2nd meeting, UN Women Executive Board, Annual Session 2025
Economic and Social Council
Date: 18 June 2025
Language: English
Transcript: https://transcripts.un.org/ar/asset/k16/k161g6lual?lang=en
Transcripts available through this tool are created by using automatic speech recognition and are not official records nor official documents of the United Nations. Official records and official documents are available on the Official Document System of the United Nations.

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Albania · Permanent Representative of Albania; Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [0:03]:

Good morning, Excellencies, distinguished delegates. Welcome back to the Plenary Meeting of the 2025 Annual Session of the UN Women Executive Board. I am Suela Janina, the Permanent Representative of Albania and Vice President of the Executive Board. This morning, under the first agenda item today on evaluation, the Executive Board will receive a presentation of the annual report on the evaluation function of UN Women in 2024, followed by the presentation of the corporate thematic evaluation of UN Women's support to women's participation in peace processes. Then the Executive Board will receive a presentation on the related management response and perspective. I am pleased to welcome today the following UN colleagues to the podium. Kirsy Madi, Deputy Executive Director for Resource Management, Sustainability and Partnership. Deputy Executive Director for Normative Support, UN System Coordination and Programme Results. Director, Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division. Director, Independent Evaluation, Audit and Investigation Services. Inga Kaplan, Chief, Independent Evaluation Services; and Jean-Luc Bauriez, Deputy Secretary of the Executive Board. First, I will invite Ms. Lisa Sutton, Director of the Independent Evaluation, Audit and Investigation Services, to present both the Annual Report on the Evaluation Function of UN Women in 2024 and the Corporate Thematic Evaluation of UN Women's support to women's participation in peace processes. Then I will invite Madam Deputy Executive Director to present the management response and management perspective to both these reports that will be presented to us. Without any further ado, Ms. Sutter, you have the floor.


UN Women · Director, Independent Evaluation, Audit and Investigation Services · Lisa Sutton [2:06]:

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the Executive Board, dear colleagues. Good morning. I have the pleasure of presenting the highlights from the Annual Report on the UN Women Evaluation Function. Evaluation supports the delivery of results by demonstrating accountability, providing evidence for decision-making, and contributing lessons for learning. In 2024, the Independent Evaluation Service advanced these objectives by completing corporate evaluations in the areas of women's political participation and social norms, a synthesis of UN system-wide evaluations related to SDG 5, and a formative assessment of the Gender Equality Accelerators. In addition, last year, 3 corporate evaluations were in progress on ending violence against women, sustainable finance, and support to women in peace processes. Moreover, a synthesis of UN Women's performance against the Strategic Plan was progressed to provide insight into the new Strategic Plan. At the decentralized level, 50 evaluations were conducted or in progress. The Independent Evaluation Service led or managed 18 strategic evaluations at the regional and country level, of which 6 country portfolio evaluations were completed, of UN Women's work in Niger, Burundi, Rwanda, Mali, Timor-Leste, and Syria program presence. In 2024, corporate evaluation performance indicators remained good. Financial resources spent on evaluation across UN Women represented 1.6% of program expenditure, falling short of the 2% minimum target. There is a need to ensure sustained investment and protection of evaluation resources. Evaluation quality remained high, with all completed evaluations rated either as very good or good. Human resources across UN Women for evaluation and evaluation implementation rates saw increases in 2024. Engagement in joint evaluations increased, accounting for 35% of all evaluations conducted across UN Women. In terms of evaluation coverage, all but 3 country offices had at least one evaluation during their strategic note cycle, and 2 of these offices have already initiated evaluation processes in 2025. While the implementation of management responses fell slightly to 86%, this was largely attributable to the introduction of a more rigorous monitoring and tracking system. The use of evaluation remains strong, with 90% of offices reporting the use of evaluation to inform strategic planning, strengthen program approaches, and identify new opportunities. This is also consistent with what we've seen at the corporate level, where the connection is being made between evaluations and planning. In the area of partnerships, the Independent Evaluation Service continued to co-convene the United Nations Evaluation Group Gender Equality, Disability, and Human Rights Working Group, and continued to serve as Secretariat for the UN SWAP Evaluation Performance Indicator. The Evaluation Service engaged in interagency humanitarian evaluations and UN system-wide evaluations and initiatives to ensure that evaluations incorporate gender equality. This includes leading an SDG 5 synthesis and co-chairing the People Pillar synthesis of the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition. In 2024, the Evaluation Service continued its partnerships for national evaluation capacity development and supported country-level evaluations of national gender strategies and policies, including the Liberia National Gender Policy Evaluation and a peacebuilding evaluation in Guatemala. Looking ahead, the Independent Evaluation Service will continue to conduct corporate strategic evaluations, provide technical assistance to decentralized evaluations, and build evaluation partnerships in the UN system. It will continue to place strong emphasis on strengthening evaluation use and communication. To conclude, despite constrained resources, there's sustained recognition from reviews like MOPAN or by the Joint Inspection Unit that evaluation in UN Women remains credible and critical to delivering results and strengthening impact. In this context, evaluation is not just a tool for accountability. Timely evaluation evidence remains essential for implementing and guiding UN Women's strategic plan strategies, informing programming at the country level. I extend my sincere appreciation to our team and for their dedication, and to management for their collaboration and commitment. And the Board can continue to rely on UN Women's robust, independent evaluation function to ensure that in times of uncertainty and constrained resources, the entity stays focused. And now, members of the Executive Board, I have the pleasure of presenting the results of the corporate evaluation of UN Women's support women's participation in peace processes. This work, conducted by the Independent Evaluation Service, supports accountability, learning, and strategic improvement. Since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action and Security Council Resolution 1325, evidence shows that women's participation in peace processes enhances the effectiveness of those peace processes. UN Women has been a strong advocate for ensuring that women and women's organizations are included at all levels of peace processes. Through these efforts, UN Women pushes for a more inclusive and effective approach to peace and security. The independent evaluation found that UN Women has made meaningful contributions in 5 core ways. First, by convening stakeholders, including women from across political, ethnic, and geographic divides, and this has helped to build common agendas and create opportunities for women to access decision-makers and peace actors. Second, by raising awareness and political commitment at national, regional, and global levels. UN Women has kept women's voices present in national peace frameworks and in regional bodies like the African Union and in UN Security Council deliberations, driving member-state accountability on women, peace, and security. Third, by supporting and accompanying civil society organizations, building their technical, organizational, and leadership capacity to influence peace processes from start to implementation. Fourth, by embedding gender equality and women, peace, and security in institutions and policy frameworks, such as national action plans and peace agreements, for example, in Colombia. And fifth, through partnerships, especially where UN Women has political access and local presence, for example, in Georgia, with the co-chairs of the Geneva International Discussion. Supporting women's participation in peace processes is deeply rooted in UN Women's unique integrated mandate and its consistent relationships with women's movements, especially those at the grassroots. UN Women brings voices to peace tables that are otherwise excluded. Sustainable results are found where UN Women supports the institutions, policies, and capacities to ensure that women's participation, even in the face of significant setbacks is there. Looking inside UN Women, the evaluation found that politically skilled personnel, senior representatives, presence in country, deep contextual knowledge, and enabling corporate procedures are critical drivers to deliver. The evaluation recommends that UN Women reinforce these areas. The evaluation also recommends focusing on women's capacity to engage in peace processes, building demand for women's participation, among peace process actors. Let me close with the powerful example of Colombia, where UN Women brought together more than 1,000 women from all different backgrounds, amplifying women's voices and strengthening women's influence to develop a unified agenda on peace. The evidence reinforces that investing in women's leadership is essential for lasting peace. UN Women's work in peace processes matters, and UN Women makes a difference. Thank you.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [9:55]:

