Outcome ECA_D_1.4

The UN System demonstrates greater accountability to advance progress on GEWE across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.

The outcome has been fully achieved as ECARO had significant results in 2022 through its coordination mandate in accelerating UN system wide progress towards gender equality across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.?From a humanitarian perspective, there is increased awareness about the needs and priorities of refugee women and girls fleeing the war in Ukraine as a result of the establishment of a stand-alone gender mechanism under the UNHCR-led regional refugee response and availability of gender analysis and expertise. The needs of women and girls were discussed and prioritized within the humanitarian response only two weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during a targeted discussion with the regional UN system initiated and led by UN Women in collaboration with the regional Issue-based Coalition on Large Movements of People, Displacement and Resilience (IBC- LMPDR) chaired by IOM, UNDP and UNHCR. The meeting helped to generate support for the establishment of a Regional Gender Task Force (RGTF) chaired by UN Women and CARE International under the Regional Refugee Coordination Forum. Comprised of more than 70 members from nearly 40 organisations including UN agencies, international NGOs and CSO networks, the RGTF provided?technical support, guidance, and capacity development knowledge to other refugee/humanitarian actors in other countries. The evidence-based analysis of gender in the regional response to the war produced by the RFTF, increased understanding of gender and other social aspects and trends across the region. Its main findings have informed further actions to improve gender responsiveness of the humanitarian assistance and it is being used to advocate for increased funding for women-led organizations who are at the forefront of providing humanitarian assistance and further recovery in refugee host countries.? Through the pooled expertise of 15 UN entities at the regional and country level,?the Regional Issue-based Coalition?on Gender Equality (co-chaired by UN Women and UNFPA) achieved the following results: ? UN agencies, international civil society organizations and national actors increased awareness about the gendered implications of the war in Ukraine and successful advocacy for a stand-alone gender mechanism under the regional refugee response coordination forum. Increased regionalization of commitments through the convening of a multi-stakeholder platform to advance progress on Generation Equality (Action Coalition Five on Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality. ? Joint advocacy on key policies and interventions for increasing women’s access and rights to resources, services and opportunities and eliminating barriers, particularly for rural women and girls through collaboration with the Issue-based Coalition on Sustainable Food Systems to co-organize the Third Food Systems Talk within the framework of International Day of Rural Women. A strong gender focus throughout the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development through the organization of two side events focused on SDG 5 on The Gendered Impact of COVID-19 on Refugees and Migrants and Building Back Better and Dismantling discriminatory social norms to progress on the SDGs . Additionally, the Gender Equality Marker (GEM) became an important tool for UN Country Teams (UNCTs) for tracking financial allocations to advance their national GEWE agendas. Over 100 UN staff members from Türkiye , Azerbaijan, Albania, Belarus, Bosnia, Armenia and Serbia strengthened their capacity on objective coding of GEM with practical examples from their respective Joint Work Plans through tailor made trainings offered by UN Women in 2022. Based on the progress made to date, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome remain applicable.

The UN System demonstrates greater accountability to advance progress on GEWE across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.

The UN System demonstrated greater accountability in advancing progress on GEWE in ECA region across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, supported by collaborative efforts within the Regional Collaborative Platform for Europe and Central Asia (RCP-ECA), the Issue-Based Coalition on Gender Equality (IBC-GE), the Regional Gender Task Force (RGTF), and other inter-agency coordination mechanisms. These platforms addressed pressing gender equality issues through regular meetings and inter-agency activities aligned with their respective workplans, promoting coordinated and impactful action on GEWE. Key achievements include: - Creation of an enabling environment at the country level for mainstreaming GEWE in the new generation of CCAs and Cooperation Frameworks under development in 2024. This was achieved through timely, tailored capacity-building responses to UNCT requests, coordinated via the IBC-GE (co-chaired by ECARO) in close collaboration with other UN entities. These efforts enhanced UNCTs’ understanding of practical GEWE application in strategic planning, awareness of UN system standards, and effective use of tools such as the UNCT-SWAP and the Gender Equality Marker (GEM). - Continued co-leadership of the Regional Gender Task Force under the Ukraine Situation Refugee Coordination Forum with OXFAM International. The forum, attended by over 20 organizations, including UN entities and local and international NGOs, addressed gender equality issues affecting refugees in Ukraine’s neighbouring countries. Building on previous successes and ECARO’s ongoing support, 94 percent of UNCTs in the ECA region reported under the UNCT SWAP scorecard in 2024 (only one country not participating, due to specific country circumstances). UN Women ECARO supported SWAP reporting and standards, including GEM application through participatory online training under the IBC-GE, engaging over 200 participants across all UNCTs in the region. In 2024, eight UNCTs reported on the revised UNCT-SWAP indicator for GEM application, enhancing transparency and accountability in resourcing GEWE as a cross-cutting issue. Capacity-building initiatives also focused on integrating and tracking GEWE financing. Supporting UNCTs in meeting UN standards for GEWE integration in CCAs and Cooperation Frameworks was a priority in 2024, including through ECARO's active engagement in the regional Peer Support Group and bilateral assistance provided to UN Women country colleagues and UNCTs. These accomplishments position the ECA region to deliver on key coordination results and prorities, including the Secretary-General's Gender Equality Acceleration Plan and the new QCPR, in 2025.

