Management Response

: Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (Turkey)
: 2015 - 2018 , Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (Turkey) (RO)
: GRB Regional Project Final Evaluation
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: Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (Turkey)
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The final evaluation of Gender Responsive Budgeting in Europe and Central Asia, including the Project ‘Promoting Gender Responsive Policies in South East Europe and the Republic of Moldova provided important findings, lessons learned, conclusions and recommendations which will support UN Women to establish a region-wide strategic and unified approach for the application of GRB in the ECA countries which shall take into consideration a range of opportunities and challenges faced in GRB to be forward-looking in the sense that it will contribute to effective adaptation of UN Women’s approach to GRB for different contexts in the region. The main findings of the evaluation suggest that: a) the UN Women projects and programmes on GRB in ECA region have contributed substantively to improved awareness, regulatory frameworks and institutional capacity to engender the budget process and expenditure plans; b) the interventions of the GRB Regional Project have delivered a positive social return on investment in terms of changes in the lives of women; c) Current programmes are highly relevant to normative gender instruments and national gender frameworks, with scope to build on this work to better position the contribution of GRB to Agenda 2030, inclusive economic development, and EU accession processes; d) UN Women’s main comparative advantage of regional work is knowledge management, resource mobilisation, and sharing risk; e) project design and implementation at country level should be supported wherever possible; f) UN Women remains the engine sustaining and developing GRB, with possibility to both clarify and innovate strategies for sustainability across the region, and to measure and learn from the experiences of each country.; g) greater focus is needed on the macro-level regional patterns that are driving the economic marginalisation of women, vulnerable social and cultural groups, and people identifying as LGBTQ. The findings and recommendations of the evaluation have been taken in consideration in the development of the new phase of the GRB regional project covering Albania, BiH, Macedonia and the Republic of Moldova from January 2017 to January 2019. The activities foreseen for the implementation of the evaluation recommendations spelled out in this Management Response are integrated into GRB regional project and will be part of the new regional strategic planning of 2018-2020. The evaluation has found that overall, UN Women projects and programmes on GRB in ECA region have contributed substantively to improved awareness, regulatory frameworks and institutional capacity to engender the budget process and expenditure plans and UN Women remains the engine sustaining and developing GRB in the region. The GRB Regional Project interventions are contributing to positive social outcomes in terms of changes in the lives of women. The GRB programming documents reflect systematic mapping of and alignment to normative gender frameworks at the international and country level.

: Approved
Recommendation: Expand the use of costing exercises to new domains of gender inequality, such as women in business (especially executive positions), gender bias in education, and the social dislocation of women migrant workers. Synchronize this research with public authority planning cycles.
Management Response: UN Women accepts the relevance and the usefulness of costing exercises, noting that UN Women ECA has extensive experience in conducting such studies in relation to domestic violence, a National Strategy on GE and the costing of services at the local level, which served as evidence in support of policy planning cycles and decisions related to budgetary allocations. Extending the same exercise to new domains of gender inequality indeed needs to be further explored based on consultations with stakeholders, and as per the country demands and needs. Additionally, concrete actions will largely depend on resource availability and linkages with future programming.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Relevance, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Conduct gender analysis of policies and budgets programs in the agriculture sector of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kazakhstan CO 2018/12 Completed The international expert to support with the design of the methodology on the analyses of budgets and programmes in the agriculture sector was hired in 2017. ECA RO GRB Programme Manager (PM) attended two consultations (at the central and provincial levels) in Kazakhstan in November-December 2017 to share knowledge on GRB related sectoral work in Western Balkan countries. PM will continue to monitor the implementation of this activity and determine whether it can be disseminated to other countries as a good example. Kazakhstan CO was provided with an information on Serbia’s practice on gender analysis of the agricultural sector. A the end 2017 Kazakhstan CO completed gender analysis of five state and local regional programmes and budgets in the agricultural sector. Based on research results most of national agricultural programmes were recognized as gender blind. A set of recommendations were developed to improve gender responsive budget planning and policies development in the agricultural sector of Kazakhstan and passed to the Ministry of economic development for a further integration into relevant policy documents. In 2018 Kazakhstan CO continued its support to build capacity of Ministries of Finance and National Economy on integrating GRB into national planning and budgeting system. It facilitated a study tour for Kazakhstan civil servants to learn best practices by Austria on GRB. The obtained knowledge, networking and partnership opportunities help to accelerate the development and implementation of GRB in Kazakhstan with a common recognition of a role to be played by National Women’s machinery in promoting GRB tools application for policy making and budgeting.