Thank you, Lisa, for your presentation. I would like now to invite Ms. Neredzai Gubuzdava for her presentation. Madam Deputy Executive Director, you have the floor.


UN Women · Deputy Executive Director · Neredzai Gubuzdava [10:05]:

Thank you. Thank you so much, Madam Vice President, and Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, and dear colleagues. Let me greet the dear delegates because this is my first time to also take the floor and to greet with During this this board session, I'm pleased to present the summary of the management response to the 2024 report on the evaluation function of UN Women. As UN Women, we welcome this report and its findings. I would like to express our appreciation for the work of the independent evaluation office. They maintain an independent. A credible and a useful evaluation function, contributing to system-wide gender-responsive evaluation initiatives and national evaluation capacity development, considering national plans and priorities. UN Women is benefiting tremendously from the corporate and decentralized evaluations. As a data and evidence-driven organization, High-quality evaluations are foundational to our work. The meta-analysis of the existing evaluation has been a fundamental building block for the development of the next strategic plan, 2026 to 2029, and myself and my colleague, Kessie Madi, would dive into those evaluations as we continued to guide and work with our teams. On developing the strategic plan. Similarly, the corporate evaluation on social norms has provided important guidance and evidence to further shape that work. We are pleased with the KPIs on the overall positive trajectory. The KPIs are an important tool for tracking progress and identifying areas of improvement. One key performance indicator where we saw a decrease was the implementation of the management responses. This may be partly due to the recent change in the tracking system, but important to follow up on. One KPI where we saw positive development is the use of the evaluations. We already see a lot of application and use. Including to inform the development of new programs and projects and resource mobilization initiatives. But we also see opportunities to further deepen the work and develop new tools and new technology, such as AI, into our evaluations approach. In line with the pivot to countries and regions, we are pleased that we have a strong collaboration in place with regional evaluation specialists. Building on this partnership, capacity-building efforts have been undertaken with UN Women offices to equip staff with not only the practical tools of evaluation planning and implementation, but also a deeper understanding of gender-responsive evaluation methodologies. Looking forward, UN Women remains fully committed to further strengthen the quality, the coverage and the use of corporate and decentralized evaluations in strong collaboration with the Independent Evaluation Office. Finally, UN Women will continue to engage in the interagency processes and advocate for more use of the UN system development cooperation frameworks and drawing on these evaluations. Excellencies, turning to the next evaluation I'm pleased to present management and corporate response to the corporate evaluation of UN Women's support to women's participation in peace processes. Let me start by recognizing your very strong statements yesterday and your strong commitment to the issue of women, peace and security, and echo the Executive Director's words that we need peace now more than ever. So as we respond to the evaluation, a report, I wanted to echo those words. This evaluation report comes at a critical moment as we mark the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 amid escalating global conflict, deepening militarization, and shrinking civic space. The increasing volatile global context, the evolving nature of peace processes, and the deepening of backlash against the gender equality make the realization of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda more urgent and more complex. Allow me, Your Excellencies, to say some of us were born in war. I dream of peace every night. UN Women welcomes the evaluation's recognition of our contributions to advancing women's participation in peace processes. We are encouraged by the confirmation of our strong partnership with civil society, diverse women's groups and regional organizations, the sustainability of our work with national action plans and with member states, and our convening role in the fragile context. At the global level, our policy and coordination work with the UN Security Council, DPPA, the WPFs, and Humanitarian Action Compact and the Focal Points Network has ensured that women's voices and perspectives remain visible in international peace and security discussions. The evaluation offers timely and valuable recommendations, many of which are already informing our work. We recognize the need to strengthen political and diplomatic expertise in conflict contexts, We concur that increasing women's meaningful participation requires strengthening gender and conflict analysis, deepening political engagement, and enhancing partnership. These are very important issues in our evaluation also around resourcing. As UN Women agrees, agrees that stronger engagement with the peace process actors is necessary to drive consistent demand for women's participation to counter the gender backlash, and equally the importance of protection of women human rights defenders, including women peacebuilders, in strengthening coordination across the UN system to ensure protection, voice, and leadership, including through the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan. Your Excellencies, UN Women will act on the evaluation recommendations. However, we underscore that these actions are sustained flexible and predictable resources to be effectively implemented. Without adequate investment, our ability to deliver on these recommendations will be constrained. As we commemorate the 25th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325, we must treat this as a call to investment and recommit to inclusion and— to inclusive and sustainable peace with urgency that the current context demands. UN Women stands ready to work across country, region, and global levels to ensure that women lead, participate, and shape peace processes. When women lead, peace follows. Thank you, and I look forward to the discussion.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [17:38]:

Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Executive Director, for your comprehensive and inspiring presentation. Now I would like to open the floor to member states, to the delegates, to make any comment or question about these 2 briefings that we have heard from colleagues of UN Women. I see Colombia and Switzerland asking for the floor. I now give the floor to the distinguished delegate of Colombia. You have the floor.


Colombia · Delegate [18:10]:

Thank you. Thank you very much, Madam. Colombia is grateful for the report on the evaluation, function evaluation for UN Women 2024, to make sure that this body is best prepared and positioned to address all of the needs of women and girls worldwide. We welcome the thematic approach to support of UN Women and the participation of women in the peace process. The evaluation acknowledges, as an entity, the strategies required to implement the Women, Peace and Security agenda. We welcome the case basis and the evaluation. For example, the presence of women at the subnational level has addressed the issue of rural victims so that these women's voice can be heard in the peace process. At the same time, technical support by UN Women, such as the Truth and Verification Committee, the Special Body for Women, Interelia, have been useful in the implementation of peace. We see the 2016 agreement as a landmark and the involvement of women in the peace process. Colombia agrees with the 5 strategic recommendations of this evaluation, and we're convinced that we need to bolster the capacity of women negotiators negotiators to open real spaces for the involvement of women and the diplomatic and political presence of women with personal experts in analyzing conflicts from a gender perspective. There are transferable practices, and that will make all the difference in including the needs and the rights of women and girls in the peace processes. That being said, we also welcome the response from administration for the rapid implementation of these recommendations, Madam Colombia has had a long and challenging past seeking peace. We have come up against obstacles, but we've also gained valuable lessons and experience. Since 2024, we've had the South-South Cooperation Program between Colombia and the world. We share our experience in building peace with countries which are also going through similar processes, and we include the gender perspective. It is part of the themes that we include in our portfolio— DDR, transitional justice, community involvement, to mention but a few. Madam Chairman, for Colombia, the peace and involvement of women is something we hope will be lasting. It should be implemented in every community so that women have the right to build and live in peace. Thank you.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [20:52]:

I thank the distinguished delegate of Colombia, and now I invite the distinguished delegate of Switzerland, to take the floor.


Switzerland · Delegate [21:03]:

