Gender Mainstreaming Initiative in the oPt Phase IV … · Gender Mainstreaming Initiative in the oPt ... Ministry of Planning and Administrative ... itself within the LACS to act

Gender Mainstreaming Initiative in the oPt – Phase IV

Final Report

to the Government of Iceland November 2011 – December 2013

2 Gender Mainstreaming Initiative in the oPt, Phase IV (project # 81392), Annual Report to the Government of Iceland, November 2011 – December 2013

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................... 4

I. Purpose and Progress ...................................................................................................... 9

II. Key Partnerships ............................................................................................................ 15

III. Results. .......................................................................................................................... 17

IV. Challenges and Lessons Learned .................................................................................. 28

V. Financial Report ............................................................................................................. 29

Annexes

A. Memorandum of Understanding between UN Women and Ministry of Women’s Affairs

B. Letter of Agreement between UN Women and Ministry of Women’s Affairs

C. ToR for the Situation Analysis Report of Palestinian Women- “Building Ties”.

D. The agreement with Birzeit University /Institute for Women Studies.

E. Building Ties Report.

F. Gender Survey of the Local Aid Coordination Structure

G. ToR for the Programme Specialist : Coordination and Aid Effectiveness, based at MoWA

H. Turin workshop report “Mainstreaming gender equality in UNDAF programming in the oPt: A practical workshop for the UN Gender Task Force”

I. Terms of Reference of the United Nations Inter-agency Gender Task Force in the occupied Palestinian territory

J. Gender Focal Point: Guidebook for Action

K. Advocacy Paper - WATC

L. Open Day Event report

M. ToR for the CSAG


Acronyms and Abbreviations CA Comprehensive Analysis

CSAG Civil Society Advisory Group

CSNGS Cross- Sectoral National Gender Strategy

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

GFP Gender focal points

GTF Gender Task Force

GWG Gender Working Group

HCT Humanitarian Country Team

ILO International Labour Organization

LACS Local Aid Coordination Structure

LDF Local Development Forum

MoA Ministry of Agriculture

MoPAD Ministry of Planning and Administrative Development

MoWA Ministry of Women’s Affairs

NDP National Development Plan

NGO Non-governmental organization

OCHA Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

oPt occupied Palestinian territory

PA Palestinian Authority

PCBS Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics

PNP Palestinian National Plan

UNCT United Nations Country Team

UNDAF United Nations Development Assistance Framework

UNDP United Nations Development Program

UNEP United Nations Environment Programme

UN-GTF United Nations-Gender Task Force

UN Habitat United Nations Human Settlements Programme

UNOPS United Nations Office for Project Service

UNRWA United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

WFP World Food Programme


Executive Summary

The project of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), Gender Mainstreaming Initiative in the oPt, Phase IV (project # 81392), was generously funded by the Government of Iceland. The project’s activities were carried out by UN Women under the harmonised operational modalities established in response to the General Assembly Resolution A/RES/56/201, Triennial policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system.

The funding agreement between UN Women and the Government of Iceland was signed in November 2011(donor reference #130), after which UN Women promptly started the implementation of actions as per the agreement. Under this agreement, the Government of Iceland has generously contributed the amount of US$ 197,497.92 for the 18 month project which started 30 November, 2011 through 31 May 2013, but was later extended on a no-cost basis until 31 December, 2013.

This Final report covers the implementation period of 30 November 2011 to 31 December 2013.

The overall development goal of the project is to strengthen action on gender equality and women’s empowerment across the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations system of development cooperation, through three main outcomes: 1) Strengthened capacity and accountability of Palestinian Authority to implement gender equality commitments and address women’s priorities in national planning and budgeting systems. 2) To drive more effective and efficient United Nations system coordination and strategic partnerships on gender equality and women’s empowerment. 3) To institutionalize a strong culture of results-based management, reporting, knowledge management and evaluation. Capacity and accountability development of Palestinian Authority to implement gender equality commitments and address women’s priorities in national planning and budgeting systems: during the project lifespan, cooperation modalities between UN Women and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) to reach the output were clearly defined through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a letter of Agreement (LoA). These documents demonstrated MoWA’s endorsement of the project and concretely engaged the ministry in the implementation of this project through dedicating staff to act as focal points during the implementation phase. In addition, the MoU and LoA have clarified the interventions related to the promotion of the understanding and capacity of gender mainstreaming within the Local Aid Coordination Structure (LACS) and for other line ministries as well, and were instrumental to the increasing the alignment with and the implementation of the Cross-Sectoral National Gender Strategy (CSNGS 2014-2016). A Programme Specialist on Aid Coordination and Planning was hired by UN Women and seconded to MoWA to work closely with MoWA’s General Directorate on Planning and Policies to review the CSNGS for the years 2011-2013 and prepare for the development of following CSNGS covering the years 2014-2016. In addition, the Programme Specialist has been tasked to support MoWA in positioning itself within the LACS to act as the national gender machinery across the different Aid Strategy Groups - part of the LACS structure. The Programme Specialist started his work through liaising with the LACS to enhance MoWA’s role in the aid coordination structure. In addition, to support MoWA’s efforts in advocating for the


implementation of national priorities on gender equality and increase the volume and effective use of aid and domestic resources by means of strengthening the capacity and accountability of donors, PA partners and national stakeholders in the aid coordination mechanism for achieving commitments towards gender equality priorities and women’s empowerment.

An internal team was established in MoWA comprising of the Programme Specialist and MoWA’s Monitoring and Evaluation Unit’s team for the purpose of coordinating for the mid-term review of the CSNGS (2011-2013). The review report was finalized in March 2013 which founded the basis for the development of the following CSNGS (2014-2016) and provided a comprehensive analysis on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment issues (GE/WE). The Ministry of Women Affairs, with the technical assistance of UN Women (through the Programme Specialist), started the review process of the CSNGS 2011-2013 in January 2013. The review process actively engaged the Ministry’s staff and offered a great opportunity to build their capacity on strategy development and review. Three workshops were conducted in March 2013 with the participation of representatives of the government, gender units in line ministries and non-governmental organizations to discuss the methodology for the development of the strategy and assess achievement made thus far in regard to the implementation of the CSNGS. The workshops were the occasion to formulate recommendations for the upcoming strategy development process. Engagement of civil society in the review process was ensured through meetings (7) and interviews with partner organizations, which offered relevant insights and suggestions for the development of the next CSNGS. A local retreat was organized for the Ministry’s staff in March 2013, to prepare them for the upcoming strategic planning process and discuss internal strategic directions for the development of the following CSNGS, facilitate team work and collectively address internal challenging issues and the capacity development needs of MoWA staff.

An agreement was signed on the 6th of September 2012 with MoWA and Birzeit University’s Institute for Women Studies (BU/IWS) to develop the Situation Analysis on Women in Palestine “Building Ties Report” (ToR for the situation analysis is in Annex C and the full report in Annex E). The report’s main objective is to strengthen capacity and accountability of Palestinian Authority to implement gender equality commitments and address women’s priorities in national planning and budgeting systems, and particularly to ensure that the Ministry of Women’s Affairs has the needed tools and capacities to include gender equality issues in the Palestinian Planning Cycle 2014-2016. During the report development, BU/IWS provided on-the-job training and technical support to MoWA for ensuring that its staff have the needed capacities to effectively engage with the national planning teams for the development of sectoral strategies, and most importantly, to have more knowledge and experience on preparing for the next national gender strategy (CSNGS 2014-2016) and articulating the women situation analysis report’s recommendations into the CSNGS and the other sectorial strategies. As per the signed Cooperation Agreement with UN Women (Annex D), the Institute for Women Studies at Birzeit University (IWS/BU) was tasked to develop the Palestinian Women Situation Analysis Report (Building Ties). A first draft was submitted to UN Women and MoWA for review and input in March 2013. In addition with regards to the aim of this assignment, the report aims to tackle the specificities of the Palestinian context with regards to the protracted conflict setting and set the basis for the development of the following Cross-Sectoral National Gender Strategy (2014-2016). Intensive consultations were held with MoWA and UN Women on the structure and content of the report. Two workshops were held with key national partners (GOs, NGOs and CSOs) late March 2013 to present the report and receive feedback and comments from participants. Another workshop was held beginning of April to continue discussions on feedback


from the different parties. UN Women and MoWA have consolidated their written feedback on the report and handed over to IWS/BU to be addressed and incorporated into the final version. Based on these comments and consultations, IWS/BU has reviewed and finalized the report under close management from UN Women side. A donors’ workshop was held in May 2013 at LACS to present the key findings and recommendations of the report. Under the same assignment, and in regards to the provision of on-the-job training and technical support to MoWA’s staff, a set of capacity development sessions were conducted by IWS/BU at the beginning of May 2013 covering all thematic areas/sectors under the Situation Analysis Report. This activity (capacity building to MoWA staff) is also part of the Cooperation Agreement signed between UN Women and IWS/BU on 5 September 2012 and came to an end in 31 May 2013. It is worth noting that the women situation analysis report (Building Ties) provides comprehensive information on women’s situation in different developmental arenas. Following the reporting period, the report was sent to design and printing. It is planned to disseminate it widely among development actors, practitioners, gender specialists and to the large audience and interested parties.

