Management Response

: Moldova
: 2014 - 2017 , Moldova (CO)
: Final Evaluation for the Women in Politics Programme
:
: Moldova
:

UN Women agrees in general with the lessons identified and recommendations proposed by the evaluation of the WIP Programme. UN Women has ensured that recommendations referring to year 2017 are included in the planning process of Annual Work Plan (AWP) of 2017 and they have already been initiated as part of AWP 2017 implementation (following successful resource mobilization efforts for one-year cost extension of the project in 2017). Recommendations referring to future multi-year programming in the thematic area of participation and leadership will be taken into account in the process of developing upcoming programme documents, namely relevant future project documents and the new UN Women Strategic Note for Moldova 2018-2022
: Approved
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATIONS 1 1.1 Current WiP Programme needs to be extended to complete activities; another iteration of this programme should continue for another round of elections at the national and local level. 1.2 Secure sufficient and immediate funding and reduce delays in disbursement of such funds in order not to lose important momentum and institutional memory.
Management Response: • The WiP Programme has developed a detailed concept of work 2017-2020 in consultation with key stakeholders, based on the findings of the Mid Term Review conducted in February 2016. The concept note expands the focus of the programme to include women in various leadership positions – including in the Executive branch at national and local level. The concept note will be further developed into a full-fledged Programme which will cover the next round of regular national (2018) and local (2019) elections. • A cost extension for 2017 has been granted by the Government of Sweden, and has been disbursed in November 2016. As described in the 2017 cost-extension and in the Concept Note 2017-2020, the focus of the programme will be on the implementation of the new Law 71 which introduced 40% gender quota. • In the course of 2017, the Programme Team will develop a full-fledged Project Document with an expanded scope and UN Women and UNDP will continue fund-raising efforts
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Description: 1.1 Current WiP Programme needs to be extended to complete activities; another iteration of this programme should continue for another round of elections at the national and local level. 1.2 Secure sufficient and immediate funding and reduce delays in disbursement of such funds in order not to lose important momentum and institutional memory.
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1) Develop a full-fledged proposal 2018-2020 on advancing women's leadership and participation which will cover the upcoming regular electoral cycle (Parliamentary elections in 2018 and local elections in 2019) UN Women/UNDP 2017/09 Completed UN Women Strategic Note 2018-2022 foresees to work on three priority areas, one of which is Women in Leadership, including peace and security from Swedish support to the Strategic Note. ( http://bit.ly/2ltikDc)
2) Secure immediate funding for the programme in 2017 – to complete all activities and provide sufficient time for the development of a full proposal for 2018-2020 UN Women/UNDP 2017/12 Completed one year (2017) cost-extension of joint UNDP-UN Women programme on enhancing women’s political participation agreed between UN Women and Sweden Embassy in Chisinau.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATIONS 2 2.1 Consider expanding the scope to refer to women in leadership in general. Change to a more general focus will serve as an entry point in Transnistria. 2.2 Focus more resources and action at the local level, working both with the local government entities and communities where gender is poorly known. 2.3 Consider working with local teams, especially in doing advocacy work and people to people campaigns.
Management Response: • The concept note developed for the period 2017-2020 expands the focus of the programme to women in leadership more generally and has a strong focus on work at the local level. The full-fledged proposal to be developed in 2017 will maintain this focus. • UN Women is prioritizing increasing its local level outreach through exploring different modalities to support the implementation of its overall Strategic Note (SN) for Moldova. This will be especially taken into account in the new SN which will be developed in 2017 for the upcoming period 2018-2022. • UN Women is continuing with the focus on local level activities through partnership with local organizations and individual women champions throughout Moldova in all its thematic areas. The prioritization of local level activities under the WIP programme in the period 2015-2016 will continue and is embedded in 2017 AWP.
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Description: 2.1 Consider expanding the scope to refer to women in leadership in general. Change to a more general focus will serve as an entry point in Transnistria. 2.2 Focus more resources and action at the local level, working both with the local government entities and communities where gender is poorly known. 2.3 Consider working with local teams, especially in doing advocacy work and people to people campaigns.
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Human Rights, Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Include strong focus on local level activities in the Annual Work Plan for 2017 of current WIP Programme and implement such activities per APW 2017 UN Women/UNDP 2017/12 Completed AWP 2017 already approved and includes strong focus on local activities such as opening two new local political clubs in the districts or Orhei and Soroca, new mentorship program in 7 communities with least representation of women, capacity building of women mayors, etc.