Thank you very much, Madam Vice President, for giving me the floor. I make this statement on behalf of Albania, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, Türkiye, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the European Union as a donor, and my own country, Switzerland. The importance and value of quality evaluations and audits to an organization cannot be overstated. We would thus first and foremost like to recognize the IES for maintaining a high-quality, independent, and impactful evaluation function on all results achieved in 2024. We especially want to highlight the commitment to the reform agenda by working in partnership for gender-responsive evaluations through UNEP, system-wide and joint evaluations, and engaging with MOPAN. We also highly welcome the progress in building internal evaluation capacity. Can IES share more details on the evaluation professionalization initiative? Only a few months remain till the end of 2025, and we thus encourage UN Women Management and IES to pay close attention to those 5 key performance indicators that do not appear close to reaching the 2025 targets. We would like to highlight 3. First, evaluation implementation rate. We welcome IES' focus to undertake fewer but more relevant and strategic evaluations. This is especially important in the current funding crisis. There remain, however, still a large number of decentralised evaluations. What can be done to further reduce this by IES, by UN Women Management, and by Member States? Second, we appreciate the efforts of IES and the commitment of UN Women Management to strengthen the use of evaluation, but more is required to ensure that UN Women colleagues at all levels that are responsible for integrating evaluation findings and lessons learned into planning and programming. Can UN Women management provide concrete examples of how the findings of evaluations were taken into account when developing the new strategic plan? For example, on the need for a more coherent and systemic approach to social norms change, how is this currently reflected in the new strategic plan? And could IES share more information on the strategy on evaluation use? Last but not least, it is all about the money. It has been a persistent ask from our side to reach the target set in the evaluation policy, and this KPI seems far off track. In the current context, there is a risk adequate funding to oversight functions is deprioritized, even though it is exactly in periods of rapid change where strong oversight is needed. Can UN Women Management provide information on how the IEAS will be affected by budget cuts already in 2025? And can IES respond to how this would affect the 2025 programme of work? We call on UN Women to prioritize a strong and independent evaluation function that is adequately resourced. We take note that a new corporate evaluation plan will be developed. We expect a continued prioritization of fewer but more strategic evaluations, more joint evaluations to give us a holistic picture of UN efforts and support at country level, and a maintained focus on the use of evaluations and learning across countries and regions. Let me conclude by saying we remain committed to supporting the IES and its important role in fostering learning, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making and programming on gender equality within UN Women, the UN system and beyond. Thank you very much for your attention.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [25:05]:

I thank the distinguished delegate of Switzerland for delivering this statement on behalf of a group of members. And now I invite the Secretariat to respond to these 2 interventions by members. Lisa, you have the floor.


UN Women · Director, Independent Evaluation, Audit and Investigation Services · Lisa Sutton [25:18]:

Thank you very much, distinguished delegates of the Executive Board, and thank you very much for recognizing the importance of oversight, the importance of evaluation for integrity, transparency, and trust. I'd like to respond to the intervention by the distinguished delegate from Colombia, and thank you also for your recognition of the importance that UN Women has played in Colombia for forging peace. Indeed, UN Women has a unique role, and it's brought its regional expertise, its sub-regional expertise, to the table. UN Women is really strong in ensuring that women's movements are engaged in peace processes through its consistent and strong relationships with the women's peace movement, and we'd like to see that continue. And I, I've heard management's comments that this will continue, so I'm very hopeful. Thank you very much to the distinguished delegate from Switzerland for your intervention on behalf of a number of Indeed, I also appreciate very much your appreciation of evaluation in times of crisis. Evaluation exists to serve the Board in its governance role and to serve management in its stewardship role, and in times of crisis, in times of reform, independent evidence is important to inform decisions and improve programs.

Thank you.

Let me respond to some of the specific questions that you have raised to my office. In terms of the professionalization initiative, this is indeed a unique function that we play to help all of UN Women improve its evaluation posture. And this is not new. It is a professionalization initiative that that we have been rolling out now for several years, and it's aimed at UN Women personnel, primarily those in managing evaluations, those in monitoring and evaluation functions. And it's focused around supporting them to acquire knowledge through our resource materials, through our handbooks, through e-learning courses, through coaching, but also applying that knowledge hands-on. In 2024, we reached many UN Women colleagues with learning sessions, with coaching, with hands-on support. For example, in Ecuador, in Liberia, and Central African Republic, we've seen progress in terms of the certification process of certain colleagues around evaluation. This is really important to ensure that there's a demand for evaluation and that there's a focus on evaluation to ensure that the prerequisites to be able to evaluate exist in programming. In terms of your questions on the targets and the evaluation implementation rate and how to reduce the number of small-scale evaluations, indeed, this is something we've been advocating for for some time. I think it comes from us advocating with management to prioritize strategic evaluations. Those are country portfolio evaluations, thematic evaluations, cluster evaluations. And it also relies on, I believe, also a trust of our donors, of our funding partners, to rely on those strategic evaluations to inform programming and to prioritize those. We can also do more in terms of ensuring, through our guidance to colleagues, that they advocate at field, country, and global level for reliance on strategic evaluations. And we can also help to ensure that funding is available for those strategic evaluations, particularly those at the country level. Country portfolio evaluations, strategic cluster evaluations, all require evaluation funding to be available and protected. On our strategy on evaluation use, indeed, an evaluation is as useful as it is used. We have been working to measure and to try to promote evaluation use since we have been in existence, yet it's a time to take a fresh look in terms of how can we further support evaluation use. And in this regard, we have conducted some outreach, conducted some surveys to understand what are some of the current bottlenecks around evaluation use to be able to inform programming and to inform decisions. And here what we want to do is really to build the culture and to build the demand for evaluations across UN Women. We want to make the evidence accessible and clear through strategic communications. And we want to ensure that the knowledge that is available is available— the knowledge that we create and report from evaluations is available across UN Women and across all stakeholders, civil society, others working in the sphere of gender equality. And in terms of the targets and funding, indeed, I agree, in times of crisis, oversight is essential for transparency. Transparency, integrity, and trust. It goes without saying that without funding, we are unable to conduct evaluations. We are unable to conduct some of our outreach. And I would highlight and just end here by saying that I believe we already have a very lean evaluation function. We conduct evaluations ourselves, and we do see and advocate for evaluations to take place at country level. However, we do see that resources are stretched, and that means that, for example, a country portfolio evaluation may take place only once over 2 strategic note cycles. So, essential to ensure that evaluation funding remains set, and we will continue to monitor that and report to you. Thank you.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [31:22]:

Thank you very much, Lisa, for your reply. Now I would like to invite Madame Deputy Executive Director, for her remarks.


