Regional Gender Community of Practice Meeting

Yerevan, 17-18 October, 2007

Erika Kvapilova, Programme Specialist,UNIFEM CEE Office Bratislava

Outline of the presentation• Changing environment

– New aid modalities– UN reform

• UNIFEMs Strategic Plan 2008-2011– Overall framework– Results framework– Complementarities with UNDP, UNFPA

and UNICEF– Management framework/ managing for

results– Monitoring and evaluation

Dynamics of the environment

• the changes in the development assistance worldwide and in the CEE/CIS region in particular (new EU financial instruments, new donors…)

• UN reform, including discussions about a new UN “gender entity”

New Aid Modalities• Paris Declaration (2005) summarizes

the principles and indicators on new aid effectiveness agreed by the OECD-DAC donors and developing countries– Ownership– Alignment– Harmonization– Results– Mutual accountability

• Paris Declaration does not include explicitly any measures to promote gender equality or human rights standards

• UNIFEM Discussion Paper (2006) Promoting Gender Equality in New Aid Modalities and Partnerships – concerns about the PD key pillars, but also identified some opportunities

• http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/PromotingGenderEqualityInNewAidModalities_eng.pdf

EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace (UNIFEM, EC, ILO/ITC)

Aimed at:

obtaining knowledge on how coordination mechanisms at national level are aiding/ hindering gender equality; challenges/ opportunities for promoting GE in the aid effectiveness agenda; capacity building needs; strategic entry points

- support national consultations/ mapping on gender and aid effectiveness in 12 pilot countries (CEE/CIS: Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan)

- resource materials, including a website and an on-line help desk on gender and aid effectiveness

- expand capacity of gender advocates to advocate for gender in the 2008 Ghana High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness

A UN reform process/ a new gender entity?

• Recommendation of the High Level Panel report on a System-wide coherence “Delivering as One” (2006) to establish one UN entity focused on gender equality and women empowerment

• Intergovernmental debate: support from some countries (Scandinavian), ambiguity from others (G-77), initial resistance from India, USA, Russia…

• During the discussion members states can take steps to strengthen existing work, including by supporting the UNIFEM Strategic Plan 2008-2011

• A Concept Note on supporting a new “hybrid” gender entity submitted to the President of the GA in August 2007 by the Secretariat (prepared in consultation with DSG’s Interagency Task Force) as a follow up of HLP report recommendations

http://www.un.org/ga/president/61/letters/SDOC1599.pdf

• Within the UN steps are being taken to address a request for a stronger architecture (seeking agreement on performance indicators on GE for UNCTs; many UN agencies striving to achieve greater coherence between the normative and operational functions; UN TF in Support to EVAW – an interagency effort administered by UNIFEM)

UNIFEM Strategic Plan

2008-11

The Executive Board of UNDP/ UNFPA on its Second Regular Session

(September 10-14, 2007) endorsed the strategic priorities and results set out

in the UNIFEM Strategic Plan for 2008-2011 and authorized its

implementation

Framework for UNIFEM SP 08-11

• national ownership and country programming (sustainability)

• capacity building for a country to strengthen implementation of CEDAW

• cooperation and coordination among UN agencies (gender equality and women’s empowerment is responsibility of each UN agency, but needs a driver)

Development Results FrameworkGoal/ impact:

National commitments to achieve gender equalityand women’s empowerment

implemented in stable and fragile states

Outcomes 1- 4:Legal/ policy frameworks

Engendering national development strategies; laws and policies; formal and informal justice systems; budgets and budget procedures;

Outcomes 5-7:institutional frameworks (policy and service institutions, media)

Strengthening capacity of institutions and gender equality advocates/ organizations/ networks, including those representing the most vulnerable groups of women (HIV/AIDS, migrant women…)

Outcome 8:Replicable models

Supporting community based initiatives

Complementarities with UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF

• Supporting NAPs on gender equality

• Mainstreaming gender into National Development Strategies (including support to generate and use sex segregated data)

• Coordinated support for protection from violence, poverty, HIV/AIDS and environmental degradation

• Gender responsive approach to governance

• Joint initiatives I support of maternal and child health

• Multidimensional approach to enhancing and improving girls’ education

UNIFEM’s management for results in a UN reform process

• Strengthened partnership with UN organizations

• UNIFEM as a key driver in strengthening coordination among UN agencies in support of gender equality

• UNIFEM’s coordination support results in increased commitment and resources for gender equality and women’s empowerment

• Joint programming enhances impact on gender equality support

• UNCTs use tools and knowledge generated by UNIFEM (and others) to enhance support for gender equality and women’s empowerment

Monitoring and evaluationMonitoring and reporting- to align with UNFPA and UNDP- maintain reporting to CC and other

bodies

Evaluation- align with the UN Evaluation Group- strengthen impact evaluation- offer support to countries and UN on

gender responsive, rights based evaluation