Conduct gender analysis of policies and budgets programs in the agriculture sector of the Republic of Serbia Serbia PPO 2018/12 Completed Serbia PP conducted gender analysis of agricultural sector at the provincial level with a view of ensuring greater inclusion of gender perspective in agricultural budget allocation and consequently in IPARD (Serbia was accredited for IPARD in October 2017). The Agency for Entrepreneurship in the Ministry of Economy in Macedonia analysed and budgeted the Programme for Competitiveness, Innovation and Entrepreneurship and specifically three measures of the programme have been assessed and costed in view of improving participation of women in the entrepreneurship programme. As a result of increased interest and applications submitted by women, the total allocation for the 2017 programme for promoting women’s entrepreneurship was 2.400.000,00 MKD, which marks an increase of 33% since 2015 (1.800.000,00 MKD). ECA RO, through the regional PM will monitoring the implementation of this activity and determine whether it can be disseminated to other countries as a good example.
Pilot training of public officials in the fYR Macedonia Ministry of Economy on gender responsive programming and costing for the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship. GRB regional PM/ UN Women fYR Macedonia PP 2018/03 Completed The Agency for Entrepreneurship in the Ministry of Economy in Macedonia analysed and budgeted the Programme for Competitiveness, Innovation and Entrepreneurship and specifically three measures of the programme have been assessed and costed in view of improving participation of women in the entrepreneurship programme. As a result of increased interest and applications submitted by women, the total allocation for the 2017 programme for promoting women’s entrepreneurship was 2,4 mln. MKD, which marks an increase of 33% since 2015 (1,8 mln. MKD). ECA RO, through the regional PM will document this practice and share this knowledge further within and outside of the region.
Consultations with UN Women ECA offices on potential country interest/demand in conducting costing exercises in areas of relevance for GRB programming and/or potential for incorporation into existing/planned programmes. UN Women ECA RO 2018/06 Completed No standalone consultations were undertaken by ECA RO for all COs/PPs on demand for costing exercises. However, those offices, which have GRB related interventions, identified agricultural policy and employment for their costing exercises (Albania, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Turkey). EVAW is also being prioritized for the costing exercise. In 2017 in a frame of its EVAW programme by UN Women and the Ministry of National Economy of Kazakhstan the assessment of economic costs/losses and costs of DV prevention and response measures at the regional/province level was made. It also demonstrated that many important priorities of VAW prevention and response remain unbudgeted, which significantly reduces the efficiency of EVAW programs. The findings of the assessment are expected to inform further formulation national strategic policies by the Ministry of National Economy. Georgia office is planning to commerce costing of domestic violence in the country. ECA RO scheduled a workshop for COs/PPs focal points on EVAW for the last week of October 2018 with attendance of HQ EVAW team. This allows to consult further on needs/plans for costing of EVAW programmes at the national level.
Recommendation: At the municipal level, continue to explore a shift from advocating for GRB to problem-solving administrative tasks through the use of practical gender-sensitive models and tools.
Management Response: UN Women agrees with this recommendation and further notes that the current phase of the GRB regional project has already operationalised it. Indeed, as noted in the evaluation’s findings, UN Women’s work at municipal level focused on both: 1) strengthening the capacities of local governments to apply GRB tools; and 2) supporting civil society organisations to oversee decision-making and budgeting processes, and to advocate for policy changes. Building upon experiences and lessons learned from the previous GRB phases, UN Women already shifted towards adopting a problem-solving approach by: a) offering specific GRB tools and models to local administrations, such as the development of practical tools for engendering the local participatory processes to address the lack of women’s participation in local decision-making; and b) providing direct mentoring support to the municipal staff, capacitating them to analyse and engender sector programmes by defining and incorporating gender specific measures. In addition, UN Women offices in the region will look at the UN Women Training Course (online and face-to-face) developed by the training Centre and see how it can be used to support training of trainers in local municipalities to strengthen capacity on GRB.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Preparation of GRB training modules, including sets of GRB tools, to be offered to municipalities which are implementing GRB. UN Women Albania CO, Serbia PP; Moldova CO, Georgia CO UN Women regional PM to assess the produced models/tools for replicability both within and across countries. 2018/09 Completed The following GRB training modules were developed and/or adapted: - in Serbia: i) methodology and guidelines for gender sensitive participatory budgeting; ii) Step by step tool for GRB; iii) a gender analysis and GRB module for GE Programme ; iv) Guidelines for gender sector analysis; and v) Benchmarking Assessment on gender equality and GRB for municipalities; - in Albania GRB training package was finalised and is applied in three municipalities; - in Moldova the GRB Guide for Local Public Administration was developed by the Academy for Economic Studies of Moldova with the support of UN Women. This Guide used for training of local public servants and will serve as a resource for future knowledge products and trainings. - In Moldova, the GE Course for Public Servants will be further developed. A core group of up to 10 GE Trainers, will be capacitated and certified to deliver the GE Course for Public Servants upon its institutionalization. - In May 2018 ECA RO provided Kazakhstan CO with funds ($75,000) to support its initiative on building capacity of local CSOs on gender responsive and participatory budgeting. Asa result, 21 women’s organizations (80 people) from three provinces increased its capacities to advocate for GRB through trainings provided by UN Women CO. The trainings were intended to strengthen the institutional capacities of the civil council’s members in using GRB tools in local planning and budgeting process, based on UN Women GRB programme’s knowledge. ECA RO intends to document this practice and further share with partners within and outside of the region as a part of its Knowledge Management Plan for 2019.