UN Women · Deputy Executive Director · Neredzai Gubuzdava [31:32]:

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Madam Vice President. I will respond quickly to the— just to the question on social norms and the strategic plan, and would defer to my colleague, the Director for Policy, to respond to the other questions that have been raised. And, Madam Vice President, my colleague, Didi Kesimadi, will respond to the issue on resources. Thank you so much. The question that has been raised on how social norms are integrated, the evaluations and learning from social norms into our work moving forward, is part of the core presentations that would also be there this afternoon when we present on the strategic plan, to emphasize that our strategic plan is the 3 systemic outcomes, which are based on the understanding that norms, social norms, shape legal standards, they shape access to services, they shape attitudes, and this is why in our strategic plan for 2026 moving forward is the prioritization of norms and standards. is a critical systemic outcome in addition to the other outcomes, systemic outcomes related to accountability of institutions and the focus on the agency of women and girls. So, we'll provide further information when we present the strategic plan later in the day. Indeed, we did make use of the evaluations that have been there around social norms. Madam Vice President, I would like to defer through you to Sarah Hendricks to respond to the other substantive comments and on issues that have been raised.


UN Women · Director · Sarah Hendricks [33:29]:

Thank you so much, Didi, and thank you, Madam Vice President, and indeed to all of the delegates here for your strong engagement on this important discussion on the evaluation function, as well as on the specific evaluation on the participation of women in peace processes. And I'd like to thank in particular the Honourable Delegate from Colombia for your remarks and certainly for the collaboration with UN Women in terms of advancing women, peace and security work. We congratulate Colombia for producing such an important landmark peace agreement as it comes to women's participation. And indeed, the Colombian peace process remains such a strong example, not just for the region, but certainly for the world over, in terms of how women can meaningfully participate and provide lessons learned and good practice to advise other peace processes, and also to fundamentally inform peacebuilders on mechanisms and approaches that they can use in their own contexts. The evaluation on UN Women's work supporting women in peace processes reaffirms the important approach that was undertaken in Colombia And certainly UN Women welcomes the findings of the evaluation and very much appreciates the recognition that the evaluation pointed to on our positive contributions to advancing women's participation in peace processes. The evaluation provides a very valuable opportunity to reflect on progress, as well as challenges and lessons learned, and ensure that women's UN Women's work supporting women in peace. processes continues to move forward from strength to strength in terms of our support to member states to create an enabling environment for women's participation, in terms of our support to women themselves within peace processes, and in terms of the design and implementation of peace agreements that have references to women, girls, and to gender equality. On the second question from the Honourable Delegate from Switzerland, allow me just to add to the points that DED Gomindjwanda has already highlighted by emphasizing the important ways that UN Women has utilized our evaluations in the building out of our current— excuse me, our new strategic plan. And here I do want to just emphasize that UN Women has leveraged a strong range of evaluations, as well as synthetic findings from a meta-analysis of existing evidence and lessons learned as a fundamental building block for the development of the next strategic plan. This included 54 UN Women corporate, regional, and country-level evaluations, audits, and reports, 17 evaluations and audits by UN Women's development partners as well during the course of this current strategic plan. And this was complemented with our own analysis of responses to the range of different inputs, including on survey questions on lessons learned in UN Women's current strategic plan and through our annual reports. All of this really has enabled UN Women to sharpen our focus in our new strategic plan and to ensure that it is evidence-based. And with this, I'll pass back to you, Vice President, for the response on resources.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [37:17]:

Thank you very much, Director Hendricks. I now give the floor to Didi Madi for your replies.


UN Women · Deputy Executive Director for Resource Management, Sustainability and Partnership · Kirsti Mati [37:25]:

Thank you very much, Madam Vice President. And just to complement on the responses that my colleagues have already provided on the resourcing. But just perhaps before I mention the resourcing, just I want to really, really appreciate also your call for fewer but more strategic evaluations. And I think we've already done good progress on that, and I really want to also, from my side, to appreciate and thank the Internal Evaluation Service for the collaboration we have. Because it's very— it's critical to remember evaluation is not just an oversight function, it's also a learning function. And it's really important that we are making sure that we are taking full use of that. And just give you a few examples on how we are doing that. For example, we have a quarterly business review and we are tracking the implementation of the evaluations as part of the QBR. Also, on the resourcing, we are reviewing options for including an indicator in this quarterly business review to track financial resource allocations and expenditure for evaluation throughout the year. Also, together with IEAS and ourselves in the management, we've discussed exploring the sort of more— let's say, more innovative ways of dissemination, of the results, podcasts, audio summaries, AI tools, to ensure that there would be really a full use of the evaluations. We've also discussed innovative approaches for developing and utilizing synthesis reports across country-level evaluations to inform the strategic planning and support to the new country office strategic notes. Now, this is, of course, in addition to clear guidance that we already have provided, that the findings from the evaluations must be reflected in the strategy note development processes, and the implementation of findings and recommendations from the evaluations, just as well as from audits, need to be prioritized. And I really appreciate also that the annual report that our independent service has provided, actually have expressed a strong appreciation for management integration of evaluation findings to inform also the next strategic plan that we will be discussing shortly. Now, on the resourcing, of course, overall, the financial situation, as you all are aware, is a challenging one. And we have asked all offices, all divisions, including the IES, to reduce the core with 15% in light of the RR forecast. So I just want to emphasize how important, again, the regular resources contributions are, the continued and predictable support, because it is through these regular resources we can ensure the financial sustainability sustainability in the organization and including financial sustainability of our internal oversight capacity. Thank you.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [40:43]:

