Management Response

: Brazil
: 2017 - 2021 , Brazil (CO)
: Final Evaluation of Human Rights of Indigenous and Quilombola Women: A Governance Matter
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: Brazil
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The present management response was prepared by the Brazil CO Programme Analyst and Programme Associate for Governance and Participation of Public Life area, as required according to the UN Women’s Evaluation Policy, discussed with Brazil CO Monitoring, Evaluation and Knowledge Management Analyst, and approved by the UN Women Brazil CO Head of Office. UN Women Brazil CO fully accepts the five recommendations and will incorporate lessons learned in future projects design and initiatives, where appropriate.
: Submitted
Recommendation: Considering the identified relevance of the project's design in sensitizing state and municipal governments to the importance of the explicit inclusion of Indigenous and Quilombola women in public policies and also the relevance of the project in training these women for greater advocacy in public policies, it is recommended in the design of future projects to support this group of women, to consider that it is necessary to reserve adequate time for mobilization and articulation of partnerships and also that it is necessary to engage with other economic empowerment projects, considering that this is a recurring demand of the rights holders, in addition to interventions in the scope of governance and political empowerment. In this context and more specifically, it is recommended: a) To allocate appropriate time to the work of mobilizing and articulating partnerships to generate greater results for the project. b) To collaborate and engage with other economic empowerment projects, as this expands the possibilities of women´s participation and helps to change power relations. This is a claim of Indigenous and Quilombola women who want more support to improve their possibilities of income generation.
Management Response: From 5 recommendations, the evaluation considered the recommendation a 3rd priority that should be implemented in the next 2 years. The Office accepts the recommendation and is committed to incorporating the proposed key actions into the design of new projects.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Identify opportunities to mobilize resources and review the portfolio of current and planned actions to support Indigenous and Quilombola women’s advocacy and promote their economic empowerment. Representative 2025/02 Completed The CO has submitted project proposals focusing on economic empowerment and advocacy efforts of Indigenous and Quilombola women to potential donors.
Ensure that new projects plan for field missions and broad consultations with Indigenous and Quilombola women at the inception phase, ensuring enough budget and time (at least six months of dedicated work). Programme Analyst 2025/06 Overdue-Initiated
Strengthen the connection between the Office’s civil society partnership initiatives and policy dialogue at federal, state and municipal levels, ensuring that inputs gathered in support of their mobilization feed into policy advice and technical support endeavours. Programme Analyst 2025/06 Overdue-Initiated The CO takes advantage of the partnership with women to support the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and the Ministry of Racial Equality. This is the case of the support for the organization of the Indigenous Women’s Conference and the dialogue with bodies in charge of policies for rural communities
Recommendation: Considering the significant results achieved within the scope of this project to build the capacities of duty bearers and also of Indigenous and Quilombola women, the design of inclusive public policies and the strengthening of women's organizations, especially Quilombolas, this evaluation recommends that in future governance projects and mobilization of historically excluded groups, the connection of the work with duty bearers and civil society should take place from the outset of the implementation with a view to deepening the dialogue between the two groups in a more effective way through the promotion of frequent events of political dialogue. In addition, stakeholders should be more directly engaged in project governance. Loger-term projects should also be considered for the maturation of political dialogue. More specifically, it is recommended: a) To connect the two areas of the project (duty bearers and civil society) from the beginning of the project to deepen the possibilities of political dialogue whenever the political context allows (assuming that there is not a high degree of animosity between the groups). b) To use the methodology 1) Training, 2) Technical Advice, and 3) Knowledge Products, including more political dialogue events where the specific demands of the groups involved can be discussed in a participatory manner. c) To expand the participation of different stakeholders in the project's governance and seek a more consistent participation of partners within the Steering Committee. d) To design projects with a smaller scope and longer duration with a program nature, that is, that are more long-term to generate more solid results over time, especially if they involve political processes with their own time to mature. For this project, it is also recommended: e) To present the evaluation results to managers and women within a mobilization event of the two groups to close the project and help promote dialogue between the parties involved. f) To disseminate the project results in the media and monitor the results of the new state policies for women in the two states whenever possible.
Management Response: From 5 recommendations, the evaluation considered the recommendation a 2nd priority that should be implemented in the next 2 years. The Country Office (CO) is committed to incorporating the proposed key actions into designing new projects, partnership-building, and engagement processes. This includes establishing connections between duty-bearers and right-holders from the outset when conditions allow and enhancing project governance through broader stakeholder participation as much as allowed by project timeline, donor agreement and rules and regulations.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
During the inception phase, project teams should assess the level of collaboration between local communities and governments, if any, and use that information to adjust work plans. Programme Analyst 2025/12 Not Initiated This action will be applied in case the project with the state government of Alagoas and other projects at the subnational level are signed.
To design projects with a smaller scope and longer duration with a program nature, that is, that are more long-term to generate more solid results over time, especially if they involve political processes with their own time to mature. Programme Analyst 2025/12 Initiated
Project teams should try to generate opportunities for exchanges between duty-bearers and rights-holders when budget and political context allows. Programme Analyst 2025/06 Overdue-Initiated UN Women is providing technical support to the National Conference of Indigenous Women, a participatory event that will bring together Indigenous women and government officials to craft policy measures.
