Region:Asia Pacific
Current UN Women Plan Period Afghanisthan:2018-2022
World Bank Income Classification:Low Income
The World Bank classifies economies for analytical purposes into four income groups: low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high income. For this purpose it uses gross national income (GNI) per capita data in U.S. dollars, converted from local currency using the World Bank Atlas method, which is applied to smooth exchange rate fluctuations.
Least Developed Country:Yes
Since 1971, the United Nations has recognized LDCs as a category of States that are deemed highly disadvantaged in their development process, for structural, historical and also geographical reasons. Three criteria are used: per capita income, human assets, and economic vulnerability.
Gender Inequality Index:0.575
GII is a composite metric of gender inequality using three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market. A low GII value indicates low inequality between women and men, and vice-versa.
Gender Development Index:0.723
GDI measures gender inequalities in achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: health, education, and command over economic resources.
Population:209,497,025
Source of population data: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects: The 2022 Revision
Male:19,976,265 (9.5%)
Female:189,520,760 (90.5%)
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ZAF_D_3.3
An enabling environment for the implementation of WPS commitment is created in South Africa (including on ending VAWG)
The governments of South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho Botswana and eSwatini are making greater efforts towards implementation of the WPS Agenda. UN Women partnership with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the United Nations Development Programme, Regional Service Centre for Africa (UNDP-RSCA) to host and facilitate the member state and regional consultations on the WPS Agenda respectively, succeeded in influencing countries in the region to commit to accelerating implementation of the Agenda. Namibia is finalizing the Gender Policy for the security sector whilst Botswana has expressed interest in developing a WPS NAP. Lesotho with support from UN Women is developing their first generation WPS NAP in 2023 whilst South Africa has committed to accelerating implementation of its National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security. The MCO in partnership with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) in South Africa through convening the NAP Task team which includes government and civil society to assess progress on the implementation of the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security contributed to increasing urgency towards implementation of the WPS NAP. Recommendations from the workshop included that the country needed a Conflict Management Strategy especially on the backdrop of the July 2021 unrest as well as floods in KZN earlier in 2022. The need to sensitize various departments at Director Generals and Deputy-Director General levels as well as members of parliament to familiarise them on the WPS NAP was highlighted as a strategy to accelerate implementation. This work is set to be done in 2023. Further, following the success of the SADC regional member state consultations on WPS, MCO and SADC agreed to host the mediation training of member states and non-state actors. The mediation training conducted in late September with about 70 participants - 40 state actors and 30 non-state participants enhanced the capacity of women mediators (both state and non–state actors) in conflict prevention and mediation to prevent and manage social and political intra and inter-state conflicts in their countries.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ZAF_D_6.1
Gender equality tools and skills to monitor and measure progress on global commitments under the normative framework
For tracking progress on the implementation of CSW resolution 60/2 on "Women, the Girl Child and HIV/AIDS" UN Women SAMCO supported the elaboration of the reporting tool (shared with the countries) as well as the GROM (Gender Responsive Oversight model) developped jointly with UN agencies (UNAIDS, UNFPA, UN Women) as well SADC Parliamentary forum, as an accountability tool to hold governments accountable in implementing resolution 60/2.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ZAF_O_1
Enhanced coordination, coherence and accountability of the UN system for commitments to GEWE
Guidance and technical support was provided on mainstreaming gender in the UNSDCF for Botswana, and development and validation of the UNCT Gender Action Plans in Eswatini, Lesotho and Botswana. The narrative progress report and evidence are attached.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ZAF_O_2
Increased engagement of partners in support of UN Women's mandate
In 2022 partners supported UN Women's mandate financially and non-financially. Private sector partners, such as tMTN and ABSA, provided financial support to the Women's Economic Empowerment and Ending Violence Against Women programs. Our traditional donor the Irish Government and UK also financially supported the EVAW programme, GEF and Women Empowerment programmes to be implemented in 2022. Non-financial partners; Nokia provided non-financial support through the Action for Employment program targeting young vulnerable girls from informal settlements. by Nokia; and Facebook Africa (Meta) continued supporting the #SheMeansBusiness Digital Marketing Programme across several South African provinces. SAMCO continued to leverage Women Empowerment Principles (WEPS) www.weps.org and Unstereotype Alliance www.unstereotypealliance.org to engage private sector to support GEWE within their organisations and CSI programmes. The engagements have also served to challenge signatories to go beyond just financially supporting GEWE to elevating issues of gender equality within their companies. By Qtr4 cumulative signatories was at 117 with strategy to focus more on Stock Exchange listed companies for 2023.The WEPs engagements have also served to challenge signatories to go beyond just financially supporting GEWE to elevating issues of gender equality within their companies. The Loeries Mentorship Program (an Ally member of the Unstereotype Alliance) provided a structured platform to ensure skills transfer to help young advertising professionals navigate a career path in advertising. Nine of the 15 candidates selected to participate in the program were from South Africa. Partnerships with implementing partners continued to be strengthened to ensure GEWE is amplified directly and indirectly with their ongoing work. In collaboration with government and civil society earnstly GEF gained momentum to commence the localisation of the Action Coalitions since the 2021 GE Forum. A draft strategy developed by government and stakeholders is being finalised. A communication strategy is being finalised to support effective partnership building and resource mobilisation. A Communiction Analyst onboarded in 2022 Qtr4. Partnership with UNCT was strenghtened to identify joint programming and advocacy work across programmes. One of the notable collaboration was around the #BreakTheBias campaign and competition targetting young people to commemorate national women's month. https://southafrica.un.org/en/190781-breakthebias-photo-and-video-competition UNCT collaboration in supporting the Presidential GBVF Summit was successful: https://gbvf.org.za/summit-updates https://twitter.com/AletaFMiller/status/1587440992050769921
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ZAF_O_4
Improved management of financial and HR in pursuit of results
SAMCO conducted two audits during this period (partner audits and internal audit). In preparation on the partner audit, Operations conducted audit preparation and spots checks which assisted in reconciliation of partner ageing accounts in particular both ledgers for UNW and partner. This resulted in the 4 partner audits being unqualified. Lessons learnt from this exercise were the following: (a) Reinforcing confidence between UNW and the partners; (b) Early detection of erroneously reporting and postings. (c) Strengthened audit preparations and guidance (d) Post audit follow up on recommendations from the management report. (e) Areas that need to be strengthened in management of the partner agreement and reporting (f) UNW to organise a workshop for partners on orientation of partner agreements and reporting The Internal Audit was conducted over a two-week period, where Programmatic and Operational business processed were reviewed. Overall, the audit indicated that governance arrangements, risk management practices and controls were generally established and functioning, but need some improvement. The Identified improvement areas were: (a) Defining the Strategic Note Roadmap for SAMCO and its office typology. (b) Strenthen Programme Management and Report, which also includes donor reporting. (c) Effective utilisation of UNW system for reporting (d) Key positions are recruited to address capacity issues (e) Strengthened Operational Effectives in Human Resources and Procurement (f) Identify a diverse pool of partners for a competitive solicitation (g) Improved BCCMA and security compliance (h) Effective risk management reporting and compliance Overall, 23 audit recommendations were identified for the office to address through the audit action plan. Management developed a roadmap in address these recommendations with timeframes and focal persons. From October 2022 to date, 12 action plan recommendations have been reviewed and are awaiting final approval by IAS.Showing 6 - 10 of 11
Disclaimer and notes
The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).