Management Response

: Ethiopia
: 2016 - 2016 , Ethiopia (CO)
: Country Portfolio Evaluation at end of Ethiopia SN 2014/2015-2016
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: Ethiopia
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UN Women Ethiopia Country Office has found the country portfolio evaluation and its recommendations to be very relevant, timely and useful. The evaluation recommendations have informed UN Women ECO’s strategic plan 2017-2020. The country office has identified key actions to be implemented in response to the recommendations. The recommendations from the evaluation will also be applied for the development of thematic programming and guide the liaison function of the office.
: Approved
Recommendation: UN Women can best serve its mission by focusing its resources across a narrower set of thematic areas and ensuring geographic focus.
Management Response: UN Women ECO in its 2017-2020 has prioritized only on four thematic areas to be implemented in limited geographic areas. In addition, taking the lessons learned from the Joint Programme on GEWE, which was being implemented in all regional states across several thematic areas for the past four years, UN Women ECO is now focusing on only one thematic area in joint programming – the Joint Programme on Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment. This Joint Programme, under the leadership of UN Women is being implemented in two regions of Afar and Oromia, targeting women farmers and pastoralists more vulnerable to climate changes and poverty.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018), Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities, Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Ongoing implementation of the Joint Programme on Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment in Afar and Oromia (Phase I) UN Women ECO 2017/10 Overdue-Initiated The JP RWEE is still being implemented until mid/end-2019, as the MPTF (Norway, Sweden) agreed to a cost-extension (we are still waiting for ISC minutes). An end evaluation for the SDG-F will take place after April 2018.
Recommendation: UN Women should capitalize on favorable policy environment for normative support
Management Response: UN Women will continue to support the government of Ethiopia to fulfill its normative obligations, especially the ones related to CEDAW, SDGs and outcome recommendations from CSW. The government of Ethiopia and UN in Ethiopia continues to prioritize gender equality and empowerment of women, and this was demonstrated as GEWE is a stand-alone pillar of Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan II (2016 – 2020) and UNDAF 2016-2020 respectively. Gender is also mainstreamed within these plans, with clear indicators for measuring GEWE impact. This constitutes a huge opportunity for effective delivery of results for women in Ethiopia. The GoE through the GTP II has also for the first time prioritized the reduction of VAWG in the country for the next five years and has also included a module/section on getting comprehensive data on violence against women in the 5 yearly NDHS data collection. These present opportunities for UN Women to strengthen the capacity of the gender machinery at federal and regional levels to improve their capacity for gender disaggregated data collection and analysis for policy making, and importantly for tracking the implementation, resourcing, progress of the Growth and Transformation Plan II and the SDGs across pro-poor sectors as defined by the government of Ethiopia.
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Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Human Rights, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Follow up on the establishment of UNCT-Government Gender Specific Sector Working Group Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and UN Women ECO. 2016/12 Overdue-Initiated The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs has submitted official letter to MoFEC on the establishing sector working group and is awaiting for approval (but due to frequent change of leadership at MoWCA, no progress so far). However, the Donor Group on Gender Equality (DGGE) is taking this up via DAG to have a gender sector working group.
Develop a programme of support on strengthening the capacity of the National Women Machinery to better track and report on the implementation and progress of the GTP II and SDGs, identify key gaps and challenges using the Gender Levelling Tool, and develop strategies to address them. UN Women ECO and Ministry of Women and Children Affairs 2017/12 Completed A programme of support on strengthening the capacity of the National Women Machinery to better track and report on the implementation and progress of the GTP II and SDGs, identify key gaps and challenges using the Gender Levelling Tool, and develop strategies to address them has been developed and is being implemented as part of the current SN 2017-2020.
Recommendation: UN Women should strengthen its human resource base for becoming a knowledge hub for GEWE evidence based advocacy and resource mobilization.
Management Response: UN Women ECO has been continuously strengthening its knowledge management strategy, including the consistent documentation of ‘drivers of change’ and the successes of its programmes, including best practices to inform national planning and systems. UN Women ECO is currently restructuring for the roll out of the Strategic Notes 2017 – 2020 to have a ‘Strategic Partnerships, Communications and Knowledge Management Unit’. This will be used to strengthen human resources available for KM, leverage programme investments into sustainable scalable solutions leading to improvements in the strategic programmatic choices and policy advocacy; and revise the existing Knowledge Management, Communications and Advocacy plan to capitalize investments as a critical enabler to accelerate the programme at country level. UN Women ECO’s resources mobilization strategy will be placed within this strategy, and continue to focus on deepening the partnership with traditional donors, while also diversifying the donor base.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Knowledge management, Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM, Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Restructure and set up the Strategic Partnerships, Communications and Knowledge Management Unit within ECO. UN Women ECO 2017/01 Completed Organogram has been finalized, where Strategic Partnerships, Communications and Knowledge Management Unit is allocated under the Deputy Country Representative
Develop Knowledge Management, Communication and Advocacy Plan and familiarize staff on the plan UN Women ECO 2017/06 Overdue-Initiated - comprehensive Communication Strategy being developed in consultation with RO in February 2017 on way forward and ESAR priorities, since COs are supposed to take the regional Communication Strategy and then contextualise those - for 2018: the Communications team has carried out a needs assessment within the office to develop a KM, Advocacy and Comms plan for 2018 in line with the AWP 2018.
