Management Response

: Bosnia Herzegovina
: 2021 - 2025 , Bosnia Herzegovina (CO)
: Final Evaluation of the Project “Women driving resilience in agriculture and rural areas” in BiH
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Bosnia Herzegovina

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Accepted all seven recommendations.

: Approved
Recommendation: Continue and deepen tailored economic empowerment of rural women through regionally embedded value chains.
Management Response: UN Women and FAO accept this recommendation. The evaluation confirms an approach that has already been initiated through ongoing strategic discussions and early design work for follow-up programming. Lessons from the RW Joint Programme on value-chain-based, regionally differentiated support for rural women are being actively used to shape the conceptualization of new programmes and resource mobilization efforts, in alignment with institutional priorities and EU accession processes.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women's economic empowerment
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support, Agriculture
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Apply RW evaluation findings and lessons learned to the design and early formulation of follow-up programmes and funding proposals, with a focus on regionally embedded, value-chain-based economic empowerment models for rural women. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Initiated Initial programme concepts and discussions with partners and donors are already underway and will continue to be informed by RW evidence and results.
2. Integrate a value-chain and territorial approach to rural women’s economic empowerment into national and entity-level agriculture and rural development strategies and programme frameworks, ensuring that future policies explicitly recognise women as economic actors across priority value chains and regions UN Women, FAO 2026/03 Not Initiated Lessons from the RW Joint Programme will be anchored in strategic agriculture and rural development policy frameworks, enabling sustained, system-wide recognition of rural women as economic actors across priority value chains and regions.
Recommendation: Accelerate institutionalization of gender-responsive support measures in agriculture and rural development.
Management Response: UN Women and FAO accept this recommendation and acknowledge the importance of moving from piloted measures to sustained, institutionalized gender-responsive support within agriculture and rural development systems. The Joint Programme has already contributed to this shift by supporting gender-responsive subsidy design, strengthening collaboration between sectoral ministries and gender equality mechanisms, and embedding gender considerations into policy dialogue. These efforts are being further consolidated and will inform continued institutional engagement and future programming.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women's economic empowerment
Operating Principles: National ownership
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support, Agriculture
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Support ongoing and future policy dialogue with entity-level ministries and gender equality mechanisms on the institutionalization of gender-responsive subsidy criteria and monitoring practices in agriculture and rural development. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Initiated Gender-responsive approaches introduced under RW are already informing discussions with institutional partners and will continue to be promoted through policy engagement and programme design.
2. Integrate institutionalization of gender-responsive agricultural support measures as a core objective in the design of follow-up programmes and strategic partnerships. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Not Initiated Follow-up programming will build on RW results and align with EU accession, IPARD-related principles and national policy frameworks.
Recommendation: Institutionalise the role of local governments as key partners in outreach, mobilisation and sustainability.
Management Response: UN Women and FAO accept this recommendation and recognize that engagement of local governments has been a critical enabling factor for effective outreach, beneficiary mobilisation and sustainability of results under the Joint Programme. The RW experience has demonstrated the value of municipal-level involvement in promoting calls, facilitating access to information and supporting women’s participation. These lessons are already informing the conceptualization of follow-up programming and will be further consolidated through structured engagement with local authorities.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women's economic empowerment
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support, Agriculture
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Strengthen the role of local governments as strategic partners in the design of follow-up programmes, particularly in outreach, mobilisation and sustainability of support for rural women. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Initiated Local government engagement under RW is already being reflected in discussions and early design work for future interventions.
2. Promote the formal recognition of municipalities and local governments within national and entity policy frameworks as delivery partners for gender-responsive rural development, clarifying their mandates for outreach, mobilization and sustainability of support to rural women. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Not Initiated Formal recognition of municipalities within policy frameworks will strengthen their mandate and accountability for outreach, mobilisation and sustainability, reinforcing local ownership and long-term institutionalisation of gender-responsive rural development.
Recommendation: Strengthen synergies with broader interventions on women’s access to property, care, transport and services to create an enabling environment.
Management Response: UN Women and FAO accept this recommendation and acknowledge that women’s economic empowerment in rural areas is closely linked to broader structural factors, including access to property, care services, mobility and essential services. The Joint Programme has already contributed to cross-sector dialogue and coordination, and the evaluation findings reinforce the need to further strengthen synergies with complementary UN and national interventions. These considerations are being integrated into ongoing coordination efforts and the design of follow-up programmes.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women's economic empowerment
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Normative Support, Agriculture
