COORDINATING FOR GENDER EQUALITY RESULTS RESULTS GENDER EQUALITY FOR COORDINATING COORDINATING FOR GENDER EQUALITY RESULTS Regional evaluation of UN Women’s contribution to UN system coordination on gender equality and the empowerment of women in Europe and Central Asia ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The evaluation team wishes to thank the many individuals UN Women ECA RO Regional Director, Alia El-Yassir, and organizations who supported the evaluation process UN Women ECA RO Deputy Director and Fumie Nakamura, by making themselves available for interviews and surveys UN Women ECA RO Coordination and Planning Specialist. and by providing helpful feedback on draft deliverables. Special thanks to the UN Women Europe and Central We thank the country representatives and staff of the Asia Regional Office (ECA RO) and to UN Women country four offices visited for all the dedicated time they invested offices, government and non-government partners in the in supporting the evaluation process and in facilitating four case study countries (Albania, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, the engagement and inclusion of a wide range of part- and Turkey) and the three countries interviewed virtually ners, stakeholders and beneficiaries of their work, in (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, and Serbia) for this evalua- particular Albania Country Office (David Saunders, tion. Their cooperation was essential in understanding the Country Office Representative), Kyrgyzstan Country Office nature of UN Women’s coordination mandate at regional (Gerald Gunther, Country Office Representative), Kosovo and national levels. We are also grateful to all 14 ECA Programme Office (Flora Macula, Head of Programme countries whose documentation was provided for review. Office), Turkey Programme Office (Zeliha Unaldi, Gender Finally, we could not have done this without the support Specialist Office of the UN Resident) Coordinator). of Isabel Suarez, the ECA Regional Evaluation Specialist who managed this assignment and provided valued guid- The evaluation was conducted by an external evaluation ance throughout the evaluation process with the active company and led by Katrina Rojas from Universalia. involvement of internal and external reference groups. Evaluation Team: Katrina Rojas, Mary Picard, Pamela The evaluation greatly benefited from active involvement Teitelbaum, Rima Slaibi, Juan-David Gonzales and buy-in from the ECA Regional Office and in partic- Evaluation Task Manager: Isabel Suarez, ECA Regional ular for the support provided by Ingibjorg Gisladottir, Evaluation Specialist EVALUATION TEAM: EVALUATION TASK MANAGER: Katrina Rojas Isabel Suarez, ECA Regional Mary Picard Evaluation Specialist Pamela Teitelbaum Rima Slaibi Juan-David Gonzalesr Design: Dammsavage Inc. Cover Photo: UN Women/Janarbek Amankulov © 2016 UN Women. All rights reserved. Produced by the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office COORDINATING FOR GENDER EQUALITY RESULTS IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA Regional evaluation of UN Women’s contribution to UN system coordination on gender equality and the empowerment of women in Europe and Central Asia Istanbul, August 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACRONYMS 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 8 1. BACKGROUND 16 1.1 Introduction 16 1.2 Purpose,objectives,scopeanduseoftheevaluation 16 1.3 Evaluationmethods 17 2. EVALUATION CONTEXT 25 2.1 Overview 25 2.2 UNsystem 25 2.3 TheECAregion 26 2.4 UNsysteminECA 28 2.5 UNWomen’sinternalcontext 30 2.6 UNWomen’ssystem-wideandinter-agencymandate 34 3. FINDINGS 39 3.1 Overview 39 3.2 RelevanceofUNWomencoordinationworkonGEEW 39 3.3 EffectivenessofcoordinationworkinECA 46 3.4 Integrationofgenderequalityandhumanrights-basedapproaches 65 3.5 Organizationalefficiency 73 4. PROMISING PRACTICES AND LESSONS LEARNED 78 4.1 Introduction 78 4.2 Promisingpractices 78 4.3 Lessonslearned 80 5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 81 5.1 Conclusions 81 5.2 Recommendations 85 ACRONYMS AWP Annual Work Plan BiH Bosnia and Herzegovina CCA Common Country Assessment CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women CEE Central and Eastern Europe CIS Commonwealth of Independent States CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child CSO Civil society organizations CSW Commission on the Status of Women DaO Delivering as One DoA Delegation of Authority DRF Development Results Framework ECA Europe and Central Asia ECOSOC Economic and Social Council EVAW Ending violence against women FAO Food and Agriculture Organization GEEW Gender equality and empowerment of women GTG Gender Theme Group IANWGE Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality IB