Outcome GEO_O_4

Improved management of financial and human resources in pursuit of results

Ongoing pandemic was still affecting the modality of work of the CO for 2021 year as well, with the CO team continuing working from home, mainly. Despite that, the CO managed not only to maintain effective interaction and coordination during this period, by means of holding regular staff meetings (programme, operations, joint), but also hired number of programme personnel in response to increased programmatic needs, as a result of successful fund-raising activities. One other important development for the CO in 2021 was recruitment of the new Country Representative, who physically joined the CO in late August 2021. Having finalized all recruitments, it was obvious the CO needed larger office premises to accommodate personnel, while complying with the safety requirements in response to the ongoing pandemic. Therefore, as a result of the Open Competition, the CO managed to identify larger office space, sign new Lease Agreement and fully set up the Office space by end of 2021. The expanded team, consisting of number of new employees showed the need in holding live meeting and discussion for the team. Therefore, the two-day retreat was held in April 2021, focusing mainly on the team building and annual planning activities. The retreat was then followed by one-day all staff meeting held in June 2021, discussing format of programmatic work, as well as talking around differences of operational and programmatic interventions. The CO operations team, consisting of programme/project assistants along with the core operations team, held a one-day working meeting in November 2021, focusing on partners reporting, PGAMS tracking, proper review of partners’ supporting documents and GST testing for CO needs, with the last operations retreat, fully dedicated to the year-end closure work held in December 2021. Considering travel restrictions due to the ongoing pandemic, the CO personnel was mainly attending online learning session, webinars and trainings, organized internally by UN Women, as well as by external service providers. The CO maintained 97% compliance with mandatory courses during whole 2021, by means of close monitoring of learning plans of existing employees, as well as by following up with the newly recruited colleagues. The compliance with the ICT standards was maintained at 100% thanks to the clear guidance from the side of HQ ICT, as well as real time support form the local IT service provider company (Solvit). The critical and high-quality support of Solvit plaid pivotal role in smooth transition of the IT infrastructure from an old to the new office premises. The CO continued monitoring of the programmatic implementation by means of regular all staff, as well as programme staff meetings. To have a clear understanding of the delivery status, the Project Delivery Reports were circulated on monthly basis, with the increased frequency closer to the year-end (once a week during December 2021). The CO maintained high quality of the donor reporting, with no overdue financial and narrative reports recorded during 2021. The following represent delivery numbers under Georgia CO recorded as at December 30, 2021: Delivery Rate Utilization Rate Non - Core 96% 99% Core 100% 100%

Nurturing an empowered workforce and advancing an inclusive UN-Women culture

The implementation of this result is on track. The CO managed to come to an end of 2024 with the delivery rate for Regular Resources at 99% and for non-core at over 95%. The CO, as well as UN Women presences in both Armenia and Azerbaijan had zero cyber security incidents during this reporting period, thanks to the up-to-date firewall system in place, as well as due to the full compliance to the corporate ICT standards. The CO managed to identify the new ICT support provider company with the Contract signed in August 2024. The CO maintained compliance with the InfoSec trainings, which became the part of the mandatory course package for the newly hired employees, so as personnel is well aware and prepared to the possible cyber security risks. The CO management regularly participated in the Security Management Teams’ meetings covering not only Georgia, but also Armenia and Azerbaijan presences. UN Women Georgia, as part of the Georgia UNCT contributed to the local Security Budget, covering operations both in the Country, as well as the work in the break-away territory of Abkhazia, Georgia. The deadlines for submitting Safety and Security Surveys for Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan were observed, with the Business Continuity and Crisis Management data regularly updated, following the corporate requirements and deadlines. Keeping in mind the challenges and possible risks associated with the implementation of the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence in Georgia the CO held two all staff planning retreats – one in April and the second one in November of 2024. The team discussed planned activities, as well as implementation status and possible new ways of cooperation with the local Non-Governmental and Civil Society organizations. The year-end Operations Retreat was held in December 2024, where the operations team coordinated closure activities, reviewed new policies around Programme Partner Selection and discussed new online Recruitment Platform functionality. The CO team continues effective collaboration and close communication within its teams in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, which greatly contributes to achieving high-quality programme results.

Nurturing an empowered workforce and advancing an inclusive UN-Women culture

The implementation of this result is on track. With its unique and inclusive culture, UN-Women Georgia CO strives to be an employer of choice with a diverse and highly performing cadre of personnel that embodies UN values. UN Women Georgia CO staff demonstrated the highest job satisfaction in the ECA Regional Office facilitated UN Women Staff Survey 2022 (results disclosed in 2023). Namely, 93 percent is proud to be working for the organization, 90% highly value organizational culture in the CO in terms of teamwork and collaboration, recruitment processes and employee empowerment. 83% is happy with manager relationship, 79% with recognition and reward and 76% with growth and development and continues improvement opportunities. The survey also spelled out areas for improvement for the CO, namely, only 36 % of employees felt that they were able to achieve good work life balance, 43% percent considered the amount of experienced stress acceptable and again 43% thought that UN Women provided flexible solutions for managing work and personal life. (PPT with Georgia results of the survey is attached). All senior and core positions within Georgia CO were occupied throughout 2023. To adequately address increased donor pool, programme posts (3) managing Georgia CO portfolios, comprised of several donors, were upgraded to NOC and NOB levels, with all three recruitments finalized within 2023. The CO held All Staff Retreat early on May 9-11, where the workplan for 2023 and overall position, as well as strategy for the CO development and its capacity to support UN Women non-resident presence in Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as complicated working setup in the breakaway region of Abkhazia were discussed. The Operations Team Retreat was held in 20-22 December, to jointly finalize all mandatory year-end work. The CO continued holding its regular staff meetings, as well as weekly increased operations team meetings throughout 2023. The CO managed to maintain high-quality work, as well as the high delivery rate at around 95% in 2023, despite both external challenges in the form of in-country political turbulence, an ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, severely affecting operations in Abkhazia, Georgia and humanitarian crisis in Armenia, which emerged in the last quarter of 2023.

Nurturing an empowered workforce and advancing an inclusive UN-Women culture

As the 2022 was the year of recovery from the isolation caused by COVID-19 imposed restrictions, the CO maintained flexibility in ensurin the employess had enaogh space and time for the smooth tranistion from 100% working from home modality to going back to the office arrangments: the colleagues enjoyed hybrid working arrngment with no stress attitude for the overall CO work performance remaining at a top-quality level. The CO kept all core and critical programme positions occupied. The human resources requirement, caused by the successful fund raising efforts was met throughout the whole reporting period so the CO was able to perform all activities uninterrupted, with the high level of the delivery (above 90%). Regular all staff and operations meeting, as well as staff working meetings and retreats were held, to maintain clear, transparent communicaton within increasing CO team, to review new corporate pocilicies and guidelines, as well as operational flows, ensuring the CO team is on the same page and adheres to the consistent work practice, inline with the corporate requirements. Despite turbulent economic and political landscape, triggered by Russian-Ukraine war, affecting CO operations in the break away region of Abkhazia, all prpgrammatic activities were finalized in full agreemnet with initial worplan, thanks to very close support and full engagement from the side of the CO management and programme leads.