Management Response

: Egypt
: 2014 - 2017 , Egypt (CO)
: Midterm Evaluation of the Securing Rights and Improving Livelihoods of Women project
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: Egypt
:

UN Women ECO will take into account the lessons learned and recommendations, which focus on promoting integration and cooperation among key partners, diversification of stakeholders, promoting inclusiveness and participatory tools and processes, developing a sustainability plan and exit strategy, refining capacity-building activities and strengthening M&E and results oriented design and implementation strategies.
: Approved
Recommendation: Promote integration among key project partners: UN Women should promote integration among key project partners through: (a) the joint development of a collective integrated project implementation strategy where the project interventions and activities complement each other to contribute to achieving the set objectives. Women beneficiaries of each model should also be involved in the strategy planning to ensure the feasibility and practicality of the plan from the perspective of the end-user. and (b) holding of quarterly or bi-annual joint meetings to discuss issues and exchange, as well as exchange visits.
Management Response: UN Women ECO leads the coordination between Misr El Kheir and CARE to ensure the models of the VSLA and the social solidarity companies are integrated in Beni Suef and Assiut
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Coordination of bi-annual meetings with CARE and MEK to ensure synergies UN Women in coordination with CARE and MEK 2017/12 Completed
Joint proposal will be developed with CARE and MEK, integrating VSLA and the social solidarity companies UN Women in coordination with CARE and MEK 2017/12 Completed
A focus group discussion will be organized to ensure project beneficiaries share their experiences. The experiences of women will be integrated into the concept note UN Women in coordination with CARE and MEK 2017/12 Completed
Recommendation: Discuss an incentive system for VSLA and SFD loans, to promote partnerships and cooperation between women instead of individual businesses, which is the one of the main objectives and screening criteria for women.
Management Response: Relying on international best practices, UN Women ECO aims to design a comprehensive national program focusing on horizontal and vertical scale up of VSLAs.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women will commission an international expert to share the experience of the design of the national program in india UN Women ECO 2017/03 Completed
Design of a concept note on the national program UN Women ECO 2017/06 Completed
Recommendation: Include men and community groups in social marketing and awareness activities: UN Women should target men, including husbands and other community groups, to introduce them to the project objectives and activities to reduce their resistance and rejection of their wives and sisters’ participation in different project activities, particularly the VSLAs and Social Solidarity companies. This strategy should not only focus on the benefits of participation, but on gender equality and women’s rights.
Management Response: UN Women ECO implements interventions in a participatory and inclusive manner. UN women is implementing its models in partnership with local NGOs with a high representation of men working in the NGO and promoting project activities. It is noteworthy to mention that 8% of men are represented in VSLA groups.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality, Human Rights, Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women will ensure the inclusion of husbands and other family members in the awareness raising phase of activities. UN Women ECO 2019/10 Completed UNW Egypt has designed and mobilized funds on programmes where men and boys of the intervention areas are engaged in the activities to ensure their buy-in. In addition to designing social media campaigns and holding webinars (post-COVID) where men are engaged in discussions on gender issues.
Recommendation: Work with other community associations: It is highly recommended to consider how implementing partners can work with other CDAs - especially those that are providing vocational training and other relevant activities – and to link them with social solidarity companies. The CDAs could provide: (i) trainings on new skills; (iii) provide awareness sessions to men groups and other community members to increase the project outreach and promote awareness on the importance of WEE and women’s involvement in the different decision-making processes; and (iii) other important training and awareness activities in other areas such as first aid, literacy, industrial safety, etc
Management Response: In the design and implementation of the project, UN Women ECO has partnered with CARE, SFD and Misr El Kheir. All of these NGOs/governmnet partners have their own network of CDAs to ensure wider outreach to beneficiaries and communities. Given the limited timeframe until project closure, and the fact that all agreements have been signed, and most of the resources have been disbursed, UN Women ECO will not be able to contract additional CDAs in the last year of project implementation
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind, Capacity development, Advocacy
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Normative Support
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women ECO, in its future programming design and implementation, will ensure wider involvement of diverse partners and local CDAs, as well as men and other community members. UN Women ECO 2019/12 Completed This has already been taken into consideration. UNW programmes are built on the involvement of different stakeholders and service providers whether national partners and/or NGOs while ensuring the involvement and engagement of all the segments of the intervention areas.
Recommendation: Develop a sustainability plan and exit strategy: It is highly recommended to work with MEK foundation to develop an exit strategy for the social solidarity companies with clear identification of roles and responsibilities, capacity building activities, sustainability mechanisms and measures (including the e-marketing tools, exhibitions, etc.), the provision of marketing and business networks, and development and support of a fundraising mechanism guided by specific assessment indicators.
