Management Response to the Evaluation Maternal Newborn Child Health Initiative (2010/11 – 2017/18)
| Recommedations | Commitments | Actions | Responsibility Centre | Target Completion Date (Y/M/D) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Recommendation 1: For any future health and nutrition programming, consider continuing to integrate the needs of adolescents. | GAC agrees with this recommendation. The SDGs and Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy both require an integrated, multi-sectoral approach that puts the broad needs of women and girls at the center. In line with the Feminist International Assistance Policy, GAC will ensure multi-sectoral approaches in new initiatives, including those that will be part of Canada’s 10-year commitment to health and rights, as announced by Prime Minister Trudeau on June 4, 2019. | Accountability Framework 1. GAC will integrate multi-sectoral approaches into the accountability framework of the 10-year, $1.4B global health commitment. | MFM in consultation with all programming branches | April 2020 |
| Programming Guidance 2. GAC will develop health and nutrition programming guidance to assist officers in uniformly assessing project plans and proposals for key priorities, including adolescent health needs, multi-sectoral approaches and sustainability. | MFM | April 2020 | ||
| Programming 3. By the end of the 2020 Investment Plan process, GAC will support health and nutrition projects that take multi-sectoral approaches that address beneficiaries’ needs in a comprehensive manner, and will integrate multi-sectoral approaches into its performance measurement frameworks. | MFM, KFM, WGM, NGM, EGM, OGM | April 2021 | ||
| 4. GAC will integrate a multi-sectoral lens into the health and rights call for proposals for Canadian organizations announced on June 4, 2019. | KFM | April 2020 | ||
| Recommendation 2: To facilitate the achievement and sustainability of results, ensure that health programming promotes an integrated, multi-sectoral approach which addresses the broader determinants of health. | GAC agrees with this recommendation. The SDGs and Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy both require an integrated, multi-sectoral approach that puts the broad needs of women and girls at the center. In line with the Feminist International Assistance Policy, GAC will ensure multi-sectoral approaches in new initiatives, including those that will be part of Canada’s 10-year commitment to health and rights, as announced by Prime Minister Trudeau on June 4, 2019. | Accountability Framework 1. GAC will integrate multi-sectoral approaches into the accountability framework of the 10-year, $1.4B global health commitment. | DMFM in consultation with all programming branches | April 2020 |
| Programming Guidance 2. GAC will develop health and nutrition programming guidance to assist officers in uniformly assessing project plans and proposals for key priorities, including adolescent health needs, multi-sectoral approaches and sustainability. | MFM | April 2020 | ||
| Programming 3. By the end of the 2020 Investment Plan process, GAC will support health and nutrition projects that take multi-sectoral approaches that address beneficiaries’ needs in a comprehensive manner, and will integrate multi-sectoral approaches into its performance measurement frameworks. | MFM, KFM, WGM, NGM, EGM, OGM | April 2021 | ||
| 4. GAC will integrate a multi-sectoral lens into the health and rights call for proposals for Canadian organizations announced on June 4, 2019. | KFM | April 2020 | ||
| Recommendation 3: Strengthen and modernize corporate reporting systems, including both software and IT systems, which will support all international assistance programming, especially thematic programming like MNCH. This includes: Ensure that staff receive direction from senior management along with technical support on the systematic use of indicators, guidance tools, and compliance with reporting requirements. Ensure that the sequencing of corporate reporting systems is aligned to avoid | GAC agrees with this recommendation. GAC continues to improve reporting guidance and quality of reporting throughout its corporate reporting exercises on Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. The performance and reporting functions in the department are a shared responsibility with SRD, PRD, and DPD, while PVD leads on the ODA Accountability Act report. | 1. GAC will modernize IT systems and tools to better respond to corporate reporting needs. This includes a refresh of existing monitoring and reporting software, and using new software to better capture and reflect information from different systems (e.g. Spectrum). | DPD, SRD,PRD | April 2021 |
| 2. GAC will further enhance the advice and guidance provided on results-based management, including the use of indicators, through new tools, training and guidance at the country-program level. | DPD | April 2021 | ||
| 3. GAC will ensure that corporate reporting requirements and systems are aligned to minimize the burden on staff and support high-quality reporting. | DPD, SRD, PRD, PVD | April 2020 | ||
| 4. GAC will develop health and nutrition results-tracking guidance, tools and training (including standardized indicators) to support project officers and implementing partners in drafting performance measurement frameworks and facilitate results comparison and aggregation. | MFM, DPD | April 2020 | ||
| Recommendation 4: For future health programming, ensure that projects have sufficient time for implementation and the greatest chance to achieve longer-term outcomes by considering project durations of up to ten years, where appropriate. | GAC agrees with this recommendation. When assessing projects, GAC always considers their potential to achieve sustainable, long-term outcomes, as evidenced in due-diligence and project approval documents. In light of Canada’s 10-year commitment to health and rights, as announced by Prime Minister Trudeau on June 4, 2019, GAC will be well positioned to consider longer project timeframes where appropriate. In all projects, GAC will continue to work with implementing partners to develop projects that have the greatest chance to achieve longer-term outcomes. | 1. As part of the Investment Planning process, GAC will work with implementing partners to develop projects that have appropriate timeframes, including projects that are up to 10 years in length. | DPD, MFM, KFM, WGM, NGM, EGM, OGM | April 2021 |
| Recommendation 5: Provide staff with sufficient and timely access to internal technical expertise, particularly health and gender specialists. Access to gender specialists would ensure that project staff have the technical support they need to best respond to policy guidance and emerging requirements including more recent expectations stemming from the Feminist International Assistance Policy. | GAC agrees with this recommendation. MFM has been leading a review of the specialist function based on the findings of the 2016 MNCH audit. In December 2018, DME approved 11 recommendations on specialist service delivery. Chief among them was to establish a specialist coordination function within MFM. This role has been assumed by MFMZ, the Branch’s recently established Business Intelligence Unit, which will lead the implementation of the remaining recommendations. | 1. A small task-team from among the specialists will be nominated to operationalize priority actions to establish a new management structure, standardized service standards, and enhanced career development opportunities for the MFM specialist community over the coming year. | MFM | Completed April 2019 |
| 2. Guidelines will be developed for specialist training, skills retention, expertise development, knowledge management and travel. | MFM | March 2020 | ||
| 3. A branch-wide specialist staffing strategy will be developed. | MFM | March 2020 |
