Regional Gender Community of Practice Meeting Yerevan, 17-18 October, 2007

1. Regional Gender Community of Practice MeetingYerevan, 17-18 October, 2007 Erika Kvapilova, Programme Specialist, UNIFEM CEE Office Bratislava

2. Outline of the presentation • Changing environment • New aid modalities • UN reform • UNIFEMs Strategic Plan 2008-2011 • Overall framework • Results framework • Complementarities with UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF • Management framework/ managing for results • Monitoring and evaluation

3. Dynamics of the environment • the changes in the development assistance worldwide and in the CEE/CIS region in particular (new EU financial instruments, new donors…) • UN reform, including discussions about a new UN “gender entity”

4. New Aid Modalities • Paris Declaration (2005) summarizes the principles and indicators on new aid effectiveness agreed by the OECD-DAC donors and developing countries • Ownership • Alignment • Harmonization • Results • Mutual accountability

5. Paris Declaration does not include explicitly any measures to promote gender equality or human rights standards • UNIFEM Discussion Paper (2006) Promoting Gender Equality in New Aid Modalities and Partnerships – concerns about the PD key pillars, but also identified some opportunities • http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/PromotingGenderEqualityInNewAidModalities_eng.pdf

6. EC/UN Partnership on Gender Equality for Development and Peace (UNIFEM, EC, ILO/ITC) Aimed at: obtaining knowledge on how coordination mechanisms at national level are aiding/ hindering gender equality; challenges/ opportunities for promoting GE in the aid effectiveness agenda; capacity building needs; strategic entry points

7. - support national consultations/ mapping on gender and aid effectiveness in 12 pilot countries (CEE/CIS: Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan) • resource materials, including a website and an on-line help desk on gender and aid effectiveness • expand capacity of gender advocates to advocate for gender in the 2008 Ghana High-level Forum on Aid Effectiveness

8. A UN reform process/ a new gender entity? • Recommendation of the High Level Panel report on a System-wide coherence “Delivering as One” (2006) to establish one UN entity focused on gender equality and women empowerment • Intergovernmental debate: support from some countries (Scandinavian), ambiguity from others (G-77), initial resistance from India, USA, Russia…

9. During the discussion members states can take steps to strengthen existing work, including by supporting the UNIFEM Strategic Plan 2008-2011 • A Concept Note on supporting a new “hybrid” gender entity submitted to the President of the GA in August 2007 by the Secretariat (prepared in consultation with DSG’s Interagency Task Force) as a follow up of HLP report recommendations http://www.un.org/ga/president/61/letters/SDOC1599.pdf

10. Within the UN steps are being taken to address a request for a stronger architecture (seeking agreement on performance indicators on GE for UNCTs; many UN agencies striving to achieve greater coherence between the normative and operational functions; UN TF in Support to EVAW – an interagency effort administered by UNIFEM)

11. UNIFEM Strategic Plan 2008-11

12. The Executive Board of UNDP/ UNFPA on its Second Regular Session (September 10-14, 2007) endorsed the strategic priorities and results set out in the UNIFEM Strategic Plan for 2008-2011 and authorized its implementation

13. Framework for UNIFEM SP 08-11 • national ownership and country programming (sustainability) • capacity building for a country to strengthen implementation of CEDAW • cooperation and coordination among UN agencies (gender equality and women’s empowerment is responsibility of each UN agency, but needs a driver)

14. Development Results Framework Goal/ impact: National commitments to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment implemented in stable and fragile states Outcomes 1- 4: Legal/ policyframeworks Engendering national development strategies; laws and policies; formal and informal justice systems; budgets and budget procedures; Outcomes 5-7: institutional frameworks (policy and service institutions, media) Strengthening capacity of institutions and gender equality advocates/ organizations/ networks, including those representing the most vulnerable groups of women (HIV/AIDS, migrant women…) Outcome 8: Replicable models Supporting community based initiatives

15. Complementarities with UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF • Supporting NAPs on gender equality • Mainstreaming gender into National Development Strategies (including support to generate and use sex segregated data) • Coordinated support for protection from violence, poverty, HIV/AIDS and environmental degradation

16. Gender responsive approach to governance • Joint initiatives I support of maternal and child health • Multidimensional approach to enhancing and improving girls’ education

17. UNIFEM’s management for results in a UN reform process • Strengthened partnership with UN organizations • UNIFEM as a key driver in strengthening coordination among UN agencies in support of gender equality • UNIFEM’s coordination support results in increased commitment and resources for gender equality and women’s empowerment

18. Joint programming enhances impact on gender equality support • UNCTs use tools and knowledge generated by UNIFEM (and others) to enhance support for gender equality and women’s empowerment

19. Monitoring and evaluation Monitoring and reporting - to align with UNFPA and UNDP • maintain reporting to CC and other bodies Evaluation • align with the UN Evaluation Group • strengthen impact evaluation • offer support to countries and UN on gender responsive, rights based evaluation