To drive more effective and efficient United Nations system coordination and strategic partnerships on gender equality and women’s empowerment: UN Women, as the lead of the United Nations Inter-Agency Gender Task Force (GTF), organized a three-day training workshop for members of the GTF in Turin, Italy between 10-12 July 2012, in collaboration with the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITC/ILO). This training was the first of its kind, which involved the participation of 14 GTF members and other actors involved in the preparation of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF). Following the workshop, the terms of reference (ToR) for the GTF was presented to the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) and officially approved. The ToR specifies that the Gender Focal Points must receive adequate resources to perform their job. The ToR also states the direct link between the GTF and the UNCT as the decision-making body of the United Nations in the occupied Palestinian territories. By clarifying this link, the GTF’s role was strengthened through its direct accountability to the UNCT.

During the second half of 2012, UN Women’s staff, the GTF and the Gender Working Group composed of MoWA and civil society organizations participated in the UNDAF workshops and thematic group meetings, to ensure that a proper gender analysis was included in the Comprehensive Analysis and in the result matrices. A general Gender Review of the matrices assessing the degree to which they were contributing to promote Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, as well as the extent to which gender was mainstreamed throughout the UNDAF outcomes and outputs was also produced and submitted to the UNDAF task force and to the thematic groups’ coordinators.

During 2012, UN Women have also provided technical assistance to the platform for NGO Working on 1325 for organizing two events related to promoting the implementation of UNSCR 1325.

To institutionalize a strong culture of results-based management, reporting, knowledge management and evaluation: On 1 May 2013, a Monitoring and Reporting Associate was recruited to manage and oversee the implementation of the Fund for Gender Equality programmes in the oPt. The Associate has worked with UN Women oPt’s team to support the development of the overall monitoring framework for the 2014 – 2016 planning cycle included as part of the Strategic Note and the Annual Work Plan.


The Monitoring and Reporting Associate is a member of the UNDAF Monitoring and Evaluation Group, a group established at the country level to act as a forum for exchanging knowledge and information, including on new initiatives, projects, tools, products, activities, and best practices, with the aim of increasing coherence within the UN system and coordination with national structures and systems (e.g. national monitoring system).


Project Title: Gender Mainstreaming Initiative in the oPt (Phase IV)

Project Number: ATLAS 81392 Project Period: 30 November 2011 – 31 May 2013 (no-cost extension was applied until end of December 2013)

Reporting Period: 30 November 2011 – 31 December 2013 Donor Funds: 197,497.92 Country: occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) Executing Agency: UNIFEM, now part of UN Women1 Implementing Partners: Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) Donor: Government of Iceland UN Women Goal: Theme Area 1: Advance gender justice in democratic governance. (UNIFEM Strategic Plan, 2008-2013)

MDG: 3: Promoting Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women

1 As of 01 January 2011, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN

Women) has consolidated the former United Nations Fund for the Development of Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), and the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women. For the purposes of this report, the former UNIFEM will be referred to as UN Women.


I. Purpose and Progress The project of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), Gender Mainstreaming Initiative Phase IV (project 81392), was generously funded by the Government of Iceland. This final report covers the implementation period of 30 November 2011 to 31 December 2013.

The project is aligned with UN Women’s previous work on Gender Mainstreaming in the oPt, which focused amongst other issues on supporting the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) in the development of the Cross-Sectoral National Gender Strategy (CSNGS) 2011-2013, as well as supporting the UN Country Team (UNCT) in the Gender Review of the MTRP 2011-2013. The project was also aligned with UN Women’s future endeavours as stated in its Annual Work Plan under DRF outcome 5.1: Strengthened capacity and accountability of Palestinian Authority to implement gender equality commitments and address women’s priorities in national planning and budgeting systems, MRF 1: To drive more effective and efficient United Nations system coordination and strategic partnerships on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and MRF 2: To institutionalize a strong culture of results-based management, reporting, knowledge management and evaluation. This project also aims to strengthen existing projects that are executed by UN Women in partnership with the PA and other UN Agencies, specifically Increasing Accountability for Financing for Gender Equality (FGE) Project funded by the EU and UN Women and the Joint Programme MDG – Fund on Gender and Development (UN/Spain).

The first outcome of the project was to strengthen the capacity and accountability of the Palestinian Authority to implement gender equality commitments and address women’s priorities in national planning and budgeting systems (UN Women oPt Goal 5 - DRF Outcome 5.1 – CSNGS 2011-2013 Objective 9) and subsequently, strategic objective 5 in the current CSNGS 2014-2016. This was to be accomplished through one output: The National Gender Strategy is developed and feeds into the Palestinian National Development Plan. In this first component, the project provided technical assistance and support to strengthen the capacity and accountability of the Palestinian Authority to implement gender equality commitments and address women’s priorities in national planning and budgeting systems. Progress has been made with the development of the Cross-Sectoral National Gender Strategy 2011-2013 (CSNGS), as well as its associated action plan, which is considered a national reference strategy for integrating GE/WE priorities in other sectoral plans. The establishment of national institutions, such as MoWA as the national women machinery, in addition to the establishment of gender units within line ministries and later the endorsement of the PA Cabinet decision on integrating GE in national planning and budgeting cycle in (2009), and subsequently, the endorsement of the Cabinet decision on the formation of the GRB national committee in 2012, all represent great opportunities towards gender mainstreaming in national plans and budgets, but they still require concerted attention and investment to ensure that they realize their full potential and are utilized fully to implement GE issues at the national level. The CSNGS as a cross-cutting strategy is an intrinsic part of the previous Palestinian National Development Plan 2011-2013 (PNDP), but it has lacked the expected impact as most sectorial strategies didn’t include the CSNGS’ strategic objectives adequately in the planning cycle 2011-2013.

Hence, realizing the need to ensure that the next CSNGS 2014-2016 and the planning exercise for the PNP 2014-2016 is engendered with adequate analyses, programming and monitoring tools, the project contributed to the development of the current CSNGS 2014-2016 through


support provided by the hired Programme Specialist in planning and aid effectiveness, who has worked mainly with MoWA during the development of the current CSNGS 2014-2016. The programme specialist assisted the ministry in reviewing the previous CSNGS 2011-2013 and in preparing for the development of the next CSNGS 2014-2016. The review report which was completed in March 2013 provided analytical information on the GE/WE issues which constituted a baseline for the development of the current CSNGS 2014-2016. The project has provided technical assistance to MoWA on the development of the CSNGS 2014-2016, this document being the reference document on GE/WE issues for all other sectoral strategic plans of other line-ministries, which has also fed into the Palestinian National Plan 2014-2016, will set the basis for a complete gender mainstreaming of the sectoral strategies.

Through the project, a strategy development expert was hired to provide technical support to MoWA for developing the CSNGS 2014-2016. The expert started his assignment in May 2013 and worked until October 2013. The expert’s assignment was managed by UN Women in close coordination with MoWA; a set of consultation workshops were held with the national team that was mainly formulated to work with the expert during the development of the CSNGS 2014-2016. The national team comprised of MoWA staff, line ministries representatives and civil society and women organizations’’ representatives. The new CSNGS has been endorsed by MoWA following the reporting period (in the first half of 2014) and officially approved by the PA Cabinet.

