Evaluation of Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls in the Middle East and Maghreb (2015-16 to 2019-20): Management Response and Action Plan (MRAP)

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Recommendation 1: Increase the focus on enabling the environment to support women’s empowerment.

Programs in the Middle East and the Maghreb should focus more on enabling the environment to support women’s empowerment, considering family, community and institutional structures. This approach should consider: awareness-raising with current partners; seeking innovative and strategic partnerships that target key influencers, including male family and community members; aligning funded projects with political initiatives to fully leverage all diplomatic tools; and implementing the Do No Harm Principle.

Commitments

ESD and ELD agree with this recommendation.

Actions

ESD and ELD will:

  1. Seek opportunities, in consultation with MGS, IRD and others for internal sharing of programming best practices, lessons learned and tools for supporting the enabling environment for women’s empowerment.
  2. Engage with programming partners in information sessions to determine gaps and opportunities in current GE programming and exchange best practices, lessons learned and tools to further support the enabling environment for women’s empowerment in current (where applicable) and future programming.
  3. Organize a minimum total of six advocacy events/campaigns and/or share success stories on social media to illustrate the importance of supporting the enabling environment for women’s empowerment.

ESD commits to the following action items:

  1. ESA in consultation with MGS, IRD and others will map out opportunities for building the enabling environment to support women’s empowerment – including internal and external sharing of programming best practices, lessons learned and tools with partners across country programs; use of awareness and knowledge-building activities in current and future programming including political initiatives led by missions; and mission-driven advocacy, outreach, events, social media and other activities.
  2. Through internal GE due diligence processes, ESA will continue to promote the Do No Harm principle. The importance of GBA+ and risk and mitigation frameworks for ensuring adequate protections are in place for women and girls will be discussed during an upcoming internal GE knowledge sharing workshop for ESA program staff.
  3. ESA will host information sessions to download the findings of the PRA evaluation to partners. Partner sessions will include the exchange of lessons learned, best practices, and tools regarding their respective experiences in promoting the enabling environment to support women’s empowerment, at various levels.
  4. ESA will continue to support specific programming with women’s rights organizations (WROs) which addresses the safety of women and girls at various levels – including support to Women Human Rights Defenders. Lessons learned, linkages and tools between WRO projects and other GAC funded initiatives (development and political) will be promoted though ESA’s Gender Coordination Network.
  5. ESA will host a minimum of four multi-stakeholder event/advocacy initiatives aligned to the ME Strategy to advance the rights and empowerment of women.
    • Working with development and CFLI implementing partners, as well as civil society organizations, AMMAN/BERUT/BGHDD/ERBIL will make additional efforts to highlight, through  social media, success stories that illustrate the importance of enabling the environment for women’s empowerment.
  6. ESA will enhance reporting on the enabling environment during the next annual reporting cycle.
    • AMMAN will continue leading the GE Network of all its development partners – a platform for knowledge sharing and coordination – to further promote the importance of, and share good practices about, the enabling environment to support women’s empowerment. This Network will continue offering awareness sessions and sharing useful tools with its members about good practices in monitoring & evaluation as well as reporting on gender equality results.
    • BERUT will continue leading the gender donor coordination group in Lebanon to advance the gender equality agenda through policy dialogue and advocacy. BERUT will continue lobbying diligently with Government and developmental actors for proper gender mainstreaming in the design and implementation of programming and for improved data collection, analysis and reporting on gender, especially within the “Lebanon Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Framework,” that has been set up in response to the Beirut Explosion.
    • AMMAN/BERUT/BGHDD/ERBIL will work to ensure work already being done in the context of CFLI is captured in the annual reporting either directly at missions or through CFLI/Strategia reporting mechanisms.

ELD commits to the following action items:

  1. In response to PRA’s recommendation, ELA/RMLAH have scheduled a meeting with UN Women’s Men and Women for Gender Equality (MWGE) programme in the MENA. The purpose of this meeting will be to leverage the expertise and best practices of MWGE within the Palestinian context.
  2. Following this meeting, ELA/RMLAH will meet to discuss the lessons learned and how it can be applied to current and future programming.
  3. ELA/RMLAH will develop an action plan to ensure the successful completion of its MRAP activities. In this process, ELA/RMLAH will review current programming in order to pinpoint projects with successful and innovative approaches and where gaps exist.
  4. ELA/RMLAH will develop an action plan to engage with partners to share the results of the evaluation and open discussions on strengthening the projects to further support the enabling environment for women’s economic empowerment.
  5. RMLAH will continue ongoing discussions with the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Women Affairs (MOWA) regarding the possibility of supporting the MOWA by leveraging the Field Support Services Project to recruit a Policy Advisor. This support aims to strengthen the capacity of the MOWA in mainstreaming gender in the government polices and procedures, as well as in improving the enabling environment.
  6. ELB will share the outcomes of the evaluation results with implementing partners in Morocco and Egypt to increase awareness and request that they adjust when possible their approaches in order to increase focus on the enabling environment.
  7. ELB will organize social media events/campaigns in Morocco and Egypt on women’s empowerment for International Women Day.
  8. ELB will identify and share good practices and lessons learned to create an enabling environment in ongoing and future programming in support of women’s empowerment.
  9. ELB will raise the issue of an enabling environment to support women’s empowerment with key partners and influencers in diverse fora.

