Management Response

: Turkey
: 2022 - 2025 , Turkey (CO)
: Final Evaluation of Strengthening civil society capacities and multi-stakeholder partnerships to advance women’s rights and gender equality in Turkey Project
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Turkey

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UN Women Türkiye Country Office welcomes the Final Evaluation of the “Strengthening Civil Society Capacities and Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships to Advance Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in Türkiye / Strong Civic Space for Gender Equality (2021–2024)” project and appreciates the comprehensive, evidence-based assessment provided by the evaluation team. The evaluation confirms the project’s strong relevance, effectiveness and adaptability in a highly complex and volatile operating environment, including the COVID-19 period, deepening economic instability, shrinking civic space, and the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes. It recognizes the project’s significant contribution to strengthening institutional and advocacy capacities of women-led and rights-based civil society organizations (CSOs), expanding gender-responsive data and knowledge generation, and fostering multi-stakeholder dialogue and solidarity among gender equality actors, state institutions and the private sector across Türkiye. UN Women concurs with the evaluation’s conclusion that, beyond the achievement of quantitative targets, the project’s feminist, participatory and non-hierarchical partnership approach played a critical role in building trust, ownership and sustained engagement among CSOs, particularly grassroots and disadvantaged groups. At the same time, the Country Office acknowledges the areas identified for further strengthening — notably financial sustainability of CSO support in the context of economic volatility, the need for more structured and progressive capacity development pathways, stronger and more standardized monitoring and data systems, deeper integration of disability inclusion, and more systematic sustainability and crisis-response planning. These findings are consistent with the evaluation’s recommendations on financial resilience, institutional capacity development, monitoring quality, inclusion and long-term sustainability. UN Women Türkiye accepts all eight recommendations and views them as directly aligned with its forward-looking programming priorities under the upcoming Strategic Note period (2026-2030). The Management Response outlines how these recommendations will be operationalized through strengthened risk-informed programming, improved capacity development approach, enhanced data and monitoring systems, deeper inclusion of women with disabilities, more structured CSO networking mechanisms, reinforced financial and administrative support frameworks, and earlier integration of sustainability and exit planning in project design. Implementation of these actions will be undertaken in line with available resources and partnership opportunities, and progress will be monitored through future programme management and reporting mechanisms.