In the framework of the development of the Cross-Sectoral National Gender Strategy 2014-2016, MOWA called for two consultation meetings with the National Planning Team in June 2013 to present the methodology for the development of the new gender strategy and to endorse the first draft strategic objectives and policies of the new CSNGS. Subsequently, 4 sectoral workshops were held in June 2013 with national partners and relevant stakeholders including representatives from PA ministries, private sector and civil society, to discuss and identify priority issues and intervention to take into account in the development of the CSNGS 2014-2016. The consultation process with the relevant partners for the development of the CSNGS, was extended to include the different governorates, UN gender Task Force (GTF), UN Women Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG), women’s organization, in addition to one workshop with women organizations in Gaza (facilitated through the support of UN Women office in Gaza and GUPW), and another workshop with gender units in line ministries.

As a result of the strategy development component of this project and other technical support initiatives under other on-going UN Women programmes provided to MoWA, selective sectoral ministries and MoPAD, six key sectoral ministries namely MoH, MoEHE, MoJ, MoA, MoL and MoSA have progressively incorporated GE issues in their sectoral strategy plans for 2014-2016 and most importantly, for the first time ever, the entire PNDP 2014-2016 has become more gender responsive compared to previous planning cycles.

At the strategy implementation level, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) and the PA as a whole were accompanied by UN Women to effectively implement the gender strategy, by ensuring that sectoral ministries which have integrated the Gender Strategy Objectives (relevant to their fields) into their sector plans, have concrete commitments towards the realization of these objectives. MoWA required the active support of national and international partners to play a catalyst role in ensuring proper gender mainstreaming into the PA projects and plans.

The limited funds MoWA receives from the PA national budget are inadequate to enable the ministry fulfil its mandate at the national level. Therefore, the Ministry needs to be at the centre


of the aid coordination platforms and coordination mechanisms, where all main decisions regarding PA planning and funding are taken and where the main donors are represented, which is the Local Aid Coordination Structure (LACS). In an attempt to bring MoWA’s needs to the centre of the local aid coordination center and to leverage donors’ support to GE/WE priorities, the programme specialist (on aid coordination and planning) hired under this project has worked closely with MoWA and LACS to assist the ministry to better position itself in the LACS across the different Strategy Groups working under the umbrella of LACS, which constitute the main aid policy dialogue forums. As a result, in January 2013, the LDF (co-chairs of LACS) approved MoWA’s membership in LACS across the different Strategy Groups as gender is a cross-sectoral and multi-dimensional issue. Since then, MoWA has been regularly invited to attend meetings of LACS and the programme specialist has been providing technical advice to MoWA on handling this profile, yet, more capacity building is required for MoWA’s staff to enable them to effectively participate and influence decision making on funding directions within LACS in favour of GE/WE. UN Women, in the framework of its efforts to enhance the integration of gender issues in the aid coordination structure, developed and published two sectoral fact sheets focusing on a sectoral issue in relation to gender – the first one on gender equality and education and the second one on social protection. The fact sheets were intended to be used as an advocacy tool to promote gender equality policies in sector-specific strategic planning discussions. These fact sheets were disseminated through LACS and within related sector working group meetings within LACS.

Outcome 2 of the project is to drive more effective and efficient United Nations system coordination and strategic partnerships on gender equality and women’s empowerment. (UN Women oPt MRF 1), to be achieved through two outputs:

- The UNCT takes a more coherent and coordinated approach towards gender mainstreaming in the oPt

- Know-how and partnerships concerning gender mainstreaming among UN Agencies, NGOs and donors in the oPt are strengthened

This second component of the project aims to drive a more effective and efficient United Nations

system coordination and strategic partnerships on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

In parallel to the PA exercise to develop the PNDP, during 2012-2013 the UNCT in oPt has

developed the first UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), which is the overall

outline for the UN Agencies that frames their work in the country. UN Women, who already

assisted the UNCT in the review of the former MTRP, has also worked on providing support in

coordination with the Inter-Agency Gender Task Force (GTF) in order to ensure that the

document addresses the needs of all Palestinians and that gender concerns are taken into

account and effectively addressed.

By 2013, UN Agencies in oPt have developed a common working framework on Gender

Equality issues through the UNDAF. As a result, the UNDAF has become gender responsive

and gender equality was integrated and mainstreamed in all outcomes and was aligned with the

Palestinian national priorities. The GTF members have received an appropriate training in Turin

on gender planning specifically applied to oPt and the UNDAF, presented in more details below.

In February 2013, UN Women led the review of first final draft of the UNDAF through the

Gender Task Force to ensure that the draft document was engendered and properly reflects


women's gender equality and empowerment issues and priorities. The GTF used the gender

score card (gender performance indicators) as a benchmark for the review of the UNDAF and

proposed specific recommendations such as the use of a gender marker, and identified specific

outputs for women and youth.

In March 2013, a meeting was organized with the UN Resident Coordinator to present the Gender Task Force main achievements, lessons learnt and future prospects. The priorities presented were threefold: 1. strengthening coordination and joint programme of UN on gender equality; 2. gender mainstreaming within UN Agencies; 3. improving GTF role in advocacy through communication for change approach. A retreat for GTF originally planned to take place on 16 May 2013 was eventually conducted in December 2013 to develop strategic priorities and discuss key issues, in particular the support to the UNDAF process.

The final draft of the UNDAF was presented to the regional UNDG and approved in June 2013. The UNDAF 2014-2016 was officially signed in August 2013, by Secretary General Ban Ki Moon during his visit to the region. Although no specific gender sensitive outcome has been formulated, gender equality has been mainstreamed in all the outcomes and was included as a crosscutting theme (one of UNDAF programming principles and crosscutting issues in the UNDAF being: gender, human rights, youth, environmental sustainability and capacity development). This is partially because the UNDAF in Palestine only has 6 outcomes, while most UNDAFs around the world would have four or five goals, sub-divided into three or four outcomes for each. Gender mainstreaming has been achieved on different levels:

o In the narrative (section 2: UNDAF Results) :

Gender mainstreaming has been identified as the main strategy used for gender equality in the narrative part of the text under section 2 says: “Though the planning process, UN Agencies and government partners identified gender mainstreaming as the primary strategy for ensuring gender equality as a crosscutting goal; instead of having a stand-alone outcome focused on gender, gender issues have been identified in all outcomes. The programming in the UNDAF is thus intended to be gender-responsive, meaning that it reflects an understanding of the gendered differences between women and men, responds to their different needs and tackles root causes that create inequalities among them.”

The gender specific needs and responses have also been included in the narrative parts of the outcomes. The full Comprehensive Country Assessment (CCA) which is referred to through a link in the UNDAF narrative contains a more in depth gender analysis, with a specific annex on gender equality.

The UN Interagency Gender Theme Group is seen as the coordination platform that will advise and support the UNCT, the UN Deputies Group and the Theme Groups to ensure that proper consideration is given to gender issues.

o In the logframe at least one gender sensitive output is included in each of the six outcomes; sex-disaggregated data for all the relevant indicators as well as gender sensitive indicators for five out of the six outcomes is available and at least one indicator that is sex disaggregated or gender sensitive is included in 23 out of the 28 outputs. This will enable monitoring gender equality during the UNDAF time-frame.


o There’s a specific annex that highlights the cross-cutting objectives per outcome, Gender Equality being one of them. The gender annex does not include any indicators, however the indicators presented in the log frame will allow for proper monitoring of the gender equality objectives of the UNDAF.

The UN Interagency Gender Task Force and UN Women has played a key role in supporting

the development of the UNDAF, ensuring that a gender perspective is taken into consideration

and aligned with GE/WE national priorities. UN Women has already conducted a series of

gender-related trainings for the GTF and the UNCT at large, but has found that more in-depth

work with individual agencies (particularly FAO and UNRWA) in parallel has borne fruitful

results. UN Women will continue its efforts in supporting the UNCT and will continue taking part

in monitoring the implementation of GE/WE interventions as part of the UNDAF.

GTF Retreat. During late 2013, a retreat for the GTF Focal Points was organized by UN Women with the main purpose of drafting the annual GTF work plan for 2014. As a result of this participatory process, few changes were introduced to the role and structure of the GTF. Among the key changes and new suggestions are: Comprised of the UN Gender Focal Points, the GTF would meet four times a year. The GFPs are responsible for the implementation of the GTF action plan and advising the

UNCT to make better informed decisions with regards to gender issues. Each activity in the GTF Action Plan 2014 will be led by one agency active in the GTF, and

if needed, temporary committees would be set up to implement the tasks in the action plan (each committee would have a UN Agency assigned to lead the exercise). At the same time, under the supervision of the Gender Task Force, sub working groups can be established, that would be more permanent in nature and wouldn’t necessary have the same members as the Gender Task Force. These sub-working groups need to have specific terms of references. An example of such a group is the Gender Based Violence Sub Working Group, which is coordinated by UNFPA. The members are both from civil society and the technical staff from the UN Agencies. This group has been set up in 2012 after an agreement in the GTF, to work specifically on improving coordination on gender based violence.

