Management Response

: Independent Evaluation Service (IES)
: 2015 - 2016 , Independent Evaluation Service (IES) (EO)
: Evaluation of UN Women strategic partnerships on gender equality and women's empowerment
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: Independent Evaluation Service (IES)
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: Approved
Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 1: Establish a sufficiently resourced, integrated, and commonly agreed upon framework for strategic partnerships as a central part of UN Women’s 2018-2021 Strategic Plan
Management Response: This recommendation is well received. Diverse strategic and catalytic partnerships are a prerequisite for UN-Women to achieve and scale up results. Through engagement with partners, UN-Women: supports movements for gender equality; advocates for gender equality commitments from decision makers at all levels; expands constituencies for gender equality; convenes partners against discriminatory social norms; and builds institutional partnerships and mobilizes resources to support UN-Women’s work and gender equality more broadly. UN-Women recognizes the need for a strategic partnership policy framework and intends to prepare one in the context of the new Strategic Plan 2018-2021. UN-Women has incorporated enhanced content on partnerships, including indicators, in the zero-draft Strategic Plan 2018-2021 presented for consideration of the Executive Board in its 2017 Annual Session
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1.1 Establish a strategic partnership policy framework. SPD/Civil Society Section (CSS)/Policy Division/Regional Offices/Intergovernm ental Support Division (IGSD) 2018/12 Completed Timing to coincide with early implementation of the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan. The ED has made the ASG for Policy and Programme responsible for non-core fundraising, so on that basis SPD has amended its non-core fundraising role to that of support through policy, procedures guidance and capacity building SPD developed the 2018-21 corporate RM and Partnership strategy which clarifies the various organizational roles in RM across the organization. This corporate strategy is being socialized and enabled with a digital strategy focused on the development of a customer/ contributor relationship management system in partnership with Salesforce. A review of all country representatives and heads of liaison offices was done to clarify their fundraising responsibilities. The UN Women partnership policy which will outline roles and responsibilities with a view to improve donor contact coordination and protocols has been finalised and is in final stages of approval.
1.2 Publish a clear statement of risk appetite regarding performance, fiduciary and reputational risks from partnering, including establishing acceptable boundaries for innovation SPD/DMA/ other sections and divisions as well, such as CSS, Policy 2018/12 Completed Enterprise risk management policy and framework in place. In addition, a due diligence system for corporate partnerships has been rolled-out. UN-Women has established an enterprise risk management policy and framework, which includes heat maps. Resource mobilization related to partnerships has been highlighted as a high-impact risk, which was addressed with the development of a due diligence system for the private sector overseen by an internal Due Diligence Committee. A similar due diligence process takes place for civil society partners who are implementing partners or trust fund grantees. UN-Women’s intergovernmental section and country teams provide the most up-to-date and relevant national information when considering partnerships. UN-Women is also articulating its approach to innovation in its 2018-21 Strategic Plan. A process for developing a corporate strategy for the resource mobilization strategy of UN Women’s four-year strategic plan as well as annual RM planning was developed, documented and adopted. Additionally, a partnership policy accompanied by procedure and business process has been finalized. The UN Women partnership policy which will outline roles and responsibilities with a view to improve donor contact coordination and protocols has been finalised and is in final stages of approval. The policy also establishes processes for the prioritization of funding requests. The organsiation has processes and systems in place for coordination and information sharing, such as the donor engagement chart. The new partnership policy establishes that all new Partnerships need to be assessed in accordance with UN Women’s Enterprise Risk Management Policy in order to assess the related risks of the partnership. In particular, private sector partners must also be evaluated and assessed in accordance with UN Women’s Due Diligence Policy. This ensures adequate safeguards and provides a justification, based on sound analysis, for UN Women to proceed, or not proceed, with the Partnership.
1.3 Commit sufficient staff time and attention to establishing partnership roadmaps for each strategic partnership. SPD, CSS, Policy Division, Regional Offices 2018/12 Completed The plan for strategic partnerships is to ensure each partnership is established with an initial concept and roadmap, and, given the dynamic nature of partnerships, this core reference for the partnership is shared as a resource within UN-Women, and periodically updated by the focal point. The Resource Mobilization and Partnership (RMP) Strategy 2018-2021 was approved and rolled out in July 2018. It outlines UN Women’s plan to deepen and broaden the donor base to secure the resources required to fulfill UN Women's mandate. The plan for strategic partnerships is to ensure each partnership is established with an initial concept and road-map, and, given the dynamic nature of partnerships, this core reference for the partnership is shared as a core resource for all in UN-Women, and periodically updated by the focal point. Donor packages are currently available for the following major donors: Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A donor focal point chart outlines the portfolio management for each partnership. This corporate strategy is being socialized and enabled with a digital strategy focused on the development of a customer/ contributor relationship management system in partnership with Salesforce. A review of all country representatives and heads of liaison offices was done to clarify their fundraising responsibilities.
Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 2: Establish clarity regarding roles and responsibilities within the current UN-Women structures that will best support strategic partnerships; explicitly recognizing the corresponding importance of leadership capacities, skills and knowledge for partnership working
Management Response: In support of a more coherent partnership approach, in September 2016 the decision was made that the SPD Division Director, under the oversight of the Deputy Executive Director of the Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships Bureau (Pillar A), would also report to the Deputy Executive Director of the Policy and Programme Bureau (Pillar B) to strengthen support to regional and country offices. This dual reporting line facilitates the progressive engagement of SPD in supporting the rest of the organization. In addition, the Programme Division in consultation with the Human Resource Unit has updated the job descriptions of the Regional Directors and Country Representatives to clarify their roles and responsibilities, especially on representation and partnerships. In this context, UN-Women carried out the resource mobilization (RM) workshops “Helping your Clients succeed,” to improve the capacities of key personnel on RM. Where processes are concerned, at the end of 2015 UN-Women initiated a thorough business mapping and re-engineering exercise of Pillar B operations that addressed barriers to partnerships with a wide range of partners, including the private sector. Critical steps have been taken to create internal mechanisms and processes to strengthen coordination to manage partnerships under the Flagship Programme Initiatives (FPIs) through the designation of FPI focal points in both Pillar A and Pillar B. Changes in the way civil society partnerships are managed and prioritized have been implemented, including by separating the Civil Society Section from SPD; it now reports directly to the Deputy Executive Director of Pillar A, which enables specific engagement in civil society partnerships that are distinct from the private sector and other stakeholders. The system of RM Focal Points in the field that is now in place, complemented by the establishment of a Community of Practice and the launch of a client relationship management (CRM) system, are the channels through which this recommendation will be implemented. Roles and responsibilities will be further clarified under the strategic partnership policy framework that will be developed.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
2.1 Establish strategic partnership focal points in all parts of the Regional Architecture and in each HQ section, in liaison with SPD. SPD/Programme Division/ CSS/ 2017/12 Completed Integrated in 2017 Annual Work Plan This is a core component of the Community of Practice under development, and a deliverable of the 2017 Annual Work Plan of SPD in collaboration with the Programme Division.
2.2 Use existing corporate relationship management software to create a system by which all contact with a partner organization is visible to other staff members of UN-Women, linking it to the results tracking and financial reporting systems. IT/SPD/Programme Division/PPGU/DM A/ CSS 2018/12 Completed The Leads System (RM pipeline tracking tool, built in-house) was developed to have management information on RM advance the seamless integration of strategic partnership considerations into workflows. Alongside the Leads System, the development of the CRM will support a holistic view of UN-Women’s current and potential partners and contribute to the development of strategic partnerships. Links between ATLAS, which is UN-Women’s financial management system, and the Results Management System are being further refined. A client/ donor relationship management (CRM) system development project was launched in April 2018. The first pilot phase was developed after the Salesforce licensing agreement was signed. The project’s pilot phase was launched in December 2018. The first phase included developing a change management plan. The operationalization has begun with creating and editing accounts and contacts into the system, as well as the development of a Standard Operating Procedure customized for UN Women’s needs to ensure that the inputting of key information is standardized across the house. The availability of such information and guidance will facilitate further regional and country level piloting. The UN Women partnership policy which will outline roles and responsibilities with a view to improve donor contact coordination and protocols has been finalised and is in final stages of approval. The policy also establishes processes for the prioritization of funding requests. While the roll-out of the CRM is somewhat delayed, the organsiation has processes and systems in place for coordination and information sharing, such as the donor engagement chart.
2.3 Establish a set of competencies, components of leadership training programmes, and certifications focused on strategic partnership management for UN-Women staff members SPD/HR/ CSS/ Programme Division/ Regional Offices 2018/12 Completed Currently, a formal certification programme does not exist. However, the immediate goal is to develop a strong and well trained Community of Practice. SPD and the Programme Division began collaborating to train national, regional and global staff through specialized consultant training and global RM webinars to share best practices, with further dedicated training under design. The RM workshop “Helping Clients Succeed” was rolled out from December 2016 to May 2017. In total, over 150 UN-Women staff have attended this training. In addition, UN-Women is developing a programme management training for staff, the training is to be conducted in April 2018 initially as a pilot and then rolled out to the rest of the organization. In addition, UN Women is delivering a Project and Programme Management training for staff based on the needs of UN Women’s project programmes. The “PM Training” was rolled out in April 2018, with 65 participants at the Global Pilot Training in Istanbul, Turkey. A second condensed training was delivered to LAC Region reps and staff in August, 2018. A third training was delivered at the Fiji MCO for 45 staff from across 16 countries in November 2018. Finally, a PM Training was delivered in February 2019 for 39 participants for the West Africa region, held in Senegal. A future training is confirmed for Bangkok for Asia and the Pacific staff in April, 2019. Other trainings and dates are under negotiation. The PM Training is expected to reach all regions by Q1 2020. During this time, the trainings will be refined and updated, and “institutionalized” to be accessible online, and through “Trainer of Trainers” schemes. The trainings are expected to become mandatory for UN Women staff. The training provides a certificate to staff, and is also expected to provide certified content in pursuit of “Professional Development Units – PDU’s” from the Project Management Institute – PMI UN Women is working with an external provider, Franklin Covey, on training. UN Women rolled-out a customized 3-day training in business development and partnerships to 150 UN Women staff from over 75 offices, covering all 6 regions and headquarters. The results have spoken for themselves: thanks in part to this training, UN Women’s non-core resources mobilized increased by 22% year-on-year between 2016 and 2017 and are 30% higher in 2018 as compared to the same time in 2017
Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 3: Undertake a systematic process of integrating strategic partnership considerations in the day-to-day workflow and tools used by leaders, managers and staff at all levels.