Thank you, Didi-Malti, for your replies. Now, if there are no further requests for comments or intervention, we can conclude the discussion under this item and continue with the next item on our agenda. It's item 4, Audit and Investigation Matters. Under this item, the Executive Board will receive a presentation on the report of the internal audit and investigation activities for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2024, as well as the report of the Advisory Committee on Oversight for the same period. their related management responses. I would like to invite to the podium the following colleagues, along with the Deputy Executive Director and the Secretary: Anna-Karin Jätfors, Director, Strategy Planning, Resources and Effectiveness Division; Lisa Sutton, Director, Independent Evaluation, Audit and Investigation Services; Rachel Mandeville, Chief, Independent Audit Services, and Jennifer Lesser, Advisory Committee on Oversight, who is joining us online. First, I'm pleased to invite the Director of the Independent Evaluation, Audit, and Investigation Services, Lisa Sutton, to present the report on the internal audit and investigation activities from the period from 1st of January to 31st of December 2024. Then I will invite Jennifer Lester from the Advisory Committee on Oversight to present the report on the Advisory Committee on Oversight for the same period of last year. And following this presentation, I will invite Ms. Kursimati to present the related management responses. I would like now to invite Lisa Sutton for her presentation. Lisa, you have the floor.


UN Women · Director, Independent Evaluation, Audit and Investigation Services · Lisa Sutton [42:42]:

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, members of the Executive Board, colleagues. Good morning again. I have the pleasure of presenting an overview of the Annual Report on Internal Audit and Investigation. With UN Women's mandate to deliver for all women and girls, it's crucial that all resources are used effectively and efficiently. Internal audit and investigation activities underpin trust and integrity. They help organizations to to reach their objectives in an accountable, fair, and transparent manner. In 2024, my office continued to be independent, with the freedom to decide on the scope of our work and to report on our work. We enjoyed full access to information and a seat at the table to provide evidence and advice to management in the stewardship of the organization. We are reliant upon the management to provide resources to deliver our mandate. At present, the Internal Audit Service can assess large and high-risk offices every 3 to 4 years, with medium-sized offices reached over a 7-year cycle. In 2024, UN Women established the Internal Investigation Function, demonstrating management's commitment to strengthening and supporting timely investigations into potential misconduct. While I recognize the challenging funding environment and reform, I highlight the need to ensure that resources are protected for oversight and that UN Women's internal investigation function is stably funded. Last year, we conducted work on 17 audit and advisory assignments. We issued 11 final reports, of which 9 were audits with overall opinions assessed. 5 entities or processes were assessed as satisfactory, the highest rating of a 4-tier system, and 4 were assessed as partially satisfactory, the second-highest ranking. This work formed the basis for our overall opinion that overall UN Women's governance risk management and controls were, in aggregate, satisfactory, with some improvements needed. We appreciate and highlight the continuing maturity of UN Women's governance and risk management. The transparency portal makes data widely accessible, and quarterly business reviews support organizational effectiveness objectives. In our annual opinion, we make 4 overarching objectives— observations, sorry. The second line, in terms of management oversight, is improving but needs further enhancement. More technical capacity should be available at decentralized levels. The statement of internal controls is progressing and should be finalized, and risks around cybersecurity and data governance should continue to be monitored and addressed. Looking globally, the pivot to regions and countries aims to shift UN Women's business model and culture. Given pressures on funding, management's indicated that the pivot should create cost savings is welcome. We also encourage UN Women to continue to focus on process efficiency and value for money to maximize impact and resources for results. We track actions that management takes to address our recommendations, and last year, following a rigorous review and follow-up effort, the percentage of long-outstanding internal audit recommendations decreased to 3%. This is a marked improvement from from previous years. Turning now to investigations. In 2024, UN Women launched a hybrid model for investigations, establishing an independent internal investigation function and continuing to engage the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services as an external investigations provider. UN OIOS continues to handle intake of all UN Women complaints, and in 2024, there were 76 new allegations of potential misconduct, up from 63 reported in the previous year. The increase in types of allocations are consistent, in my view, with trends across international organizations and reflects positively on the growing awareness of reporting mechanisms as well as management control measures that are designed to identify risks and red flags in a timely manner. 71 cases were closed in 2024, of which 62 were closed after preliminary assessment, and 9 were closed after investigation. Of the 62 cases closed after preliminary assessment, OIOS referred 39 cases to my office for consideration on potential action. Looking ahead, and before closing, Madam Chair, I'd like to highlight some goals and priorities as we seek to support UN Women in a rapidly changing and challenging environment. We will continue to provide timely assurance on key risks. risks that emerge as a trusted advisor. We will seek ways to leverage technology and complete an assurance mapping to ensure the best use of oversight resources. And we will continue to build a strong investigation function that promotes confidence and trust. Madam Chair, in closing, I would like to thank my internal audit colleagues team, my investigation colleagues team, UNOIOS for their dedicated contributions in 2024. Thank you.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [47:28]:

Thank you very much, Lisa. I'm now pleased to invite Jennifer Lester from the Advisory Committee on Oversight to present virtually the report of the Advisory Committee on Oversight. Ms. Lester, you have the floor.