The UNDAF Gender Theme Group is a sub working group of the GTF. It will specifically work on supporting the UNCT in the UNDAF, ensuring that it is aligned to the national gender priorities. The GTG comprises of assigned focal points to the UNDAF Theme Groups and representatives from civil society and the PA. The second step will be to present the initiative to the partners, and identify focal points from CSOs and Palestinian Government to participate to the group. The terms of reference proposes a mechanism, based on the experience with UN Women Civil Society Advisory Group to ensure a wide representation of civil society in the group.

Expected results from the new structure: 1. Greater accountability of the GTF in the UNCT and among UN Agencies 2. UN Agencies’ involvement (or not) in the GTF would be visible

3. Improved visibility of the Gender Focal Points work and involvement in the GTF

4. Clearer division of roles and tasks between Gender Focal Points, UN Women and other

stakeholders


5. Possibility to have in depth discussions with relevant partners in the UN as well as other

stakeholders

6. Improved coordination among UN Agencies

The UN Gender Task Force (GTF) retreat was originally planned to take place in May 2013, but postponed till later due to several delays beyond the control of UN Women. The retreat was finally conducted on 5 December, 2013 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Jericho. A total of 24 participants from different UN Agencies attended the retreat. The methodology of the retreat was based on a participatory approach where participants worked in smaller groups to ensure the maximum engagement of participants and their ownership of the expected outputs. The main objective of the retreat was to identify the joint vision and common gender commitments of the Gender Task Force in line with the new UNDAF and with UNCT requirements. More specifically, the objectives of the retreat included: 1) Identify main responsibilities for the Gender Focal Points in Gaza and West Bank within

their respective agencies and within the GTF, as well as the main priorities of the Gender

Task Force as a whole.

2) Identify the membership of the Gender Task Force and the best ways to engage with local

partners including civil society and the Palestinian government.

3) GTF members discuss how they can improve inter-agency coordination and working as

one team to enhance gender awareness and build on best practices.

4) Initiate the development of a plan of action and identification of priority actions for the GTF

and the GFPs to support the UNCT in its work on Gender Equality during the UNDAF

period 2014-2016.

An external consultant was brought on board to help develop the process. The consultant held seven preparatory meetings with key stakeholders: MoWA, UNSCO, UN Women and GTF members. The meetings helped to reorganize the retreat and to be more hands-on.

The one day retreat was organized included three main sessions:

Session 1: GTF role, mandate, coordination, and priorities

Session 2: Gender Task Force main priorities for the coming 3 years

Session 3: Setting up the Gender Task Force Action Plan Three priorities were identified: Support UNDAF/HPC/JP implementation; Improve internal/external coordination; Advocacy, awareness raising, and information exchange on gender related issues. In the last session an initial action plan was developed. The evaluation of the retreat by the participants was seen as positive in general, although some less positive evaluations were received by few participants which highlighted the need for more time and focus to achieve the expected results of the retreat. But as a conclusion, the retreat has achieved its goal, which was to identify the common priorities for the GTF. Further to the retreat a first draft annual work plan for 2014 was developed by a voluntary core team of the GTF (UNESCO, UN Women and UNRWA). The action plan covering the three years will be finalized after the UNCT Gender Scorecard report has been finalized and endorsed


by the UNCT. The UNCT Gender Scorecard or performance indicators on Gender Equality will be developed in 2014 through financial support from UN Women. The Gender Scorecard is an accountability tool for the UNCT on Gender Equality, setting a baseline for the UN as a whole in the country. The Terms of Reference was presented to the UNCT on the 18 October 2013 and subsequently approved. The Resident Coordinator showed his willingness to roll out the UNCT Performance Indicator on Gender Equality, which is an accountability tool for the UNCT on Gender Equality, setting a baseline for the UN as a whole in the country. The tool has already been developed in over fifty countries and was developed in parallel to the UNDAF process. UN Women has already finalized the recruitment process of the international consultant that will lead this assignment in December 2013; the selected consultant has begun working on this assignment and it is expected to execute the field work during October 2014. After the retreat, there was general agreement between GTF members on the need to have regular consultations with civil society and PA representatives on programmatic issues, but to maintain a specific space for dialogue among UN agencies. Former attempts to have meetings with civil society actors were problematic for several reasons: the difficulty to reach a consensus on who would attend; lack of clear tasks and roles for national actors in such forums; high turn-over among national partners creating a sense of discontinuity and thus effecting the effectiveness of their participation. Via the GTG, which was currently established with a finalized ToR, the PA and CSO partners will be represented on a regular basis, with a clear set of roles. The GTG will meet on a quarterly basis, whereas the PA and CSO representatives will be invited to attend on a bi-annual basis (the other half being UN only).

To meet the expected Result 2: GFP are supported in their role by providing easy access to information and tools and continuous technical support. In order to support the UN Gender Focal Points’ role UN Women Palestine has developed a Handbook that will provide them with concrete information on Gender Equality within the UN system and in Palestine. It will serve as a guidebook or reference tool for the Gender Focal Points, helping them get through organizing their work and gain knowledge on key aspects of gender equality and gender mainstreaming. The UN Coordination Officer has submitted the first draft of the UN Gender Focal Point Handbook (Annex J). The handbook is based on UNESCO’s “Handbook for Gender Focal Points in UNESCO National Commissions” (June 2005). The Handbook will guide newcomers who have been designated as Gender Focal Points in the UN System in Palestine and appointed as representative to the UN Gender Task Force. The final draft was finalized in December 2013 and presented to the Gender Focal Points in January during the Gender Task Force meeting.

In addition, to facilitate the access to information for the Gender Focal Points, a Google Docs page was created to provide all needed information on the GTF in oPt, and later transferred to drop box link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d8h1hyzrvzxdxpl/beWKVEX05q. The page contains the main documents (ToR, meeting minutes, annual work plan and annual reports). For the same purpose, a repository on reports and research papers on Gender Equality in Palestine was created and shared with the GTF members and focal points. It is available on https://www.dropbox.com/s/mxdo1hxi8uxoc1q/Repository%20of%20Gender%20%20research%20data%20-%20updated%2020130719.xlsx

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d8h1hyzrvzxdxpl/beWKVEX05q

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mxdo1hxi8uxoc1q/Repository%20of%20Gender%20%20research%20data%20-%20updated%2020130719.xlsx

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mxdo1hxi8uxoc1q/Repository%20of%20Gender%20%20research%20data%20-%20updated%2020130719.xlsx


Outcome 3 of the project is to institutionalize a strong culture of results-based management, reporting, knowledge management and evaluation. (UN Women oPt - MRF 2). UN Women planned to establish a Strategy Monitoring System to measure the achievement of the strategy development and management results for all interventions including appropriate control in work, flexible adaptation to changing circumstances and smooth coordination of implementation (output 1). By 2013, UN Women had a monitoring framework in place for programme and management oversight to (i) measure the results achieved for all strategic interventions and management’s achievement of efficiency and (ii) to produce regular, reliable monitoring reports that measure strategic results and management performance. This will enable UN Women to further develop and communicate monitoring related information internally as well as to national and international media, and will support evidence based knowledge generation on gender equality and women's empowerment.

UN Women in oPt initially planned to recruited a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer; however, the recruitment process did not yield a qualified candidate so was postponed and alternatively M&E support was received through UN Women Headquarters. On 1 May 2013, a Monitoring and Reporting Associate was recruited for the Fund for Gender Equality programme in oPt to follow up on the Fund’s implementing partners and provide them with technical support on implementation including monitoring and reporting. UN Women in oPt, in consultation with the Fund’s regional specialist in Amman decided to expand the Associate’s assignment to include M&E support to UN Women’s work in oPt.

