Management Response

: Kenya
: 2014 - 2018 , Kenya (CO)
: Joint Project on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Program Final Evaluation
:
: Kenya
:

accepted
: Approved
Recommendation: Evaluation Recommendation 1 It is recommended for the UNCT to establish a UN body/structure that ensures coherence in the mainstreaming of gender in UNDAF implementation.
Management Response: Management Response: The management concurs with the importance of having a specific mechanism in place whose sole objective is to ensure coherence in the mainstreaming of gender in the UNDAF implementation. In many respects, steps towards this end have began and ? Plans are underway to set up a Gender Theme Group (GTG) by phasing out the current JP GEWE Programme Working Group (PWG). The GTG?s role would be to ensure UN?s support to GEWE is coherent, aligned to national priorities facilitate coherence on GEWE in the UNCT and ensure alignment of the UN?s support to national priorities. ? The implementation of the UNDAF consists of a system that is already in place and includes a National Steering Committee chaired by the Deputy President, the Programme Management and Oversight Group (PMOG) and the Strategic Result Area Groups who have incorporated considerations on GEWE in their workplans, monitoring and reporting processes ensuring that GEWE is mainstreamed into UNDAF. A decision has already been made to recruit a specific Gender Advisor to work in the Resident Coordinator?s (RC) office. S/he will support the RC to ensure that GEWE issues are also taken into consideration at that strategic level.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Advocacy, Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Normative Support, Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1.1 Transition the PWG to a Gender Theme Group UN Women and RCO 2015/02 Completed
1.2 Advertising the post of gender Advisor to RC?s office UN WOMEN 2014/10 Completed
1.3 Completion of hiring of the gender advisor to RC?s office UN WOMEN 2014/10 Completed
1.4 Gender Advisor operational UN WOMEN 2015/01 Completed
Recommendation: Evaluation Recommendation 2 It is recommended for the UNCT to develop guidelines on the design and management of Joint Programmes in Kenya, taking into account the relevant guidelines at the international level. Among others the guidelines should address when and how Joint Programmes should be designed, how they should be managed, including the role and responsibilities of each participating UN agency.
Management Response: Management Response: The management concurs with the recommendation of having a guideline in place that is both context specific and in line with the already existing HQ level guidelines. In principle, the management recognizes the value of having clear guidance (same document for everyone at the country level) on when and how joint programmes should be designed, how they should be managed, including the role and responsibilities of each participating UN agency. In management?s view this would contribute to ensuring greater synergies between interventions, enhancing the strategic approach of the future Joint Programmes thus allowing for improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of the programme. These recommendations are taken on board and UN Women will present these for discussion within the UNCT.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018), Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Not applicable, Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable, Normative Support, UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
2.1 Presentation at UNCT meeting and introducing the topic of having guidelines (specific to Kenya) in place for Joint Programmes UN Women 2015/01 Completed
2.2 Requesting the UNCT to task the PMOG to produce guidelines (inclusive of existing HQ guidelines and fitted to the country context) on JPs UN Women 2015/03 No Longer Applicable
2.3 Present the Guidelines to the UNCT UN Women 2015/04 No Longer Applicable
Recommendation: Evaluation Recommendation 3 It is recommended that consideration be given to designing more focused and demand driven Joint Programme/s based on gender specific interventions to be identified in the action plan under the new UNDAF.
Management Response: Management Response: The Management concurs with the recommendation. The management recognizes that the scope of the current JP GEWE was very wide and perhaps too ambitious which presented difficulties in ensuring synergy among activities across all outputs. The benefits of having a more focused joint programme are recognized by the management as well as by the stakeholders and there are already discussions underway regarding future programming along this lines beyond the broadly focused JP GEWE. One of the potential focus areas is a JP on GBV. Mapping of ongoing and planned UN agency work on GBV for 2014-16 is almost complete.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Normative Support, Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
3.1 Presentation of the evaluation recommendations at a UNCT meeting and a discussion of the benefits (and disadvantages) of focused, demand driven JPs. UN Women 2014/11 Completed
3.2 Identification of potential, focused and demand driven Di JPs p with all relevant stakeholders All participating agencies and Government of Kenya 2018/09 Completed
Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 4 Design of a future Joint Programme should take into account the following: a. Ensure that any future JP is conceptualized, planned and implemented as a truly joint process rather than a mapping and collation of activities already designed by PUNOs independently. b. Put in place a clear and comprehensive monitoring and accountability mechanism in any future JP to ensure its effective and efficient implementation. c. Consider establishing a single budget, preferably in the form of pooled funding. d. Enhance the ownership and leadership of the government and other national stakeholders by applying a phased approach accompanied by interventions aimed at strengthening government systems and mutual accountability mechanisms. Enhance also participation, ownership and capacity of civil society and private sector stakeholders.
