Management Response

: Georgia
: 2012 - 2013 , Georgia (CO)
: Final Evaluation of Women for Equality Peace and Development in Georgia project
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Georgia

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The final evaluation of the WEPD project provided a good assessment of the strategies and approaches used in the frames of the Project "Women for Equality, Peace and Development in Georgia" (WEPD I phase). Strategies rated as successful will continue to be applied in UN Women's work on WEPD project II phase (2013-2015) taking into account all of the recommendations under the final evaluation report. Specifically, the recommendations have been taken into consideration while elaborating the annual work plan and project implementation strategy for the WEPD project II phase, which was awarded by the Government of Norway on 15 November 2012. The recommendations that fell beyond the scope of the WEPD II Phase focus have been considered and incorporated into broader UN Women Georgia country programme.

: Approved
Recommendation: Facilitate the creation of an institutional mechanism for gender equality with at least two arms of power; legislative and executive for gender mainstreaming at the highest possible leadership and decision-making levels. Agreeably, continuing with successful implementation of the NAP 1325 highly depends on well-functioning national machinery for gender equality. Such a mechanism exists in the legislative branch - Gender Equality Council in the Parliament - but is yet to be established in the executive branch of the government.
Management Response: Accepted. UN Women is in agreement with this recommendation, and its implementation is foreseen in the frameworks of UN Joint Programme "To Enhance Gender Equality in Georgia" (2012-2014, funded by Sida) that is jointly implemented by UNDP, UNFPA, and UN Women. Moreover, UN Women as the chair of Gender Theme Group in Georgia (GTG) together with the GTG has been advocating for the establishment of relevant national machinery in the executive branch of the government at a very high political level and this work will continue. The contribution of WEPD II Phase towards the implementation of this recommendation will lie in continuous support of effective functioning of the National Coordination Group (NCG) on NAP 1325 that serves as a model of inter-sectorial cooperation in the executive branch of the government around gender equality and women?s rights issues. For the time being, the NCG functions under the auspices of the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament but unites the representatives of all line ministries that are responsible for the NAP 1325 implementation along with the representatives of Public Defender's Office and civil society.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Not applicable
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women Georgia country office and its relevant representative(s) will continue to support and advocate for the creation of an institutional mechanism - national machinery at the executive branch to promote gender equality in the country in consultations with Gender Theme Group that UN Women chairs and Gender Equality Council of the Parliament (GEC). This work will be advanced together with other interested UN agencies such as UNDP, UNFPA in the frameworks of UN Joint Programme "To Enhance Gender Equality in Georgia". UN Women Country Office in Georgia, National Programme Officer under overall leadership of the Country Representative 2015/12 Overdue-Initiated First round of high-level consultation took place in December, 2012 when Georgia's Prime Minister attended the High Level Meeting within the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence organized by UN Women and GTG members and will be continued on annual basis. As a result of this advocacy work, there was established a new position - Assistant to the Prime Minister on Human Rights and Gender Equality Issues in the Prime Minister?s apparatus in February 2013 as a first step towards establishment of a national machinery in the executive branch. In addition, the GTG elaborated a technical paper on how to strengthen national machinery for Gender Equality in Georgia that was dully shared with relevant government representatives on different occasions the first quarter of 2013. It is also planned to incorporate this issue in the new NAP on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women for 2014-2016.
Recommendation: Support the M&E function of the National Coordination Group on implementation of the NAP on SCR 1325. It also has the important role of reporting, i.e. documentation
Management Response: Accepted. In response to this recommendation UN Women will continue support to the NCG and enhance its work on monitoring of the NAP 1325 implementation.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Not applicable
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women will support regular coordination meetings of National Coordination Group overseeing implementation of the NAP on SCR 1325 under the auspices of Gender Equality Council of the Parliament. WEPD Programme team led by the Programme Manager 2015/12 Overdue-Initiated Meetings of the NCG with M&E function are in place once in two months with UN Women technical support.
UN Women will support elaboration of the Monitoring and Reporting Framework for the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament to coordinate and report on the work conducted by members of the National Coordination Group for the NAP 1325 (2012-2015) implementation period. WEPD Programme team led by the Programme Manager 2013/12 Completed
Recommendation: Sensitization of the new government and members of Georgian parliament on UNSCRs on Women, Peace and Security and on gender equality.
