Management Response

: Liberia
: 2018 - 2018 , Liberia (CO)
: Country Portfolio Evaluation
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: Liberia
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Country portfolio evaluation (CPE) was an extensive analysis undertaken by the Liberia Country Office in preparations for the development of the new Strategic Note (SN). The Evaluation took place from November 2017-January 2018, with the final report received and after several reiterations officially approved on the 23 August 2018. Major or majority of recommendations have already been adopted and implemented during 2018 and several others have been already incorporated in the planning of the Liberia CO Annual Work Plan 2019. The CPE Management Response has gone through several reviews and iterations due to the new developments in the country context and the fact that the development of the new Strategic Note, which was expected to take place in 2018 had to be delayed for another year. This delay was caused by the extension of the UNDAF (2013-2017, 2018) until 2019, preparations of the new UNDAF including the intense development of the new national development framework titled Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) lead by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning supported by UN Women LCO.

: Approved
Recommendation: UN-Women Liberia CO should work with the Government of Liberia as an entity and not separate ministries
Management Response: Accepted partially.
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Description: Partially accepted
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: National ownership
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
establish government ministries Technical Working Groups (TWGs) with specialized sub-committees on legislative review, political participation, gender responsive budgeting, women empowerment and monitoring and evaluation. UNW-LBR 2020/02 Completed It will be difficult to work with the government as a unit rather than concentrate on individual relevant parts because there are many ministries, agencies, and commissions (MACS) and the CO must prioritize. This is simply because of the nature of the work that is done at UN Women and the very structure of the Government. There are key line ministries with which the LCO has established relations and as a single Agency UN Women cannot establish separate technical working groups. 1.1.1. However, this recommendation will be re-considered during the development of the new UNDAF and within the UN Reform which bring novel approach to doing business. 1.1.2. One of the main lessons learnt during AWP 2018 implementation was that the CO should continue to be engaged at high-level advocacy and that the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MOGCSP) should be put in the forefront of those efforts. In relation to that, the role of the CO will be to provide capacity building support.
Recommendation: UN-Women Liberia CO should streamline its internal reporting structures to increase efficiency
Management Response: Accepted and already incorporated
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
The M&E position to be positioned close to the Programme work and report to the Head of Programmes (Deputy Country Representative) to ensure consistent progress review and reporting UNW-LBR 2019/01 Completed Already incorporated in the AWP 2018 Organogram (June 2018) when the new Deputy Representative came on board. In addition, a new M&E national volunteer position has been budgeted under the project funded through the Liberia Multi Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) project which has been approved and will start functioning from first quarter of 2019. Processes must be streamlined, and training will be provided towards end of January 2019 to existing and inexperienced staff on RMS, DAMS, LEADS as well as on results-based reporting with support from and coordination with the Regional Office (RO).
Recommendation: UN-WOMEN LIBERIA CO should strengthen the M & E unit’s capacities and position to develop implementing partners’ targets, coordinate data collection, synthesis and analysis and reporting to provide a link between Programme implementation and results
Management Response: Partially Accepted
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
M&E Specialist to prepare quarterly Programme progress reports which are aligned to the outcomes and collate them by DRF, accompanied by a detailed narrative of Programme activities, targets versus achievement, challenges, and mitigating measures UNW-LBR 2020/04 Completed Programme teams must reflect upon the monitoring and reporting cycle and review of the project progress reports process. It seems reasonable that the individual Programme or Project Officers review the progress reports as submitted by the IPs and populate RMS and indicators results frameworks accordingly. Programme Managers also need to investigate and align the organizational schedule or the donor timelines which may be difficult. to be aligned to the reporting cycle due to short implementation timeline. This is an addition to the nature of the project implementation that IPs have. A four-month intervention or a one -year intervention is a case in point so at most times this would not be realistic. However, an effort should be made to streamline IP reports and make outcomes, outputs and indicators and M&E plans part of the IP agreements to the extent possible. A specific effort should be made to strengthen MOGCSP M&E and Coordination and Statistics Units. This should be reviewed during 2019 and specifically within the new Strategic Note (2020-2024) planning period.
Recommendation: UN-Women Liberia CO should utilize implementing partners for implementation while it focuses on the legislative framework review and coordination.
Management Response: Partially accepted
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Have Gender focal persons in the countiesto allow for easy access to beneficiaries, close monitoring of implementing partners and closer collaboration with local gender focal person within the government structures UNW-LBR 2020/04 No Longer Applicable This is mostly the case in Liberia. The CO has published several Call for Proposals during 2018 and will use IPs for program implementation. UN Women has shifted its focus to prominent level advocacy putting MOGCSP in the forefront of all gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) issues in the country. However, this calls for IPs with capacity to implement and having capacity assessment results that would qualify them as IPs for implementation or requires targeted capacity building of potential IPs.
Recommendation: UN-WOMEN LIBERIA CO should advocate for civil service reform to ensure sustainability of results beyond change of government
Management Response: Accepted
More detail
Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: National ownership
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
advocate for civil service reform to ensure sustainability of results beyond change of government UNW-LBR 2020/03 Completed The role and the priorities of UN Women in advocating for the civil service reform will be determined and prioritized within the new UNDAF and the new Strategic Note development. .