Management Response

: Pakistan
: 2016 - 2020 , Pakistan (CO)
: End-Term Evaluation Report "Prevention and Protection of Women from Violence Through Access to Justice, Services and Safe Spaces"
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: Pakistan
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Overall UN Women agrees with the findings and comments highlighted in this report, best practices were identified which are already being incorporated and scaled up in UN Women programming and corrective measures are being taken in areas identified by the evaluation report.

: Approved
Recommendation: The evaluation team determined that UN Women has provided valuable policy support under this project. However, the Strategic Plan developed for the SCSW was seen to have limited utility in the absence of an implementation plan and resources. It is therefore recommended that the similar initiatives in the future are accompanied with actionable work plans that clearly delineate responsibilities and financial resources.
Management Response: UN Women agrees to this recommendation and proceeding forward, UN Women will ensure that implementation plans are developed for strategic planning/ policy documents.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Urban agenda (safe cities and safe public spaces)
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women Pakistan team will ensure that strategic plans developed in the future include implementation plans that include resource requirements. This has already been incorporated in our recent and ongoing Initiatives, UN Women Pakistan for example the development of GEWE Policies for all 4 provinces with implementation plans in 2020. UN Women 2023/12 Ongoing
Recommendation: It is highly recommended that instead of developing parallel structures, future projects work with and build on existing facilities. For instance, there are reportedly 7 existing Women Complaint Cells in Sindh alone, while 15 are in pipeline, whose functionality can be improved in collaboration with future UN Women projects.
Management Response: The evaluation notes that there are existing as well as upcoming Women complaint cells in Sindh, however the functioning of these complaint cells is not optimal and they are facing many operational constraints. Before setting up the WPUs, a thorough review of existing structures in the project districts was done (BISP Offices, complaint cells, safehouses, offices of duty-bearers including district commissioner or police officials, etc.), and existing structures with the basic requirements were identified for housing these WPUs. A basic set up for the WPU required space in which survivors could share their issues in a safe and confidential way. This was not available in many of the institutions/ offices we checked during our review. Finally, the Madadgaar Helpline Office in Karachi (which had been mentioned in the project design) and the WDD Office In Khairpur were selected as the partners to house the WPUs, so no new/ parallel structures were set up. We fully agree on the need to ensure sustainability of these structures which is why we anchored them in existing institutions. We are continuing to work with existing structures/ mechanisms in all our work, rather than creating new/ parallel ones.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women in its current and future programming will continue to focus on strengthening existing structures to make them gender-responsive and sustainable. UN Women 2023/12 Ongoing
Recommendation: It is recommended that future programs make more extensive use of this method, using radio, SMS, and television programming.
Management Response: UN Women agrees to this recommendation and continues to Incorporate innovative and localized communication tools in its programming.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women Pakistan team acknowledges this recommendation, and this is an area that is already being strengthened. We are increasing our use of different channels of media (especially radio and SMS messaging) and will continue to ensure use of innovative outreach platforms to transmit advocacy messages to a wide range of audiences. UN Women 2022/12 Ongoing
Recommendation: It is recommended that future trainings ensure joint training sessions for both stakeholders (police and justice) in order to allow exchange of information and ensure stimulating discussions. In addition to joint training sessions, intersectoral coordination between LEA and the justice sector should be fostered through establishing information exchange mechanisms. To this end, it would be imperative to undertake participatory research on gap assessments in areas which require collaboration between the two entities. Based on the identified gaps, a comprehensive collaboration mechanism/ plan should be developed focusing on multi-tiered collaboration at both provincial and district levels, especially in the area of VAW. This plan may combine multiple cooperation mechanisms such as: dialogue, governance and administrative strengthening, joint collaborative workshops, and awareness raising, etc. to ensure the establishment of an expedited response mechanism to cases of VAW. The formulation and implementation of this mechanism can be overseen by a standing steering committee with members from both sectors to direct the initiative for improved, coordinated, multi-sector response consistent with their respective functions. Furthermore, it is suggested that local women counselors in target districts are involved in the VAW response chain, and their capacity is built accordingly, as these officials can work as a local point of contact for women facing violence.
Management Response: UN Women partially agrees with this recommendation and has already initiated joint capacity building sessions with a diverse set of stakeholders. However the suggestion to undertake joint trainings may face challenges as members from the judiciary indicated acceptability of being jointly trained with other justice sector stakeholders including Prosecutors and Lawyers, however they do not express eagerness to train together with members of the security sector including police. Also, the requirements for training of justice and security sectors are somewhat different. However, dialogues and information exchanges can happen across these sectors, which have already been Initiated by UN Women. Through the ESP Programme, UN Women is bringing together Police-Prosecution for dialogues and joint trainings and they will also be rolled out under the newly launched Rule of Law programme. The next phase of the current project currently being discussed with the donor INL will also include more cross sector activities. The point on having local women counselors in target districts is noted, however the application of this concept will vary based on the diverse existing local structures and cultural practices of different provinces.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. UN Women Pakistan acknowledges the importance of organizing joint multi-sectoral activities for diverse stakeholders. UN Women in its current programming is building in these initiatives. UN Women 2022/12 Ongoing
2. UN Women in Its strategic planning for the next 5 years has identified the districts where it is going to be rolling out its interventions, this will help in more focused interventions tailored according to each district's context, including engaging local women leaders, as the situation differs. UN Women 2023/12 Ongoing
Recommendation: It is recommended to engage specialized research organizations working at national level or subject level experts for the development of knowledge products and advisory services, e.g. manual development, policy support etc.