Management Response: Accepted. UN Women is in agreement with this recommendation and already integrated into the Phase II of WEPD.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Not applicable
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women will continue to raise awareness of the representatives of different Ministries and other state structures responsible for UNSCR 1325 NAP implementation, through thematic meetings, 1325 forums, trainings, and communication and outreach campaigns such as radio and TV programmes. UN Women will invite members of the representatives of the different state structures in special radio and TV programmes dedicated to Women, Peace and Security issues as it was the practice during the project's I phase. WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2015/12 Overdue-Initiated In March 2013, WEPD renewed its support to strengthen capacity on WPS issues of civil servants of newly formed government of Georgia after the October 2012 elections. Inter-sectorial coordination working group meetings on NAP 1325 implementation are scheduled once in two months period. The representatives of the local governments will attend the meetings too.
Recommendation: Project leverage and scaling up: Keep old partners and add new ones, namely; Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Affairs, the IDP department in MIDPOTAR, and new NGOs with economic empowerment expertise and agenda.
Management Response: Partially accepted. In response to this recommendation UN Women will add the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Affairs as new governmental partner and will deepen its cooperation with the department on internally displacement within the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons, from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees (MIDPOTAR) this is already integrated into the WEPD II phase. However, not WEPD due to its scope of work, but UN Women country office broadly speaking will be able to select new NGOs with economic empowerment expertise only if there will be mobilized relevant resources to work on women's economic empowerment issues as for the time being none of the cost-sharing prorgrammes of UN Women office in Georgia work in this area.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Not applicable
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women will closely cooperate with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Affairs especially while conducting the gender analysis of existing social protection policies, develop recommendations to address specific needs of IDPs and conflict affected women and lobby for theirintegration into the Targeted Social Assistance Programme and relevant policies WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2015/12 Overdue-Initiated A local consultant to conduct the gender analysis of the social protection policy hired. The completion of the analytical work is expected in August, 2013.
UN Women will work more closely with the IDP department of the MIDPOTAR by involving the staff from the department in annual gender sensitive trainings to enhance their capacity in gender equality principles and mainstreaming gender into their daily work. WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2015/12 Overdue-Initiated The trainings will be conducted on an annual basis.
WEPD II phase will ensure close work with MFIs to mainstream Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) principles into theiroperations and provide access to small scale loans for IDPs and national minority women. WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2015/12 Completed A local consultant completed a study on the existing barriers and opportunities for accessibility to MFIs for targeted groups in July 2013. The Association of MFIs took up WEE principles and integrated them into their code of ethics.
UN Women's implementing partner Taso Foundation will hire the national expert in social mobilization for economic empowerment in order to mainstream WEE principles in the practice on social mobilization throughout the WEPD II phase WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2013/12 Completed
UN Women will conduct the regional workshop on social mobilization as a tool for support women?s economic empowerment with the aim to share the lessons learned, best practice experiences, achieved key results, and discuss entry points in the process of applying social mobilization as a tool to support WEE. This workshop will significantly enhance the capacity of the local partner organizations on WEE. WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager in close collaboration with EECA SRO 2013/12 Completed The regional workshop was held in July 2013.
UN Women will conduct the internal mid-term review of the project in line with the project evaluation framework to monitor the progress/status of achievement of the planned targets under WEE component WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager and closely supported by National Programme Officer and Country Representative 2014/12 Completed The mid-term review of WEPD II phase has been completed and its findings have been presented to relevant stakeholders and inform the implementation of the remaining components of WEPD project.
UN Women will organize a series of consultations and develop project proposal aimed at economic empowerment of rural women that will allow for greater partnership with civil society organizations working on economic empowerment of women (if funding is secured of course) UN Women Country Representative with support from the National Programme Officer 2014/08 Completed The full-fledged project proposal on rural women's economic empowerment was developed jointly with FAO and has been shared with SDC and ADA.
Recommendation: The "One Window Shop Principle" meeting is to be replicated and documented for future application by the local government for working with IDPs and as a best practice model regionally. Enabling this model implementation entails ensuring its sustainability by investing in capacity development and adequate human resources designation to fulfill due tasks.