The Associate’s role has been instrumental in strengthening UN Women’s team knowledge on results based management. He has provided an introduction to results based management for all programme staff, supported programmes and projects during the planning stage using participatory methods to engage all potential partners2, in addition to working with programme staff on drafting to develop the Annual Work Plan (AWP) and Monitoring, Evaluation and Research (MER) Plans for 2014-2016 planning cycle and adapt the global results chain to the oPt context. During the second half of 2013 the Associate provided technical support to on-going programmes and projects, including establishing monitoring frameworks for the regional Spring Forward Programme and the Access to Justice Joint Programme with UNDP and providing technical advice during the recruitment process of the M&E specialist for the Women-run School Canteen multiyear project. During 2013, the Associate has started working with UN Women IT Officer to establish a computerised monitoring system. The placement of the Associate in the Gender Mainstreaming Unit at UN Women oPt office has given him a comprehensive understanding of the work of UN Women in oPt and ways to support linkages among programme teams. At the country level, the Associate represents UN Women at the UNDAF M&E Group3 with the main objective to ensure the integration of gender sensitive indicators into the M&E framework and processes.

2 This includes the project to be implemented jointly with the Central Election Committee, the proposal submitted to

the Spanish Cooperation for the joint programme with UNCTAD and FAO to empower women’s small business. 3 The UNDAF M&E Group is responsible for preparing and maintaining a common M&E calendar, submitting

proposals to the UNCT and/or UN Deputies Group on gaps and areas for improved harmonization, supporting the UNDAF Thematic Groups (TGs) in using the UNDAF results matrix to monitor their outcomes and outputs, assessing progress towards set results, and assisting in UNDAF annual reviews, the UNDAF mid-term evaluation and the

preparation of the UNDAF mid-term progress report, reviewing the data submitted by the Thematic Groups for each

of the indicators to ensure their quality, and managing the web-based UNDAF monitoring system (based on the

UN’s diMonitoring application).


II. Key Partnerships

In addition to the key partnership forged with the Government of Iceland which underpins this initiative, the project interfaces closely with the Ministry of Planning (MoPAD) and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) as they are the key national counterparts for the development of the Palestinian National Plan 2014-2016 and the Gender Equality Strategy 2014-2016. The process of developing the Gender Strategy needed to be participatory; therefore UN Women was proactive in ensuring the participation of all relevant national and international partners from governmental and non-governmental organizations to build a broad consensus around national priorities.

For the technical support and the research and analysis components of the project, UN Women worked closely with civil society representatives and academic institutions including the Institute for Women Studies of Birzeit University (IWS/BU), the Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC) and the Women Studies Center (WSC). UN Women also set up a new Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG) composed of 10 Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Networks engaged in Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment issues with substantive expertise in this domain. The CSAG mainly served as a consultative forum that allowed UN Women to draw upon the rich and diverse expertise, experience, outreach and networks, advocacy and lobbying, perspectives and knowledge that civil society can offer to inform UN Women’s oPt programming.

UN Women, as the chair of the UN Inter-Agency Gender Task Force, as well as key partner of MoWA, has coordinated and provided technical support to different stakeholders involved in the implementation of the project. UN Women has also worked closely with the Resident Coordinator’s Office and the UNCT team to promote and sustain inter-agency cooperation and harmonization of gender-related activities and to support the UNCT and its different bodies in monitoring and reporting on work focused on gender. Additionally, UN Women has pursued strategic partnerships and discussions on joint programming initiatives with UNDP; ILO; UNESCO; UNFPA; UNCTAD, ITC, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNESCO and FAO within the framework of UNDAF.

UN Women also strengthened its partnership with CSOs by closely working with the Gender Working Group in the framework of the UNDAF and with the Platform for NGOs working on UN Resolution 1325.


III. Results This section is structured according to the expected outcomes and outputs of the project; it illustrates that the project has partially achieved its aims. Only those outputs for which progress has been made are included below.

Outcome 1: Strengthened capacity and accountability of Palestinian Authority to implement gender equality commitments and address women’s priorities in national planning and budgeting systems.

Output 1: The National Gender Strategy is developed and feeds into the Palestinian National Development Plan 2014-2016 and at least 2 line ministries sectoral strategies.

During the project period, cooperation modalities between UN Women and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) to achieve the output were clearly defined through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on 30 August 2012 and a letter of Agreement (LoA) on 22 October 2012.

- The MoU (Annex A) sets the framework for UN Women and MoWA’s work in the subsequent two years, enhancing the partnership between both institutions on gender mainstreaming issues. The agreement stressed that UN Women would support MoWA to strengthen the Ministiy’s role as coordinator on gender mainstreaming issues in the PA government mainly by: a) Supporting the development of the report on the Situation Analysis of women in

Palestine (Building Ties); b) Supporting the review of the previous CSNGS 2011-2013 and the development of the

next National Gender Strategy 2014-2016; c) Supporting the engendering of the Palestinian National Plan 2014-2016, and finally d) Strengthening the coordination role of MoWA on gender equality and women’s

empowerment with national and international partners and to link with the Local Aid Coordination Structure.

The witnessing of the agreement by MoPAD gives this memorandum more strength regarding MoWA’s coordination role on Gender Mainstreaming with other ministries. A Programme Specialist on aid coordination and planning for the ministry was hired in November 2012 specifically working on the review of the previous CSNGS 2011-2013 and assisting MoWA in the development of the new Gender Strategy 2014-2016 along with the strategy development expert that was hired from May to October 2013. In addition the Programme Specialist has provided support to MoWA to better position itself within the LACS and participated in the development of LACS action plan from a gender perspective and lately supported the development of the Gender Charter that aims to strengthen commitment of LACS members (the donors’ community) towards funding GE/WE initiatives.

- The LoA (Annex B) was signed to concretely engage the Ministry in the above mentioned actions and to clarify the intervention related to the promotion of the understanding and capacity of Gender mainstreaming within the Local Aid Coordination Structure and other Ministries, and to expand the alignment with and the implementation of the Cross-Sectoral National Gender Strategy. The LoA additionally aims to enhance the coaching process of the Gender Units within all PA ministries; firstly by the elaboration of their Work Plans within their respective ministries and raising awareness


on Gender Equality issues among Ministries’ teams and secondly by mobilizing the Gender Units in the organization for the 16 days of Activism campaign to combat Violence against Women in November-December 2012.

The activities implemented in the frame of these agreements during the reporting period were:

- Mid-term Review of CSNGS 2011-2013 and Development of new Cross-sectoral Gender Strategy 2014-2016. MoWA, with the support of UN Women, has developed the new national Gender Strategy (2014-2016) during May - October 2013 after supporting the Ministry in reviewing its previous CSNGS 2011-2013 during January-March 2013. The review of the previous strategy and subsequently the development of the new strategy have been done through a participatory approach in order to ensure that the entire process feeds into the new National Development Plan (2014-2016) in a way that responds to the needs of Palestinian women, men, girls and boys in an equal manner. An internal team was established in MoWA composed by the Programme Specialist and the Monitoring and Evaluation unit to coordinate the mid-term review of the CSNGS 2011-2013. In this frame, two consultative workshops with 13 Civil Society Organizations were held on 18 and 23 December 2013.

- An agreement was also signed on the 6 September 2012 with MoWA and Birzeit University’s Institute for Women Studies (BU/IWS) to develop the report on the Situation Analysis of Women in Palestine (Building Ties) to provide adequate information and data on women’s situation across different thematic areas in order to inform the preparation of the next national gender strategy and to provide training and capacity development to MoWA staff on mainstreaming the situation analysis’ recommendations and findings into the next CSNGS and into the other sectorial strategies and the entire PNDP 2014-2016 as well.

- For the development of the women situation analysis report, a committee was established composed of MoWA, UN Women and BU/IWS to prepare for the development of the report and follow up during the development phase. In this regard, 3 meetings were held to discuss the methodology, prioritize thematic issues and follow up the progresses of the research. An outline of the research was submitted on the 26 November 2012. Two weeks of public strike by the university students accompanied by strikes in the public sector have prevented the research staff to access their workplace, which delayed the development of the draft report for a while.