Management Response: The recommendation is accepted; however, it is important to note that this practice is already being followed by the UN Women PCO team, e.g., Aurat Foundation was engaged to conduct a Women Safety Audit in public places based on their experience and expertise in this kind of research
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Knowledge management
Organizational Priorities: Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women Pakistan has mapped out organizations that have expertise in particular areas and will continue to engage them. Further, we follow our global recruitment policies for engaging firms/ companies which is a very rigorous competitive process and looks at the expertise as well as the track record of the organizations to rank them and select the best. In response to the recommendation, this is to point out that even in the current programme, research organizations which had strong expertise and experience in the related topics were engaged that helped develop the research/ knowledge products (e.g., Aurat Foundation, Individualland and Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid). UN Women will continue to follow this approach of selecting partners with technical expertise and strong experience through a competitive process. UN Women 2022/12 Ongoing
Recommendation: It is recommended to include second and third tier target districts in future projects, which may not necessarily benefit from all of the project’s activities, e.g. shelter refurbishment, but could be included in the list of districts selected for capacity building exercises
Management Response: UN Women team acknowledges this recommendation and accepts it as a logical and scientific way forward for expanding its interventions. UN Women Pakistan has already identified its target districts for the next five years
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance
Organizational Priorities: Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women has mapped out target districts for its next phase of programming in Pakistan. These districts have been identified based on their existing socio-economic and demographic profiles as well as other Interventions for Women's Economic Empowerment and Ending VAW. In all of its planned interventions going forward, UN Women Pakistan is following this comprehensive district-based approach to maximize impact of Its interventions UN Women 2023/12 Ongoing
Recommendation: As stipulated in the project design, it is highly recommended that the trainings curricula developed by the project be instituted at provincial training colleges and academies. A major opportunity to capitalize on in this regard would be mainstreaming the training program in the curriculum of the police training college in Quetta being supported by INL. Also, training of trainers is highly recommended as part of this activity to ensure its sustainability. Moreover, translation of training material and handouts in Urdu is recommended to ensure better comprehension by staff of all levels. Considering the diversity of topics and in-depth nature of training, respondents of both trainings found the training duration to be insufficient and recommended a longer duration or topic specific events as well as the incorporation of site visits, e.g., police stations, for better comprehension. Also, in consideration of both the high demand and impact of these trainings observed during the evaluation, it is highly recommended that future projects put more emphasis on this component and allocate higher resources to allow a more extensive outreach to stakeholders through approaches such as increasing the number of trainees, diversifying the training content, and expanding the geographic scope, etc. Similarly, while UN Women’s efforts in incorporating the Justice Resource Pack developed under the project into the curricula of Federal and Provincial Judicial Academies are commendable, it is recommended that efforts are also made to institutionalize the trainings in Law Colleges across the target provinces as well.
Management Response: UN Women has followed up on this recommendation and has successfully initiated institutionalizing training material developed under this project at relevant police and judicial training academies. With regard to the number of days for the training, it is a double-edged sword, if the training is too long, we are unable to get participants for the whole duration due to their other assignments. However, once the trainings are institutionalized within the training institutes, they will be part of an annual calendar of trainings, so this challenge will be addressed.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance
Organizational Priorities: Organizational efficiency
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. As part of its effort to institutionalize capacity building initiatives, UN Women Pakistan has already completed discussions with the National Police Academy and the Balochistan Police Training College to institutionalize the police training material in these institutions as part of their regular training curriculum. Consultations are being held In Balochistan, KP and Punjab to contextualise the materials to the regional situation and needs. UN Women has already initiated updating and contextualizing training material under the Rule of Law and ESP Programmes, training agenda and days are being mapped out with the feedback and recommendations from police partners. These contextualised manuals will be adopted by the provincial institutes. The next phase of the INL funded project is also in development, which will have a stronger component of training (including trainings of trainers for institutionalizing the trainings in the relevant institutions), to build upon the previous work. Going forward, the trainings will be integrated into the training plans of these institutions. UN Women 2023/12 Ongoing
2. The police training material has been translated into Urdu and Sindhi, and UN Women will consider translating into other local languages according to the needs, based on our discussions with partners and work on the ground. UN Women 2023/12 Ongoing
3. Similar to what was identified in key action 1, UN Women has completed discussions with the Federal, KP and Balochistan Judicial Academies to institutionalize the Justice Sector Resource Pack in their regular training curricula. MoUs have been signed with these partners and their willingness to support the institutionalization of the materials has been obtained. We are already initiating trainings of justice sector officials and will proceed with institutionalization of the materials in the curriculum and training plans for the next years UN Women 2023/12 Ongoing
Recommendation: It is recommended that future projects give special attention to the infrastructure related upgradation of the Quetta DUA as well as other more neglected DUAs/ shelters across the country as per UN Women organizational policies.
Management Response: The recommendation is noted; however, as there has recently (2020) been a global UN Women advisory regarding limiting UN Women work in construction/ infrastructure interventions, UN Women Pakistan will need to closely review all construction related requests in-line with this corporate guidance
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. As per current corporate guidance, UN Women will not be focusing on infrastructure/ construction related projects. However, UN Women Pakistan will continue to work on Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting and will support government partners including justice and security sector institutions prepare their budgets to cover their Infrastructure needs, including making their facilities more gender-responsive. UN Women 2023/12 Ongoing
Recommendation: Hence, it is recommended that a systematic impact assessment is undertaken at the output and outcome levels and its results be disseminated widely among relevant stakeholders.
Management Response: Recommendation noted, PCO is strengthening its internal M&E capacity to strengthen its impact assessments at output and outcome level
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women PCO is strengthening its team through capacity building of all programme staff in RBM as well as engaging an M&E focal person to conduct impact assessments in-house as part of internal oversight of programmatic impact. UN Women 2021/12 Ongoing