Management Response: Accepted. UN Women will continue its work with local governments to enhance their capacity and gradually institutionalize the "One Window Shop Principle" meeting methodology on local levels.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Not applicable
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women and its local implementing partner NGO Women's Information Center (WIC) will document "One Window Shop Principle" meeting methodology and results achieved through these meetings. Particularly, WIC will develop the beneficiary's satisfaction questionnaire to be conducted with all individuals or families and members of the communities whose problematic cases were presented and addressed on the "One Window" meetings (beneficiaries' satisfaction will be assessed by their negative/positive feedback to the services or assistance provided to them as a result of relevant "One Window" meetings); Thus, the project team will be able to measure the level of satisfaction of the beneficiaries and monitor the status of the problems posed at "One Window" meetings. Additionally, meeting notes will be developed for all the "One Window" meetings and compiled in one file. WEPD Programme Team together with implementing partner NGO Women's Information Center 2015/12 Overdue-Initiated
UN Women and its local implementing partner organization WIC will continue to increase the knowledge of local government on CEDAW, UN SCR 1325, gender equality principles and on "One Window" meetings methodology through series of trainings in the target locations of Qvemo Qartli, Shida Qartli, Imereti and Samegrelo regions WEPD Programme Team together with implementing partner NGO Women's Information Center 2015/12 Overdue-Initiated
UN Women will hold the consultations with GEC of the Parliament on mainstreaming gender into the actions of the local government and particularly on supporting sustainability of the One Window Shop principle meetings at the local level. The consultation will include the possibility of appointing the Gender Focal Points within the local government and particularly municipalities at least in project target regions of Tetriskharo, Gori, Marneuli, Samtredia and Zugdidi municipalities. GEC can play the major role in achieving this target by consulting with the local governmental representatives, issuing the letter of support etc. WEPD Programme Team together with implementing partner NGO Women's Information Center 2015/12 Overdue-Initiated
Recommendation: The roundtable modality needs to continue with a modified format added whereby the local government directly engages in joint government-community initiatives with IDP women in the communities through SHGs/CBO where GRB can/must be monitored.
Management Response: Accepted. UN Women will work more intensively to integrate Gender-Responsive Budgeting into the practice of local government in target locations of Qvemo Qartli, Shida Qartli, Imereti and Samegrelo regions of Georgia.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Not applicable
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women will elaborate the comprehensive action plan on how to integrate GRB principles into local planning and budgeting through training the representatives of the local government and grassroots women's self-help groups in GRB principles, forming the local GRB committees, conducting regular community/village needs assessments and supporting women full participation in local planning and budgeting processes WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2013/12 Completed
UN Women's local implementing partner organization Taso Foundation will specially hire the GRB coordinator and national GRB expert to foster its application on local/regional levels WEPD Implementing Psrtner Taso Foundation 2013/12 Completed
Recommendation: Gender Responsive Budgeting Training (GRB) for senior officers in the local government offices in the project regions and for & parliamentarians is a prerequisite to the recommended institutionalization of the hotline and legal clinic, in the longer run.
Management Response: Partially accepted. The GRB will be more developed and integrated in the WEPD project II phase however it has no connection with institutionalization of hotline and legal clinics. The hotline in Gori Gender Equality Recourse Center has been already integrated and institutionalized by the Gori municipality since August, 2012. It is fully funded by the city municipality. Legal clinics are established in the regional branches of the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons, from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugeeswhich is part of the executive branch and not the part of the local government. Local government has no power and authority over administrating Ministry's regional offices.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Not applicable
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women will conduct the practical training on key principles and application of GRB for the representatives of regional municipalities, city councils from Qvemo Qartli, Shida Qartli, Imereti and Samegrelo regions, and representatives of WEPD project implementing partners Taso Foundation and Women's Information Center in order for them to better understand the essence and principles of GRB, and how to design and implement GRB in the local context. WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2013/12 Completed The trainings were conducted in July 2013 by international trainer.
Recommendation: Three Community Based Organizations (CBOs) have been created by SHGs uniting over 30 self-help groups (SHGs) in Samegrelo and Shida Qartli regions. Yet they are still led by Taso Foundation who serves more or less as their guardian. This could deter the CBOs further development as fully-fledged independent organizations. Therefore, ET recommends strengthening and enabling SHGs and CBOs as new developments in the civil society movement, particularly in this transitional phase as independent community assets in critical mass mobilization and influential element in democratization and nation building processes.
Management Response: Accepted. UN women will continue to strengthening capacity of SHGs and CBOs as a part of social mobilization process.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Not applicable
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women will continue applying the social mobilization methodology in the rural areas of project's target locations, it will put special emphasis on supporting CBOs as independent entities by providing them with access to small scale grants with the aim of strengthening their capacities and involving representatives of the CBOs in different trainings, workshops, conferences, high-level meetings and working groups. Thus, UN Women will support the CBOs to increase their human and technical capacities and gain contacts on central and regional levels for networking and further growth. WEPD Programme team together with WEPD Implementing Partner Taso Foundation 2015/12 Overdue-Initiated
Recommendation: Integrate periodic assessment components, both qualitative and quantitative, as a monitoring and reporting instrument on standardized evidence-based practice in project planning and implementation. This could materialize in the form of short-term external expert/s occasional hire and inclusion of M&E officer within the project or both.