Assign internal focal points with clear responsibilities for managing high-level, long-term partnerships. This approach ensures consistency and sustained engagement with key stakeholders, including Steering Committee participants, civil society organizations, and governmental actors. Head of Programme 2024/12 Completed CO hired an IC to support coordination with civil society partners
Train dedicated staff on managing partnerships effectively and institutionalize regular exchanges during staff meetings to review partnership statuses and share lessons learned. Head of Programme 2025/12 Initiated
Share evaluation results with key project partners Programme Analyst 2024/12 Completed
Recommendation: Considering the challenges in the implementation of projects carried out in partnership with state and especially municipal governments and the challenges in managing multi-stakeholder project partnerships, it is recommended to consider in future projects the involvement of local partners in the implementation of the project in municipalities, the training of consultants hired for projects (on the mission of UN Women and the neutrality of the United Nations system in its mission to serve the States Member) and also the expansion of the visibility of UN Women projects in Brazil. More specifically, it is recommended: a) To strengthen partnerships with states and implement projects in municipalities only when there is a local partner with this specific role. b) To train hired consultants on the mission of UN Women, levelling knowledge and perspectives and hire a project manager who has a clearly higher hierarchical level and who may be able to do this coordination from Brasilia (be this person from the UN Women team already or hired for this purpose). c) To scale up the media efforts of future projects to increase support for the initiative and help guide the political agenda.
Management Response: From 5 recommendations, the evaluation considered the recommendation a 4th priority that should be implemented in the next 2 years. The Country Office (CO) agrees with the recommendation and commits to integrating the proposed key actions into future projects and operations to address challenges in managing multi-stakeholder partnerships and municipal-level implementations. The Country Office leadership and project teams will ensure compliance with this management response, leveraging monitoring and evaluation systems to track progress and impact.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Capacity development, National ownership
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Prioritize collaboration with state governments and ensure that the roles of local partners are clearly defined. Establish formal agreements to enhance project efficiency and ensure local ownership and sustainability. Programme Analyst 2025/05 Completed Lessons learned have informed project design of the project to be implemented in partnership with the state government of Alagoas.
Favour the use of Partner Agreements when extensive technical advisory services are needed to ensure coordination. Programme Analyst 2024/12 Completed For the Luxembourg-funded project, a Partner Agreement is being developed to avoid the need to hire and coordinate multiple consultants.
Recommendation: Considering the sustainability achievements of the project, especially regarding the continuity of mobilization of quilombola communities, in the design of future projects, it is recommended the involvement of communities that already have a minimum level of organization and mobilization to ensure adequate conditions of sustainability. In addition, it is recommended to include and expand the training component whenever possible, considering that it creates conditions for change in the long term. More specifically, it is recommended: a) To consider communities that already have a minimum level of mobilization prior to engaging with the existing social structure. b) To maintain a strong training component that is a unique contribution of UN Women's work in Brazil, especially regarding women's ability to express themselves in their needs and claims for rights.
Management Response: From 5 recommendations, the evaluation considered the recommendation a 5th priority that should be implemented in the next 2 years. The Country Office (CO) accepts the recommendation and will integrate the proposed key actions into the design and implementation of future projects to enhance sustainability, particularly for mobilizing Quilombola communities.
More detail
Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Identify and prioritize communities with an existing minimum level of organization and mobilization as part of project design and implementation. Alternatively, project outputs will focus mostly on providing mobilization support to ensure the most marginalized women are not left behind. Programme Analyst 2025/06 Overdue-Initiated
In new projects and initiatives, plan for the development and implementation of training modules into future projects with dedicated time, focusing on empowering women to articulate their needs and advocate for their rights. Programme Analyst 2025/06 Overdue-Initiated
Recommendation: In view of the results obtained with this project, which had an innovative focus on gender, race and ethnicity, and the demand of stakeholders to continue the project, it is recommended that this project continue either in the same states mobilized or in other states, taking advantage of previous experience and mobilizing resources that can be used for the continuous inclusion of groups historically excluded from the political process. More specifically, it is recommended: a) To take advantage of the lessons learned and design a new project that can be replicated in other states based on this experience and/or design a new project that can continue this political dialogue and deepen it to generate the conditions for real dialogue between the government and indigenous and quilombola women.
Management Response: From 5 recommendations, the evaluation considered the recommendation a 1st priority that should be implemented in the next 2 years. The Country Office (CO) agrees with the recommendation and recognizes the innovative approach of integrating gender, race, and ethnicity in addressing the inclusion of historically excluded groups. The CO is committed to leveraging the lessons learned from this project to design new initiatives that can be replicated in other states or deepened in the existing locations to sustain and expand political dialogue. These actions will aim to create conditions for meaningful engagement between governments and Indigenous and Quilombola women.
More detail
Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Leadership and participation in governance systems (SP 2018-2021)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Despite the challenging scenario, the CO is exploring resource mobilization opportunities to scale up the results of the project. Representative 2025/12 Initiated