Management Response: The SPD Director provided new guidance to the SPD team and one element is to develop joint platforms for partnerships to leverage diverse inputs and competencies for a single deliverable. This was built in to the FPI approach as well as the private sector engagement strategy under revision. The need to balance engagement with new partners and the advancement of existing partners is reflected in the SPD Annual Work Plan 2017, with an indicator to measure performance on the ratio of previous partnerships effectively sustained. While SPD is providing oversight and guidance on several aspects of partnerships, other UN-Women units (i.e. Civil Society Section, Coordination Division, “HeForShe” campaign team, Policy Division, Intergovernmental Support Division, and country and regional offices) are all engaged in partnerships development, which will be reflected in workflows. In October 2016, UN-Women decentralized donor reporting, requiring country offices to be fully accountable for narrative reporting to funding partners. Decentralized donor reporting followed the business process review in 2016, which was approved by the senior management team. The change in donor reporting accountability lines and systems, and the recent decision to launch the CRM project, are major steps forward to deliver on this recommendation. SPD is leading the project to develop a corporate CRM system to support partner outreach and engagement activities, working closely with other Divisions. The project plan anticipates delivery in 2018.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
3.1 Undertake a review of operations tools, rules and processes to assess their impact on and relevance to strategic partnerships. SPD/DMA/ CSS/Regional Offices/Policy Division 2018/02 Completed UN-Women is has revised partnership modalities with a view to foster long-term gender-responsive partnerships in the field by implementing the UN’s Joint Inspection Unit recommendations related to this. The Small Grant Policy was promulgated in November 2019 and outlines the terms and conditions for the award by UN Women of small grants. Small grants are intended for small contributions to civil society organizations (CSO) in the range of USD 2,500 to USD 30,000 exclusively to finance activities supporting the development or strengthening of a CSO’s institutional capacity. It highlights that the purpose of small grants is not to finance the delivery of a programmatic activity or an output on behalf of UN Women which would be financed by partner arrangements. In addition, grants awarded by global multi-donor funds managed by UN Women, including the UN Trust Fund for Ending Violence against Women, the Fund for Gender Equality and the Women, Peace and Humanitarian Fund are not covered by this Policy. The purpose of the Small Grant Procedure is to establish procedures for the preparation of small grant awards, initiation and review of applications, approvals or rejection of small grant applications, conclusion of grant agreements, amendments (where relevant), disbursements, monitoring, managing and evaluating small grants. Alongside the Leads System (RM pipeline tracking tool built in-house), the development of the CRM will support a holistic view of UN-Women’s current and potential partners and contribute to the development of strategic partnerships. SPD finalised the 2018-21 corporate RM and Partnership strategy in June 2018, which clarifies the various organizational roles in RM across the organization. The development of a private sector strategy which includes coordination of UN Women efforts was commissioned to the Head of Private Sector at the start of September 2018. The UN Women partnership policy which will outline roles and responsibilities with a view to improve donor contact coordination and protocols has been finalised and is in final stages of approval in December 2019. The policy also establishes processes for the prioritization of funding requests. The RM and Partnerships Community of Practice hosts regular webinars on specific topics of interest or relevance, aimed at personnel engaged in RM and partnerships work but open to the whole organization. These webinars are also disseminated through the RM Branch Sharepoint site along with other useful tools and resources. The Community also manages a knowledge platform on Yammer and engages with the informal global RM Network of personnel designated by heads of offices, regardless of their official title, as focal points for RM in each office. The Yammer platform disseminates information that has already been produced and creates new original content such as short videos with tips on fundraising. It is a vehicle for multiple purposes including peer-to-peer guidance and sharing funding opportunities as well as RM learning opportunities. A set of such additional learning opportunities available at no or low cost, along with examples and recommendations, is under development and will be shared shortly through the Yammer platform and via e-mail to the RM Network as well as on the Sharepoint site. Conversations on further strengthening RM skills with Franklin Covey are ongoing
Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 4: Further leverage UN-Women’s experience in using strategic partnerships to convene and mediate between different world views by shaping multi-stakeholder spaces/platforms for dialogue and innovation; requiring changes in incentive structures from both donors and within UN-Women systems.
