Management Response

: Jordan
: 2015 - 2015 , Jordan (CO)
: Strengthened capacities for inclusive and effective women’s (refugees and in the hosting communities) and girls’ participation in decision making processes affecting their lives
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Jordan

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Overall the evaluation was very positive, finding that the project met all of its results to a high standard and implemented donor funds in an effective and efficient way. A particularly positive finding was that the project resulted in a decrease in violence against women amongst its beneficiary population, as well as increased food security. The evaluation found that on-going programming could be strengthened by focusing on some of the implementation details, such as a) ensuring a more equitable distribution in opportunities through a rotation of the cash for work opportunities available, b) streamlining the literacy and protection services offered, c) creating structures to facilitate greater communication and teamwork among the project team. UN Women is in full agreement with all of these suggestions and in the response details actions that will be taken to implement these recommendations.

: Approved
Recommendation: At policy level: UN Women and other agencies should provide women – when appropriate- with more space on platforms such as “Community gathering” and “District regular meetings to express their needs and convey their voice to duty bearers.
Management Response: Completed. While UN Women’s support to leadership was in its early stages of developing in 2014, in 2015 UN Women organised 48 meetings between the UN Women-supported women’s committee and camp-decision makers to express their needs. This level of engagement between female camp residents and decision-makers will be maintained going forward.
More detail
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
Conduct “Community gathering” and “District regular meetings with partners to express their needs and convey their voice to duty bearers. Rachel Dore-Weeks 2016/06 Completed In 2015 UN Women organised 48 meetings between the UN Women-supported women’s committee and camp-decision makers to express their needs. This level of engagement between female camp residents and decision-makers will be maintained going forward.
Recommendation: At management level: The capacity of field staff of UN Women should be enhanced through team building activities and management training. The management structure and approaches used by UN Women were appropriate and, together with the technical competence and personal dedication of the project team achieved project promises. However the team dynamic at the field level could be strengthened Lines of communication between UN Women staff and beneficiaries are blurred, creating conflicts. Accountability systems should be strengthened with systematic feedback sessions conducted with beneficiaries. A complaints/suggestion box should be installed inside each Oasis and a formal accountability system with response and feedback systems should be in place.
Management Response: Accepted. UN Women is working to strengthen personnel relations within the camp and to ensure greater accountability between UN Women and beneficiaries. Details of actions are provided below.
More detail
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
Enhance the capacity of field staff of UN Women should be enhanced Rachel Dore-Weeks 2016/06 Ongoing As detailed under recommendation 2, UN Women is investing in a 1 week retreat in its camp based staff. One aim of this is to build better structures of communication within the team to enhance team building and understanding. This will be followed by careful monitoring of team dynamics and efforts from HR and management to ensure good communication chains.
Strengthen accountability systems with systematic feedback sessions Rachel Dore-Weeks 2016/06 Completed UN Women has installed complaints boxes in each of its centres and has linked to the camp based complaints mechanism, administered by UNHCR.
Recommendation: At implementation level: It is recommend that UN Women work to rotate its cash for work beneficiaries. Where legally possible, UN Women should explore how it can support women no longer benefiting from cash for work opportunities through other interventions. Suggestions include linking them to other organizations or working to develop small scale livelihood activities within the camp. The literacy classes should be formalized. Many women come over day with no clear curriculum. A curriculum should be developed with clarity on stages and work towards accredited certifications for successful graduates should be sought for. In all new cash for work recruitment processes, the criteria of beneficiaries’ selection should be transparent and the list of criteria should be published prior to the call for applications. Confirmation visits should be conducted for potential beneficiaries to confirm their vulnerability status. The duration of the service should be clearly stated from the start of the involvement (e.g. the duration of the cash for work opportunity). Formal TOR/ SOPs for women committees should be revised to ensure the visibility of such a body, the unification of expectations and a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. And implementation of the SOPs for protection committee should be enhanced. Protection specialist is needed to enhance the quality of the protection aspect of the women committee and the protection network inside the camp. The implementation and application of the UN Women protection referral SOPs should be ensured. This document is of great value but the protection team and also beneficiaries are not aware of it. As a suggestion, SOPs should be translated and a capacity building training for the protection committee and the women’s committees should be undertaken to understand them. It would also be important to develop a poster on the inter-agency referral system and hang it in each Oasis, so beneficiaries can understand the process and feel more confidence in it.
Management Response: Accepted. UN Women has put in place a plan to rotate its cash for work beneficiaries and to strengthen the quality of its literacy and protection programming. The details are listed below.
More detail
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
Rotate cash for work beneficiaries and ensure transparency in the selection of new beneficiaries. Specifically a) rotate beneficiaries, b) publish the criteria of beneficiaries’ selection prior to the call for applications, c) conduct Confirmation visits, and d) clearly state the duration of the service for all new beneficiaries engaged Hanan Zanoun 2016/06 Ongoing UN Women has put in place a plan for rotating its cash for work beneficiaries. All cash for work beneficiaries who have been engaged by UN Women for over one year will be rotated in late February. To support them to link to other activities UN Women will facilitate their engagement with JEN’s camp-based opportunity centre and will encourage women to remain in the centres, using its resources to support their own business development. New cash for work beneficiaries will be in place as of March 1, and all will sign an agreement upon starting stating the duration of their opportunities. The process for this is being done in a fully transparent manner, and with the close engagement of the UN Women Representative and UNHCR. UN Women will be publishing its vulnerability criteria (but the criteria will not be amended as it is camp wide criteria agreed with UNHCR).
Formalize literacy classes Hanan Zanoun 2016/08 Ongoing UN Women has enrolled its current teachers in British Council teacher training courses and in partnership with the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation UN Women is developing a comprehensive curricula and schedule for classes. UN Women will also develop a partnership with UNESCO on its literacy work, to roll out high quality adult education.
Assign a Protection Specialist to support UN Women's camp programming Rache Dore-Weeks 2016/06 Ongoing In the interim a UN Women Amman-based consultant is serving as the protection specialist, and in this capacity is in Za’atari full time from Sunday to Tuesday each week. Moreover in early December UN Women posted a position for Proteciton Specialist and it is hoped that this person will be in place in mid-February.
Ensure the implementation and application of the UN Women protection referral SOPs Hanan Zanoun 2016/06 Ongoing UN Women has sought capacity building support from Justice Rapid Response on the implementation of its protection work. To this end JRR undertook an assessment mission in late December 2015 to ascerain the level of knowledge and implementation of the current protection SOPs and put together a comprehensive capacity building plan for staff to ensure full implementation and high quality work on proteciton referals in Za’atari camp. The first step of this plan is a one week retreat between the JRR protection mentor and all camp staff in the first week of February 2016. This will be followed by three weeks of on the job mentoring in Za’atari camp.
Revise women's committee TOR and publish Hanan Zanoun 2016/06 Ongoing UN Women will do this in Q1 of 2016 in consultation with the representatives of the women's committee.