Outcome ETH_O_5

Effective normative, programmatic and coordination products, services and processes

In 2022, UN Women continued to strengthen its grant-making and partner-selection modalities to support co-created, transformative change. As a result, the key programme staff enhanced its capacities on partner selection procedures. UN Women continued use of systems for partner agreement management as well as enhanced due diligence prior to engagement of partners. UN Women has been instrumental in various UN system wide programme fora including the Humanitarian Country Team, Programme Management Team, UN Senior Management Team and the UN Country Team to ensure its programmes are line with and contributing to the results and goals of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. Operationally, the country office continued to participate in the Operation Management Team forum and the Business Operation Strategy and its initiatives on common shared premises, piloting the common back-office operations. UN Women commissioned an impact assessment of the long-term intervention on prevention and response to violence against women and girls (VAWG)of one of implementation partners, the Association for Women’s Sanctuary and Development (AWSAD), in Oromia region. Overall, the impact assessment registered promising and commendable achievements in relation to providing quality comprehensive rehabilitation and reintegration services, especially in meeting the needs and priorities of survivors of VAWG in Oromia region as well as in terms of wider scalability and program expansion. A key lesson learnt from the impact assessment is on the need to diversify market-oriented skills development programme so that survivors are able to secure jobs relevant to their skills. Further recommendation was suggested to conduct in-depth research on the economic empowerment in prevention and response to VAWG to generate evidence driven data and analysis for future programming and advocacy. UN Women has participated as a case study for an external mid-term assessment was conducted on the global Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) project ‘Women and girls who have experienced/are experiencing GBV or are at risk of GBV benefit from provision of and access to quality services and empowered to increasingly engage in decision making and leadership in GBV response, mitigation and prevention’ in Amhara and Afar regions. Key findings from the assessment indicate on the need for flexibility, agility and adaptability of UN Women and partners to operate in dynamic humanitarian context in the country. Furthermore, the assessment highlighted a need for long-term and holistic approach to capacity building of women’s led organizations to effectively participate in humanitarian action.

Effective normative, programmatic and coordination products, services and processes

UN Women Ethiopia Country Office has played a proactive and collaborative role in the UN System Operations Management Team (OMT) Business Operations Strategy in 2023. This involvement has been pivotal in sharing valuable experiences from UN Women, while simultaneously ensuring that the organization's interests remain a priority. Active participation in the OMT has allowed the CO to gain insights and leverage initiatives across various functional areas such as procurement, information and communications technology (ICT), and finance, particularly through the use of joint Long-Term Agreements (LTAs). Moreover, the ECO has been diligently implementing all corporate systems, including the recently introduced Quantum system. This adoption is a strategic move to enhance compliance and streamline business processes, thereby achieving greater operational efficiency. The ECO’s Operations Unit has continued to provide critical finance services to support program implementation effectively. These services encompass a wide range of functions, including but not limited to, processing payments for goods and services, managing partner advances, conducting account reconciliations and closures, and offering advisory services on financial policies, processes, and procedures. This comprehensive suite of financial services ensures that programmatic activities are underpinned by robust and efficient financial management. In 2023, the UN Women Ethiopia Country Office (ECO) has made substantial progress in its evaluation and strategic planning activities, reflecting a commitment to continuous improvement and impactful programming. UN Women ECO successfully completed the final evaluation of the “Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) & Delivering Essential Services” programme. The validation of this evaluation was meticulously conducted, and the report has been communicated to the ECO. Currently, the team is diligently preparing the Management Response, which is expected to be finalized soon. This evaluation marks a significant step in assessing the effectiveness of the interventions and shaping future strategies. In collaboration with UN Headquarters, UN Women ECO participated in the Feminist Collaborative Evaluation (FCE). The country team was actively involved in data collection and reviewing the final report, which was completed in 2023. The evaluation provided valuable insights, particularly appreciating the SASA and Faith-based Approaches implemented by UN Women ECO as effective methodologies in changing social norms. Lessons from this evaluation, along with insights from other country offices involved in the assessment, will be utilized by the EVAWG and other teams to enhance their approaches. Furthermore, in 2023 UN Women ECO conducted a Mid-Term Review (MTR) of its Strategic Note (SN). The SN MTR employed a range of methodologies, including desk reviews, joint partner situation analyses, self-assessments, and validations with the UN Women Ethiopia Country team.

Effective normative, programmatic and coordination products, services and processes

UN Women actively collaborated with other agencies through UN common premises with UNDP RSC, participation in Operations M anagement Team( OMT) Business Operations Services and its technical working groups including Finance, HACT, Procurement, ICT, HR. The participation in these groups ensured UN Women benefit from UN system wide initiatives. The CO has consistently u sed and followed corporate systems/tools, policies and procedures for compliance and enhanced efficiency in business processes. Quantum system and the Global Services Tracker( GST) have facilitated efficient and continuous service improvement in financial services with the average res olution times for financial services requests for the year at 4.51 days. In 2024, UN Women ECO collaborated with global team on 1 evaluation: feminist collaborative evaluation of un women’s approach to social norms change . The Country office involved in proposal development, data collection and reviewing of the final report for the feminist collaboration evaluation led by UN Women HQ . Also, UN Women Ethiopia office contributed for the final evaluation of the current UNSDCF 2021-2025 led by UN Resident Coordinators Office by techni cally supporting on the evaluation proposal , during data collection & reviewing & adding inputs in the draft evaluation report .