Management Response: Management Response: Management concurs with the recommendations given and considers these to be critical to the design of a Joint Programme. The specific recommendations given above would form part of the Guidelines on the design and management of Joint Programmes (proposed in Recommendation no 2). The recommendations (a-d) are something that will be shared with the PMOG who would be tasked with the responsibility of preparing consolidated Guidelines on how to design and manage Joint Programmes.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018), Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable, Normative Support, UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality, Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
4.1 Please see 2.1 UN Women 2015/01 Completed
4.2 Please see 2.2 UN Women 2015/03 No Longer Applicable
4.3 Please see 2.3 UN Women 2015/04 No Longer Applicable
Recommendation: Evaluation Recommendation 5 Targeting and focus areas in future UN GEWE interventions: a. Work at national level to improve the enabling environment and building the capacities of duty bearers. b. Enhance targeting, working with and developing the capacity of country governments as duty bearers. c. Work at community level to empower community structures and women (right holders), focusing on innovative approaches that can be scaled up. d. Ensure linkage and complementarity between national/county level and community level interventions.
Management Response: Management Response: These recommendations are taken on board and will be discussed within the UNCT by UN Women. In some ways these recommendations also form part of the issues that the proposed Guidelines on developing JPs would address. Regarding the JP GEWE, the management sees it important to point out that: a. The current JP GEWE worked at this level as it also represents the UN?s comparative advantage in terms of being able to facilitate the creation of enabling policy and legal environment?s for women?s empowerment and gender equality. b. The devolved structure was created after the Programme started. Once the new structure became effective, the JP GEWE took corrective measures and in so far as was possible extended the work to cover the county governments as duty bearers. c. While the JP GEWE did have a heavy focus on duty bearers vis-à-vis interventions targeting rights holders, this was also cognizant of the needs and opportunities in the country at the time. A new Constitution was being put in place which offered up significant opportunities to advance women?s rights in areas that had previously lagged. The management agrees that any future Joint Programme(s) will need to strike a balance so that they target both duty bearers and rights holders. d. The process of making horizontal linkages between various GEWE interventions and internally (vertically) between results in the same Programme is one that the UN led by UN Women is already in the process of addressing. The development of a GEWE Strategic Result Framework (GEWE SF) by the UN and Government of Kenya provides a sound conceptual framework and addresses this issue of linkages. It is expected that Programmes developed to contribute to these results will have strong internal coherence as well as effectively link to other Programmes.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Normative Support, Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
5.1 Presentation of the evaluation recommendations at a UNCT meeting and a discussion of the benefits (and disadvantages) of focused, demand driven JPs. UN Women 2014/11 Completed
5.2 Organizing Capacity Building training for all the participating agencies of the next generation of Joint Programmes during the programme design phase on how to ensure horizontal and vertical linkages. UN Women 2018/01 Completed
Recommendation: Evaluation Recommendation 6 It is recommended that future capacity development interventions give adequate attention to develop clear and appropriate capacity development strategies informed by the framework of a ?result based capacity development approach.?
Management Response: Management Response: The management agrees with the importance of having a clear capacity development strategy in place in order to yield better and sustainable results. The management admits that there was no commonly agreed capacity development framework in place amongst the participating agencies in the previous JP that would have applied to the different key result areas. The management recognizes that having a clear capacity development strategy in place is also essential in terms of results based management. It allows for reporting on the impact and achievements of given capacity development measures.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
6.1 Presentation at UNCT meeting and request them to task the PMOG to address this as part of the Guidelines for developing future Joint Programmes. UN Women 2015/03 Completed
6.2 Ensure that the development of a common capacity building strategy is included in the TORs of consultant(s) contracted to support development of any future Joint Programmes on GEWE and other thematic issues. UN Women 2018/01 Overdue-Not Initiated
Recommendation: Evaluation Recommendation 7 The design of relatively continuous interventions in the area (such as the participation of women in political and peace building processes) that are not tied only to election cycles is recommended.
Management Response: Management Response: The management accepts the recommendation in principle, but would like to reiterate that the short duration of some of the interventions (especially in peace building processes during the 2013 General Elections) was dictated by necessity and urgency of avoiding post election violence. The management also believes that narrowing down the scope of any future JP to be more focused and demand driven automatically lengthens the duration of the specific programme activities and interventions.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018), Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support, UN Coordination, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
7.1 Recommendations on the appropriate duration of activities will form part of the Guidelines for developing JPs UN Women 2015/03 Completed
Recommendation: Evaluation Recommendation 8 Work both on women and men. The already started initiatives of the JP GEWE to target both men and women should be pursued more strongly in future GEWE interventions.
Management Response: Management Response: The management agrees with the recommendation both in principle and in practice and reassures that all efforts will be made to ensure targeting of both men and women in future GEWE interventions supported by the UN.
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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: Not applicable, Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Engaging men and boys, UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality, Sustainability, Human Rights
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
8.1 This will be addressed in the design phase of future JPs and included in the TORs of the consultant(s) tasked to develop future JPs on GEWE All participating agencies 2018/01 Overdue-Not Initiated