: Approved
Recommendation: Strengthen the financial sustainability mechanisms for CSO support to address the challenges posed by economic volatility.
Management Response: UN Women accepts this recommendation. The evaluation highlights how inflation, exchange rate volatility, and HR cost pressures affected CSO sustainability and implementation capacity. In future programming, UN Women Türkiye will integrate more risk-informed financial modalities to safeguard CSO institutional stability, particularly for grassroots and women-led organizations. This will include stronger contingency planning, and attention to human resource cost realism in grant design.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Introducing contingency and flexible budget lines in future CSO grants to accommodate inflation and exchange-rate fluctuations Introducing contingency and flexible budget lines in future CSO grants to accommodate inflation and exchange-rate fluctuations 2026 - 2027 UN Women Türkiye CO Not initiated . 2027/12 Not Initiated
Inform the Partner Associations on rapidly changing HR costs and minimum wage compliance 2026 - 2027 UN Women Türkiye CO Initiated UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Not Initiated
Recommendation: Enhance the capacity development framework to ensure sustained institutional growth among CSOs.
Management Response: UN Women accepts this recommendation. While the project delivered strong short-term capacity gains, the evaluation underscores the need for more structured, progressive, and differentiated learning pathways. Future programming will adopt a more systematic capacity development approach, combining modular training, peer learning, and monitoring of institutional capacity outcomes, with tailored approaches for first-time partner CSOs.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Develop modular training packages for different CSO profiles (grassroots, established, first-time grantees) Women's Empowerment Principles. UN Women Türkiye CO 2026/12 Initiated
Enhance capacity outcome tracking (institutional, governance, advocacy) in programme M&E frameworks UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Not Initiated
Recommendation: Strengthen data collection and monitoring mechanisms across all stakeholder groups.
Management Response: UN Women accepts this recommendation. The evaluation notes uneven monitoring capacities particularly among CSOs under partnership agreement and gaps in gender-disaggregated and inclusion-responsive data. Future programming will strengthen standardized tools, CSO data literacy, and quality assurance processes, while ensuring that monitoring data systematically informs adaptive management.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Knowledge management, Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Enhance standardized and user-friendly data collection and reporting templates for CSOs UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Initiated
Provide targeted training to CSOs on gender-disaggregated and inclusion-responsive data collection UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Initiated
Recommendation: Develop a comprehensive crisis response framework that addresses political, economic, and environmental challenges.
Management Response: UN Women partially accepts this recommendation. The Country Office agrees with the evaluation that structured crisis-response modalities are critical to maintaining gender equality programming in challenging contexts. The project’s experience during the COVID-19 period, economic instability, and the 2023 earthquakes demonstrated the value of adaptive management and reinforced the need to systematize risk-informed programming practices. At the same time, the evaluation recognizes that certain crisis dimensions, particularly those related to political developments and the rise in the anti-gender policies and narratives, are structural in nature and shaped by national and global political dynamics. These factors are largely outside the direct sphere of influence of the Country Office, and their evolution cannot be fully anticipated, mitigated, or contained through programme design alone. While UN Women can strengthen preparedness, partnership resilience, and adaptive programming mechanisms, the capacity to respond to systemic political constraints remains inherently limited. Within this context, UN Women Türkiye will focus on strengthening the areas within its operational influence. Future programming will integrate clearer guidance on programme adaptation during crises, maintain flexible implementation modalities where feasible, and continue building CSO capacities for organizational resilience and crisis management inconformity with UN Women’s core committments for Humanitarian Action.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Relevance
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Develop internal guidance on rapid programme adaptation and flexible funding during crises in line with the Core Commitments for Humanitarian Action UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Not Initiated
Integrate crisis preparedness and management modules into CSO capacity building UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Initiated
Recommendation: Strengthen networking and collaboration mechanisms among CSOs.
Management Response: UN Women accepts this recommendation. Networking was a key area of success; future interventions will formalize and deepen these mechanisms through structured dialogue spaces, and joint advocacy platforms.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Capacity development, Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Facilitate joint advocacy and knowledge-sharing initiatives among CSOs UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Initiated
Continue to support networks and platforms for gender equality UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Initiated
Recommendation: Enhance the integration of disability inclusion across all project components
Management Response: UN Women accepts this recommendation. Building on research and partnerships with organizations of women with disabilities especially the Association for Women with Disabilities which is currently under Partner Agreement, future programming will adopt more systematic disability inclusion standards, including accessibility considerations, targeted support, and disability-specific indicators within monitoring frameworks.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Improving the reporting system of the project by collecting the contributions of stakeholders and partners (if any) from them UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Not Initiated
Strengthen partnerships with disability rights organizations, especially those led by women UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Initiated
Recommendation: Enhance the financial and administrative training framework for CSOs.
Management Response: UN Women accepts this recommendation. Administrative procedures posed challenges for some CSOs. Future support will include stronger onboarding, practical financial management training, and simplified guidance to improve compliance and efficiency.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Relevance, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Enhance onboarding packages and practical financial management trainings for new grantee and partner CSOs UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Initiated
Support CSOs in funding diversification and institutional sustainability planning UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Not Initiated
Recommendation: Strengthen the sustainability framework for project outcomes
Management Response: UN Women partially accepts this recommendation. The Country Office fully agrees with the evaluation’s assessment that sustainability of civil society results requires exit strategies, and support to CSOs for organizational sustainability planning. However, the evaluation also correctly identifies that long-term sustainability of outcomes — particularly those linked to institutional continuity of CSOs and funding diversification — depends significantly on broader financing conditions for civil society and gender equality. The current global contraction of development financing, including reduced and shifting donor priorities for gender equality and civic space, presents structural constraints that are beyond the direct control of the Country Office. These external dynamics limit the extent to which long-term financial sustainability for partner CSOs can be guaranteed through programme design alone. Within this context, UN Women Türkiye will focus on the dimensions of sustainability that fall within its programmatic influence. Future interventions will integrate clearer guidance on programme adaptation during crises, maintain sustainability planning where feasible, and support CSOs in funding diversification strategies.
More detail
Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Governance and participation in public life
Operating Principles: Oversight/governance, Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Integrate sustainability and exit planning into future project design. UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Not Initiated
Support CSOs in funding diversification and institutional sustainability planning 2026=2027 UN Women Türkiye CO Not initiated UN Women Türkiye CO 2027/12 Not Initiated