Institutional budget ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ICRMW International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families ILO International Labour Organization IOM International Organization for Migration MCO Multi-country office NWM National women’s machineries OEEF Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency Framework OHCHR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights OSAGI Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women Regional evaluation of UN Women’s contribution to UN system coordination on gender equality and the empowerment of women in Europe and Central Asia Asia (ECA) 4 PAG Programme Advisory Group PSG Peer Support Group RC Resident Coordinator RCM Regional Coordinating Mechanism RCO Regional Coordinating Office RO Regional Office SN Strategic Note SPR Strategic Planning Retreat ToR Terms of Reference UNCT United Nations Country Team UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNDAF United Nations Development Assistance Framework UNDC UN Development Coordinator UNDG United Nations Development Group UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNFPA United Nations Population Fund UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNOPS United Nations Office for Project Services UN-RWGG ECA Regional Working Group on Gender UPR Universal Periodic Review WFP World Food Programme WHO World Health Organization Regional evaluation of UN Women’s contribution to UN system coordination on gender equality and the empowerment of women in Europe and Central Asia Asia (ECA) 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OBJECTIVES AND APPROACH METHODS This evaluation, commissioned by the Europe and The evaluation process, from inception to report Central Asia (ECA) Regional Office of UN Women submission, took place from May 2015 to March 2016. assesses the relevance, effectiveness and orga- A multi-method approach was adopted that triangu- nizational efficiency of UN Women’s UN system lated information from: coordination mandate on gender equality and empow- erment of women (GEEW) and its contributions in • Interviews with consulted stakeholders (210 different operational contexts within the region and in-country and 16 at regional level) over the time period of 2011 through the first quarter • Document and secondary data review of 2015. It is intended to inform UN Women’s mid- term reviews of country/regional strategic notes and • A portfolio review of the 13 countries its Strategic Plan 2014-2017. This regional evaluation builds on and contributes to a UN Women corporate- • Three on-line surveys of: UN Women staff at country level evaluation, on the same topic and with similar level, GTGs and other working groups at country level, purpose and objectives. and regional stakeholders • Four country case studies3 based on field visits and Given the early stage of evolution of the ECA Regional comprehensive in-depth interviews Office (established in 2014, it is UN Women’s newest Regional Office), the evaluation was formative in • Virtual consultations with stakeholders in three nature. It took stock of what has been done and what countries4 has been learned from these first years of experience, and provides ideas for how the Regional Office can Data analysis involved comparative analysis: a) across take forward the UN system coordination mandate. countries and in relation to normative or intergov- The evaluation was conducted for 13 countries with ernmental and operational work; b) of UN Women’s a UN Women presence1 and, to a limited extent, for experience in implementing its UN system coordina- five countries where UN Women is non-resident,2 and tion mandate in Country Offices with Delegation of considered both country and regional level contribu- Authority and those with programme presence only; tions of UN Women. and c) where relevant, countries using a Delivering as One framework against those that are not. Comparative The evaluation applied a gender equality and human analysis helped to identify good practices in coordina- rights responsive approach, and was guided by the tion, innovative approaches, and lessons learned. principles of empowerment and fair power relations. Systems thinking and feminist theory were used to Other data analysis techniques included: descriptive understand how UN Women’s influence on the UN analysis of different contexts; content analysis of the system is enabled or limited. substantial qualitative data collected; quantitative and statistical analysis of survey results; and descriptive 1 Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Albania, Bosnia and statistics in aggregating a common set of characteris- Herzegovina, Moldova, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Serbia, FYR Macedonia,