ACO · Incoming ACO Chair · Jennifer Lester [47:43]:

Thank you very much. Good morning, Madam Chair, distinguished delegates, and colleagues from UN Women. Can you all hear me?


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [47:52]:

Yes, we hear you. We can hear you clear and loud.


ACO · Incoming ACO Chair · Jennifer Lester [47:54]:

Okay, so I'm Jennifer Lester. I'm sitting in for May Kit Wan, who is the chair, the current chair of the Advisory Committee, who unfortunately could not be here today. I have the pleasure to present to the board on behalf of the committee the key highlights of the ACO's annual report for the year 2024, and it will be in the form of a short PowerPoint that you can see.

Next slide.

I mean, yeah, so there are 4 parts to my presentation. First, I'll give you an overview to recap the mandate of the Oversight Committee. Second, the scope of our work and the report. And then thirdly and fourthly, conclusions on the review of the UN Women's oversight functions and on our review of UN Women's governance, risk management, and controls.

Thank you.

Next slide. So, in terms of its mandate, in accordance with the terms of reference, the ACO is appointed to provide the Executive Director of UN Women independent external advice on the entity's overall systems of governance, accountability, and internal control. The committee, as you know, is comprised of 5 external independent experts with diverse and relevant skills. Necessary to undertake the role. During the year, as always, we remain fully independent in discharging our responsibility. And I just want to take this opportunity to thank UNW's Executive Director, her management team and staff, and the Secretariat for their tremendous support, responsiveness, and transparency, which are critical for us to carry out our role. I would also like to record our appreciation to IAEIS for sharing their invaluable insights of their evaluation of UNW's governance and controls, which provides significant input also for our work. So, in terms of the annual report, it focuses on 2 key areas: review of the oversight functions of UN Women and the review of the governance, risk management, and internal controls, including financial management and information systems. Next slide, please. So, turning to the review of the oversight functions, uh, our review included 5 key areas, which were the international audit services— sorry, internal audit services, internal evaluation services, the Internal Investigation Services housed within UNW, and the Investigation Division of the UN OIOS, which, which serves to constitute this hybrid system which Ms. Sutton just referred to. Fourth is the ethics function, and fifth is the UN Board of Auditors. And our observations and conclusions are based on 3 in-person meetings held in New York during 2024, and one field visit to the country regional and regional office in Nairobi, Kenya. Could we have the next slide, please? Which is the review of oversight functions. So in summary, the ACO found that all the oversight functions continue to provide valuable results and useful results to UN Women. And we encourage UN Women to continue their reliance on and their utilization of this, their work and findings, so as to achieve a robust governance and risk management framework. Let me now just go through the key observations for each oversight function.

Thank you.

First, the Internal Audit Service, IAS, as we alluded to, continues to provide independent, high-quality audits and advisory work. We are— the ACO is pleased to note the significant reduction in the number of longstanding audit issues. This is due to management's and IAS's follow-up efforts in tracking and reviewing the relevance of audit recommendations. Now, notwithstanding this improvement, ACO emphasizes the need for stronger second-line functions and management oversight to sustain this robust control environment with a strong control culture and ownership to ensure timely resolution of audit recommendations. Second, the IES, which we heard a report on just, just a while ago, continues to contribute to corporate evaluations and conducted evaluations that provide evidence and recommendations to support the development of the strategic plan. And it provides valuable support for decentralized evaluations and training to help strengthen evaluation capacity and skills across regional offices and needs to continue to be even more strategic going forward. In terms of the investigation services, we were pleased that the charter— IEAIS charter was updated to mandate IEAIS to conduct investigations and that the internal investigation function has been established and is operating to complement investigation services provided by the UN OIOS. So the ACO believes that this hybrid investigation model reflects management's commitment to integrity and the development of a sustainable investigation capacity. However, we underscore that sustainable funding is needed to ensure this hybrid model can continue to operate beyond 2025 and eventually to fully internalize investigation services within UN Women. The 4th oversight function I want to mention today is ethics. And the ACO noted the growing impact of the in-house ethics function since it was established in April 2023. The ethics advisor has taken important steps to promote staff awareness and adherence to ethical standards and policies through targeted training, outreach, peer service channels, and oversight of the financial disclosure program. The ACO remains concerned, however, about the adequacy and sustainability sustainability of funding for the Ethics Office and emphasized that a well-resourced ethics function is critical for effective risk management. And fifthly, on the UN Board of Auditors, we are pleased to note that the UNW received an unqualified opinion from UN Board of Auditors for its 2023 financials for the 13th consecutive year. We're also pleased to note the good progress in the implementation of the UN BOA's audit recommendations, implementing a 92% implementation rate for prior years' recommendations. Next slide.