2. Explore different modalities for increasing local level outreach and presence of UN Women in the territory of Moldova UN Women 2018/06 Completed Many activities and events are happening at local level with involvement of local stakeholders and beneficiaries. Mentorship program at local level was conducted In 2017 Involving active women from communities with zero representation. The 2018 AWP will be implemented with the support of Responsible Partners, local NGO who will work mostly at local level with the target group - rural women, women from different groups, youths, girls and boys etc.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATIONS 3 3.1 Support improving aspects of the law that concern placement provision in party election lists and legal measures that ensure women’s safety while running for and holding elected positions. 3.2 Formulate capacity activities that focus on expanding understanding contents of Law 71 and opportunities to engage with the law for various stakeholders. 3.3 Focus on the electorate of men and women to raise awareness on the law and importance of electing women at various levels of representation.
Management Response: The Annual Work Plan for 2017 (cost extension one year period of the WIP Programme) contains specific focus on advocacy for improvements to the legislation and for placement of women in winnable positions by political parties. The Programme will also support discussions on the topic of violence against women in elections and politics, a topic largely not tackled and not discussed adequately in the public space. On this, UN Women will utilize the latest cutting edge knowledge resources developed by HQ (i.e. Guide on Violence against Women in Elections) As per APW 2017, capacity building activities envisaged under the Programme in 2017 contain components aimed at expanding understanding of the Law 71. Specific sessions on this will be included in envisaged capacity building for: women mayors and local councilors, government and political party officials involved in mentorship program and seven local political clubs, targeted women with disabilities, etc. The Programme AWP 2017 includes activities aimed at awareness raising on the Law 71 for two groups: the general public and political parties. User-friendly audio-visual materials will be developed and distributed in a way that ensures wide outreach among electorate with messaging targeting specific groups of citizens affected by the law (in particular women aspiring for political office and fathers of young children) as well as for use during trainings and events with party officials and central and local public administrations.
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Description: 3.1 Support improving aspects of the law that concern placement provision in party election lists and legal measures that ensure women’s safety while running for and holding elected positions. 3.2 Formulate capacity activities that focus on expanding understanding contents of Law 71 and opportunities to engage with the law for various stakeholders. 3.3 Focus on the electorate of men and women to raise awareness on the law and importance of electing women at various levels of representation.
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Engaging men and boys
UNEG Criteria: Human Rights, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Carry out advocacy efforts for placement provision in partnership with civil society [EEF, CPD, Gender Equality Platform], Parliament and CEC as part of APW 2017 UN Women/UNDP 2017/12 Completed During 2017 the Programme Women in Politics supported the activity of the Gender Equality Platform who aimed at promoting the placement provisions and advocated for Increasing the number of women in decision making, but also through WEM (Women in electoral management bodies) International advocacy work was conducted to increase the number of women in EMBs (Electoral management bodies) . GEP organised a press conference focused on mainstreaming Gender equality in public administration reform https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suahn8DZjq8. The fourth position paper focused on the provisions of the new draft law on the Government of Moldova, no. 201 from 19.06.2017 http://bit.ly/2vj34hB
2. Carry out awareness raising activities on violence against women in elections and politics based on new global resources and knowledge products developed by UN Women and UNDP UN Women/UNDP 2017/12 Completed In December 2017, the Global Guide on Violence against women In elections was launched in partnership with CEC. the Guide was translated in Romanian and it Will be used for awareness raising during 2018 electoral campaign. Also, the topic of violence against women In was discussed in trainings provided to women mayors and also during the 16 days campaign by involving different stakeholders. http://bit.ly/2z8fF9b
3. Develop awareness raising and educational materials on the Law 71 for the general public and for political parties as part of AWP 2017 UN Women/UNDP 2017/11 Completed 3 video sports on the main provisions of the |Law: quota, paternity leave and sexist advertising were developed and aired on 7 TV channels : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGkLMoOk1iw&list=PLW8tTWcbumlc_BiH2kuObnNi-AYMkgI0F&index=19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y3c78GIe8g&index=21&list=PLW8tTWcbumlc_BiH2kuObnNi-AYMkgI0F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0r1nP-FWF4&list=PLW8tTWcbumlc_BiH2kuObnNi-AYMkgI0F&index=20 Infographic on the content of the Law was developed and shared broadly. https://trello.com/b/LSNMecii/infographics. Provisions of the law were widely disseminated on media and social media.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATIONS 4 4.1 Consider engaging people who have been invested on to capacitate others as role models to promote the agenda of women in leadership positions. 4.2 The mentor-mentee relationships created through WiP Programme activities should transform into partnerships in which the mentees may be engaged to arrange joint training activities with trainers. 4.3 Efforts should continue to reach out to national media. Beyond working with reporters, engage media management as a significant player in strengthening the work of the media in promoting gender equality. 4.4 Customize training and make it relevant to the nature and scope of the work of targeted individual media by using findings from gender self-assessment of those media.
