Management Response

: Sudan
: 2014 - 2016 , Sudan (CO)
: Final Evaluation of UN Women Sudan 2014-2016 Country Programme
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: Sudan
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The CPE was very welcome and useful as Its findings come in time to inform the CO new Strategic Note 2018-2021. The Evaluation was conducted at the end of the year when the office, working with two substantive staff, a few administrative staff, national UNVs and a consultant, was busy with annual and donor reporting, finalizing AWP for the next year, recruitments and a host of other emergencies. This notwithstanding, the CO M&E Assistant (National UNV), Admin Assistant and the National Programme Specialist provided as much support as was needed. The Country Representative provided overall guidance, chaired induction and exit meetings with consultants. The process was very intense and consultative. The Country Representative chaired meetings with the Evaluation Reference Group. The Office is satisfied with the Country Portfolio Evaluation Final Report findings and is taking action to implement them accordingly. Clarifications have been provided on why the office had to focus on 2/3 of the 5 Impact Areas during 2015/2016, due largely to acute funding and human resource constraints that led to threats of closing the office and the eventual drastic downsizing that took place end 2015/2016. Same reasons explain the gaps in organizational effectiveness and efficiency. The Country office Is broadening its resource mobilization strategy to raise enough funds to grow its portfolio. This is yielding fruits and thematic and geographic expansion is happening gradually, endeavoring a balance between conflicted and not conflicted areas as well as Humanitarian and Development. The office Is creating new initiatives on women economic empowerment and strengthening partnership with microfinance institutes and the private sector. The continuation of strong partnerships with government institutions remain as primary. More involvement of the women NGOs and the CSOs will happen as the Office is taking measured to create a Civil Society Organizations Advisory Group.

: Approved
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 1. Recruit and sustain capable core staff to enable and designing and implementing a strategic note according to their core responsibility and mandate areas.
Management Response: CO office acknowledges that following the downscaling of 2015/2016 as a result of protracted funding deficiency, insufficiency of staff in quality and number affected the office image, constricted its programming intervention areas to 2/3, with a track record of low delivery and reporting. This situation is currently being addressed as resources are mobilized. Qualified staff, some from other UN Agencies are on board supporting work on women economic empowerment, peace, security and humanitarian action, coordination and communication, M&E and finance.
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Description: The insufficiency of human resources in terms of numbers and capacity is at the basis of a number of weaknesses; even if financial resources are needed to recruit the required staff, UN Women needs to avail of a documented recruitment plan. On a parallel trail and not necessarily resource intensive, connecting with the UN Women COs in the region for sharing of experience and exchange visits may help, for instance on fund acquisition, creating leadership and building alliances with civil society.
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Between March- April 2016, UN Women recruited 12 new staff for Khartoum main office and Darfur-Sub Office; 4 of whom were deployed in Darfur (3 Programme Officers and 1 Admin/finance). The new recruits for Khartoum Office include P&S Officer, WEE Officer, M&E Officer, EVAW/Humanitarian Officer, Finance and Programme Associates. This is in addition to 3 old staff: Programme Specialist, M&E, Admin Finance and Driver. Al the new staff were recruited on SSA with the hope of sustaining them once the Office mobilizes more resources. 2. Senior Management will ensure that all new recruits are given substantive guidance and induction on the strategic areas that the CO is working on. Special guidance will be provided by SM on AWP 2017, SN, UN Women rules & regulations to ensure that the staff are well acquainted with UN Women Sudan’s focus and its rules & regulation. SM will ensure that programme officers are fully aware of their responsibilities in various programmes and mandate areas, and have clear plans for all projects. Country representative 2017/12 Completed Most of the concerns have been addressed, though efforts are continuing with more results expected under the new SN/AWP
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 2. The CO has to take immediate measures to improve operational effectiveness and efficiency.
Management Response: Office is undergoing a lot of Improvement, with the new staff on board. M&E systems are being developed and used by Project officers and implementing partners. Both Institutional and Donor reports have seen improvements in timeliness and quality. Plans are underway to train staff and IPs on effective monitoring and reporting.
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Description: The CO should start with developing and adhering to plans as per corporate guidance and quality and timely narrative and financial reports need developed and obtained from partners, also to be used as a basis for advocacy and evidence-based decision-making. Moreover, measures need to be taken to create an easily accessible institutional memory and a quality M&E framework and system need to be developed and implemented.