Management Response: UN-Women is already implementing this recommendation. UN-Women delivers interventions at the country level through strategic multi-stakeholder partnerships with governments, CSOs, communitybased organizations, women’s groups and associations, community leaders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, academia, development partners and the UN. These partnerships complement and strengthen each other, to ensure that expected results are achieved, providing value for money and enhancing local ownership and sustainability. Through its convening role, UN-Women is bringing multiple stakeholders together to work in support of gender equality. Rather than try to mediate between different world views, which are the basis of diversity, UN-Women is working with diverse stakeholders towards a common vision of gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment. In addition to partnership development with civil society UN-Women will: (i) support civil society mobilization and alliance-building at global and local levels, including through catalytic funding; (ii) use the organization’s political convening and advocacy role to bring multiple stakeholders together in support of an enabling environment for GEEW and feminist and social justice action and actors (including creating spaces and platforms for knowledge exchange, networking, sharing good practices, and supporting gender equality leaders and advocates from different constituencies to be heard in decision-making spaces); (iii) strengthen work with non-traditional partners, such as faith-based groups, men and boys, trade unions, academia, and others to expand the constituency of gender equality advocates and strengthen inclusive and HR-based approaches to gender equality that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) promise that no one will be left behind. UN-Women successfully works with youth-led organizations, movements and networks to strengthen gender perspectives in their work and secure partnership in achieving gender equality. UN-Women launched a youth-friendly Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) against Women publication to raise awareness and strengthen participation of youth in promoting GE and HR-based societies. In managing the UN Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development’s Working Group on Youth and gender equality, UN-Women will continue to work with over 1,500 members of youth activist and youth-led/youth-focused organizations such as Young Women’s Christian Association, World Association of Girls Scouts and Girls Guides, Plan International, Save the Children, Lion International, World Federation of United Nations Associations, and Junior Chamber International. UN-Women will continue to identify ways to incentivise its leadership, particularly at the country level, to identify opportunities for partnership and to formulate strategies for the achievement of results that leverage partnerships effectively as outlined in the key actions below.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication, Innovation and technology, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
4.1 Develop incentives structures, especially for country representatives, to recognize and reward managers that: a) contribute to a sustainable outcome that is beyond the ability of UNWomen or its partner to achieve if acting alone, and; b) demonstrate an innovative approach to advancing women’s HR by a diverse multistakeholder partnership Programme Division/Policy Division/ /SPD/CSS 2018/12 Completed The new UNDAF guidance and UN-Women’s expected role in UNDAF development, implementation and monitoring and evaluation, as well as the continuing roll out of the FPIs is expected to provide a solid foundation at country level for UN-Women to strengthen its partnerships in line with the recommendations of the evaluation. UN-Women will also: i) explore better articulation of expectations for partnership development in performance management and key performance indicators; ii) closely review draft Country Office Strategic Notes for their approach to partnerships in the achievement of results; and iii) undertake specific analysis of country-level annual reporting to examine the approaches to partnership that are reflected in reporting. i) As part of corporate alignment, UN-Women has standardized Key Result Area (KRA) indicators to be used in the Performance Management Development plans for various positions (Regional Directors, Deputy regional Directors, Regional Operations Managers, Country Representatives) and plans to further expand this to other key positions such as Deputy Country Representatives, Programme Managers, Programme Specialists etc. One of the key result area for assessing performance of UN Women staff (for the above mentioned posts) is “Enhanced coordination, coherence and accountability of the UN System for commitments to GEWE) where indicators such as UNDAF gender outcome, number of inter-agency groups chaired/co-chaired by UNW, new inter-agency joint initiatives, are measured. ii) UN-Women continues to assess country strategic notes for their approach to partnerships in achieving results. UN-Women offices are expected to base their programming on partnerships with UN entities and other key stakeholders with clear division of responsibilities, with joint-programmes representing a significant proportion of every office’s portfolio. The current target is to have a minimum of 30% of a country office’s programme budget by 2021 under Joint Programmes. ii) Since 2014, UN-Women has made significant strides in strengthening its results culture, with enhanced Results-Based Management (RBM) standards and capacity building amongst staff members. One of the RBM standard is “Consultation and Partnership Based”. To analyze the progress made by the offices on promoting RBM standard, UN Women conducts independent qualitative assessment of UN Women’s Strategic Notes and Annual Reports every year. The objective of the assessment is to highlight the strengths and weaknesses in the application of RBM standards in the organization’s planning, monitoring and reporting processes. It is worth noting, that at the corporate level and focused on improved UNDS coherence, UN Women co-lead development of the latest UNDAF Guidance, which provides common programming guidance to UNCTs. UN-Women advocated for a strong focus on the UN’s value-base, including through the recognition of human rights and gender equality as key programming principles. UN-Women co-led the UNSDG Gender Equality Task Team to update the Resource Book on Mainstreaming Gender Equality in UN Common Programming at the country level. The Entity also co-led the UN working group on strategic financing, including on the role of pooled financing mechanisms to foster collective action, and has been actively engaged in the Business Innovations Strategic Results Group.
Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 5: Extend UN-Women’s global approach to movement-building to country-level work with CSOs, addressing the core capacity of women’s organizations to hold governments accountable for national implementation of international GEEW commitments, especially the 2030 Agenda
Management Response: UN-Women is already implementing this recommendation and will continue to extend support to women’s organizations at the country level. UN-Women has a long-standing relationship with women’s organizations, gender equality advocates and CSOs. These partnerships continue to expand to address systemic GEEW challenges, including preventing and ending violence, enhancing women’s leadership and political participation, and promoting women’s economic empowerment in context of peace, conflict and in humanitarian response. UN-Women has developed strong partnerships with relevant community-based organizations, often targeting marginalized women in rural and semi-urban areas. UN-Women uses its access to governments to open spaces for civil society participation in decisionmaking at global, regional, national and local levels, and supports the efforts of gender equality advocates and organizations through capacity development, access to funding and knowledge sharing. For example, UN-Women’s Civil Society Advisory Groups (CSAGs) have contributed to the normative advancement of gender equality at the country level, including through new or revised laws (e.g. Moldova and Mexico) and influencing inter-governmental processes (e.g. Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific regional preparatory meetings for the Commission on the Status of Women). In addition, UN-Women successfully works with CSAGs and other civil society partners on advocacy for norm/cultural change (e.g. Ethiopia and Lebanon). UN-Women brings multiple CSOs together to create a national discourse that recognizes and respects women’s rights, while ensuring that this support also includes good practice initiatives of community based organizations at grassroots level. At the country level, for many women’s rights organizations, UN-Women has served as a steady and reliable partner, advocating with governments, UN agencies and development partners. UN-Women’s support to women’s rights and civil society movement building at the country level is aimed at strengthening the ability of civil society to hold governments accountable to their national and international commitments to gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, including in the gender equality compact of the SDGs. UN-Women notes that the evaluation did not sufficiently contextualize the differences between specific UN-Women partnerships and its efforts towards broad-based alliance and movement building. As the evaluation findings indicate, UN-Women has prioritized partnerships with civil society and women’s rights organizations as a key component of its partnership approach to advance GEEW. Through the different modalities articulated in the key actions section below, UN-Women will focus on: (i) strengthening civil society and women’s organizations’ core capacities beyond programme implementation; (ii) supporting women’s agendas towards building an inclusive movement for GEEW; and (iii) strengthening our mechanisms to ensure mutual accountability in partnerships with civil society.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Youth engagement, Engaging men and boys
UNEG Criteria: Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
5.1 Support country offices, regional offices and global units to establish multi-year funding pipelines. SPD/Programme Division 2018/12 Completed Fundraising plans by national and regional offices outline the anticipated funding pipelines. The Leads System was developed as RM pipeline tracking tool.
5.2 Organize regular opportunities for structured and open dialogue between the leadership of UN-Women and civil society EDO/Civil Society Section 2016/12 Completed The Executive Director has a CSAG with whom she meets regularly; she also meets with various civil society groups on her missions; in addition, senior management of UN-Women meet with civil society groups regularly and regional and country directors convene their 9/16 civil society. CSAG meetings, and meet with other civil society groupings based on country contexts. UN-Women continues to partner with networks and organizations that have a strong national and/or local presence, through a variety of improved partnership initiatives, including: (i) issue-led advocacy initiatives with networks or NGOs to support the strengthening of civil society action and advocacy at country level; (ii) the CSAG modality to strengthen institutional dialogue with civil society; (iii) recognizing the resource and capacity constraints that local and grassroots groups face, UN-Women will aim to develop more flexible partnership modalities that enables the entity to effectively support local civil society; and iv) the grant-making programmes that it manages (UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, the UN-Women Fund for Gender Equality and the Global Acceleration Instrument1 ), UN-Women will continue to provide direct support to local civil society, recognizing that they are strategic actors that advance women’s rights.
5.3 Build the ownership and commitment of the leadership of the Trust Funds (both within UN-Women and the wider UN system). Programme Division 2018/12 Completed In the past year, significant efforts have been made to secure funding from the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative for grant-giving through the UN Trust Fund. Support is also provided through visibility opportunities and advocacy support of UN Women’s senior management throughout the year. UN-Women has initiated a review of the RM efforts of the Trust Funds to further build on the capacities of the funds.
Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 6: Address the dual relationship with private enterprises and public companies as both funders and targets of advocacy by establishing clearer coordination between the policy, program and private sector teams to ensure an integrated approach to managing strategic partnerships and gradually diversifying relationships beyond corporations to individual donors and foundations.