Management Response: UN Women Moldova will continuously provide opportunities for women already invested in to capacitate others and lead the agenda on women in leadership as role models and positive champions, in line with its ongoing philosophy of women acting as change agents. This work will continue beyond 2017 as part of regular UN Women programming in Moldova and in the context of new SN 2018-2022. In 2017, the WIP programme will provide opportunities for mentees in the 2015-6 mentorship programme to serve as mentors to the new mentees in 2017 mentorship programme or to engage with them on a regular basis. UN Women will also ensure that mentees are involved in different networking and training activities to share their experience as experts. Work with national media as a follow-up to the gender self-assessment will be embedded in new proposal for follow-up programme and will be implemented based on available funding. In general, UN Women will take into account all media related recommendations in its CO communications strategy formulation and implementation.
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Description: 4.1 Consider engaging people who have been invested on to capacitate others as role models to promote the agenda of women in leadership positions. 4.2 The mentor-mentee relationships created through WiP Programme activities should transform into partnerships in which the mentees may be engaged to arrange joint training activities with trainers. 4.3 Efforts should continue to reach out to national media. Beyond working with reporters, engage media management as a significant player in strengthening the work of the media in promoting gender equality. 4.4 Customize training and make it relevant to the nature and scope of the work of targeted individual media by using findings from gender self-assessment of those media.
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Human Rights, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Provide opportunities for women already invested in to capacitate others and lead the agenda on women in leadership as role models and positive champions UN Women/UNDP 2017/12 Completed This work will continue beyond 2017 as part of regular UN Women programming in Moldova and in the context of new SN 2018-2022 which foresees to work on three priority areas, one of which is Women in Leadership, including peace and security.
2. Carry out activities to strengthen and expand the mentor-mentee relationships established under first and second mentorship program UN Women/UNDP 2019/12 No Longer Applicable During 2017 several networking events took place between mentors and mentees from 2016 edition. Also, some mentees from 2016, acted as mentors in 2017 for the new women. Under the new SN 2018-2022 UN Women is working with new women candidates and aspirants fro the up coming national and local elections.
3. Carry out specific activities on work with national media management and provide targeted trainings to national media based on findings of the gender self-assessment UN Women 2019/12 Completed In 2017 an external evaluation was conducted for the media who committed to respect the gender equality principles and to promote it in their products. In addition, a mission of Swedish journalist and photojournalist was organized and trainings for media outlets, students and photographers and communication officers from public institutions were organized. UN Women Moldova started to conceptualize the Media Programme “Click for Gender Equality”. An international consultant was hired to launch the UN Women capacity building Programme for journalists, 2018 edition, which will be composed of the following stages: contest for participants on creating gender sensitive media materials/articles; capacity building sessions; and study mission to a country from Europe with good practices of promoting gender equality in media. In addition, support was provided to Audiovisual Coordinating Council (ACC) in mainstreaming gender equality in their work, including developing a methodology for external monitoring of audiovisual media outlets, revision of Audiovisual Code. The second edition of the "Click for Gender Equality" contest conducted by the Association of the Independent Press (API) took place in November 2019. The contest aims to identify and award Mass Media representatives who promote gender equality in their works resulted in the 9 winners were awarded at the Awards Gala event in the frames of 2019 Mass – Media Forum. A side-event dedicated to the topic of sexism language in Mass Media was attended by 50 journalists, media outlets representatives, students, media experts.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATIONS 5 5.1 Design capacity building and strengthening activities in which men are included. 5.2 Approach working with men politicians and men/women as an electorate, through a targeted design to make results more effective.