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Effectiveness
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. Inadequate human resource capacity was cited as one of the main reason for low operational effectiveness and efficiency. UN Women has already increased the number of its staff both in Khartoum and in Darfur. The Office worked with all staff to develop their individual workplan. The Office recruited an M&E staff who will support in enhancing staff capacity on RBM and ensuring that programme officers and partners are fully aware of their responsibilities in monitoring various programmes and have clear monitoring plans for all projects. For all new programmes, the M&E Officer will be involved in programme design to ensure that sound M&E frameworks are included. 2. The Office will invest in building capacity of the new recruited staff on procedures and UN Women’s new systems and allocate adequate time for appraisals, teambuilding, training and network building in order to improve efficiency and operational effectiveness. All project officers will work with the M&E officers for training of their IPs on RBM. UN Women CO M&E officer Project Officers Assistance from RO M&E Officer 2017/12 Completed The M&E team under the guidance of the CR is taking measures to upgrade the level of report. Tools are being developed.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 3. The CO should revise and implement its resource mobilization strategy, based on existing corporate guidance on resource mobilization
Management Response: With regards to the baselines of 3-4 staff and almost zero programming resources by the end of 2015 when the decision to downscale the office was made, the Office's Human and Financial bases has tremendously Improved as a result of expanding strategic partners and donor-base.
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Description: The CO should revise and implement its resource mobilization strategy, based on existing corporate guidance on resource mobilization. A single source funding situation should be avoided and a more strategic and better-targeted approach to fund acquisition should be utilized, based on resource mapping. A human resource strategy and plan should be developed, coupled with an organogram, to complement the resource strategy.
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. The Office is in the process of developing a new Resource Mobilization (RM) Strategy given the changing context in Sudan. 2. The Office new SN will be broad and will seek to engage more and different partners. 3. The Office has already formed a donors’ coordination group named “Partners in Development Group” composed of all major donors in Sudan. This group will be utilized in the implementation of the Office RM Strategy; A new Organogramme has been adopted UN Women CR RM Focal Person All Programme Staff Support from RO 2017/12 Completed There is great improvement with both human and financial resource mobilization, given the very low baselines as explained above. The office is on the right track and looks forward to continue.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 4. UN Women should broaden its focus to better respond to its mandate and the needs of women in Sudan.
Management Response: While recognizing that all impact areas in the SN remain critical in Sudan, given the financial and human resource realities of the office as explained above, it would have been overambitious or unrealistic to continue working on all Impact areas or expanding to more geographic areas. Focusing on 2/3 impact areas and Coordination for the past 2 years has generated impact and visibility, which is contributing to rebuild the office's Image and credibility. With resources mobilized UN Women has expended programming In 2017 to Kordofan, Red Sea and Khartoum States. The new SN 2018-2021 being developed will be more comprehensive and will cover more geographic areas.
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Description: UN Women should broaden its focus to better respond to its mandate and the needs of women in Sudan. Currently, the efforts of the CO are mostly focused on the programmatic area with coordination on the second place. UN Women should ensure the distribution of attention over the mandate areas under the new SN is better balanced, especially by enhancing the attention for the normative area. As for impact areas, working on only two impact areas hampers UN Women to work according to all mandate areas; the areas of women leadership and political participation and VAW/G are impact areas that deserve an independent focus
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Peace and security (SPs before 2018), Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018), Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018), Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: UN Coordination, Normative Support, Operational activities, Humanitarian action
UNEG Criteria: Efficiency, Effectiveness, Relevance, Sustainability, Impact, Gender equality
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. In AWP 2017, UN Women extended its operational/programmatic geographical coverage in Sudan to include Kordofan and the Red Sea states. 2. The new SN of UN Women will consider broadening its focus to address at least 4/5 thematic areas and subsequently cover more areas/locations in Sudan, other than Darfur. These new locations will build on the on-going Initiatives in mentioned above and explore other areas. 3. Parallel to this UN Women will continue to work through relevant partners including government, CSO, CBOs, academic institutions and other UN agencies to support GEWE in other states. UN Women CR UN Women CO 2017/12 Completed Justification for the partial is provided above. Measures are being taken to expand the CO portfolio and this will go gradually, In response to resources so as to avoid the situation that led to a near closure of the office.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 5. UN Women needs to broaden and enlarge its partnership to obtain a stronger voice and better access the target group.