Developing mentoring module to apply GRB tools for mainstreaming gender UN Women regional PM; fYR 2017/12 Completed Although the Module has been produced in fYR Macedonia in the framework of the GRB regional project it will be replicable and made available to all municipalities of other countries of the region.. The module has been finalised in Macedonian and English languages. This knowledge product will be further shared with all interested partners.
Provide continuous expert mentoring support to municipalities on GRB. UN Women regional PM; fYR Macedonia PP Serbia PP 2018/03 Completed The four expert hired by U Women gave mentoring support to 21 municipalities in FYR Macedonia while at the same time applying the unified methodology on Gender Responsive budget application at local level. Serbia PP provided support on GRB to selected municipalities each year.
Support south-south and triangular exchange between countries in the ECA region on GRB practices and approaches at local level. UN Women regional PM; fYR Macedonia PP with support from ECA-RO Serbia PP 2018/12 Completed GRB is identified as a key enabler for GEWE promotion and is prioritized by ECA RO within its new draft SN for 2019-2021 as it support to COs/PPs through knowledge generation and management and partnership development. ECA RO SN was approved at the end September 2018. Sharing of GRB practices and knowledge are identified by ECA RO SN as a priority for its KM Plan for 2019. Project cooperation agreements have been signed with a national association of local-self-government units (ZELS), and regional association of local governments (NALAS) on May 2017. Under these LoAs, both responsible parties implemented activities related to regional and national exchanges of experiences and good practices on GRB. In December 2018, a GRB Programme Steering Committee meeting was conducted in Istanbul and followed by the GRB countries’ partners to present and discuss their practices and lessons learnt for application of RB for policy making and implementation.
Recommendation: Agree on a set of key indicators for GRB projects, building on work such as the Progress of the World’s Women (2016) framework. Aggregate performance of the key indicators on a regional basis to share the risks associated with innovation across countries and remove disincentives to experimentation.
Management Response: UN Women agrees with this recommendation and will closely consider its implementation in the future GRB projects in the ECA region. UN Women will use the experience gained while identifying the indicators for the Progress of the World’s Women (2016) framework and use it for the new SDG global indicators tailored to the context of the ECA. Furthermore, the new Strategic Plan of UN Women has GRB-specific indicators which are linked to the Flagship Programme Initiative on Transformative Financing and fully aligned with priority areas.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Relevance, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Incorporate activities/budgets for identifying a set of indicators applicable to UN Women GRB programming in ECA region within future GRB regional projects. ECA RO 2018/09 Completed Gender data specific component was incorporated into a CN for the new regional GRB Porgramme for ECA being developed in September-December 2018. As a result of country level consultations facilitated by the international consultant supporting the development of the new regional programme, gender data work is kep as one of priority outcome for the enw programme. At Q1 2019 ECA RD mission is planned to Sweden for fundraising for the new regional programme.
Recommendation: At country level, monitor CEDAW and SDG reporting to collect evidence of GRB’s success and feed this back into political discourse to build momentum
Management Response: UN Women agrees with the principle of this recommendation, and in its future work, it will encourage countries in the region to include relevant information and data on GRB in their mandatory reporting to CEDAW Committee. So far, GRB has been in one of the areas covered in the report of the Government of Albania (July 2016), whereas in the upcoming report of the Government of fYR Macedonia, work and results achieved on GRB will be fully reflected. As the evaluation findings rightly pointed, CEDAW recommendations have been considered in a number of policy discussions, and served to inform GRB programme formulation. UN Women will ensure continuity of the same practice in actual and future programming. The process of SDG localization has been initiated, and UN Women is currently developing the methodology for monitoring SDG implementation from gender perspective that countries will report against. Specifically, SDG 5.C.1 requires countries to report on budget allocation on GE. Hence, we need to take in consideration that how much can be done in this cycle depends on the progress made by individual countries in terms of SDG process.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Monitor 2015-2018 CEDAW reports and CEDAW Committee conclusions related to all ECA programme countries to assess any reference to GRB, to be used as basis for advocacy and/or programme formulation ECA RO 2018/12 Completed Was addressed within Macedonia SN/country programme developed by the end May 2018. For other countries this is covered as a part of the offices’ normative and coordination functions All COs/PPs provides an assistance to governments for CEDAW reporting and follow-up on CEDAW Committee’s concluding observations. GRB is followed as in a frame of these actions. Serbia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan reports to CEDAW were scheduled for 2018 and 2019 sessions and UN Women facilitated development of UNCT confidential reports to CEDAW.