The UN System demonstrates greater accountability to advance progress on GEWE across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.

Throughout the Strategic Note period, UN Women ECARO reinforced UN system readiness to deliver gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) results across the Europe and Central Asia region, thereby strengthening the UN’s collective contribution to SDG 5 by measurably enhancing UN system capacity, coherence and accountability. ECARO provided sustained policy, technical and coordination support to Resident Coordinators, UN Country Teams (UNCTs), Gender Theme Groups and UN Women country presences, contributing to improved integration of GEWE in Common Country Analyses and new-generation Cooperation Frameworks (CF) in all requesting countries. Capacity-building on UN system standards and tools reached all UNCTs through regional online trainings and was complemented by targeted in-country or tailored support in nine countries (Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Türkiye, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan), including on the application of the 2024 updated UNSDG Gender Equality Marker (GEM) Guidance Note. ECARO’s leadership within regional coordination mechanisms, particularly the Regional Collaborative Platform (RCP), Peer Support Group (PSG) and the Issue-Based Coalition on Gender Equality (IBC-GE) co-chaired with UNFPA enabled coherent UN system messaging, joint analytical products and coordinated advocacy, including inter-agency guidance and publications addressing gender equality backlash and the differentiated impacts of COVID-19 on refugee and migrant women and girls. These efforts translated into strong accountability results where the ECA region remained among the highest performing regions under the UNCT-SWAP, with reporting participation increasing from 88 per cent in 2022 to 100 per cent in 2023 and 2025, and performance improving across all indicators that remained comparable following the 2023 guidance update. In 2025, ECARO’s leadership, coordination, and technical support on UN norms, standards, and frameworks for gender equality and women’s empowerment led to greater accountability and joint results across the UN system, advancing progress for women and girls in the region. ECARO led dedicated discussions with regional leaders on GEWE trends and consistently identified opportunities for joint UN engagement, ensuring gender equality was systematically integrated into intergovernmental processes and UN initiatives at both regional and country levels. Leveraging its coordination mandate, ECARO engaged actively in the RCP, PSG, and convened senior UN agency leadership, ensuring gender equality remained central to the UN system’s efforts in the region, in line with the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan (GEAP). Partnerships, coordination, and synergies with key sister agencies were strengthened through ECARO’s investments in undertaking mapping initiatives, conducting structured dialogues, organizing joint missions and meetings with donors, developing knowledge products, and conceptualizing joint programmes. The IBC-GE, co-chaired by ECARO and UNFPA, provided inter-agency policy and technical support on gender mainstreaming in response to UNCT requests, facilitated broad and coherent UN system engagement in the SDG 5 Roundtable at the RFSD , and developed improved tools for RCs and UNCTs to support coordinated UN responses to pushback on gender equality, drawing on analyses and lessons learned from ECARO and other IBC member agencies, as well as guidance developed under the GEAP. UNCTs developing new Cooperation Frameworks enhanced their gender analysis and articulated strategic results and concrete actions to advance the rights of women and girls in CCAs and CFs as a result of technical support on GEWE integration provided by ECARO through its participation in the PSG, trainings, and responses to requests for policy or technical guidance. UNCT commitment to accountability and progress on GEWE was demonstrated by 100% compliance in reporting under the UNCT SWAP, with ECARO providing institutional messaging and guidance to elevate ambition based on the GEAP, capacity building on UNCT-SWAP processes and specific indicators (including CCA, CF, Gender Parity Strategies, and GEM) to GTGs, and quality assurance of all submitted reports. ECARO also contributed to system-wide evaluations and the development of UN System GEAP guidance, ensuring that ECA GEWE coordination and accountability challenges and good practices inform the future direction of UN reform.