This situation analysis report was co-financed UN Women through its core funds (2012). The second component of the project, i.e. building the capacity of MoWA staff, mainly covered through this project was implemented during January - March 2013. The training has especially concentrated on providing MoWA’s staff with the needed capacity and arguments to efficiently participate with national sectoral teams during the CSNGS development and the other sectoral strategy plans as well as to ensure that GE/WE issues are taken into consideration. Nevertheless, to ensure continuity through the process, technical expertise were provided to MoWA through a resource person from the Institute of Women’s Studies to provide MoWA and UN Women’s staff with the needed back-up to act on their role in influencing the national planning process, and especially the national planning teams responsible for preparing the sectoral strategies, as well as in the UNDAF process.


- On the job training to MoWA’s teams to ensure coordination on Gender Strategy among different actors. The currently existing Local Aid Coordination Structure in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) was set up following the decision made at the meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) on 14 December 2005 in London, to improve the effectiveness of aid coordination structures in providing coherent technical assistance and financial support based on national priorities to the Palestinian people in line with the OECD-DAC Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The Local Aid Coordination Structure and the Local Aid Coordination Secretariat are committed to improving the efficiency, coherence and transparency of assistance coordination in line with international standards on aid effectiveness, such as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The Paris Declaration, however, does not expand greatly on the relationship between gender and aid effectiveness. Individual institutional commitments to gender vary among the members of the aid coordination structure. Nevertheless, the Millennium Development Goals (in particular Goal 3 – Promote gender equality and empower women) provides an overarching global commitment to gender for all parties to the aid coordination structure. The draft Guidelines on Aid Coordination further expand on gender in aid coordination, and refer to the commitment of the PA and donors to ensure that cross-cutting issues such as gender are addressed in a comprehensive manner. In the existing local aid coordination structure in the oPt there is no group or focal point that is dedicated to addressing gender issues. The Co-Chairs of the Social Development Strategy Group (UNSCO and Ministry of Social Affairs - MoSA) have made initial progress in trying to examine how gender crosscuts other sectors in the social pillar (social protection, health and education). However, it is felt that more work could be done by exploring the synergies of donor and PA efforts on gender issues in aid coordination.

Also, based on the recommendations of the Gender Survey of the Local Aid Coordination Structure (Annex F), and the aid effectiveness report from a gender perspective developed by UN Women and funded by UN Women (Core funds, 2012), MoWA needs to play a central role in the coordination of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the oPt, in addition to other key recommendations of both studies that demand for stronger engagement form the donors’ community towards more funding to GE/WE issues. The initial idea of having an expert at the Local Aid Coordination Secretariat itself proved to be less viable, so the idea grew to strengthen MoWA’s role itself through a hands on training by a highly qualified expert on planning and gender issues. This approach promised to be more sustainable, as it aims to bring MoWA at the centre of the aid coordination structure and give the opportunity for MoWA to push for the implementation of the national priorities on gender equality with donors and PA partners. This proposition has been submitted to the head of the aid coordination at the Ministry of Planning and Development (MoPAD) who endorsed the idea in a meeting with the LACS’s Head of Agency. A meeting was organized on the 7 September 2012 with the Minister of MoWA, the Head of LACS and UN Women to discuss the possible cooperation between MoWA and LACS to enhance the gender mainstreaming aspects in LACS’ work, especially in the different working groups. The minister agreed on the principle of having an aid coordination specialist (Programme Specialist) to be based at MoWA who would support the Ministry in their coordination role. Further to this the recruitment process for this position has started. This expert, specialist in gender issues and national planning processes, was recruited on 17 November 2012 and is hosted at MoWA (see ToR, Annex G). A first meeting with the Acting Head of LACS was held on


the 19 December 2012 to discuss MoWA’s participation/membership in all working and Strategic Groups’ meetings. A letter was sent to MoPAD to request its support to this initiative in the next meeting of the LACS co-chairs that took place on 15 January 2013.

Through this project, MoWA’s coordination on gender issues was also enhanced in the frame of the international 16 days campaign to combat violence against women. During the project period, MoWA played a key role in mobilizing and coordinating civil society organizations and national stakeholders in the organization of the campaign. MoWA conducted several preparation meetings with civil society partners to mobilize women organizations, human rights organization, National Committee to Combat Violence against Women, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, Prosecutor’s Office, and Universities in a national advocacy and awareness-raising event called “March to combat violence against Women”, which was organized in Ramallah on 10 December 2013 and gathered around 500 participants.

MoWA, through the support of the project has held several workshops to support Gender Unit’s interventions in their respective Ministries (preparation and presentation of annual work plans). These workshops took place in January 2013.

- Support to two line Ministries for implementation of the Cross-Sectoral Gender Strategy. The coordination unit within MoWA has been strengthened with the recruitment of the Programme Specialist, who has already initiated liaising with donors, PA line ministries. UN Women has also been working with the Ministry of Agriculture to provide support in the review of the Agricultural Sector Strategy (funded through UN Women’s Core Funds, an expert was recruited and hosted at the Ministry and a LoA was signed to set up and strengthen the Gender unit and build the capacities of MoA staff). It is expected that the Situation Analysis Report conducted by Birzeit University will constitute a valuable source for the next Agricultural strategy.

Outcome 2: To drive more effective and efficient United Nations system coordination and strategic partnerships on gender equality and women’s empowerment. (UN Women oPt MRF 1)

Output 1: The UNCT takes a more coherent and coordinated approach towards gender mainstreaming in the oPt

- Training for targeted staff to secure engendering of UNDAF4

UN Women as the lead of the UN Gender Theme Group organized in collaboration with the International Training Centre of the ICT/ILO in Turin – a three-day workshop which was offered to all the members of the Group: Mainstreaming gender equality in UNDAF programming in the oPt: A practical workshop for the UN Gender Task Force. This training was the first of its kind in the world, specifically organized for Gender Task Force Members. It was chosen to organize the training abroad to ensure full participation and concentration of the participants (See Annex H).

4 The UNDAF is the main strategic programme framework that describes the collective response of the UN system to

national development priorities. This planning process began in April 2012 with several workshops including PA and civil society, and got more intense in August 2012 with the workshops on the drafting of the Comprehensive Analysis document (analysis of gaps and priorities of the oPt context). The Comprehensive Analysis was validated in September 2012. In October 2012, the different thematic groups initiated the work on the result (outcome/ outputs) matrices. The UNDAF document and its different annexes were finalised and approved in June 2013 by the UNCT and the Palestinian National Authority.


The training took place from 10 till 12 July 2012 for the GTF members and for the UNDAF stakeholders. UN Women provided support for the training and accommodation, nevertheless, to ensure a certain level of commitment from the agencies, the agencies themselves contributed by financing the travel costs. Participating agencies were requested to nominate high level participants with real decision powers who are actively involved in the UNDAF process.

The workshop’s objective was to ensure that the Palestine UNDAF would adequately address gender equality and women’s empowerment priorities, as defined by the oPt national development plan and by the oPt Cross Sectoral Gender Strategy. Other objectives of this training were to ensure sustainable, collaborative and effective mode of work within the UN Gender Theme Group and ensure that its members are equipped with the relevant information and tools needed to ensure that the UNDAF will be gender mainstreamed.

Fourteen members of the GTF and other actors involved in the preparation of the UNDAF process participated in the training. It had a practical, hands-on focus with extensive use of participatory learning methodologies. Inputs from gender mainstreaming and Result Based Management (RBM) experts were part of a practical learning journey to enable participants to test the proposed approaches and tools and use them in the near future. Video conferences with experts or UN Women colleagues directly engaged in the UN CEB/SWAP5 and the Scorecard were organized. Specific attention was given to establish collaborative working modalities and to produce a shared and result-oriented work plan for the near future.

The training covered:

- Legal and political framework underpinning UN work on gender equality. Analysis of the Aid Effectiveness principles and how they can be used to enhance support for national gender equality policies.

- UNDAF cycle with gendered eyes. Description of each stage of UNDAF preparation, and involvement of the participants. Development of a gender road map.

- UNCT Performance indicators on gender equality. - Gender Sensitive Stakeholders’ Analysis and Assessment in the UNDAF process, in

relation to these two aspects: - Inclusion of women and men’s views (ensure gender balance, and the representation of

those who have the institutional mandated to promote and protect women’s rights). - Inclusion of gender-related issues and perspectives (ensure that different stakeholders

are able to identify the gender-specific challenges and priorities in relation with their area of activity).

- Alignment of UNDAF to national gender equality priorities: a rights-based approach. - Analyze of the work of each individual agencies to support the national gender

objectives, in relation to relevant CEDAW articles and other international covenants to promote Gender Equality at country level in their specific area of activity.