Monitor VNRs produced from programme countries of the region in 2016-2018 to assess if there is any reference to GRB, to be used as a basis for advocacy and/or programme ECA RO 2018/12 Completed In 2017 ECA RO undertook a review of a draft Albania NVR prepared for 2018 HLPF on 9-16 July in NY. Gender aspects were sufficiently covered, including GRB: “….28 programs prepared in compliance with GRB, compared to nine programs identified in the previous years. Figures as per the approved MTBP 2016-2018 show a total of 15 billion ALL (USD 136 million), or 3% of the total budget, planned by the Albanian Government for the year 2018 to specifically benefit women and/ or advance gender equality”. Kazakhstan, Serbia, B&H and Turkey committed to present the NVR for 2019 HLPF. ECA RO and field offices provide a support to advocate for further stronger commitments on GRB through NVR consultations
Recommendation: Work towards a regionally adapted version of the Flagship Programme on transformative financing that includes specific links to the EU Acquis (such as through GEF) and UN Women’s work on data/statistics;
Management Response: UN Women agrees with the recommendation noting that the process has already been initiated in several countries in ECA Region. UN Women already started to implement the recommendation by adapting the new regional phase of the GRB project, which has close linkages with the GEF in Albania. The same approach will be followed in other countries once GEF is launched and functional. Additionally, UN Women will continue to fundraise for GRB at regional level by aligning with the Global Flagship Programme on transformative financing for gender equality, particularly with the data/statistics work of UN Women
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Regular consultations between staff involved in the regional GRB project and UN Women staff involved in the GEF to ensure implementation of aligned activities within the new phase of the GRB regional project . UN Women regional PM; ECA-RO and UN Women offices in Albania CO, BiH CO, fYR Macedonia PP, Moldova CO, Serbia PP 2018/12 Completed Comments Alignment was discussed in detail in a frame of development of a new GRB regional programme. A the end 2018 ECA RO initiated a consultancy aimed to support gender mainstreaming through sector-wide approaches throughl • advice and technical support to the ECA RO and field offices on strategic and practical opportunities to advocate for and promote gender mainstreaming and GEWE through the GEF (based on the models developed for Albania, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina); • Advise the ECA RO on resource mobilization efforts to secure the roll-out of the GEF in different countries of the region; • Support ECA RO for the start-up of implementation of the “GEF in Albania, Phase II” • develop EU-specific proposal(s) to enable UN Women and gender equality mechanisms to support the transposition and adoption of the EU Gender Acquis in countries where the GEF initiative may be developed. • Conduct, as required, assessments for the adoption of good practices in gender mainstreaming to inform and support civil servants and partners alike as practitioners in embedding gender equality analysis and concerns in their routine operations. By the end January 2019 the planned consultations in Albania and B&H were completed and recommendations. Findings of the consultations inform how GRB and GEF could be framed together. Review of Serbia GEF demonstrated its compliance with GRB project’s results and perspectives.
Develop a concept note for mobilizing resources for a new GRB regional project that would synergise and compliment the work already in place with the gender data/statistics. ECA RO 2018/12 Completed Regional GRB programme developed, based on the CN prepared in September 2018, and a mission of ECA RD is scheduled for Q1 2019 (6-7 March TBC) to Stockholm to meet with SIDA colleagues to discuss a partnership and fundraising for the new GRB programme for ECA.
Recommendation: Explicitly link the work towards a regionally-adapted version of the Flagship Programme on data and statistics to the FPI on transformative financing (see 3.1)
Management Response: The FPI on gender statistics is naturally linked to the work on GRB. Specifically in the countries which GRB is implemented, the activities are fully aligned with the FPI in statistics. Both FPIs will create synergies in the field and compliment the support to target countries.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Formulate a regional prodoc on gender statistics based on the global FPI with clear linkage to transformative financing FPI. ECA RO 2017/12 Completed The regional Prodoc on Gender Statistics is already developed and PAC-ed in May 2017. Its implementation started in February 2018.
Implement specific activities in the framework of the regional GRB project in synergy with the regional project on statistics by facilitating regional exchange of knowledge and good practices and organize joint capacity development training. UN Women ECARO 2018/12 Completed Albania, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan are identified as pilot countries for Gender Statistics programme and started implementation of their country specific activities in June-December 2018. Follow-up activites are planned and budgetd within ECA RO AWP for 2019 to continue a support for these countries to improve gender data collection, analysis and dissemination. Kosovo and Tajikistan are additionally covered by ECA RO Gender Data programme within its 2019 implementation plan. Capacity development on gender statistics use and analysis was covered within Gender Mainstreaming training and GRB training by UN Women Training Center and ECA RO in September-October 2018. An agreement was reached with UN Women Training Center to jointly develop gender statistics online course in Russian in 2019. Within the regional gender statistics programme trainings for data users planned for 2019, needs of partners from GRB programme will be addressed.