UNEG Criteria: Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Strengthen coordination and alignment with relevant UN agencies and national partners, ensuring that future economic empowerment programmes for rural women are designed in synergy with interventions addressing care, property, mobility and access to services. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Initiated Inter-agency coordination mechanisms and early programme design discussions are already incorporating a more integrated, enabling-environment perspective.
2. Systematically integrate rural women’s economic empowerment into cross-sector policy dialogue and coordination platforms, ensuring that agriculture, gender equality, social protection, transport and property reform policies jointly address structural barriers affecting rural women. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Not Initiated More coherent and integrated policy response to structural barriers faced by rural women will be ensured by aligning agriculture, gender equality, social protection and service delivery reforms within a shared enabling-environment framework.
Recommendation: Expand collaboration with financial institutions to promote gender-responsive banking for rural women.
Management Response: UN Women and FAO accept this recommendation and recognize the importance of strengthening linkages between public support measures and access to finance for rural women. While direct engagement with financial institutions is influenced by market conditions and regulatory frameworks beyond the control of the Joint Programme, the RW experience provides a useful evidence base to inform dialogue, advocacy and partnership exploration with financial actors. These lessons will be used to guide selective engagement in future programming and coordination efforts.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women's economic empowerment
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Normative Support, Agriculture
UNEG Criteria: Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Inform exploratory engagement and dialogue with financial institutions and relevant stakeholders on gender-responsive approaches to rural finance, as part of follow-up programme design and partnerships. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Not Initiated Any engagement with financial institutions will be aligned with mandate, market realities and available resources, and pursued selectively through future programmes.
2. Advocate for the inclusion of gender-responsive finance principles for rural women within national and entity financial inclusion and agricultural finance strategies, positioning women farmers and agri-entrepreneurs as a priority group for policy reform and public–private dialogue. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Not Initiated Embedding gender-responsive finance principles in national and entity strategies will strengthen the policy environment for inclusive rural finance and position rural women as a priority group for financial sector reform and partnership engagement.
Recommendation: Adopt more integrated and balanced cooperation models beyond the UN-to-UN modality.
Management Response: UN Women and FAO accept this recommendation and acknowledge that effective implementation of complex, multi-level programmes requires a variety of cooperation modalities, including UN-to-UN arrangements as well as other partnership and implementation models. The RW Joint Programme has generated valuable lessons across different forms of collaboration, highlighting the importance of selecting cooperation modalities that are fit-for-purpose, balanced and context-appropriate. These lessons are already informing internal reflections and will guide the design of future programmes, ensuring clearer roles, appropriate accountability mechanisms and efficient coordination.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women's economic empowerment
Operating Principles: Internal coordination and communication
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Partnership, Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Inform the selection and design of cooperation modalities in future programmes, ensuring balanced roles, clear accountability and efficient coordination across different partnership arrangements. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Not Initiated Ongoing programme design discussions are already drawing on RW experience to assess and select cooperation modalities appropriate to different objectives and contexts.
2. Develop an institutional partnership framework for future rural women programmes, defining principles for cooperation modalities, roles, accountability and coordination across UN agencies, government and other partners to support systemic reform. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Not Initiated Clear institutional framework for future cooperation models, ensuring balanced roles, shared accountability and more effective coordination across UN agencies, government and partners in support of systemic change.
Recommendation: Strengthen alignment with EU accession processes and deepen engagement with EU stakeholders.
Management Response: UN Women and FAO accept this recommendation and recognize the importance of aligning programme results and policy engagement with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU accession process. The RW Joint Programme has already generated practices and evidence relevant to EU priorities in agriculture, rural development and the green transition. These results are being used to strengthen dialogue and visibility with EU stakeholders and will continue to inform engagement, learning and positioning of future interventions in support of pre-accession objectives.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Alignment with strategy
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Coherence
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Strengthen engagement, visibility and policy dialogue with EU stakeholders, ensuring alignment of future programme design with EU accession priorities in agriculture, rural development and the green agenda. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Not Initiated
2. Embed rural women’s economic empowerment and gender-responsive agriculture as a standing priority within EU accession policy dialogue, ensuring that gender equality is reflected in Chapter 11 reform processes, IPARD alignment and Green Agenda discussions. UN Women, FAO 2026/12 Not Initiated The positioning of gender equality and rural women’s economic empowerment within EU accession reform processes will be strengthened, supporting alignment with Chapter 11, IPARD and Green Agenda priorities and enhancing sustainability and scalability of results.