evaluation of other initiatives. E. An evaluator, either in-house or external, should be assigned to each of the initiatives. F. The monitoring and evaluation approach and emphasis should abide by UN-Women?s corporate evaluation policy. G. Staff should continue to be trained in monitoring and evaluation principles.
Management Response: Management response: Agreed. All MCO programmes (AGJP, EVAW, M4C) that are being developed have strong emphasis on Monitoring & Evaluation. 2014-2017 Development Results Framework and 2014 AWP focus on delivery of country based programming in 14 countries with strong alignment to the country based UNDAF results matrices. The MCO is committed to institutionalizing a strong culture of results-based management, reporting, knowledge management and evaluation through targeted Results Based Management and M& E training.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018), Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018), Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018), Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
6.1 Finalise the M & E framework and Theory of Change (TOC) in the respective programme documents for AGJP, WEE (M4C - Markets for Change) and EVAW. AGJP, EVAW, WEE teams and M & E Focal Point 2013/12 Completed AGJP, EVAW, WEE (M4C) Prodocs each now have a Theory of Change and an M & E framework.
6.2. Finalize Project Appraisals for AGJP, EVAW and WEE AGJP, EVAW, WEE Programme teams 2014/03 Completed WEE project document already PAC'd and funded by Australian Government, DFAT.
6.3 Develop 2014 MER plan for the MCO which supports implementation of the AWP 2014 M & E Focal Point and Programme teams 2013/12 Completed The MER Plan for 2014 has already been approved by Regional Director A/P
6.4 Results Based Management and M & E training for staff Human Resources and Learning Committee 2014/12 Completed Training on results based reporting (webinar)was conducted for staff by the Regional Office in December, 2013. A follow up training for staff conducted in November, 2014.
Recommendation: I. .Recommendation 7: The MCO should re-visit its work plan, and consider having five areas of work: 1. Women?s Economic Empowerment. 2. Gender Justice. 3. Elimination of Violence Against Women 4. Coordination of the UN-System on Gender. 5. Knowledge Leadership and Information Dissemination.
Management Response: Management response: Partially agreed. UN Women leads the coordination and promotion of accountability of the UN system on gender equality and empowerment of women with the focus to support gender equality and gender mainstreaming in the Pacific UNDAF and the Pacific Humantarian team. The MCO, based on women?s needs at country level in the Pacific, will focus on the four programme areas of Women?s Economic Empowerment (WEE); Access to Justice in the Pacific (AGJP); EVAW and Gender, Climate Change and DRM, noting that coordination and knowledge leadership and information dissemination are cross cutting within the 4 programme areas. ? WEE Programme: The balance of empowerment and the results of empowerment (increase income) are challenging and communication on this issue to funders must be clear. Refining indicators in the on-going ME framework is important and also conduct baseline data collection before the programme implementation. Collection of baseline data which will provide evidence to strengthen documents is already in process. ? Advance Gender Justice in the Pacific Programme: The MCO would lead the CEDAW reporting process. During the period of the EA, the AGJP has progressed with the implementation of the transition phase which included the expansion of CEDAW work from reporting to adopting a harmonised approach on human rights treaty reporting. Focus has also been on CEDAW implementation, gender justice and women?s political participation. There are different entry points for GRB, there are different tools, and it?s important to keep emphasising on the universe of options available to any country before it starts doing GRB so that it can pick the strategy, tool and entry point which is most relevant for the concerned country. Option 1: Meet the Min of Finance, do an MOU with them, engender the call circular/budget circular, produce a Gender Budget Statement and so on. Advantages are that partnership with MoF will put UN Women and the GRB work under limelight, which is good, given that gender agenda remains one of the most underfunded agenda globally. Option 2: The other option, which is also a good option is to begin by taking select sectors and do a more ?applied? GRB in these sectors to show the value added. The MCO could do a ground breaking study on green budgeting (applying GRB to environment sector); we could do costing of VAW or laws on VAW (applying GRB to VAW sector) or to any other sector. The MCO should organize a workshop with all key stakeholders on GRB in 2014 in order to collectively arrive at a concrete strategy/roadmap on GRB for the Office. ? EVAW Programme: The MCO would ensure that all countries under its auspices have credible and reliable baseline statistics on violence against women. The MCO would make sure that data on Family Safety Surveys which have been conducted are analyzed using rigorous standards in each of its countries. Prevalence study of violence against women in a country can be done again after 20 years. In essence UN Women attempts to assist governments to adopt and implement policies and legislation on EVAW through data analysis. Under the Pacific Regional EVAW Facility Fund project the focus to support governments and CSO partners provide better services to survivors and also to provide evidence based prevention work. ? Gender, Climate Change and DRM Programme: Disseminate and consult on Gender, Climate Change, and Disaster Risk Management Strategic Framework within UN Women (the MCO, the RO and the HQ) and with other UN agencies and key partners. Climate Change is one of the most urgent issues affecting PICTs. Pacific women are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and disasters for a range of reasons, including unequal access to resources and power, restricted rights and ability to move freely and without fear, and limited ability to influence the ways their communities are managed. The Increasing Community Resilience through the Empowerment of Women to Address Climate Change and Natural Hazards (IREACH) programme will support Pacific Island government and agencies to include appropriate gender considerations in climate change and DRM policies, plans and programmes. Develop country specific Programmes for selected countries together with the resource mobilization strategy.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018), Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Advocacy, Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM, UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
7.1 The MCO will deliver appropriate training to support the strengthening of skills/opportunities and provide entrepreneurial development assistance for women to enhance their earnings, sustainable livelihoods and resilience for women market vendors in the 3 target countries (Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu). WEE 2014/12 Completed
7.2 The MCO will support national consultations and encourage harmonised human rights treaty reporting and the establishment of human rights committees in FSM and Solomon Is. AGJP team 2014/09 Completed Support provided to the SI government in its preparation for the CEDAW constructive dialogue. Assisted Vanuatu and Kirbati in setting up the multi sectoral Human Rights Committee and the HR taskforce respectively. Provided support to FSM in the harmonised human rights treaties' reporting approach and training on CEDAW reporting.
7.3 The MCO will conduct workshops on CEDAW and harmonised reporting and implementation approach for National Women?s Machinery and CSOs in Fiji, Tonga and Nauru. AGJP team 2014/12 Completed CEDAW and harmonised treaty reporting training conducted in Nauru. On going support provided to Fiji and Tonga which has just ratified CEDAW.
7.4 the MCO will support the government of Vanuatu to conduct a comprehensive gender analysis of selected Ministries. AGJP team 2014/12 Completed Support will continue to be provided for ongoing training and gender analysis based on the request from government.
7.5 Technical support provided to Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to strengthen capacity of national and local authorities to develop and implement laws, policies and strategies to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. EVAW team 2017/12 Completed
7.6 The MCO will continue to strengthen capacity of multi sectoral VAW services providers to provide survivor focussed support to women and girls under the Pacific EVAW Facility Fund. EVAW 2014/12 Completed Grantees of the Pacific EVAW Facility Fund are benefitting from such training.
7.7 The MCO will provide technical assistance and support to ensure that existing coordination mechanisms (CC/DRM) are gender responsive and better analyse and address the distinct needs of women and girls. IREACH 2014/12 Completed Promote inclusion of gender analysis in Post Disaster Needs Assessments.