Outcome ALB_O_5

Effective normative, programmatic and coordination products, services and processes

Achieved. The Albania Country Office invested in knowledge products and services to achieve impact at scale, adapting its offerings in close collaboration with the UN Country Team to address national realities and priorities. A notable example is the technical assistance provided to the Ombudsperson’s office for establishing the Observatory on Femicide and publishing of the Report on the Killing of Women and Femicide in Albania (2021-2023). This initiative has equipped Albania with the capacity and tools to monitor extreme cases of violence against women, advance accountability, enhance protection mechanisms, and provide regular independent evidence on the impact of government policies addressing gender-based violence. This initiative was implemented under the United Nations Joint Programme “Ending Violence Against Women in Albania, Phase II,” funded by the Government of Sweden. Another example is the work of the Gender and Thematic Results Group (GTRG), chaired by the UN Women Country Representative. GTRG completed over 90% of planned activities during 2024. Among other achievements, the GTRG made significant contributions to implementing normative commitments on gender equality. The group led UN Albania's engagement in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), 4th cycle, developing a dedicated UNCT submission shared with the UPR in April 2024. Approximately one-third of the recommendations from the UPR session focused on gender equality. 90% of the recommendations included in the UNCT submission, were considered in the final recommendations issued by the . Additionally, the GTRG supported the development and implementation of a dedicated Government of Albania CEDAW Implementation Roadmap to address the 2023 CEDAW Committee Concluding Observations for Albania. The roadmap includes actions such as reviewing the Gender Equality Law, providing technical support, and promoting multi-stakeholder consultations. The amended law is currently being costed and will be posted for public consultations in Q1 2025. The GTRG also reviewed and provided comments on the Criminal Code, Reproductive Health Law, and the Strategy for Employment Safety, aiming to increase gender mainstreaming and gender equality considerations across these policies and programmes. UN Women in Albania has also invested in standardized programmatic approaches, leveraging direct funding to its Strategic Note. Since March 2024, UN Women Albania has received fully flexible Strategic Note Direct Funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. This financing modality has allowed the organization to scale up and expand its footprint across all aspects of its triple mandate, increasing and sustaining human resources capacities, and testing innovative approaches in implementing its programme. Approximately 10% of non-core funding was directly applied towards the Strategic Note.

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. .

Effective normative, programmatic and coordination products, services and processes

The Gender and Thematic Resutl Group (GTRG), chaired by UN Women Country Representative, was praised as the best thematic and result group in UN Albania by the UNCT. Initiaitves completed in 2022 by the GTRG include: - The development and roll-out of the Joint Programme Screenign Tool for Gender Equality; - The succesful development and finalization of a gender equality capacity and learning needs assessment for UN personnel, followed by the development of a capacity development plan which is being implemented for the whole duration of the Cooperation Framework; - The development of targeted advocacy pieces on gender equality, on the topic of climate change and the environment; - The development of the UNCT Shadow report to the CEDAW Committee and subsequent interagency engagement with the CEDAW List of Issues that was circulated in March 2022, including through dedicated discussions at the GTRG retreat on how to leverage the List of Issues for advocacy for gender equality; - Joint advocacy efforts during key campaigns including the 16 days of activism on ending violence against women and girls through a dedicated university tour that engaged approximately 200 students. In terms of evaluation, the Country Portfolio Evaluation and its management response were 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 Ending Violence Against Women in Albania, Phase I. the findings of that evaluation were instrumental for the development of a second phase of the programme, which will be led by UN Women and implemented jointly with UNDP and UNFPA. The delivery rate of non-core resources was 93%, based on the revised CO budget of 31st October 2022. The Country office continues its resource mobilization efforts includign 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.