Recruit relevant staff for the Unit UN Women ECO 2017/03 Completed There are currently 4 staff members in the Communication and KM unit (all posts in the Organogram are filled)
Document the EVAW holistic approach and the strategy used for scaling up and replication in other impact areas UN Women ECO 2017/01 Overdue-Initiated - Full-time knowledge management and communication consultant to continuously document results from EVAW - Brochure published in May 2017 on the UN Women ECO EVAW approach and programme - Communication strategy for AWSAD (main implementing partner in service provision) finalised - final evaluation of the EVAW programme is ongoing in Q1-2, to document the holistic EVAW approach
Recommendation: UN Women is advised to strengthen its Results Based Management Systems
Management Response: UN Women ECO’s internal monitoring, reporting and evaluation mechanisms will continue to be strengthened to demonstrate progress related to actual results. UN Women ECO will continue to implement its comprehensive monitoring, evaluation and research plan of the entire SN 2017-2020 portfolio, monitor and measure the performance of all strategic interventions for results and learning for future strategies, and measure UN Women ECO’s management performance according to the achievement of results.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Knowledge management, Not applicable, Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Recruit a full time Monitoring and Evaluation Officer UN Women ECO 2017/06 Completed ECO has a full-time M&E Officer on consultancy basis, and recruitment for a P2 position (M&E Analyst) is almost finalised with support from HQ
Programme Managers to undertake UN Women's "How to manage Gender Responsive Evaluation" Course UN Women ECO Programme Staff 2017/06 Completed So far four staff members have completed the course, and all staff involved in managing an evaluation in the future will be mandated to take the course before engaging with the evaluation process.
Undertake training on RBM and reporting for implementing partners UN Women ECO 2017/12 Completed A training was carried out for certain IPs on collecting and documenting results in September 2017. However, this will be an ongoing initiative of ECO to give regular trainings to IPs on topics such as RBM on a needs basis; and this is integrated in the SN 2017-2020 and also in the AWPs (as can be seen from AWP 2017 and 2018).
Recommendation: UN Women needs to develop an explicit strategy note for its liaison function in Ethiopia with AUC and ECA
Management Response: UN Women Regional Offices in Nairobi and Dakar are currently developing an All Africa Strategy which will be used to identify key advocacy interventions and partnerships with regional organizations, including the African Union and UN ECA. This will clearly define the Liaison functions of UN Ethiopia Country Office
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Advocacy, Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support, UN Coordination
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Sustainability, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Develop UN Women All Africa Strategy with clear guidelines and strategies on how ECO will implement its Liaison functions. UN Women Regional Offices 2017/03 Overdue-Initiated The All Africa Strategy has been developed, however, we are still missing clear guidelines on how ECO will implement its Liaison function.
Recommendation: UN Women should approach the choice of partnership from a strategic impact perspective
Management Response: Partnerships in Ethiopia are with the government institutions and there is limited scope for engagement with civil society beyond provision of services. This is already being done through interventions on WEE and EVAWG. However, UN Women ECO will continue to support engagement of women’s organizations and CSOs with broader conversations around gender equality in Ethiopia and how to be linked more closely with the women’s movement in Africa to strengthen advocacy on key models for government to adopt for larger impact on women’s lives.
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Develop strategy of engagement, partnership, capacity building and advocacy with women’s organizations and civil society working on women’s issues in Ethiopia. UN Women ECO and UN Women CSO Advisory Group. 2017/06 Completed The CSO engagement strategy has been finalised with input from ECO colleagues and CSOs in Ethiopia. It has been adopted by the UN Women Ethiopia CSO Advisory Group.
Recommendation: UN Women needs to strengthen capacity building for sustainability of its GEWE efforts in Ethiopia
Management Response: Capacity building of partners has been an integral part of ECO strategy in each of its Impact areas to enable results to be achieved for GEWE. UN Women ECO has been providing strategic ongoing support to MoWCYA, as the lead agency on gender equality and empowerment of women, to strengthen its ability to influence at the regional levels, support parliamentary oversight functions over gender equality targets and funding, provide support to other sectors on gender mainstreaming, and reporting on key normative frameworks. UN Women ECO has also been supporting other federal ministries and regional bureaus of different pro-poor sectors (Health, Justice, Agriculture) to strengthen internal capacities for mainstreaming gender, strengthened gender sensitive polices and analysing budgets for bridging gender gaps. There is additional support to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation to strengthen gender within the Public Finance Management System, and more effectively track ODA and domestic resources for GEWE
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Description:
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Provide capacity building support to MoWCA and all government implementing partners to be better able to mainstream gender through better planning, identification of drivers of change to ensure replicability, scaling up and impact of interventions on women UN Women 2020/12 Overdue-Initiated The institutionalisation of the gender performance levelling tool is a very crucial first step in strengthening GOE to mainstream gender.
Build capacity of MoFEC and its regional structures in the selected regions and city administrations for gender responsive public finance management UN Women ECO 2017/12 Overdue-Initiated - The review of the Public Finance management (PFM) from a gender perspective undertaken by UN Women is currently (Oct 2017) being finalised after a validation workshop at the end of July 2017. MoFEC has further requested UN Women's support to do a quantitative study as well, which will be carried out in 2018. - The collection of information from MoFEC and sectors on their role and the capacity they require to contribute to the engendering of the planning and budgeting system is ongoing to ensure that the required information is not missed. A GRB guideline was issued and is being used to train planning and budgeting experts on gender-responsive budgeting by MoFEC in collaboration with the Civil Service University as part of the annual programme budgeting training. - the development of one concrete tool, namely a GRB guideline for Parliamentarians, will start in November 2017