Genderbased Evaluation

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Gender-based Evaluation Monitoring and Evaluating
for progress and learning
Presented by DanaKhan Malhas, NPO UNIFEM Arab
States Regional Office , Amman-Jordan
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SITUATION OF WOMEN IN THE ARAB REGION REFLECTIONS

• women CONDITIONS may be changing but not their
  STATUS

Womens health and education have improved over
the past years in many countries but their
participation in economy and public life remains
comparatively low

• women are not foreseen as active participants
  in development but rather as beneficiaries
  (concept of being served, protected)

• the roles of women are not being challenged and
  that women are being addressed as mothers

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Some laws continue to discriminate against women
while in some countries some laws are being
revised. Nonetheless, in many cases the
assumptions underlying the law are not being
challenged.
women rights are not foreseen in their individual
capacity but are sometimes undermined by the need
to protect the family entity
the underlying assumptions about women in some
laws are not being challenged e.g. women need
protection, are dependent etc.
No mechanism to follow up and monitor on
implementation of laws
The existence of unwritten laws
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• commitment to CEDAW has not been fully recognized
  nor achieved in many countries

• the patriarchal culture continues to dominate
  organizational behavior both formally and
  informally despite efforts to challenge it

Institutional commitment has not been
consistently demonstrated in policies, practices
and procedures

• power relations between men and women continue to
  be one of the key underlying elements in
  promoting gender equality at institutional level

• transformative action has yet to be adopted by
  institutions in various countries despite
  achievements

• National machineries are not necessarily
  supported to undertake their task

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Performance of Women movements and national
machinery is quite limited and indeed efforts may
not always reap the desired outcomes in the most
efficient and effective manner
women machinery and movements may not have always
adopted the right strategies to undertake their
tasks
civil support to women movements and machinery
has not been sufficient especially from men and
private sector organizations
gender issues are numerous and efforts are
limited and sometimes unorganized
personalization of women movement
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There are emerging new challenges that countries
need to address prior to an increase in the
phenomena
there is no systematic monitors of trends in the
region (e.g. growing reports of trafficking)
the political volatility of the region is
contributing to an increase of the violence
against women as well as changing the nature of
violence (e.g. Iraq- kidnapping, assassinations
etc.)
effect on globalization on women in Arab region
is becoming more evident
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In general, work on womens empowerment and
gender equality have had low priority with low
resources to implement programs, strategies and
policies which contributed to the failure of the
gender mainstreaming strategy of most development
organization.
Gender is about gender relations and analyzing
gender roles and responsibilities which are
determined by social, cultural and political
factors which are not constant and forever
changing
Confusion between the terms gender and women
whereby the two words became synonymous
Which to a large degree undermined the role that
gender concerns play in affecting the lives of
women and men alike
working with gender concerns means working on
levels that deal with not-so easy and long-term
results of attitudal and behavioural change,
hence why it is in most instances easier to work
on separate women activities within programs
rather than having a holistic approach to gender
inequalities
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gender-based evaluation assesses the extent of
gender inequality and how normative instruments
and development programs help reduce it and
promote womens empowerment. It should be
informed by gender analysis, look into structural
inequalities and power relations between women
and men and even diversities among women
themselves Awori, 2003
Gender-based Evaluation
DEFINITION
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All UN agencies need to demonstrate that they are
producing meaningful results for accountability
to beneficiaries and for their own and their
partners (including donors) learning.
Results Based Management (RBM)
Human rights Based Approach to programming HRBA)
A management approach that is intended to focus
an organization on planning for, and achievement
of results
Gender-based Evaluation
programming based on a clear understanding of
what womens human rights entitlements actually
are in the given area
The UN systems renewed emphasis on HRBA in 2003
which implied that all UN staff and partners have
a new challenge in developing and measuring
results concerning the difference they are making
to the ability of all women to realize their
human rights
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UN Interagency Common Understanding on the Human
Rights Based Approach to Development Cooperation,

• Equality and non-discrimination Human rights
  belong to all people, and no individuals or
  groups rights are dispensable. The priority
  therefore has to be on those whose rights are
  most denied and violated. On this basis, women
  become a priority target group for programming.

• Participation/empowerment Human rights are owned
  by people, not by governments or UN agencies, and
  we must work to ensure this ownership. Our
  programming should therefore be designed to
  empower individuals to claim their rights.
  Facilitating womens active and meaningful
  participation in the decision-making processes
  that affect them is therefore a critical
  consideration in project design in all of our
  programming areas.

• Accountability The HRBA is concerned with
  finding ways to hold States and other actors
  accountable for their obligations. Our programmes
  therefore must be directed towards encouraging
  and supporting States to meet their obligations,
  rather than attempting to meet these needs
  ourselves.