Management Response: UN-Women is already implementing this recommendation. UN-Women’s approach to private sector partnerships does not only look at private sector partners as donors but also agents of change within their corporate culture and sphere of influence (e.g. by implementing and reporting on the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), now managed by the Policy Division). There is greater coordination between SPD and the Programme and Policy Divisions to explore programmatic collaboration with private sector partners. The “HeForShe” campaign Impact Champions and Thematic Champions initiatives have demonstrated success in getting corporate leaders to bring about changes in their respective companies through the implementation of concrete commitments, in addition to providing funding to UN-Women. UN-Women notes that the evaluation could have distinguished between non-profit foundations and for -profit corporations, which require different approaches and due diligence practices. Because of UN -Women’s unique mandate and its relatively recent establishment in comparison to other UN agencies, cost -effective and pragmatic approaches have been identified to pursue these non-profit foundations and for-profit corporations differently, as evidenced by UN-Women’s successful engagement with the Gates Foundation, Coca-Cola company, and Unilever, among others. These engagements are resulting in partnerships that generate financial contributions for UN-Women and enhance partners’ focus on gender and advocacy with other stakeholders to increase support for UN-Women. Another example of coordination across the organization includes the growth of the partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It resulted from collaboration over several years between SPD (Communications and RM), the LAC Regional Office and the Country Office in Brazil for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The Olympic in Brazil was understood as a strategic opportunity to: (i) link the complimentary missions of the IOC (peace through sport) and UN -Women and to showcase these on the world stage as never previously done; (ii) implement a transformative and replicable programme to enable girls to realize their rights through sports, and to become agents of change in their communities and beyond; and (iii) use sport (and well-known sporting figures) as a means to communicate messages in support of gender equality. The success of the partnership required coordination at multiple levels: HQ liaising directly with global IOC; the LAC Regional Office connecting with innovators in the field of sport to develop a proposal that was accepted for funding; linking HQ and Regional Office communications regarding the programme; the Country Office establishing partners in-country and taking on management and monitoring of the programme. Diversifying UN-Women’s funding base to include individuals is a priority and the 15 UN-Women National Committees (NCs) play an important role in this area. Corporations offer the potential for RM from individuals. For example, in 2017, Citi group will promote public giving to UN-Women from its customers through a donate button on the digital screens of all 165 Citibank branches in the United States. Another partnership under development is digital giving in Asia with MasterCard. Regarding due diligence/risk mitigation, UN-Women notes that clear and structured methodologies were already established at the time of the evaluation, and recently enhanced in 2016, on due diligence and risk mitigation in partnerships with the private sector. For example, all high-risk, high-value potential partnerships are being subjected to a full risk assessment in order to comprehensively identify, evaluate and measure risks related to the potential partnership. These may relate to reputational risks, stakeholder management risks, and delivery. A mitigation and response plan is developed and monitored on a regular basis by the partnership relationship management, SPD, and the risk focal point. The enhanced due diligence system enables UN-Women to engage with the private sector by improving their gender performance. It also enables UN-Women to consider working with some companies that may not have a good record on gender, but are willing to change the way they operate. UN-Women developed the risk mitigation plan to evaluate corporate partnerships and will only work with a company after they take steps to change their corporate performance and make gender equality a priority. In 2017, UN-Women is making further investments in the system by developing an online tool and a global training programme. UN-Women recognizes that it could strengthen its capacities and structures with regard to partnerships with the private sector. However, it operates in a context of modest financing and of competing demands for organizational resources. UN-Women agrees that the number of private sector specialists is limited due to core resource constraints that prevent the recruitment of additional capacity. For expertise in specific sectors (e.g. Information and Communication Technologies), this is being mitigated, in part, through the planned establishment of an “Executive in Residence” programme to develop the organization’s technical capacity. The plan is to launch and pilot the programme at the global level in 2017 and possibly expanded to the regional level in 2018. There remains a capacity deficits in countries and regions, as well as at HQ, which is under discussion by Management vis-à-vis the budget allocation priorities for the 2018-2019 biennial.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Advocacy, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
6.1 Move responsibility for the WEPs and other substantive functions to the Bureau of Policy and Programme. SPD/Policy Division 2016/12 Completed This was completed in late 2016. In terms of implementation of commitments under the WEPs, the Policy Division is building a tool kit to aid companies to advance women’s empowerment. The formulation of the tools was undertaken by the FPI “Women’s Entrepreneurship through Gender-Responsive Procurement” managed by the Policy Division.