The UN System demonstrates greater accountability to advance progress on GEWE across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.

UN Women ECA RO made strong progress towards achieving this outcome on greater accountability in the UN System to advance progress on GEWE. The Regional Collaborative Platform for Europe and Central Asia (RCP-ECA), the Issue-based coalition on Gender Equality (IBC-GE), and the Regional Gender Task Force (RGTF) continue to tackle gender equality during the regular meetings. A few of these platform’s results include: The targeted advocacy messages delivered by women parliamentarians, UN Women, UNFPA and UNDP with the national partners led critical thinking on designing and effectively implementation of Special Measures and quotas for women political participation. The II Global Forum of Interparliamentary Cooperation discussed the issues of strengthening interparliamentary cooperation to achieve the SDGs, eliminate discriminations and violence against women politicians. Hosted by Uzbekistan, on November 30 and brings the heads of parliaments from China, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and others. Gender perspective are more present in the regional analysis (2023 MSNA Regional Analysis, 2023 Rapid Gender Analysis, Poland Protection Analysis), podcast series , joint statement as a result of UN Women’s joint work and partnership within the Regional Gender Task Force (RGTF) and regular engagement in Regional Information Management Working Group Meetings, Humanity Hub, CARE and the Ukraine GiHA Working Group, Moldova Gender Task Force under the Refugee Coordination Forum, Regional GBV Working Group, and the Regional Anti-Trafficking Task Force. National Authorities from Poland and Slovakia demonstrating an initial and good commitment to addressing gender issues throughout the humanitarian response. L ocalized Gender in Humanitarian Action Accountability Frameworks (GAF [1] ), identify that the Polish and Slovak response are between a range of fully met 14%- 22 % and partially met of 50% of the GAF criteria. The results of the identified compliances will inform 2024 Refugee Response Planning efforts, as well as feed into global monitoring efforts the collaboration between UN Women and UNHCR in 2023 in both countries has led to the identification of areas of improvement and some of the recommendations regarding gender mainstreaming in the refugee response have already been taken into account in the 2024 RRP processes. Eighty percent (80%) of UNCTs in ECA regions meet/exceed the minimum requirements of the United Nations Country Team System-wide Action Plan (UNCT-SWAP) Gender Equality scorecard performance indicators for the last two years (2022-2023), compared to 55 per cent in 2019.. According to a global revision of the UNCT reports the number of UNCTs that meet/exceed the financial targets for allocations to GEWE doubled in the last 3 years. All UNCTs from ECA region are applying Gender Equality Markers (GEM) to UN joint work plans at country levels to track GEWE allocations, and more carried capacity building events on how to integrate and track financing. UN Women ECA RO supported training sessions for UNCTs representatives (total 80 person -70 women and 10 men) from Albania, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan which bring the UNCT performances from “approaching minimum requirements” to ‘meets minimum requirements “ of the UNCT SWAP performance indicator ( 6.1). UN system colleagues, Resident Coordinators, and UNCTs in the ECA region have access to advise on how to respond to the growing movement opposing gender equality and human rights principles through the guidance provided in “ Key Messages on Gender Equality Pushbacks for the UN System in ECA Region . ” The regional Issue-based Coalition, co-chaired by UN Women and UNFPA, engaged in a comprehensive preparation process to craft this document. RCs, RCOs, Gender Theme Groups and leading academics, practitioners and activists met to discuss, raise awareness and identify joint advocacy measures needed to tackle increased gender equality pushbacks across the region. ECA RO maintain the same TOC with some adjustments at outcome levels, following the mid-term revision of the ongoing strategic note, as part of the bi-annual work planning process for the 2024. This will allow to ensure greater focus on increasing UN Women’s role as a members of regional coordination mechanisms and on increasing inter-agency mechanism capacities to integrate GEWE perspectives. [1] The global GAF tool was adapted to the Polish and Slovak contexts and includes a total of 28 criteria.