Responsibility centre

Implementers:

ESD/ESA/AMMAN/BERUT/BGHDD/ERBIL
ELD/ELA/RMLAH
ELD/ELB/RABAT/TUNIS/CAIRO

Consulted:

IRD
MGS

Completion date

  1. Mar 31, 2022
  2. Mar 31, 2022
  3. Mar 31, 2022
  1. May 31, 2021
  2. Mar 31, 2021
  3. June 30, 2021
  4. Mar 31, 2022
  5. Mar 31, 2022
  6. Next annual reporting cycle
  7. Feb 3, 2021
  8. Feb 26, 2021
  9. June 30, 2021
  10. Sept 30, 2021
  11. Dec 31, 2021
  12. May 31, 2021
  13. Mar 31, 2021
  14. Mar 31, 2022
  15. Mar 31, 2022

Recommendation 2: Coordinate efforts for increased accessibility of gender equality resources across MGS, IRD, and KGAI.

MGS, in collaboration with IRD and KGAI, should work to develop a plan to ensure that staff responsible for GE commitments across the international assistance envelope have increased awareness of, and easy access to, comprehensive and updated guidance and information on gender equality relevant to all aspects of their work.

Commitments

MGS, IRD and KGAI agree with this recommendation and will develop a plan to ensure increased awareness of and better access to GE resources

Actions

Since the evaluation has been carried out, MGS has increased accessibility of GE resources (through Tip sheets, trainings, Guidance notes, and information sessions) across GAC/international assistance staff and partners.

MGS, in collaboration with IRD and KGAI, will:

  1. Identify the main gaps to be filled and the best practices with regards to the accessibility of GE resources (including trainings) to GAC/international assistance staff. This will involve consultation with relevant divisions across GAC/international assistance.
  2. Establish a plan to address the identified gaps while building on existing best practices.
  3. Implement the plan of action.

Responsibility centre

Implementers:

Lead implementer: MGS
Supported by: IRD and KGAI

Consulted:

ESA

Completion date

  1. September 30, 2021
  2. December 30, 2021
  3. Ongoing from January 2022

Recommendation 3: Collect empowerment data using women-focused, participatory methods.

Programs in the Middle East and the Maghreb should encourage partners to collect empowerment data using women-focused, participatory methods, to better report on outcomes that complement existing output level reporting. The Empowerment Measurement Tool developed for this evaluation is one example of a participatory data collection approach.

Commitments

ESD and ELD agree with this recommendation.

Actions

ESD and ELD will:

  1. Seek guidance from MGS and ELC on best methods, approaches and tools for measuring, data collection and reporting on women’s empowerment.
  2. Explore opportunities with partners, including through workshops/trainings, reporting sessions, etc. to identify and/or strengthen data collection methods on women’s empowerment and incorporate women-focused participatory methods into current (where applicable) and future programming.

ESD commits to the following action items:

  1. A series of GE knowledge-building workshops for ESA program staff are ongoing with two more planned. Workshops aim to promote a better understanding of the multi-dimensional complexities of women’s empowerment.
  2. ESA in consultation with MGS and ELC will engage with partners to identify data collection methods on women’s empowerment, measurement and reporting tools/systems emphasizing participatory methods and will build this into program design, including where possible as an initiative selection criterion.
  3. ESA will continue to host reporting sessions with programming partners for enhanced capturing/measuring and reporting on women’s empowerment.
  4. ESA will report on results related to women’s empowerment drawn from participatory approaches.

ELD commits to the following action items:

  1. Leveraging the 3rd National Violence Survey in the Palestinian society (funded through the Haya Project), ELA/RMLAH will discuss with UNW and other partners how to utilize the survey results in producing evidence-based research and policy papers.
  2. In preparation for the next reporting periods, ELA/RMLAH will engage with partners to determine where gaps may exist in projects’ Performance Measurement Frameworks (PMF) and the feasibility of using the Empowerment Measurement Tool to collect data for current (and potentially new) indicators for future reporting.
  3. ELA/RMLAH will support the Local Gender Advisor (RMLAH) in acquainting herself with the Empowerment Measurement Tool. The Local Gender Advisor will provide coaching and training to partners on how to use the tool in their projects and activities.
  4. In relation to the process of conducting a mid-term evaluation for the Haya Project in 2021, ELA/RMLAH will discuss with the evaluators the possibility of using the Empowerment Measurement Tool to collect data from women and beneficiaries to further enrich the participatory and evidence-based evaluation.
  5. ELB will request implementing partners to document gender empowerment outcomes in their annual reports to be able to evaluate the level of impact of our programming.
  6. ELB will encourage partners to use the Empowerment Measurement Tool in their projects.

Responsibility centre

Implementers:

ESD/ESA/AMMAN/BERUT/BGHDD/ERBIL
ELD/ELA/RMLAH
ELD/ELB/RABAT/TUNIS/CAIRO
ELC

Consulted:

IRD
MGS
DPO

Completion date

  1. Mar 31, 2022
  2. Mar 31, 2022
  1. Mar 31, 2021
  2. June 30, 2021
  3. June 30, 2021
  4. Next annual reporting cycle
  5. June 30, 2021
  6. Engagement: Dec 31, 2022
    Use of the tool: Jan 30, 2022
    Inclusion in reporting: Apr 30, 2022
  7. Dec 31, 2021
  8. Dec 31, 2021
  9. June 30, 2021
  10. June 30, 2021
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