Ensure that the newly recruited regional Gender Statistics Specialist is in regular contact with the GRB regional PM to ensure that the work plans of the regional GRB and statistics projects are aligned. UN Women ECARO 2018/03 Completed Albania, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan are identified as pilot countries for Gender Statistics programme and started implementation of their country specific activities in June-December 2018. Follow-up activites are planned and budgetd within ECA RO AWP for 2019 to continue a support for these countries to improve gender data collection, analysis and dissemination. Kosovo and Tajikistan are additionally covered by ECA RO Gender Data programme within its 2019 implementation plan. Capacity development on gender statistics use and analysis was covered within Gender Mainstreaming training and GRB training by UN Women Training Center and ECA RO in September-October 2018. An agreement was reached with UN Women Training Center to jointly develop gender statistics online course in Russian in 2019. Within the regional gender statistics programme trainings for data users planned for 2019, needs of partners from GRB programme will be addressed.
Recommendation: Develop a macroeconomic theory of change for the region and publish a flagship GRB index to leverage UN Women’s perspective on the care economy into IFI and MDA models for promoting inclusive growth
Management Response: There are two issues related to this recommendation. The first one is the macro economy theory of change for the region and the flag ship programme on care economy, and secondly the GRB index. Regarding the first issue, the macroeconomic analyses will be part of the theory of change of the Care Economy flagship programme that ECA region is in the process of developing. At the moment, UN Women do not plan to have a separate flagship programme on macro economy, however, based on the demand and priority of the region, this can be revisited again at a later stage. Regarding the second recommendation on the GRB Index, UN women HQ is leading the work on the SDG 5.C.1 indicator (Tier III) which is defined as the “Proportion of countries with systems to track and make public allocations for gender equality and women’s empowerment”. UN Women in close collaboration with UNDP and OECD is preparing the methodology to measure this indicator. The criteria included in the 5.c.1 refined methodology provide a clear assessment of the gender responsiveness of a country’s policy framework and public financial management system. The indicator identifies main GRB elements to integrate gender equality into planning and budgeting processes. Developing a new index does not appear to be realistic in the current context, considering that not only the countries have to report on many SDG indicators, but also that this endeavor will require a lot of unrealistic efforts.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Develop a flagship programme on the Care Economy with a component on macroeconomic analyses and linkages with GRB UN Women ECARO 2018/07 Completed The regional programme on care economy was prepared and will be submitted to the potential donors under the relevant calls for proposals in 2019.
Global Methodology for the SDG 5.C.1. developed and tested UN Women ECARO 2018/10 Completed Global methodology for the SDG 5.c.1 is being developed tested and approved as tier 2 indicator.
Incorporate activities/budgets for developing a set of indicators applicable to UN Women GRB programming (to be used for formulating a GRB index) in ECA region within future GRB regional projects. UN Women ECARO 2018/12 Completed The new GRB regional programme includes a specific component/outcome to work on gender statistics for policy making and analysis by using SDG related indicators.
Recommendation: Work with key partners, (including but not limited to ministries of finance, gender equality mechanisms, and civil society networks) to design future regional projects through participatory processes, including having country-specific outputs that respond to local political priorities
Management Response: UN Women fully agrees with this recommendation. At present, in the process of formulating the new GRB regional project, UN Women worked closely and conducted consultations with key partners including gender machineries, line ministries, Ministries of Finance, CSOs, gender advocates and experts. In the previous phase of the project, during the project advisory board which is composed by the representatives of central and local administration, civil society and donors, one session was dedicated to the development of the new intervention. As agreed, the project log frame has country specific indicators as per the country priorities.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Organize consultations with relevant stakeholder in the project countries and Serbia to discuss country priorities and challenges to be addressed in the follow-up phase. UN Women offices in Albania CO, BiH CO, fYR Macedonia PP, Moldova CO and Serbia PP 2017/11 Completed Broad consultations with stakeholders including ministries of finance, line ministries, Municipalities, NGO representatives and gender advocates were organised to identify countries specific needs and priorities on GRB. The information received was used to develop the current (interim) phase of the regional GRB project. Serbia developed GRB project document as pilot country selected by HQ and in consultations with the relevant national and provincial stakeholders, which was shared and approved by HQ. Its implementation is depending on the availability of funds.
Ensure that wide consultations are held in each of the involved countries for the forthcoming phase of the regional GRB programme UN Women regional PM, with support from ECA-RO 2018/12 Completed In Macedonia the consultation process was finalised at Q2 2018 with a successful fundraising from SIDA and SDC. It was structured in a way that all partners and stakeholders had the opportunity to discuss and demand future interventions. In other countries, the consultations were taken place within the events/meetings planned under the ongoing programme. The final conference conducted in May 2018 allowed to bring a wide range of partners from all GRB programme countries when one specific session was dedicated to the future needs and countries demand on GRB. At the end of the conference a list of future actions was developed and included in the new GRB programme document.