6.2 Develop a system for SPD to coordinate communication with corporate partners by integrating inputs and requests from across the house. SPD 2018/12 Completed A core instrument to deliver this proposed action is the planned CRM system. Where team coordination is concerned, the system of focal points is being complemented by joint planning sessions engaging both pillars: a regular FPI planning meeting brings together Policy, Programme and SPD, in addition to monthly planning meetings between SPD and the Programme Division. A client/ donor relationship management (CRM) system development project was launched in April 2018. The first pilot phase was developed after the Salesforce licensing agreement was signed. UN Women will complete the first phase including the pilot by end June 2019. The first phase included developing a change management plan as well as policy that clarifies roles and delegation of authority. The second phase will focus on direct marketing and mass communication capability. UN Women expects to finalize phase two by end December 2019.
6.3 Disaggregate and articulate different types of corporate partnerships, with appropriate levels of due diligence processes established for each category. Establish preapproved mechanisms for engaging ‘corporate friends of UN-Women’ that require lower levels of due diligence and that can be approved by regional offices. SPD, CSS, Policy, regional offices 2018/12 Completed Due Diligence Policy and Procedures adopted in July 2018, promulgated 31 August 2018. The Policy provides the framework for an effective, efficient and transparent due diligence process to enable UN Women to assess the risks and benefits of potential alliances or partnerships with private sector partners that involve financial, pro-bono or in-kind contributions to UN Women and supports decision making on which agreements to enter into. The Procedure sets out the necessary requirements and steps for the assessment and active management of risks, benefits and opportunities arising from potential private sector partnerships.
6.4 Strengthen support to National Committees and field offices to diversify corporate partners and fundraising from individuals. SPD/Programme Division 2018/12 Completed In response to the recommendation of strengthening support to the National Committees and field offices to diversify UN Women’s funding base to include individuals and the general public, in 2018, a P5 post for Individual, Digital and Public Giving was filled. Two National Committees (Finland and Iceland) were provided with small investment funds to pilot new donor acquisition channels as part of their individual fundraising activities. UN Women is also sunsetting the old governance system and introducing a new one which addresses past limitations and paves the way for increased investment and return. The new Governance framework was developed this in consultation with other UN agencies and it reflects the language and spirit used elsewhere in the UN system In 2016, a review was carried out to identify priority investment strategies in various markets, including those of UN-Women’s 15 NCs and several emerging markets. This reiterated that individual donors have greater potential in these markets than corporate fundraising.
Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 7: Identify and address barriers to country-level coordination of relationships with strategic partners that work with multiple UN entities.
Management Response: UN-Women agrees with this recommendation. A full evaluation of UN-Women’s implementation of its coordination mandate was finalized and submitted to its Executive Board in September 2016. In response to the evaluation of UN-Women’s coordination mandate, the organization is already addressing elements reflected in this recommendation. UN-Women played a key role in engaging member states through the The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Dialogue on the longer-term positioning of the UN development system, leading to the new Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR). The ECOSOC Dialogue and the QCPR specifically addressed the issue of partnerships and the contributions that are expected by the UN development system. At the regional and country level, UN-Women is leveraging existing UN coordination mechanisms, such as gender theme groups, to ensure a coherent approach to engaging common partners of regional United Nations Development Groups and United Nations Country Teams. In at least one region (Arab States), UN-Women established and chairs the regional gender working group, which has membership from 22 agencies, and is due to become a formal working group of the UNDG. Furthermore, UNWomen is a strong partner in UN Joint Programming modalities, where joint management of relations and programming with strategic partners that are common to multiple UN entities offers an opportunity to scale-up the partnership. This is an area that UN-Women will work to strengthen at the global and country levels, including where UN-Women leads/chairs the donor gender theme groups. A good example of country-level coordination is in Colombia, where UN-Women manages the secretariat for the Mesa de Genero of International Cooperation which is composed of 42 international aid agencies, UN agencies and international NGOs. It has two working groups that discuss and develop joint actions that focus on: (i) Leadership, Inclusion and Political Representation of Women; and (ii) Peacebuilding and Gender Justice in the context of the official peace process in Colombia. Currently, Canada serves as the President of this group, which is a model for international cooperation and coordination that has been a significant factor in amplifying the voices of women in the official peace process. The roundtable represents a replicable model for other countries to advance peace, as well as the SDGs. This has also allowed UN-Women to maintain regular and coordinated contact with donors to mobilize significant resources and to eliminate duplication of efforts among donors – for more efficient allocation and use of resources. UN-Women has adapted the abovementioned model in Haiti where the Donors Coordination Group on Gender Equality was officially launched in May 2017. The first meeting was convened by Switzerland, Canada and UN-Women bringing, together a wide range of bilateral and multilateral partners resident in Haiti at the level of Ambassador and Head of Cooperation, including high-level representation from Canada, Chile, the European Union, Panama, Spain, Switzerland and the World Bank and heads of UN Agencies, among others. UN-Women will also manage the Secretariat, with member states serving rotationally as President and Vice President of the group. Finally, the introduction of FPIs – high-impact, scalable initiatives grounded on strong theories of change – at the core of its programmatic agenda, is contributing to significantly reduce transaction costs and staff burden in partnership development and stewardship. In fact, the average size of noncore grants has increased from USD 300,000 to USD 600,000 between 2015 and 2016 and is expected to further expand. The FPIs are already serving as effective partnership vehicles in some areas, with FPIs like Safe Cities, Gender Inequality of Risk, and Data and Statistics all bringing together multiple partners around the FPI Theory of Change for joint programming. The FPIs also serve as partnership vehicles more broadly, and provide the programmatic basis for partnership going forward.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
7.1 Support finalization and implementation of new generation of UNDAF which – inter alia – emphasize the importance of stakeholder engagement by the UNCT Programme Division 2017/12 Completed UN-Women continues to seek to strengthen its role at country level through its work in UNCTs, including through leadership of Gender Theme Groups and or Results Groups, lead roles in joint programmes on gender, and by building gender equality and women’s empowerment more centrally into UN Development Assistance Frameworks.
