Outcome BRB_O_5

Increased engagement of partners in support of UN-Women’s mandate

There were 94 media mentions of UN Women, Representative, or MCO Projects up to the end of the Q 4 compared to 144 media mentions in the same quarter for 202 2 . The media pick up was a result of MCO-issued press releases, engagement of the media to cover signature programme launches, 16 Days actions and other activities. In addition the MCO's continued strategy to consult with in country partners to curate key media to invite to events or issue releases as well as joining with key partners for interviews contributed to the media mentions. UN Women's implementation of its EU-UN Spotlight pillars dominated the last quarter with the focus on close milestone activities and programme closure events. UN Women MCO-Caribbean has successfully taken advantage of the new digital space in recent years: with over 13,700 followers across Facebook [9,153], Twitter [1,521] and Instagram [3,123]. The MCO maps its strategic partners' presence on social media to take advantage of creating content, tagging them and benefitting from their reposts. The MCO's main social media platform, Facebook demonstrates that the audience is primarily women 75.20% and men 24.80% and primarily drawn from Caribbean countries which implies we are meeting Caribbean needs for contextually relevant material.

Increased engagement of partners in support of UN-Women’s mandate

The MCO Caribbean seeks to increase engagement of partners through a communications and advocacy multi-pronged approach. This includes advocacy and visibility events, leveraging the purpose and reach of its social media platforms, engaging and allowing key personalities/leaders to drive the messages and reach and via the external traditional and non-traditional channels. Integrated in this approach are key partnerships for joint execution of events and other visibility actions and leveraging partners/key stakeholders’ reach. This is guided by the MCO Caribbean 2022-23 Communications and digital media strategy. There were 144 media mentions of UN Women, Representative, or MCO Projcts up to the end of the Q 4 compared to 69 media mentions in the same quarter for 2021 , owing to MCO-issued press releases, engagement of the media to cover signature programme launches, 16 Days actions and other activities, including by our media compact partner LOOP news. Social media saw growth across the year on the platforms. 36 KPs produced. Percentage increase in the number of unique visitors to UN Women MCO Caribbean website https://caribbean.unwomen.org/en increase of 16.18% or 39,156 vs 33,702, (2022 vs 2021). The year prior there was an increase of 12.42% unique visitors to the site. Main traffic sources were from Google searches Google (92.33% of total) led the way with a 9.78% increase (24,166 up from 22,013), followed by Bing (5.62%) which had a 5.75% increase (1,472 up from 1,392), and less than 1% numbers from Baidu, Yahoo, Ecosia, Duckduckgo, etc. Referrals dropped overall by -41.54% (1,302 down from 2,227). Visitor traffic to Caribbean Women Count Portal https://caribbeanwomencount.unwomen.org/ remained static with USA led visits but with a drop of -24.90% (395 down from 526), followed by Trinidad and Tobago (18.16%) with an increase of 13.20% (343 up from 303), then Barbados (9.11%) which had a drop of 23.56% (172 down from 225), then Jamaica (8.31%) with an increase of 37.72% (157 up from 114), and the UK (4.13%) with a drop of -22.77 (78 down from 101). Searches were led by Google (93.30%) dropping from 1,718 down to 1,072, then Bing (3.39%). Direct visits dropped slightly from 704 down to 666. Facebook : 8,985 followers 23% growth over 2021. Audience profile – Men 24.40%; Women75.60% Instagram – 2437 followers 47.5% growth over 2021 Twitter – 1428 followers or 33% growth

Increased engagement of partners in support of UN-Women’s mandate

There were 139 media mentions at the end of Quarter 4 2024, compared to 94 (32% +) at the end of Q3. Targeted media placement of Op-Eds for International Days of Observance, coordinated media interviews to coincide with missions, and press releases issued for the key moments of the MCO’s joint projects/programmes led to this increased pick up. In country partner support for placement of press releases is an important support as well and notable is the pick up in the Bahamas and Bermuda where UN funding for programming was made available for the first time with the SDG Fund Joint Project Building Back Equal supporting MSMEs – majority of which were women led. Through leveraging our UN System coordination mandate and UN Women MCO Caribbean efforts, the Caribbean Regional Gender Theme Group (RGTG) was established. The RGTG was established in response to the limitations encountered in demonstrating progress of the UNCTs in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) results as per the UNCT-SWAP Gender Scorecard and in the implementation of the MSDCF at a regional level. Further, since the MSCDF is regional in scope and it is common practice that most UN agencies collaborate with governments, civil society, the private sector, and other partners to deliver on the Multi-Country Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (MSCDF), it was proposed that the establishment of the RGTG was an appropriate solution to the existing challenges. The Caribbean RGTG comprises representatives from several UN agencies namely The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS ( UNAIDS), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Environment Programme- Caribbean Sub-Regional Office (UNEP-CSRO), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme (WFP), International Organization for Migration (IOM), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), MSDCF Regional Steering Committee Chair/UN RCO-Trinidad & Tobago, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten and the MSDCF Regional Programme Management Team/UN RCO Barbados/OECS. It is material to note that the Regional Steering Committee of the MSDCF on which all Resident Coordinators sit, oversees the RGTG. Also, further to a meeting of the RSC during the reporting period, it was decided that all UNCTs with existing National Gender Theme Groups or mechanisms shall retain such but must ensure a representative from the National group or mechanism sits on the Caribbean RGTG. To date, two UNCTs, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica have GTGs. In December 2024, the first meeting of the Caribbean RGTG was convened by UN Women MCO Caribbean. The agenda of this meeting was to sensitize representatives about the Caribbean RGTG and commence the process of reviewing the Terms of Reference for the Group towards finalization. Feedback received on the draft ToR will be reviewed in early 2025. Engagement among youth and youth groups was foundational in 2024 efforts, and the MCO supported national efforts to mobilise and activate Caribbean youth ahead of the Summit of the Future. The MCO supported the National Youth Dialogue on the Summit of the Future on 9 August 2024 in Belize which brought together a cross section of over 100 stakeholders including diverse young Belizeans from across the country through academia and youth organizations, with policy and decision makers from the Government and the UN System. Similarly, the MCO also supported a National Youth Dialogue on the Summit of the Future in Jamaica for students and youth leaders, including persons in rural communities, across the Diaspora as well as those with disabilities, to engage with policy and decision-makers from the Government and UN system, to help craft and present their vision for the future to national and global leaders. In Grenada, the MCO also continued its support of the Young Women in Leadership (YWIL) programme, and supported a training to strengthen the capacity of 31 young women on the importance and the benefits of applying a gender lens in decision making and in the assessment of national issues and crafting gender-sensitive solutions to ensure inclusive actions and decisions. The young women went on to participate in an all-woman Parliamentary Sittings in the Houses of Parliament, representing the first all-women sittings in the country’s history.

Increased engagement of partners in support of UN-Women’s mandate

MCO continued to collaborate with partners in support of the agency's triple mandate. Partnerships with government, particularly on women's economic empowerment (care ecomomy), EVAW, WPS and Emergency Response; non-traditional partners and private sector through engagement on the WEPS; and UN System through joint programming and charing of 3 GTGs.