Recommendation: Establish a regional knowledge and communications hub for GRB to gather, simplify and translate insights, tools, and guidance from across the region (including, but not limited to, future regional projects).
Management Response: UN Women sees the importance of this recommendation and already took actions towards establishing regional communication and knowledge hub. The regional web site of UN Women ECA has a separate page dedicated to GRB as one of the priority areas. This web site serves as platform for sharing the latest knowledge and communication products in ECA region and specifically it gives the information on the UN Women on going work on GRB. In parallel the first on line platform dedicated on GE at local level was lunched by Association of the Local Self Government Units in fYR Macedonia, which features news, articles and relevant resources on GRB, including a regional blog showcasing good practices from different countries in the region. Additionally, a regionally available on-line learning tool on GRB has been developed and integrated as part of the e-academy of the Network of the Associations of Local Authorities in SEE. UN Women further consider this recommendation in the future GRB programming, ensuring sustainability and wide use of the established knowledge hub.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM, Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Upgrade the web platform on GRB at local level by wide promotion in the region and regular updates with relevant information, news on GRB. UN Women ECA COs and PPOs 2018/12 Completed The platform already exists – it is hosted and being upgraded by NALAS, the association of the local authority in Macedonia. This is being used as a regional platform for all level work done on GRB in the countries of regional project implementation. In the next new phase of the project these platform will continue to play an important role in exchange an learning across the region. Countries have been informed and it is expected that they will feed the platform with relevant information including news and regular updates on GRB. ECA RO ensures its follow-up with COs/PPs for a regular update in a frame of its work on KM in 2019.
Piloting the e-learning module on GRB among Local Governments in the region and making the existing video on GRB in Romanian and Albanian available. UN Women regional PM; Moldova CO and Albania CO 2018/12 Completed The on-line course on GRB has been developed and integrated as part of the e-academy of the Network of the Associations of Local Authorities in SEE. It was piloted among Local Governments in the region. The existing video on GRB is available in 5 languages including Romanian and Albanian with subtitles and is being used for training purposes. In 2019 ECA RO will consider a possibility to further disseminatethis e-learning opportunity among respective partners.
Facilitate broad exchange of knowledge products including training modules, GRB tools and methods and have them available through GRB ECA web site, ZELS platform, and other social media. UN Women regional PM with support from Moldova 2018/03 Completed Knowledge products, training materials and different publicans have been shared between involved countries and broader in the region outside of the project. GRB training materials and experts were applied by Turkey programme presence for its GRB trainings in 2018. Mapping of all available resources will be done further with a support of ECA RO and share with UN Women offices globally.
Recommendation: Continue the development of regional GRB projects, but focus the regional aspect on knowledge management, political advocacy, and partnership brokerage. Give greater emphasis in knowledge management to regional exchanges, peer-to-peer mentoring, and document sharing; and less emphasis to study tours (see recommendation 9)
Management Response: UN Women agrees on the relevance of this recommendation. The ongoing phase of the GRB regional project foresees peer to peer mentoring as one of the approaches in strengthening the capacities of state administration, while at the regional level, knowledge sharing and exchange among GRB practitioners, experts and gender advocates is strongly emphasised. Study visits are not foreseen, although based on the previous experience, and as noted in the evaluation (page 9) “study tours to EU member states may still be relevant to establish knowledge and skills on aspects such as public expenditure monitoring, which are lacking in the sub-region”
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Organize regional events with the participation of public officials from the region on GRB knowledge sharing and learning. GRB Regional Programme Manager 2018/10 Completed UN Women led the GRB larger debate during European Development Days (EDD) on June 2018 in Brussels. 130 participants from different countries including EU participated in the GRB side event and they were exposed on the experience and challenges on GRB implementation. The experiences on GRB in Western Balkans were shared on the CSW 61 session’s side event on March 2018. High level public officials from Western Balkans shared them results on GRB and how they used GRB as a tool to mainstream gender and empower rural women. In the framework of the GRB regional project UN Women organised a regional workshop with participation of public officials from nine countries of ECA region on May 2018. More than 120 participants exchanged and learned from each other on GRB experiences and brainstormed about future GRB interventions at country and at the regional level.
Facilitate exchange of knowledge and information through the countries through online platforms and social media. GRB Regional Programme Manager; Moldova CO 2018/10 Completed Being done on a regular basis. GRB regional programme’s results were included into ECA RO brief report on 2017 results being constantly disseminated through social media in a user-friendly format (infographics, etc.) together with human/women stories.
Recommendation: Explore the option of establishing a regional framework agreement with development partners for GRB with two components: 1) provision for regional knowledge management -see recommendation 9- and 2) provision for country-led GRB projects under a common reporting framework - see recommendation 3-.