5 A UN System-Wide Policy on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women was endorsed by the Chief

Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) in October 2006, as a mean to furthering the goal of gender equality and women’s empowerment within the policies and programmes of the UN system. The CEB policy notes The CEB policy notes: “A United Nations system-wide action plan that includes indicators and timetables, allocation of responsibilities and accountability mechanisms and resources is essential to make the strategy of gender mainstreaming operational.” This document responds to the CEB call for a system-wide action plan (SWAP). CEB/2006/2: United Nations system-wide policy on gender equality and the empowerment of women: focusing on results and impact. See: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/ianwge/gm/UN_system_wide_P_S_CEB_Statement_2006.pdf, Annex 1 for the policy.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/ianwge/gm/UN_system_wide_P_S_CEB_Statement_2006.pdf


- Having a specific “gender equality outcome” on UNDAF versus simply counting on “mainstreaming” in all outcomes. SWOT analysis. (In practical term, the gender perspective has been mainstreamed across the different outcomes of the UNDAF)

- Role and working strategy of Gender Task Force as well as the Gender Focal Points in agencies to ensure gender mainstreaming in UNDAF.

The overall appreciation of the training by the participants was very high stating for 90% of the participants that the training responded to their needs and giving the overall quality of the training more than 4/5.

- Support the gender mainstreaming of the UNDAF 2014-2016

The first phase of the UNDAF process, the comprehensive analysis (CA), was developed by a consultancy firm which was brought on board at the end of June 2013. Beginning of August, 6 thematic groups were organized with UN, PA and CSO partners to agree on the main issues to be discussed in the comprehensive analysis. Later on, 8 thematic groups: a) Economic development, labour, livelihood and decent work; b) Agriculture and food security; c) Governance, rule of law, justice, security and human rights; d) Education; e) Health; f) Social protection; g) Culture and heritage; h) Infrastructure, urbanization and environment) and cross-cutting issues: Human rights, gender, youth, civil society/media/civil participation, environment, advocacy, RBM and capacity development were defined. GTF focal points had previously been appointed for each theme, and provided their written comments, consolidated by UN Women, after each session and to all the draft versions of the CA issued. The CA was finalized in late November 2012, and incorporates around 60% of the comments and information related to gender issues provided by the GTF. The second phase of the UNDAF, the result matrices, were initiated in November 2012. UN Women, MoWA and several GTF members were present in most of the workshops and thematic group meetings, to ensure that a gender analysis is included in the CA and in the matrices. Two ordinary and two extraordinary GTF meetings were dedicated to the UNDAF process after the Turin Workshop.

Furthermore, a Gender Working Group (GWG) was established to be involved in the UNDAF comprised from Civil Society Organization’s having expertise in Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment - Women Affairs Technical Committee (WATC), Women Studies Center (Birzeit University) and Women Technical Institute, MoWA and MoPAD. Three technical meetings were held with the Gender Working group’s members to share UNDAF documents and produce a Gender Review of the CA and the matrices. The experts had also the opportunity to send their comments, publications and questions by e-mail on an individual basis.

The main contribution by the GWG and the GTF, apart from providing Gender analysis and Sex-disaggregated data related to their field of expertise during the CA elaboration phase and from commenting the result matrices, was the elaboration of a Color-coding Gender Review of the Matrices to assess the degree to which they were contributing to promote Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, as well as the extent to which gender was mainstreamed throughout the UNDAF outcomes and outputs. This visual rating system, along with the arguments justifying the scoring, was submitted for discussion to the thematic groups and was used as an advocacy tool to the Resident Coordinator and the UNDAF Task Force.


- GTF has clearly defined Terms of References

As a follow up to the workshop held in Turin, a first step was to present the work to the UNCT on the 27 July 2012:

- Specific recommendations coming from the GTF were formulated including the need for the GTF to directly report to the UNCT, as well as to review the ToR of the GTF in order to include their role on supporting and monitoring the UNDAF on gender equality, adopting the gender mainstreaming checklist (based on the UNDG guidelines), introducing a tracking system for the UNDAF that will allow to track the allocations going to gender equality.

- The following tools were also presented to the UNCT: the gender road map of the UNDAF; the above mentioned gender equality checklist for the UNDAF; as well as the new Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Gender Task Force (Annex I), that have been officially approved by the UNCT. The ToRs specify that the Gender Focal Points must receive the adequate resources to perform their job. It also states the direct link between the GTF and the UN Country Team (UNCT), the decision making body of the UN in any given country. By clarifying this direct link and accountability to the UNCT, the GTF’s role was strengthened.

Output 2: Know-how and partnerships concerning gender mainstreaming among UN Agencies, NGOs and donors in the oPt are strengthened

- Consolidate the work initiated with FAO in terms of: capacity building, technical assistance to mainstream gender within its core practices

The UNDAF preparation process presented a good opportunity to work closely with other UN Agencies, meeting face to face to build a common conceptual framework for the next years. UN Women Gender Mainstreaming Officer and staff not only ensured that UNDAF outcomes, outputs, indicators, and processes were engendered, but were also able to draw attention to sectors that were traditionally more gender blind, such as women’s livelihood and infrastructure issues (access to housing, land, water and productive resources), among the main concerned UN agencies (UNOPS, UN Habitat, UNFP, FAO, UNESCO, UNDP, WFP). Since then, UN Women has provided support to WFP for the gender training WFP developed for all their staff (WB/GS) and will continue to provide support for programmatic mainstreaming of gender. In addition, UN Women has provided support to UN Habitat for their Gender Mainstreaming initiatives, and since then UN Habitat has become a member of the GTF.

- Support coordination platform for NGOs working on 1325

Throughout 2012, UN Women provided staff resources and funds to support the platform for NGOs working on UNSCR 1325. This support included the organization of two events to promote the implementation of UNSCR 1325 which established a framework for regular meetings towards the institutionalization of a platform.

The first event- a round table between the Palestinian women’s movement and the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process took place on the 8 March on International Women’s Day (IWD). The event hosted by Women Affairs Technical Committees (WATC, one


of UN Women partners) was an opportunity for Palestinian women to emphasize the role and responsibility of the UN system in the creation of an independent state of Palestine and a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, in accordance with UNSCRs and international law, as well as the role of United Nations Special Coordinator Office for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) in coordinating the humanitarian and development work of UN agencies and programs in the oPt. Technical assistance was also provided for the development of an advocacy paper (Annex K) to for the preparation of the International Women’s Day Meeting of the Palestinian Delegation with the Special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process on the 8th march of 2012.

The second event, an Open Day on UNSCR 1325 organized by UN Women oPt in coordination with UNSCO and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) took place in Ramallah, West Bank on 11 October 2012 (Annex L). The event, financed through UN Women core funds, was hosted by the General Union of Palestinian Women, with 17 Civil Society Organizations participating. In the course of the meeting, the attending Palestinian women focused their interventions on five principal areas related to the implementation of UNSCR 1325, both in the oPt and outside:

- Work of 1325 Coalition and overall implementation of the resolution in the oPt; - Progress in women’s political participation and electoral representation in the oPt; - Palestinian women’s situation in the Gaza Strip; - Challenges faced by the Palestinian women refugees both outside and in the oPt; - Difficulties faced by women, especially in regard to education in the occupied East

Jerusalem.

In November 2012, the Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG) was formulated, composed from 10 CSOs and networks with a record of accomplishment on the ground in the field of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment issues (See ToR, Annex M). The CSAG is mainly a forum for exchange of views, ideas and perspectives between UN Women oPt and Palestinian civil society on priorities and interests within UN Women’s oPt mandate, amongst other on Women’s leadership in peace, security and humanitarian response. Outcome 3: To institutionalize a strong culture of results-based management, reporting, knowledge management and evaluation (UN Women oPt - MRF 2).