• Targeting structural causes for the
  non-realization of rights The task of fully
  realizing a right is actually a very long-term
  project, requiring major social transformation.
  No individual agencys project or programme on
  its own will realize a right. Our work can only
  contribute to a process of social transformation,
  and to do that effectively we have to understand
  very clearly what part we can play in this
  broader process

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Objectives and criteria of gender responsive
evaluation
The Evaluation should therefore focus on how
program has resulted on the lives of those whose
rights have been most denied and violated. On
this basis, women may become a priority target
group for programming, but even within this group
it is important to focus on the most
disadvantaged groups
Equality and non-discrimination
Evaluation should therefore be focused on whether
women and men have been empowered to claim their
rights. Was the program successful in
facilitating womens and men/s active and
meaningful participation in the decision-making
processes that affect them?
Empowerment
The evaluation will focus on how the program has
been successful in facilitating, encouraging and
supporting States to meet their commitments,
rather than attempting to meet these needs by
program implementers themselves.
Accountability
The evaluation should focus on how the program
has contributed to a process of social
transformation, changes in societal perceptions
on gender roles and gender stereotypes
Social Transformation
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How do we plan and conduct a gender- based
evaluation?
1- Overall, a participatory and empowering
approach

• Who participate key stakeholders
  rights-holders and duty-bearers, women and men to
  be affected by evaluation results
• When and how formulation of evaluation TOR,
  participation as key informants, sounding board
  for evaluation recommendations

2- Select an evaluation team with

• gender perspective, expertise in gender analysis
• experience in participatory process,
  facilitation skills

3- Frame the right questions from a gender
perspective
4- Conduct a Gender analysis

• Quantitatively, through use of sex-disaggregated
  statistics
• Qualitatively, e.g., opinion analysis making
  distinctions between those of women and men

5- Use gender-sensitive indicators

• MDGs related indicators
• Gender-based human development indices (Gender
  Development Index (GDI), Gender Empowerment
  Measure (GEM)

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Achieving the MDGs has become a high priority for
all development partners national governments,
the UN system and international financial
institutions
the need to address gender inequality has been
emphasized by the Millennium Declaration
The MDGs provide a valuable opportunity for
advancing the gender equality agenda
there is both an explicit gender equality Goal in
the MDGs
There is recognition that gender equality is
important for achieving all of the Goals
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Gender-blindness of the income-poverty
eradication goal
Gender equality, as a cross-cutting concern for
the achievement of all the MDGs, is not
well-reflected in the global targets and
indicators
It does not specify the target group
It does not specify how differently poverty is
experienced by men and women across ages
The goals and indicators are framed in aggregate
terms, neither necessitating nor reflecting
gender disaggregated analysis
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Linking the MDGs with CEDAW and BEIJING
Gender equality is a cross-cutting concern for
all of the MDGs, but its proper place still needs
to be clearly articulated in targets, indicators
and strategies to achieve the Goals at the
national level.
CEDAW and Beijing provide detailed guidance on
the full range of relevant gender equality
issues, and this can be used to fine-tune MDG
agendas
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to identify the specific ways in which these
three frameworks correspond and support each other
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Provide a preliminary mapping of gender equality
issues raised by each Goal, and the corresponding
obligations and commitments under CEDAW and
Beijing

• The priorities, challenges and responses would
  vary from country to country and from region to
  region
• Consulting the concluding comments of the CEDAW
  Committee for each country, and national plans of
  action and reviews conducted under Beijing to
  reflect regional and/or country realities

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Sample questions from a gender perspective

• Has the project succeeded in promoting equal
  opportunities and benefits for men and women?
• Have women and men been disadvantaged or
  advantaged by the project?
• To what extent did a program contribute to equal
  access of women and men to services?
• Has womens status improved as a result to the
  project (i.e education level, health status,
  access to productive resources, employment
  opportunities, political and legal status)
• Has the capacity of the stakeholders been
  strengthened to implement gender-sensitive
  projects?
• Has the project been effective in integrating
  gender into the development activities?
• To what extent did a program contribute to
  strengthening the capacity of womens groups to
  participate

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Challenges in Gender-Based Evaluations
Need for steadfast commitment to, and application
of human rights and gender equality principles in
development processes, including evaluation
Need to invest in participatory processes
Need to further improve programme design and link
to evaluation

• Change in mindsets shift from donor-driven to
  participatory evaluation based on the concept of
  national ownership
• Management support from institutions
  commissioning the evaluation

• Evaluability of programs indicators, baselines,
  targets
• Mechanisms for collection of sex-disaggregated
  information on indicators as part of monitoring

Need to strengthen capacities in processes and
methodologies for gender-based evaluations

• Capacity of staff to plan and manage gender-based
  evaluations
• Capacity of evaluators for gender analysis and
  engage in multi-stakeholder discussions
• Understanding of stakeholders not traditionally
  involved in gender-based evaluations

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THANK YOU And Lets MDG
M ake D evelopment G ender-responsive