Management Response: UN Women will explore the opportunity to establish framework agreements with IMF and World Bank at the regional level as well as with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (CLRA) regarding the implementation of the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life. Additionally, UN Women will continue the cooperation with The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in the field of GRB as well.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Establish contact with the CLRA to select cooperation modalities regarding UN Women GRB initiatives ECA GRB Regional Programme Manager 2018/10 Completed IMF/WB events were attended and contributed by sharing GRB practices. Cooperation modalities will be formalized within the new GRB regional programme.
Initiate regular technical cooperation with the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in the field of GRB UN Women ECARO 2018/09 Completed The GRB regional project manager participated in the technical meetings of EIGE for the revision of the GRB EU initiatives in the
Recommendation: Establish a region-wide commitment to preserving a minimum level of UN Women support to maintain GRB over the long-term.
Management Response: Gender Responsive Budgeting is a long-term process. It requires time and technical expertise. UN Women is convinced that GRB is one of the key tools which makes gender mainstreaming a reality. GRB continues to be one of UN Women priority area. UN Women ECA RO is continuing fundraising on GRB. Preserving a minimum level of UN Women support to maintain GRB over the long-term will depend on the availability of core and non-core resources.
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Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
To develop a new regional programme on GRB for 2019-2022 which is in line with UN Women’s regional strategic note and includes the minimum level of technical expertise in its design and associated budget. UN Women ECARO 2018/12 Completed International consultant was hired by ECA RO with an aim to support development of a new GRB regional programme document. New regional programme on GRB for 2019-2022 is finalised. It is in line with UN Women’s ECA SN and includes the minimum level of technical expertise in its design and associated budget.
Recommendation: In each country establish an explicit strategy to work towards embedding the role of GRB advisor (or another form of GRB expertise) in the Ministry of Finance.
Management Response: UN Women agrees with the relevance of the recommendation for securing continued in house expert advisory support in the MoFs. The experience has shown that having a GRB advisor inside the Ministry of Finance, as was the case in Albania, has great impact on sustaining GRB application in the long run. However, country contexts and demand guides the specific modality in provision of technical assistance to partners. UN Women will continue to explore opportunities with the Ministries of Finance and assess the immediate possibilities to embed the role of technical advisors on GRB or other options for securing expert advisory.
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Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: National ownership
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Initiate consultations with MoFs in fYR Macedonia,BiH and Serbia to explore possibilities for embedding the role of technical advisors on GRB UN Women regional PM, UN Women office in fYR Macedonia PP, BiH CO and Serbia PP 2018/12 Completed MR has been addressed in Serbia where the Ministry of finance already nominated GRB advisor. Consultations initiated in BiH CO with BiH, FBiH and Republika Srpska MoFs and will be followed-up within the new GRB Programme
Recommendation: Ensure full cost recovery of a full-time-equivalent project coordinator for future GRB projects (i.e. rather than cost sharing with the country offices) to avoid false-economy, and to allow for more staff time in the field.
Management Response: UN Women accepts the recommendation; however, the implementation of this recommendation will greatly depend on the availability of non-core resources to be mobilized by the RO and CO for the GRB work in the future.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Full time project coordinators to be included in future GRB projects/programmes/concept notes UN Women ECARO UN Women ECA-RO and UN Women offices in the region that are included in the associated programme 2018/12 Completed Full time project coordinators are included in the new GRB projects/programme prepared for the next phase – 2019-2021.
Recommendation: Within UN Women’s coordination work, prioritize conceptual and language alignment of GRB with the budgeting programmes of other entities, including human rights based budgeting (OHCHR) and performance based budgeting (UNDP).
Management Response: UN Women accepts this recommendation noting that all UN Women’s GRB approaches are fully in alignment with the human rights based budgeting (HRBB) and performance based budgeting (PB). As a tool, GRB not only applies the core principles of the HRBB, such as the demand for transparency, accountability, non-discrimination and participation, but it goes even further to the specificities through using gender lenses. Through UNDAF processes, UN Women’s is leading the work on gender with other UN agencies and have specifically role as official partner in different programmes of UNDP (in FYR Macedonia) and One UN programme on Social inclusion in Albania.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Making recommendations on GRB principles to be taken into consideration in UNDP’s work on empowering municipal council in fYR Macedonia. ECA Regional GRB Progamme Manager and fYR Macedonia PP 2018/09 Completed UN Women provided technical GRB expertise in the main gender module of the UNDP project on empowering municipal council in fYR Macedonia. The module was delivered and all UN Women recommendations were taken into consideration.
Recommendation: Continue to widen and better utilize the regional pool of GRB experts, including supporting country-to-country technical cooperation by leveraging UN Women’s universal mandate and strategic partnership with the EU.
