outcome XM-DAC-41146-ALB_O_4

Nurturing an empowered workforce and advancing an inclusive UN-Women culture

This output was achieved in 2023 in all the set indicators. While personnel engage in different initiatives, they feel valued for the work they do, and that was evidenced in the results of the global staff survey. The workforce experienced an inclusive culture and positive and innovative work environment as this office continued to advance the nurturing of an empowered workforce. The workforce prioritized their growth, as UN Women encouraged personnel to enroll in online trainings and development programs run by UN Staff College, UN Women Training Center, ECARO trainings etc. All identified courses were included in the CO Learning Plan for 2023, which was updated throughout the year with additional courses selected by colleagues in close consultation with the supervisors. The office remained 100% compliant with the completion of the UN Women mandatory learning courses, including the new course on UN Women Information Security Essentials. Overall, despite ongoing challenges related to current country typology set up, existing personnel have high capacities and have ensured successful delivery of results. A testimony to that is the delivery and utilization rate for non-core and core resources, ranking the office amongst the highest performing offices in the region. Throughout 2023 senior management have exemplified inclusive leadership as a key driver of cultural change, supporting all team building and work-life balance initiatives. For the latter, an interoffice memo was issued by management in early 2023, in support of personnel’s requests for using FWA whenever needed, even on regular basis, but no more than 2 working days per week. 100% compliance with the Performance Development Plans and assessments for the previous year is another indicator of CO efforts to monitor performance, enhance staff empowerment, recognize achievements and dedication to the mandate, as well as discuss areas of improvement and refine performance goals for future work. Staff meetings have also been used by the CO as forums to familiarize personnel with new developments, new programmatic interventions, projects in the pipelines and discussions with donors, programmatic and operational priorities etc. In 2023 the CO was 100% compliant with other indicators, while progress was made towards indicators of UNDIS accountability framework, as UN Women led the training for Organisations of Persons with Disabilities on the UN recruitment processes. Completion of the UN Women mandatory learning courses Performance management and development Year-end certification on Prohibited Conduct

outcome XM-DAC-41146-ALB_O_5

Effective normative, programmatic and coordination products, services and processes

This output was fully achieved in 2023. The Gender and Thematic Results Group (GTRG), chaired by UN Women Country Representative, completed over 90% of planned activities during 2023. The group successfully carried out the following initiatives: The UN Joint Programme Screening Tool was featured in the compendium of GTG best practices as a regional and global best practice for the implementation of the criteria for UNCT SWAP indicator 2.1 on UN Joint Programming. UN Albania applied the tool to a newly developed UN Joint Programme “SDG 4 Business”, which encouraged increased gender equality consideration at the design stage of the UN JP 69 UN Personnel (8 men and 61 women) from 10 UN Agencies increased their capacities on gender responsive monitoring and evaluation, gender data and gender-responsive communication and unconscious bias. 33 personnel also benefitted from a GEM and HR marker training conducted online. All trainings were organized by UN Women with support of other agencies (RC Office and UNFPA); UN conducted stronger joint advocacy efforts were carried out aiming to amend the gender equality law and promoting women’s political participation at the local level ; Around 45 CEDAW Concluding Observations (63%) were aligned with the recommendations put forward by the UNCT in its confidential report and relevant updates. The Government of Albania engaged in a mock session organized in October 2023 and a number of follow-up socialization sessions have already taken place to disseminate the Concluding Observations with various stakeholders, such as the donor community, media and the Gender Equality Council; UN increased visibility of EVAW thanks to joint advocacy efforts during key campaigns including the 16 days of activism on ending violence against women and girls. In terms of evaluation, the final evaluation of the UN Joint Programme Ending Violence Against Women in Albania (2019-2022) was rated ‘very good’ in the GATE system, and the County Office continued to engage in key evaluation processes such as the evaluation of the Joint Programme on Municipal Social Protection and the regional programme “Implementing Norms, Changing Minds”. The CO also benefitted from corporate evaluation, including the corporate evaluation on UN Women contribution to capacity development of partners to respond to the needs of women and girls at national level. The findings and recommendations of these evaluation are instrumental for programme design and implementation and are already being taken into account in UN Women’s programming. The delivery rate was 93%, based on the latest delivery reports as of December 2023. The Country office continues its resource mobilization efforts including through strategic dialogue with donors, with the aim to secure funding for the Strategic Note. Sida is amongst the main donor countries targeted by the CO and a concept note was submitted in October 2023 for consideration by the Swedish Embassy in Tirana. Overall, the theory of change for this OEEF output remains relevant for the CO. .