Outcome FIJ_O_1

Enhanced co-ordination, coherence and accountability of the UN system for commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment

It is through UN Women’s leadership within the UN system and interagency architecture where strong synergies are achieved among UN Women’s composite mandate of normative support, UN system coordination, and operational activities. UN Women is an active member of the UN Country Team and plays key roles in several other interagency groups, including Co-chairing the Outcome Group 2: Gender Equality (OG2) and Chairing the Operations Management Team (OMT). Further, UN Women actively takes part in the UNPS Coordination Group at the Deputy level, in the Data, Monitoring and Evaluation group (DMEG), in the UN Communications Group, and in each of the other 5 UNPS Outcome Groups. This comprehensive support and coverage help to ensure that the UNPS in mainstreamed in practice. UN Women also provides executive secretariat services to Outcome Group 2 through a full-time coordinator. This designated support provides a key role to guide and support the group functioning and allows for increased opportunities for joint initiatives and programming. The group jointly supports the development of Joint Country Action Plans for all 14 PICTs, human rights treaty reporting, UN observations days, UN staff capacity building initiatives. In 2021, the OG2 supported gender mainstreaming in the development of the UNSDCF, primarily with the strengthening of gender mainstreaming in the 14 country CCAs and 1 Regional Multi-Country Analysis and in identifying gender priorities and key messages to take into the strategic prioritization exercise scheduled for early 2022. Gender coordination through the OG2 has supported normative achievements in the UN system as well. In 2021, the OG2 worked to implement and monitor the action plan of the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard. Furthermore, the OG2 routinely coordinates inputs to the UNCT Confidential Reports to CEDAW, although no PICTs were scheduled to report in 2021. Finally, UN Women leads the Operations Management Team of the Fiji UNCT covering 10 countries. This advances the SG’s reform process towards common operations – and gender mainstreaming into procurement is included in this.

Enhanced co-ordination, coherence and accountability of the UN system for commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment

In 2022, coordination, coherence and accountability of the UN system for commitments to gender equality and women's empowerment were enhanced as a result of the Fiji MCO's work across the UN in the Pacific. 2022 was the fifth and final year of the UN Pacific Strategy (UNPS), which had a dedicated gender outcome with gender mainstreamed throughout all other outcomes. UN Women actively engaged in the UNPS interagency architecture to ensure that gender mainstreaming in the strategy continued in practice including as co-Chair with UNFPA of the Outcome Group 2: Gender Equality (OG2). UN Women is also represented on all UNPS outcome groups and interagency groups to ensure that gender is mainstreamed across the strategy. The Fiji MCO and the OG2 with UN Women as Co-Chair, actively and strategically engaged in the development process for the Pacific UNSDCF (2023-2027). The Fiji MCO was an active member of both the UNPS Evaluation Steering Committee and the Cooperation Framework Taskforce, which provided guidance across the UNSDCF development process. With the support of a technical consultant, the Fiji MCO ensured gender mainstreaming across the 14 CCAs and Regional CMCA. Advocacy for a gender standalone outcome in the CF was strengthened as a result of strategic key messaged developed by the OG2 during focus group discussions. Outputs from the focus group discussion were used in the strategic prioritization exercise in 2022 to ensure a standalone gender equality outcome in the next UNSDCF, but ultimately this was not agreed by the UNCT. Despite this setback, there was strong advocacy for the establishment of a Gender Theme Group (GTG) to be part of the UNSDCF management architecture, which was agreed by the UNCT in Q3. The GTG is Co-Chaired by UN Women and UNFPA and has membership from 12 UN agencies and the 3 RCOs. Its TOR and AWP are under development and will be finalized in early 2023. In 2022, the Fiji MCO and OG2 have supported implementation of the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard action plan. This comprehensive gender assessment was undertaken in 2020 and was the first time the exercise had been conducted in the Pacific using the UNCT-SWAP Scorecard methodology launched in 2018, providing key baseline data for all indicators against minimum requirements established by the UNSDG. The Interagency Team that supported the Scorecard rollout in 2020 identified 6 priority actions in the Action Plan, including gender mainstreaming in the CCA development, UNSDCF and results frameworks, as well as strengthening the Data, Monitoring and Evaluation Group. Work to address these priority actions were the focus in 2022. Additionally, the OG2 worked with the OMT and UN Communications Group to strengthen gender mainstreaming in their respective work and empower the groups to action the respective priorities in the action plan. The OG2 continued to build capacity of UN staff in the Pacific by collaborating with the Outcome Group 6: Human Rights to organize and host a virtual workshop that focused on the Human Rights Based Approach and Gender Equality to support gender and human rights mainstreaming in the UN system in the Pacific. This workshop was open to all UN staff but targeted RCO staff, including Country Coordination Specialists, and UN field-based staff who are engaged in UNSDCF planning, implementation, M&E and reporting.