Management Response: UN Women accept this recommendation fully. From the previous GRB work, UN Women already had a regional pool of GRB experts mostly composed by CSOs representatives and gender advocates. The experts have been already used across the region and it is expected that the same approach will be further expanded in the future, including exchange of country to country technical expertise. At present, through the ongoing initiatives UN Women is working towards improving the expertise on GRB among public administration from central and local level. UN Women is in the process of creation of the GRB roster of experts which will be available soon and will serve to this purpose. Widening the pool of experts in ECA Region will depend very much on the resources available.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Knowledge management, South-South cooperation
Organizational Priorities: Organizational efficiency, Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Development of TOT Modules on GRB for public administration and GRB experts in fYR Macedonia and BiH. GRB ECA Regional Programme Mamager; fYR Macedonia PP and BiH CO 2017/11 Completed TOT Modules on GRB for public administration and GRB experts being developed and delivered in fYR Macedonia and BiH Training package will be shared further with the interested offices/partners as knowledge product
Inclusion of the GRB module in the official curricula of the public administration institutes GRB Regional Programme Manager 2018/06 Completed In Macedonia the GRB module it is already included in the official curricula of the public administration institute while in BiH and Moldova is in the process of development. In Albania the GRB module is finalised and tested by the School of Public Administration (ASPA) with the Gender Equality Employees and will be part of the 2019 official curricula.
Creation of ECA roster of experts on GRB UN Women ECARO 2018/07 Completed ECA roster of experts on GRB is prepared and available for field offices and partners to use.
Recommendation: Expand UN Women’s GRB theories of change to fully cover all stages of the budget cycle (including the watchdog role), analysis of revenue policies, and consideration of LGBTQ gender identities.
Management Response: UN Women agrees with the recommendation, noting that the Global FPI on financing for gender equality already includes all indicated stages in the budgeting cycle, including consideration to the most vulnerable groups. In ECA region, to date the interventions on GRB have partially responded to this recommendation, mostly focusing on expenditure side of the budgets and technically supporting CSOs to monitor government spending with gender lenses and prepare gender budget watch dog reports. Furthermore, UN Women commissioned a research paper with four corresponding technical briefs on gender and taxation. The briefs provide practical guidance for UN Women country offices to deliver technical support to governments through focused examination of: a) global trends in tax policy, b) personal income taxation, c) corporate income taxation, and d) value added taxation. As per the consideration of the LGBTQ rights, in the framework of SDG implementation the Leaving No One Behind” principle that UN Women is committed in its GRB work to ensure that women – in all their diversity – and their priorities are included in the planning and budgeting process.
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Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Develop a regional theory of change on GRB that fully reflects all stages in the budget cycle, in line with Global FPI ECA GRB Regional Programme Manager with the support of UN Women ECARO 2018/12 Completed Regional theory of change on GRB that reflects all stages in the budget cycle, in line with Global FPI developed within the new GRB regional programme document.
Recommendation: Ensure that all country-level GRB projects include provision for engaging macro-economic actors – including but not limited to the World Bank, IMF and EU – to advocate for gender mainstreaming in all policy analysis and recommendations.
Management Response: UN Women has been already cooperating with WB, IMF and EU. The challenge to achieve this recommendation fully is that in some countries IMF is not strong and not very active, while in others it is present with a stronger voice. GRB became one of the priority area of IMF in 2017, which will make the cooperation in this field easier. With the EU and the WB, UN Women has been in constant contact. The issue sometime with macro-economic actors is that they are not gender aware and nor want to participate or include gender in their discussions with the government. Also, important actors, such IMF and WB, have their respective bilateral agreements and partnership with hosting governments, and therefore are not easily accessible nor easy to partner with.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Discuss with UN Women HQ opportunities for cooperation at the regional level with IMF/WB on engendering macroeconomic policies. ECA RGB Regional Programme Manager 2018/12 Completed The ECA RO engaged HQ WEE colleagues into the discussions with IMF/WB and will continue to follow-up on this in 2019 under its new GRB programme.
Organise meetings with IMF, World Bank and EU in the countries when GRB is implementing to discuss opportunities of joint work on macroeconomic and gender UN women ECA GRB Regional Programme Manager; BiH CO, Moldova CO, Albania CO, fYR Macedonia PP, Serbia PP 2018/10 Completed In Albania a meeting was held with the World Bank team leader for the Western Balkans on Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions to discuss a potential policy agenda to improve women’s access to income generating opportunities in the region which is related to the ongoing engagement on growth and jobs. GRB was discussed as the tool to budget related Policy Initiatives. In BiH meetings were in place at the end 2018. HQ WEE colleagues were approached to support preparations for the meetings.
Recommendation: Ensure that all GRB projects start with a baseline macroeconomic analysis that is Gender and class aware.
Management Response: In the future GRB project, UN Women will consider including the design of the baseline of the macroeconomic analysis that is gender and class aware. This will very much depend on the availability of funds and agreement with the donors.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Integrate some macroeconomic analyses as part of future regional GRB programming UN Women ECA Regional Programme Manager with support from UN Women ECARO 2018/12 Completed Macroeconomic analysis is included as part of the new regional GRB programme for ECA. In 2019 ECA RO will continue to look for the existing best practices in this area to further apply.