Transcript CLE Innovation

Corporate-level Evaluation on
Gender Equality and Women’s
Empowerment
Preliminary Findings
63rd Session of the Evaluation Committee
15-16 July 2010
Background

IFAD adopted a Gender Plan of Action (2003-2006),
approved by the Board in April 2003

In July 2008, the Programme Management Department
issued a Framework for Gender Mainstreaming

In October 2009, IFAD received the Global MDG3
Champion Torch

This is the first corporate-level evaluation on gender by
the Office of Evaluation
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Evaluation Objectives

What IFAD’s corporate strategy says about gender equality and
women’s empowerment (consistency, relevance) and how
effectively has it been reflected in country strategies and
projects?

What results have actually been achieved on the ground in
promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment?

Generate a series of findings and recommendations for IFAD’s
future activities related to gender equality and women’s
empowerment
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Process

Desk work including: (i) review of corporate strategy documents; (ii) metaevaluation of existing evaluative evidence; (ii) review of recently approved
COSOPs and projects; (iii) assessment of IFAD’s internal corporate
processes; and (iv) benchmarking exercise.

Five country visits to Bangladesh, Egypt, Guatemala, Mauritania and
Zambia

Presentation of preliminary findings to Management and the Evaluation
Committee in July ’10
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Preparation of draft final report
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Stakeholders’ workshop, 27-28 Sep ’10 (first of its kind)

Evaluation Committee (26 November) and Executive Board (15-16
December) discussions
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Preliminary Findings
Corporate strategy and its implementation

There is a general consensus among the Board, Senior Management and
staff of the importance in promoting gender equality and women’s
empowerment for sustainable agriculture and rural development

IFAD’s corporate strategy on paper is broadly relevant and consistent
(dispersed among numerous documents + experience-based)

Is IFAD walking the talk? The translation of strategy into action has not
been entirely adequate (e.g., administrative budget allocation, HR capacity
building, monitoring & reporting, incentives, accountability, communication,
etc)
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Preliminary Findings
Corporate strategy and its implementation

Specific, earmarked investments favoring gender and women’s
empowerment in operations is difficult to aggregate and not systematic
across the portfolio

There does not appear to be a common understanding of:
(i) related terminology: gender equality, gender equity, gender
mainstreaming, women’s empowerment; and
(ii) causes and dynamics of the gender problematic, leading to a wide range
of solutions pursued
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Preliminary Findings
Results from past operations and current
portfolio

Overall, performance of past projects is only moderately satisfactory, but
highly variable across projects and countries, and not always context
specific

Introduction of innovative solutions to gender in past operations was
moderately unsatisfactory. There are few examples of scaling up

Gender equality and women’s empowerment issues increasingly
incorporated in recent COSOPs and projects
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Preliminary Findings
Corporate Processes

There is neither incentive for excellence in this area, nor consequence for
staff who give low or no priority to the issue

Staff work planning and performance assessments is not results-oriented in
terms of gender achievements. Compliance culture predominant

Change in gender-balance in workforce is very slow, with the exception of
recent efforts at a very senior level. 6 of 23 mission members were women
(26%) in the 5 COSOPs reviewed in 2009, and only 2 gender experts. 24 of
124 mission members were women (19%) in 21 projects approved between
2003-2009, and only 6 gender experts.
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Preliminary Findings
Corporate processes

Formal gender-friendly HR policies are in place, but organizational culture
does not encourage women or men who challenge traditional workplace
practices

IFAD’s results framework, strengthened quality enhancement and quality
assurance, shift to country presence and direct supervision are paying more
attention to gender equality and women’s empowerment

Learning and knowledge on gender is not pulled together, nor is progress
systematically monitored and reported
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Preliminary Findings
Corporate Processes
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Funding for specific gender work (thematic studies, self assessments, HQ capacity
building, etc) has depended heavily on supplementary funds and TAGs
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Gender desk in Policy and Technical Advisory division does not have earmarked
annual administrative budget to support work plan and corporate strategy
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Corporate capacity through divisional Gender Focal Points is inadequate
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Gender Thematic Group is mainly a platform for exchanging information, but has no
coherent annual work plan, targets, budget, etc.
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Preliminary Conclusions

IFAD is in principle well positioned, because of its mandate and strategy to become a
global leader in this area for agriculture and rural development
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The corporate strategy is largely relevant and consistent, but not adequately
translated into action

Performance in the past however has been only moderately satisfactory and variable,
even though more recent country strategies and operations show improvements

Investments in gender-related work both in IFAD-funded operations and at HQs is
difficult to track and unsystematic. Heavy reliance on supplementary funds and TAGs

Learning and accountability framework to promote gender equality and women’s
empowerment is inadequate. Compliance rather than results culture prevalent
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Preliminary Recommendations

IFAD should develop a corporate gender policy to consolidate its strategy and
approaches
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Innovation and scaling up on gender should be an integral feature of COSOPs and
projects, as a means to achieve wider impact on rural poverty

Executive Board and Senior Management need to more actively monitor and report
progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment

Apply a results-oriented work planning and performance management system with
incentives and accountability, in order to shift from compliance to impact achievement

Invest specifically in knowledge management on gender, appoint a Champion in the
Senior Management on gender, and strengthen decentralized technical advice to
operations
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