Output 1. A Strategy Monitoring System is built and operating to measure the achievement of the Strategy development and management results for all interventions including appropriate control in work, flexible adaptation to changing circumstances and smooth coordination of implementation

On 1 May 2013, a Monitoring and Reporting Associate was recruited to manage and oversee the implementation of the Fund for Gender equality programme in the oPt. The Associate was mainly in charge of follow-up on the Fund’s implementing partners and to provide them with technical support on implementation including monitoring and reporting. UN Women in the oPt in consultation with the Fund’s regional specialist in Amman decided to expand the Associate’s assignment to include M&E support for UN Women’s work in the oPt. The Associate became involved in the oPt programmatic work through providing technical support to progamme staff. The Associate’s initial technical support was to provide a basic presentation related to Results-based Management to all programme staff. The presentation included overview of project cycle, analysis of the initial situation, tools for context analysis, formulation of the results chain,


and monitoring systems including SMART indicators, baseline data, targets, and gender sensitive data collection tools. Through the second half of 2013 the Associate provided technical support to ongoing UN Women’s programmes and projects. The Associate worked extensively with the Spring Forward Project Coordinator in oPt on identifying SMART indicators, baselines, targets and identifying data collection methods and associated risks. In addition, the Associate provided technical advice to the Women-run School Canteen project throughout the recruitment process of the M&E specialist that will be responsible for building and implementing the project’s M&E system; the Associate worked extensively with the project team of the Access to Justice Joint Programme with UNDP to set up the programme results chain, SMART indicators, and data collection tools. In addition to working with programme and project managers, the Associate worked extensively throughout the period of drafting the Strategic Note (SN) and Annual Work Plan (AWP) for UN Women oPt office for the 2014-2016 planning cycle. The Associate assisted with aligning the global UN Women results chain with the oPt context. The Associate has provided extensive support for drafting the MER plan and formulating M&E actions with programme staff, where data collection tools were identified along with responsibilities and risks. The Associate is currently working with UN Women IT Officer to establish a computerised monitoring system to ease the work of programme and project managers.

The Associate was placed within the Gender Mainstreaming Unit at UN Women oPt office which assisted him to have a better understanding of the complete work of UN Women in the oPt. The Gender Mainstreaming Unit is responsible for incorporating gender mainstreaming in all programmes and projects being implemented by UN Women in oPt Country Office. This enabled the Associate to become more involved in the different programmes and projects.

At the country level, the Associate became a member of the UNDAF M&E Group. The M&E Group is responsible for preparing and maintaining a common M&E calendar that provides a schedule of all major M&E activities planned by UN agencies each year, and use the M&E calendar to identify data gaps and areas for improved harmonization of activities, processes and methodologies between agencies, and submit proposals to the UNCT and/or UN Deputies Group based on findings, support the UNDAF Thematic Groups (TGs) in using the UNDAF results matrix to monitor their respective outcomes and outputs, assess progress towards set results, and identify any issues that require attention, assist, as necessary, in the UNDAF annual reviews, the UNDAF mid-term evaluation and the preparation of the UNDAF mid-term progress report, assist the Thematic Groups, as necessary, in developing capacities to report on their indicators in the UNDAF results matrix using standard templates, and review the data submitted by the Thematic Groups for each of the indicators to ensure their quality, and manage the web-based UNDAF monitoring system (based on the UN’s Monitoring application). Summary of Results

a. Outcome 1:

I. Based on results of the project and through other UN WOMEN initiatives, six key

sectoral ministries namely ( MoH, MoE, MoL, MoJ, MoA & MoSA) have

progressively incorporated GE issues in their sectoral strategy plans 2014-2016,


and most importantly, for the first time ever, the entire PNDP 2014-2016 has

become more gender responsive compared to previous planning cycles.

II. The LDF (co-chairs of LACS) approved MoWA’s membership in LACS across the

different aid policy dialogue forms (Strategy Groups) as gender is a cross-

sectoral and multi-dimensional issue. Since then, MoWA has been regularly

invited to attend meetings of LACS and the programme specialist has been

providing technical advice to MoWA on handling this profile, yet, more capacity

building is required for MoWA staff to enable them to effectively participate and

influence decision making on funding directions within LACS in favor of GE/WE.

III. Review of the CSNGS 2011-2013.

IV. Development of the new CSNGS 2014-2016.

V. Raising awareness on Gender Equality issues among PA Ministries’ staff and

Gender Units in line ministries.

VI. Development of the report on the Situation Analysis of Women in Palestine

(Building Ties) with IWS/BU.

VII. Capacity development for MoWA staff on strategic planning.

b. Outcome 2:

I. The UNDAF has become gender responsive and gender equality was integrated

and mainstreamed in all outcomes and were aligned with national priorities

II. Increased capacity among UN agencies and members of GTF on gender.

III. Strengthened work of the GTF.

IV. Strengthened role of the CS in gender mainstreaming efforts and policy dialogue

through the establishment of the Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG).

c. Outcome 3:

I. Result based monitoring, evaluation and reporting framework developed.

II. Results based monitoring culture has been strengthened within UN Women.

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IV. Challenges and Lessons Learned

- Over this past few years, the political situation has been very turbulent. There have been protests, demonstrations and public strikes in response to the financial crisis that faces the PA in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority is experiencing a budgetary crisis and as such is consistently in danger of collapsing, especially since this crisis is coupled with many complex political issues. The challenges within this context have meant that initiatives implemented with and through the Palestinian Authority were subject to a lot of delays as staff within ministries and other institutions were involved in strikes and demonstrations.

- The implementation of this project showed that gender mainstreaming remains a challenge and major concern for the United Nations system given the entrenched perception that it is a responsibility exclusively of UN Women and gender focal points within the United Nations system, rather than of all involved in planning and programming. Progress generally remains the result of efforts by individual staff members and experts, rather than of clearly articulated overall organizational priorities.

- Visibility of results of gender mainstreaming remains difficult to demonstrate, as links between gender-equality goals, women's empowerment and sector-specific programme goals and outcomes are not well-established.

- Lack of coherent and regular analysis of the situation of women and men remains a major challenge to conducting in-depth gender-related analytical work, including reporting on internationally agreed-upon goals.

- Analytical capacities and monitoring mechanisms on gender need to be strengthened. The UNCT and the Humanitarian Country Team in the occupied Palestinian territory lack both the capacity and necessary tools for a systematic and effective gender mainstreaming approach. Many of the individual United Nations agencies and other relevant stakeholders do not have the necessary skills to conduct gender analyses or apply an engendered approach to the project cycle.

- Advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment is, by its very nature, a longer term, strategic intervention requiring societal and attitudinal shifts that are not readily integrated into projects of short duration designed to meet immediate needs.

- A last challenge concerned the involvement of Civil Society Organizations and especially Women’s Organizations in the UNDAF. With the activation of the GWG, UN Women wanted to provide remedy to the fact that the women’s CSO had not properly participated in the preparation of the comprehensive analysis. However, the time frame of the UNDAF constituted a real difficulty to actively mobilize these organizations and ensure a genuine participation. As well as the language barrier as most meetings are held in English without Arabic translation. Although MoWA actively participated in most workshops and thematic groups meeting, it is not sure that its voice has had a significant weight.

These and other challenges demonstrate an urgent need in various forms for continued internal and external capacity-development, advocacy, policy and programme support, and evidence-based research on the relevance and purpose of gender mainstreaming as a strategic priority for the PA, UNCT and individual United Nations agencies, funds and programmes.


Lessons Learned: Despite challenges, the project revealed important entry points for gender mainstreaming in terms of political commitment and processes:

- The Turin workshop created a team spirit between the participants which did not exist prior. Nevertheless, the activation of the GTF, the commitment of all its members and the support they received from their own agency are still a challenge. Despite the fact that the training was very well received by the Heads of Agencies, the participants selected by the agencies have not been all actively involved in the UNDAF process by their own agencies. But UN Women – with the creation of an ad hoc Gender Group – could successfully engage them as Gender Focal Points. Some members of the GTF need also further capacity development to ensure a high quality level contribution. In order for them to be efficient as gender focal point, they need to be recognized as an added value by their organization. UN Women as the lead of the GTF needs to further invest in the GTF and its members.

- UN Women is recognized as the entity that is mandated to providing the necessary technical and policy support on gender mainstreaming. In order for the occupied Palestinian territory programme to expand, proper delegation of authority must be implemented and exercised smoothly and in a timely manner. A successful decentralization process will require major investments of time and money to recruit highly qualified staff in core functions, secure sustainable financial resources for these positions, and invest in the personnel to develop their skills and capacities.

VI. Financial Report A Certified Financial Report will be submitted separately.

Documents

Gender Mainstreaming Initiative in the oPt Phase IV … · Gender Mainstreaming Initiative in the oPt ... Ministry of Planning and Administrative ... itself within the LACS to act