7.2 UN-Women closely liaise with other Funds and Programmes (i.e. UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA) to ensure joint engagement of member states (Executive Boards) in the development of the new Strategic Plans 2018-2021. EDO in collaboration with UN Coordination Division 2017/12 Completed UN-Women has been working closely with other funds and programmes to ensure coordinated engagement of Executive Boards members, including through the organization of a joint informal session. A common chapter has been developed describing the key joint approaches that will be followed to ensure enhanced coherence and collaboration through the implementation of each entity’s Strategic Plan.
Recommendation: Evaluation recommendation 8. Establish a model for a strategic partnership between UN-Women and the various agencies within a member state that support coordination between the role of that state in intergovernmental processes, regional mechanisms, global and local donors, and the global economy.
Management Response: UN-Women takes note of this recommendation. However, a single model is not likely to be suited given the diversity of Member States and the complex contexts in which UN-Women works. Given the complexities involved, UN-Women has explored possible models to support improved coordination of strategic partnerships. For example, in 2016, UN-Women found an effective model that might apply to a range of donors, but not all partners. The UN-Women/Australia Strategic Partnership Framework Agreement 2016-2020 2 outlines nine shared objectives across UN-Women’s triple mandate, and six mechanisms for implementation, which cover these multiple connections such as Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Embassies and Australian High Commissions, the Permanent Mission to the UN, Australian Civilian Corps. It also includes engagement with women’s organizations and coalitions, non-government organizations to promote GEEW, including through supporting the National Committee. As part of partnership implementation, the Agreement also includes the identification of opportunities to increase private sector engagement, including innovative approaches and how DFAT can support this engagement. Another example is the UN-Women/Spain Strategic Partnership Framework Agreement, which focuses on the programmatic priorities in the 2014-2017 Strategic Plan and in alignment with the Strategic Plan 2018-2021, the Agreement will also be renewed. It provides a unique mechanism to tap into funding from local and regional government bodies, as well as other ministries. The Agreement establishes that other parties can make financial contributions to UN-Women by adding amendments to the main Strategic Partnership Framework Agreement, signed between the Signatories and the joining entity thereby simplifying the process, reducing transaction costs, and increasing coordination. In addition, UN-Women NCs, whose partnership is managed by SPD, are actively working to advocate with their respective governments (including different agencies in the government) in support of UNWomen in coordination with the UN-Women Partnership Managers in SPD. As part of their work to raise funds for UN-Women from individuals, corporations and foundations, NCs are in close communication with UN-Women offices depending on their thematic and geographic priorities, which sometimes include field visits to UN-Women programmes. To further strengthen coordination between UN-Women Programme, Policy and SPD, in September 2016, UN-Women revised the terms of reference for SPD, through which it is now reporting to both Deputy Executive Directors and supporting both pillars. While remaining at the same level of resources, SPD is now ensuring that: o A project to deliver a shared information system (CRM) was launched and is expected to be completed by May 2018; o Outreach to member states by partnership and management across UN-Women is informed by a common partner-intelligence system on SharePoint; o Outreach to ministries and agencies is coordinated by Partnership Managers in its Resource Mobilization team; o Regional and country staff seeking non-core and other support from donors have access to shared information on SharePoint and benefit from Partnership Managers’ guidance and participate in joint training; o Outreach to donor partners on the FPIs is supported by a tripartite management team including SPD and Policy and Programme Divisions, coordinating the engagement process; and o A Community of Practice is being established as well as a programme of periodic staff secondment.
More detail
Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Advocacy, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, National ownership, Resource mobilization
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
8.1 Explore how multiple connections with member states could be appropriately coordinated within the framework of a strategic partnership. SPD, Programme and Policy Divisions, 2018/12 Completed The project’s pilot phase was launched in December 2018. UN Women will complete the first phase including the pilot by end June 2019.The first phase will include developing a change management plan as well as policy that clarifies roles and delegation of authority. The second phase will focus on direct marketing and mass communication capability. UN Women expects to finalize phase two by end December 2019.