Management Response: The CO is currently expanding its strategic partnership to More Government departments, new donors, Private Sector, CSOs, Media and Academia. It will continue in this light. A Coordination and Strategic Partnerships staff is on board.
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Description: UN Women needs to broaden and enlarge its partnership to obtain a stronger voice and better access the target group. This would help to broaden build strategic alliances with organizations from various backgrounds for coordination, cooperation and joint advocacy, but also to build their capacity building and raise their awareness. The identification of new and strategic partners should use partnership assessments, based on existing corporate guidance on partnership selection. Stronger partnership with civil society is essential for UN Women to better reach smaller women’s networks and women at grassroots level. Moreover, the CO should strengthen its partnership with media and the private sector.
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Peace and security (SPs before 2018), Leadership and political participation (SPs before 2018), Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018), Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018), Governance and planning (SPs before 2018), Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Partnership
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. The Office has already embarked on broadening its partnership base to more Government departments, new donors, Private Sector, CSOs, Media and Academia. It has renewed its partnership with women’s parliamentarians and engaged in conducting consultations with different stakeholders at the field level. UN Women CR Coordination and Partnerships Officer Communication Officer UN Women CO Programme staff 2017/12 Overdue-Initiated This area has been prioritized in the office AWP 2017, including with the recruitment of a dedicated staff. Strategic partnerships and Interventions will scale up office image and credibility.
Recommendation: RECOMMENDATION 6. UN Women needs to continue strengthening its role in the UN Family.
Management Response: CO continue coordinating and leading gender mainstreaming in UN groups and joint projects and actively participated in UNDAF outputs and indicators development. Now exerting and concentrating efforts by emerging GTG and GiHA with other sister UN agencies for more activation of GTG. In addition to contribution in other UN working groups.
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Description: UN Women needs to continue strengthening its role in the UN Family. Even if UN Women seems to have strengthened its contribution lately, more can be accomplished. The CO needs to increase its influence over gender mainstreaming and addressing gender considerations by other UN Agencies and as for UNDAF, UN Women should be strongly involved in the upcoming design of output and indicators. Lastly, UN Women should also make an effort to be more frequently involved in UN meetings and working groups and in UN joint events and ensure the regularly and meaningfully conducting Gender Theme Group meetings is sustained.
Management Response Category:
Thematic Area: Peace and security (SPs before 2018), Women economic empowerment (SPs before 2018), Ending violence against women (SPs before 2018), Global norms and standards (SPs before 2018)
Operating Principles: Not applicable, Capacity development
Organizational Priorities: Partnership, UN Coordination, Humanitarian action
UNEG Criteria: Gender equality, Impact, Human Rights, Sustainability, Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
1. UN Women Sudan has worked to establish its position in the country as a lead agency and strong coordinator on gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Country Office is chair to the Gender Thematic Group (GTG), a joint project for GEWE in Darfur has been developed, with a strong M&E and Results framework component. The Co is co-chair of important humanitarian coordination mechanism. Gender Equality in Humanitarian Action. (GiHA) Working Group, is a coordination mechanism that is co-chaired by UN Women and OCHA. It succeeded to bring together the UN and international humanitarian actors to support integration of a gender perspective in humanitarian response in Sudan. GiHA, an inter-agency coordination mechanism, is in charge of implementing the UN-HCT Gender Strategy of Humanitarian action in Sudan which was developed in April/May 2016 with the support of the GenCap advisor. In the spirit of the New Way of Work in the context of the Humanitarian-Development Nexus, UN Women is leading the process of merging the 2 mechanisms mentioned above for more impact and cohesion. 2. UN Women will continue to strengthen its presence and role in the UN family through more engagement in the different coordinating structures UN Women is leading 2 UN Joint Programmes on GEWE and Participating in 4 more, in Darfur Kurdofan. UN Women CR Coordination Officer, UN Women participants in all working groups. 2017/12 Overdue-Initiated UN Coordination has been the strength of the office and will continued to be prioritized, especially in the framework of the new QCPR guidelines.