Outcome RD_O_3

A culture of results based management and evaluation is institutionalized to deliver, report and share GEWE results in Kenya

Improved culture of accountability and result-based management at UN Women KCO in 2021, proven by KCO being suggested to be lifted from Tier II to Tier I in reporting by ESAR consultant in October 2021, by requests received from other UN Women country offices in the region to support them in innovative M&E best practices, by increased donor confidence and revived donor relations contributing to e.g. Italy committing to multi-year funding after the joint monitoring mission and expected high quality new Strategic Note by UN Women Kenya responding to the revived donor relations.

A culture of results based management and evaluation is institutionalized to deliver, report and share GEWE results in Kenya

High quality, results-oriented reports and an increased sharing of lessons across thematic areas indicate that UN Women KCO and its staff now has an improved understanding and capacity of results-based management. This has also been acknowledged by donors. In 2022, KCO continued the efforts to build knowledge and skills both internally and externally (implementing partners) on how to plan, monitor and report in an RBM- oriented manner. In addition, the Office put in place efficient structures and improved guidance and tools. Specifically, The M&E team was enhanced from two staff to five during the year. Due to this increased capacity, KCO now has one M&E focal point per thematic area, as well as one overarching M&E specialist that is responsible for overall review/QA and support. This structure has helped improve collaboration with programme and IP staff. It also enables the focal point to keep track of progress and challenges, and to provide continuous support and capacity building through coaching and mentoring . An analysis was carried out in August/September to review the current ‘RBM status’ in the Office, identify strengths and weaknesses and develop an action plan . As part of the recommendations, an RBM training for all KCO staff (programme, operations, communications and M&E) was held in Oct . The aim was to ensure that everyone have the same basic understanding and to enhance skills in identified ‘weak areas’ such as: planning (root cause analysis, outcome/outputs/indicators, TOCs), monitoring, results-based budgeting and reporting). Over 90% of the staff attended, and based on pre and post assessments, it is evident that knowledge had increased. The assessment also helped identify further areas where colleagues wish to receive training. To increase cross-country learning, KCO invited six colleagues from four other COs (Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan) as well as an ESAR M&E colleague to joint. IPs received continuous targeted training by M&E focal points as well as through an induction training . As a new praxis, KCO sits down with all new partners to go over TOC, results framework etc. This helps ensure compliance with requirements and understanding. Four donor missions were made to the field, to follow up on progress, meet with IPs/beneficiaries . KCO develops monitoring mission reports that are shared with everyone, recommendations are consolidated and shared and the M&E team presents findings and recommendations during Programme and Operation meetings. Lessons learned from evaluations/assessments and consolidations with stakeholders were used to feed into the development of the Strategic Plan 2023-2026 . The SN is fully aligned with the UNSDCF and UN Women SP. SN indicators will be incorporated into new prodocs going forward. Several evaluations/reports were conducted, and their findings/recommendations used to feed into programme design/decision-making: the Difference in Difference impact baseline study for the KOICA project, Joint Devolution Programme MTR, UNCT-SWAP Gender Scorecard Assessment. KCO also supported the corporate evaluation on Women Economic Empowerment, and the national KNAP MTR. Several tools and templates were developed to support KCO/IPs: monitoring guidance, simplified reporting templates and data collection tools. All are being piloted and will be finalized 2023. The reporting Roadmap continued to help KCO submit reports on time. Results harvesting workshop held with IP technical staff in November. Discussions on results, data gaps, challenges, and cross-thematic learning. This was the second-year pilot. KCO will continue organizing similar reflections/ results harvesting meetings with partners in 2023. KCO contributed with gender knowledge within UNCT Kenya : development of results areas and indicators for UNSCDF, as well as metadata analysis, gender data analysis and collaboration with KNBS to ensure data availability and collection going forward. KCO also organized a Gender Marker training, contributed to UNDAF financial and narrative reporting, and raised awareness on gender responsive RBM through UNSDCF outcome/MEL groups. Evidence include examples of templates, BTOR and assessments for training, donor feedback on report, evaluations etc Key lessons include: - Efforts to build and improve RBM/M&E capacities, tools and practices must be targeted, continuous and reviewed/updated based on feedback. - KCO needs to continue striving towards increasing the usage and lessons sharing across thematic areas. - More time needs to be spent with partners, and reflection meetings (internally and externally) should be prioritized.