Outcome SLE_O_3

Advancing business transformation

Among others, UN Women’s mandate is to lead and promote coordination on gender equality and women’s empowerment. In other to enhance the visibility of APPWA, the Country Office supported three meetings to coordinate organisations working on women’s political participation, including; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), SEND Sierra Leone, National Democratic Institute (NDI), the 50/50 Group, TROCAIRE, European Union (EU), ECSL, AMNET Sierra Leone, and PPRC. With UN Women support, APPWA Strategic Plan 2022-2026 was developed and launched. APPWA engaged the PPRC in three meetings as part of the roll out of the strategic plan to advocate for more women on Political parties’ nomination lists to thElectoral Commission. During these meeting, UN Women took leadership in coordinating organizations’ activities, focused on gender, across the country. The technical working on Women Political Participation formed and engaged political parties on increasing women’s political participation before, during and after.

Advancing business transformation

The CO transformed it business modality by effective planning, strategic partnership and focusing on best practice and lession learnt from other country offices, resource mobilise and allocate resources appropriately to create impact for women and girls. A good example is leveraging from CORE resources to empower rural women with tools and strengthened their capacity which led to improved yields.

To institutionalize a strong culture of results-based management, reporting, knowledge management and evaluation

The Country office summitted quarterly reports on a timely basis. In addition the Country office contributed t report for the UNDAF through the results group

UN-Women strategically plans for and transforms its business model to deliver impact at scale, through agile and ethical leadership rooted in a continuous improvement culture

he Country Office (CO) concludes its first year of Strategic Note implementation in 2025, marking a foundational period of learning, adaptation, and strategic alignment. Building on these insights, the CO has developed its first-ever bi-annual work plan (2026–2027) to drive the full operationalization of the Strategic Note. This milestone represents a deliberate shift toward stronger planning discipline, enhanced implementation coherence, and reinforced accountability systems. The new work plan converts the multi-year Strategic Note into a focused, two-year change pathway, articulating priority interventions, expected outcomes, resource allocations, and key performance indicators that collectively strengthen the CO’s ability to deliver transformative results. Looking ahead, the CO is positioning itself for a more intentional, results-driven, and adaptive implementation approach. Programming will be anchored in alignment with corporate priorities and national development frameworks, while also integrating lessons from the first year of delivery. However, progress will continue to unfold within a complex socio-political and economic environment characterized by entrenched patriarchy, persistent poverty, institutional fragility, and constrained resources. These structural barriers create significant risks but also clarify strategic entry points for accelerating gender equality and women’s empowerment. Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG) The EVAWG portfolio faces ongoing systemic limitations, including insufficient long-term government investment, uneven enforcement of existing policies, and weak interagency coordination. Persistent service delivery gaps and the need for survivor-centered approaches reveal critical opportunities for transformative capacity strengthening among frontline professionals and for catalyzing cross-sectoral institutional reform. Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Women’s economic participation continues to be threatened by pervasive informality, the impacts of climate change, and an escalating care burden. Yet these risks also highlight strategic openings to drive inclusive economic transformation, including expanding women’s access to land and productive resources, unlocking gender-responsive financing, and promoting resilient, climate-smart livelihoods particularly for rural women who remain at the margins of economic decision-making. Women, Peace, Security, and Humanitarian Action (WPS-HA) Heightened intercommunal tensions, political contestations, and risks of electoral violence underscore the urgency of strengthening the WPS-HA agenda. These challenges reinforce the need for inclusive peacebuilding mechanisms, gender-responsive early warning systems, and conflict-sensitive programming that elevates women as active agents of peace and resilience. Women’s Leadership and Governance Structural barriers ranging from urban rural disparities and restricted mobility to limited financing and entrenched socio-cultural norms continue to impede women’s participation in leadership and decision-making spaces. At the same time, these constraints offer strategic opportunities to expand leadership pipelines, invest in mentorship and peer-support networks, and drive policy reforms that enable women’s effective advocacy, representation, and career progression across sectors.