Outcome AFG_O_1

Drive more effective and efficient UN system coordination and strategic partnerships

UN Women continued to convene and facilitate various platforms in driving effective and efficient UN system coordination and strategic partnerships, In specific terms: Despite an unprecedented Humanitarian, political, economic and women’s rights crisis, UN Women ACO succeeded in both strengthening its existing partnerships and expanding its donor’s portfolio. Over 8 million USD were raised in the last 4 months from new donors either through direct and bilateral agreements or through joint contribution to the Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan. Strong internal coordination and leverage of UNW internal partnerships expertise at country, regional and HQ levels. The ACO partnerships team has closely coordinated with partnerships focal points in RO and HQ to provide regular update on the partnership’s needs, discuss potential engagement opportunities to leverage (e.g. annual consultations with major donors at HQ), and align on best practices In addition, all ongoing partnerships were confirmed and two of them will be increased in 2022. The GiHA WG has leveraged its influence in the humanitarian coordination system, consistently promoting gender equality and the participation and empowerment of women, girls, men and boys of all diversities in the cross-sectoral humanitarian response, though capacity building initiatives, the development of tools and guidance notes and produced gender data. In particular, the GiHA WG, provide substantive feedback and gender analysis to key strategic documents, such as the Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) and the Interim protection Strategy (IPS). Additionally, in August 2021, the GiHA WG became a member of the Humanitarian Access Working Group and is since then has actively contributed to discussions on women staff humanitarian access and raised incidents reported by GiHA WG members. In 2021, UN Women became the new co-lead of the sub-group on Feedback and Response Mechanism and remains an active member of the AAP WG, Protection Cluster and GBVSC and has regularly attended their meetings and provided inputs to their strategic documents. UN Women also co-lead the Permanent Secretariat of the Women, Peace and Security Working Group, to ensure that the results of its programming lead to tangible gains in the lives of women and girls across Afghanistan, from the local and provincial to the national level, including and especially during this period of COVID 19 and under the Taliban rule, post mid-August. UN Women also convenes the Gender Donor Coordination Group that aim at providing a broad range of existing and prospective donors with an update on women’s rights status in Afghanistan and on UN Women’s adjusted programming in Afghanistan. The first ever WEE National Working Group was also established during this reporting period in close coordination with the Ministry of Women Affairs. Following the abolishment of MoWA under the de Facto authority, no further progress has been made with this working group. UN Women also continued to convene regular coordination meeting with UNAMA and has hosted /convened several rounds of consultations in a form of ‘Virtual Policy Spaces’ after Taliban take over on sanctions with Afghan women leaders and activist inside and outside the country. ‘Virtual Policy Spaces’ were held in the lead-up to the renewal of the mandate of the Monitoring and Sanctions Committee for Afghanistan in late Q4 with an aim to inform Sanction Committee on opinions and recommendations on renewal, partial renewal of full lifting of the sanctions and their respective consequences on women on the ground. UN Women was heavily engaged in the finalization of the UNSDCF (2022 - 2025) with the other UN agencies through the PMT and UNCT. With the changed context following the fall of the government, the UNCT initiated development of a Transitional Engagement Framework (TEF) to which UN Women fully participated to ensure gender is a priority and mainstreamed especially in the posed humanitarian context and new regime where the rights and the needs of women and girls is still contested.

Drive more effective and efficient UN system coordination and strategic partnerships

UN Women continued to convene and facilitate various platforms in driving effective and efficient UN system coordination and strategic partnerships, In specific terms UN Women ACO: § Co-chairs Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group (GiHA WG) coordination/clusters and WGs coordination: UN Women co-leads with IRC the Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group. GiHA WG continues to actively participate in Inter-Cluster Coordination Team (ICCT) to strengthen joint analysis and planning on the Humanitarian Cycle Planning process. GiHA WG provide inputs into two assessments that are core planning documents for the Humanitarian Response Plan, including the Whole of Afghanistan Assessment (WoAA) and the Seasonal Food Security Assessment (SFSA). GiHA WG continues to provide technical support to humanitarian clusters in placing women and girls at the center of their response, including in the context of the earthquake in Paktika and Khost that happened on 22 June 2022 through producing gender updates to inform the humanitarian response. § Provided Strategic and Technical Support to the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT): o Women Advisory Group : UN Women spearheaded the formation of a nine-member Afghan women advisory group to advise the HCT on how to better respond to the needs of women and girls and provide advice to improve the humanitarian community’s engagement with the Taliban at the central (Kabul) and local/provincial levels. WAG provide technical support to the Afghan WAG to the UN Humanitarian Country Team (HCT). § Chairs Gender Theme Group (GTG) : UN Women as the Chair of the Gender Working Group (renamed to Gender Theme Group in 2022) , in close collaboration with RCO and UNAMA, played a pivotal role reviving the UNCT Gender coordination mechanism since the Taliban siege of power in mid-August 2021. The Terms of Reference was updated, and gender action plan developed. § Co-chair of newly established Gender and Human Rights Strategic Thematic Working Group (G&HR STWG) in 2022. The G&HR STWG is a multi-stakeholder platform that aims to enhance coordination across the women’s rights programming and advocacy in Afghanistan and subsequently define sectorial work around the Joint Strategic Framework for Afghanistan Coordination Group. It brings together key donors and partners, elevates Afghan women’s voices, and represents an opportunity to position UN Women as the first partner on women’s rights in the country. This working group has replaced the Gender Donors Coordination Group to which UN Women was also co-chairing. § In partnership with UNHCR, co-led the Protection and Social Cohesion Technical Coordination Group established in the development of TEF . UN Women active participation and engagement contributed to the inclusion of a standalone result on gender equality in the UN Transitional Engagement Framework (TEF) for 2022. §In collaboration with UN Women Headquarters, strategically leveraged its participation in the Special Trust Fund for Afghanistan (STFA) to foster effective and efficient UN system coordination on gender equality and women's empowerment . The STFA is a Multi-Partner Trust Fund bringing together 17 participating UN agencies and funds, that enables donors to channel their funding towards the implementation of the Area-Based Approach for Development Emergency Initiatives Strategy. Through UN Women's advocacy, the STFA integrated Gender Equality Marker targets, currently set at the minimum of 15 per cent of funds going to interventions with gender equality/women’s empowerment as their primary purpose, within the fund's core document. UN Women's representation in Fund meetings - both at technical working level, and in high-level Steering Committee and Advisory Board meetings - furthermore drives a collaborative engagement on gender equality and women's empowerment programming principles across participating UN agencies.