Management Response: • Building on successful practice of engaging with men in the current phase (HeForShe campaign, advocacy with men politicians for quota adoption, involving men in local political clubs, training men local and district councilors, engaging men MPs in the regional policy forums of 2015-2016, work with the Parliament Secretariat and Constituency Offices), the programme will continue its efforts to engage men to a broader extent in its activities. The one-year cost extension of 2017 includes: dissemination of the findings of the Gender Barometer research as well as awareness raising of the Law 71 provisions (and their benefits) targeting both women and men citizens/electorate as well as politicians; work with men in the Executive at central and local level, alongside women; gender mainstreaming support to Parliamentary Secretariat staffers, both men and men, engagement of men in the activities with the Central Election Commission and the Centre for Continuous Electoral Training. • In general and in line with its principles of work (and not only in the framework of WIP current of possible future phase), UN Women will continue engaging with men politicians and decision-makers to advance future policy and legislative initiatives towards greater gender equality. This includes: placement provision of the 40% quota to make it effective, changes to political party financing legislation to advance women’s status, ratification of Istanbul Convention, other policy and legislative changes to ensure implementation of CEDAW commitments. Joint advocacy with CSOs, UN and other development partners and one-on-one advocacy will be implemented, in combination with other techniques, similar to the advocacy used for the adoption of Law 71 on gender equality.
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Description: 5.1 Design capacity building and strengthening activities in which men are included. 5.2 Approach working with men politicians and men/women as an electorate, through a targeted design to make results more effective.
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Engaging men and boys
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1) Target men in different 2017 WIP activities (advocacy work for further legislative changes in partnership with CSOs, Gender Barometer dissemination, awareness raising on Law 71, etc.) as part of AWP 2017 UN Women/UNDP 2017/12 Completed During 2017, in relevant activities men were targeted and awareness among men was raised. All 7 political clubs had meetings with local political parties’ leaders (mostly men), journalists’ women and men participated in trainings, but also communication officers both women and men participated in trainings.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATIONS 6 6.1 Clarify logical framework to fit expected results at the output and outcome level. There needs to be a better differentiation between what is expected at the output level (products created with the funding allocated for the project) and at the outcome level (e.g., change in situation/context and behavior) considering realistically how external circumstances outside programme control may affect achievement of expected outcomes. 6.2 For specific aspects of programming in-house resources produced by UN Agencies in projects of a similar nature elsewhere in the world may be used. 6.3 Consider a longer evaluation timeframe and a larger budget, one that would enable evaluation team to evaluate general impact and local impact by reaching out to more communities or allow for community researchers to be part of the evaluation team. 6.4 To obtain the perspectives of various beneficiaries, especially those who do not customarily use internet for communication, other technologies, such as mobile telephones may be explored as a method of obtaining information.
Management Response: The implementation of next phase of the programme (pending outcome of resource mobilization efforts) will take into account all suggested proposals to ensure that future programming and evaluation addresses the limitations observed during this evaluation exercise. In general, UN Women will ensure in-house learning both in terms of the thematic of the intervention and in terms of RBM are fully utilized in any upcoming programmatic interventions and in the development of its future Strategic Note (2018-2022).
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Description: 6.1 Clarify logical framework to fit expected results at the output and outcome level. There needs to be a better differentiation between what is expected at the output level (products created with the funding allocated for the project) and at the outcome level (e.g., change in situation/context and behavior) considering realistically how external circumstances outside programme control may affect achievement of expected outcomes. 6.2 For specific aspects of programming in-house resources produced by UN Agencies in projects of a similar nature elsewhere in the world may be used. 6.3 Consider a longer evaluation timeframe and a larger budget, one that would enable evaluation team to evaluate general impact and local impact by reaching out to more communities or allow for community researchers to be part of the evaluation team. 6.4 To obtain the perspectives of various beneficiaries, especially those who do not customarily use internet for communication, other technologies, such as mobile telephones may be explored as a method of obtaining information.
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Ensure all suggestions are taken into account in future phase of programme on women in leadership (pending outcome of resource mobilization efforts) UN Women/UNDP 2020/12 Completed Most of the recommendations were taken into consideration for the new UN Women Moldova Strategic Note.