Management Response: UN Women ECO ensures sustainability through cooperating with diverse local partners, whether government or NGOs. This helps transferring skills and knowledge, and building capacities of local NGOs. This project works on the estabilshment and registration of social solidairty companies and registers them with the Ministry of Investment to ensure sustainability of the companies beyond the project duration.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: National ownership, Capacity development, Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Impact, Sustainability
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Design of the national program on VSLAs which ensures the model is eventually handed over to the government UN Women ECO 2017/12 Completed
Registration of the women led enterprises with the Ministry of Investment to ensure sustaibability UN Women ECO 2017/12 Completed
Reaching out to the CBE to work on the legalization of VSLAs to become bankable UN Women ECO 2017/12 Completed
Recommendation: Maximize the benefit and services provided by the SFD: It is highly recommended that the SFD work with other associations and not rely on only one association such as the businessmen association as one of the official associations. This would increase the outreach of the project and ensure a high level of transparency and accountability measures in selecting the target groups for the services and loans provided. Also, it is recommended to increase and support the linkage between the SFD and the social solidarity companies/joint venture especially for holding the permanent exhibitions and fairs as a sustainability mechanism for their activities
Management Response: UN Women ECO has partnered with the SFD due to its wide outreach within the business community.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Partially Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Promoting inclusiveness/Leaving no one behind
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Comment noted and will be taken into consideration in future programming UN Women ECO 2019/12 Completed UNW's financial inclusion programme (Sep. 2020 to Dec. 2023) was built on the collaboration with MSMEDA (former SFD) and NCW together with the CBE to help outreach to women productive clusters in 4 governorates and support them through asset transfer, and financial and non-financial services with the objective to help them market their products through sustainable means.
Recommendation: Refine capacity building activities: This should include a. Capacity building of beneficiaries of SFD financial services: Those applying or selected to receive loans from the SFD should be involved in training and awareness activities before receiving the loans to ensure the project sustainability and good project management b. Collective approaches to capacity building: Develop a joint capacity building plan (partners with project team) with specific interventions and activities targeting the women groups, and community associations and groups. c. Communication skills. d. Training VSLAs management groups and members on how to set priorities through some refresher sessions to encourage social cohesion of the VSLA.
Management Response: As part of its partners selection process, UN Women ECO conducts a capacity assessment for all its partners to ensure they have the right systems in place and the design of the right capacity building activities.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM, Operational activities
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women ECO is to revise its methodology with regards to the disbursement of loans to ensure BDS is provided as a pre-requisite to the loan disbursement. UN Women ECO 2016/12 Completed
Pending resource mobilization, UN Women ECO’s future interventions will take into consideration refinement and development of a comprehensive capacity building plan. UN Women ECO 2019/12 Completed This comment has already been taken into consideration in UNW's various programmes. A point in focus, is the VSLA programme which UNW has recently succeeded in mobilizing 6M USD from EU and Dutch to scale up the model and support the national efforts for financial inclusion. The programme has a comrehensive capacity building and knowledge transfer progeamme that include beneficiaries as well as national counterparts.
Recommendation: Strengthen the M&E Component – UN Women should review the M&E system, tools and methodologies and a more comprehensive M&E system should be developed and used by all stakeholders to ensure that there is a regular and well-structured reflection process during the life of the project. Partners’ current greater focus on the quantitative “short-term results”, needs to be give more attention to qualitative results and serious (systematic) tracking following a unified M&E system by all the partners. This should include meaningful participation of beneficiaries in monitoring and reflection activities.
Management Response: UN Women ECO promotes a strong culture of results-based and knowledge management within its interventions. Through the implementation of the 2018-22 monitoring, research and evaluation plan (MERP), and through enhanced compliance with the RMS monitoring mechanism, the ECO will ensure that all programmes are implemented on time and with the expected high-quality results.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Accepted
Thematic Area: Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Evidence, Data and statistics
Organizational Priorities: Culture of results/RBM
UNEG Criteria: Sustainability, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Relevance, Impact
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
Strengthening M&E systems at programme level with SMART indicators UN Women ECO 2019/12 Completed UNW has built in its programmes a full plan for M&E and ensured collecting unified indicators among all its IPs. The indicators are also built on the AWP for the whole WEE pillar. UNW ensured the engagement and involvment of the IPs in the development of the indicators built on SMART for reliable data collection for solid evaluation results
In future programmes, M&E systems will be unified with all partners involved UN Women ECO 2019/12 Completed UNW has built in its programmes a full plan for M&E and ensured collecting unified indicators among all its IPs. The indicators are also built on the AWP for the whole WEE pillar. UNW ensured the engagement and involvment of the IPs in the development of the indicators built on SMART for reliable data collection for solid evaluation results