Management Response: Accepted. UN Women is in agreement with the recommendation and will work on further development of internal monitoring and evaluation mechanism by capacity building, hiring the project analyst and formulating the M&E framework.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Not applicable
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women will conduct the Result-based Management (RBM) workshop for the project's local implementing partner organizations Taso Foundation and Women's Information Center to increase their knowledge and skills in applying and practice RBM. WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2013/12 Completed The training was conducted by an international trainer in the beginning of 2013.
UN Women will hire the project analyst for the entire project's duration. WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2013/09 Completed The Project Analyst was hired in May 2013.
One of the integral responsibilities of the project analyst will be to conduct regular field monitoring visits and assist the programme manager in elaborating and implementing the project's detailed monitoring and evaluation plan including data collection and analysis. WEPD Programme Analyst led by WEPD Programme Manager 2015/12 Overdue-Initiated
Recommendation: Foster SHG entrepreneurship initiatives boosting their micro-grants by linking the SHGs to the banking system with the appropriate mechanisms of supervision in place for advancing conflict affected and IDPs women's economic empowerment.
Management Response: Accepted. UN Women is in agreement with the recommendation and will work with the Micro Finance Institutions as mentioned above in recommendation 4 to support them to integrate Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) principles in their operations and provide access to their services to IDP and national minority women.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Not applicable
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women plans to conduct the study on existing barriers and opportunities for accessibility to MFIs for excluded groups of national minority women in Qvemo Qartli region in order to understand what are the challenges and opportunities that national minority women face in accessing and benefitting from the MFI services WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2013/12 Completed The study was completed in July 2013.
UN Women will develop draft recommendations and practical guidelines to MFIs policies and operations on the one hand to promote WEE principles and approaches and on the other to increase accessibility of their services to national minority and IDP women. The follow up working meetings and technical support will be provided to the representatives of the MFIs on how to integrate the WEE principles into their approaches and operations. WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2015/12 Completed
Recommendation: Invest more in youth as SHGs and promote their agency within the IDP and conflict affected communities capitalizing on their already existing eagerness and achieved mobilization by recruiting more resources to promote their philanthropy on the one hand and technical capacity as the young entrepreneurs and future women leaders/advocates.
Management Response: Accepted. UN Women is in agreement with the recommendation and will support the implementation of social mobilization especially with the involvement of youth groups.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Not applicable
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women will continue to support functioning of existing and establish new Self-Help Groups of internally displaced, conflict affected, and national minority women using social mobilization approach where youth are one of the significant and direct target groups of the project. The special emphasis will be put on the involvement of more youth as the members of the SHGs. WEPD Programme team together with WEPD Implementing Partner Taso Foundation 2015/12 Overdue-Initiated For the moment of the evaluation there were 46 SHGs with more than 300 members and youth (18-25 age group) constitutes their 30%, expected target by the end of the WEPD II phase is 40%.
Recommendation: Further Capacity building and awareness raising trainings for women and men beneficiaries should continue adding new topics such as marketing skills and entrepreneurial skills and expanding on old ones related to the SCR 1325 NAP implementation.
Management Response: Accepted. UN Women is in agreement with the recommendation and will continue the capacity development of IDP, conflict affected and national minority groups with the special focus on women and young girls.
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Description:
Management Response Category: Not applicable
Thematic Area: Not applicable
Operating Principles: Not applicable
Organizational Priorities: Not applicable
UNEG Criteria: Not applicable
Key Actions
Responsible Deadline Status Comments
UN Women will strengthen the capacity of the self-help groups on the issues of their interest based on the results of capacity needs assessments. The trainings will be tailor-made according to the special needs of the members of the SHGs and community representatives. The scope of the capacity building trainings/workshops may vary from region to region based on the special characteristics and sensitivity of local context. WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2015/12 Overdue-Initiated
UN Women will carry out regular capacity assessment of education needs of targeted internally displaced, conflict-affected, and national minority women in order design relevant capacity development interventions. WEPD Programme team led by Programme Manager 2013/12 Completed