Review of—

let me turn now to the review of governance, risk management, and controls. Our overall conclusion is that there is strong management commitment to organizational excellence and business transformation as key drivers for achieving UN Women's overall strategic goals. However, we have highlighted in our report key improvement areas to strengthen corporate governance, align resources effectively, and enhance control systems. Next slide.

Okay.

So the key improvement areas, let me just go through them quickly, are one, financial resources. And the ACO has repeatedly highlighted the need to enhance budget allocation methodology to align with strategic objectives and strengthen operations and field presence. especially in this constrained resource environment. We compliment management for the progress in implementing the direct project costing model, but there's a need to maintain a sufficient core funding base and to develop innovative thinking on a sustained financial structure. Okay, and just quickly, we wanted also to highlight the importance of a strong and well-resourced HR function and the development of a people strategy for line resources. We're pleased to note that the pivot into regions and countries is going well, and it's a major initiative that needs to be closely monitored to ensure potential issues and challenges are promptly identified and addressed. I will stop here. This is the end of my presentation. Thank you very much, and I'll hand back over to—


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [56:56]:

Thank you, Thank you very much, Ms. Lester, for your presentation. I would like now to invite Ms. Kirsti Mati to present the related management responses to both reports. Ms. Mati, you have the floor.


UN Women · Deputy Executive Director for Resource Management, Sustainability and Partnership · Kirsti Mati [57:09]:

Thank you, Madam President, distinguished delegates, and colleagues. It's my pleasure to provide the management response to the 2024 report on internal audit and investigation activities as well as the Advisory Committee on Oversight. First, I would like to just start by extending again my sincere appreciation to Ms. Lisa Sutton, Director of the Independent Evaluation, Audit and Investigation Services, and her entire team for their assurance and advisory services, which are critical to advancing UN Women's operational effectiveness. I also would like to thank Ms. Suzette Schulz, Director of the Investigations Division from the Office of Internal Oversight Services, OIOS, and Ms. Maked Wan for having served as the ACO Chair. Lastly, I would like to warmly welcome Ms. Rachel Mandeville, our new Chief of Internal Audit Services, and Ms. Jennifer Lester as the incoming ACO Chair. UN Women acknowledges the critical contributions of the IAS and ACO as assurance and advisory providers. We carefully review and consider their findings and recommendations, which directly support us as we continue to strengthen our internal governance, risk management, and overall accountability across the organization. Their insights, complemented by those of other oversight bodies, help sharpen our focus, inform our decision-making, and ensure more effective use of available resources. We are pleased to receive the 2024 IAS audit opinion, an acknowledgement that in aggregate, our governance, risk management, and control processes were assessed as satisfactory, with some improvement needed. 2024 marks the first year where the majority of audit reports were rated satisfactory, and for the second year in a row, no audits were rated as major improvement needed. Long outstanding audit recommendations dropped to just 3% by the end of 2024, down from the 11% from the previous year and well below our 14% corporate target. And I really want to thank both Lisa and her team, as well as all my colleagues, for having made a tremendous effort to make sure that this happens. This has been really a collaborative effort across the whole organization. As you will note from our written management response, we continue to enhance the effectiveness of our internal control systems. To strengthen the second line of defense and redefine roles and responsibilities to ensure clear accountabilities. The development and rollout of tools such as the Transparency Portal, Quantum ERP enhancements, and the new statement of internal controls signal a clear commitment to clear and streamlined accountability mechanisms. UN Women will continue to prioritize implementation of the key recommendations. For example, in the areas of cybersecurity, data governance, anti-fraud framework, and third-party risk management, we aim to close the remaining recommendations within 2025. We appreciate ACO's guidance also on navigating the funding landscape. UN Women is actively seeking to diversify our funding base, while at the same time, of course, counting on our existing funding partners for their continued support. And I hope your strong political support expressed yesterday will also translate into those funding contributions. But at the same time, we are looking at ways to diversify including through growing contributions from individual giving. This, however, again requires investments in the digital transformation in the organization, and these investments are challenging in the current financial context. Efficiency measures and our pivot to the regions are also ensuring that we continue to deliver despite the challenging financial situation, and really making sure that we can have the greatest return on all resources. We welcome ACO's and IASC's recognition of our pivot to the regions and countries. This transformation is grounded in efficiency, in accountability, and our duty of care to our staff, bringing decision-making closer to the partners and communities we serve. We share the concerns ACIO has expressed on the sustainability of the human resource function, and we are addressing through the recently concluded review of the HR function, as well as the development of the Forward-Looking People Strategy, which will focus on workforce planning, talent management, and career and leadership development to ensure that UN Women is investing investing in a strong, forward-leaning workforce. In addition, UN Women is advancing the rollout of the PCA modality with enhanced benefits and entitlements for our affiliate personnel. UN Women at all times prioritizes an ethical organizational culture through a strong accountability framework, safe reporting mechanisms, informal conflict resolution services, psychosocial support, and global network of 118 BSCASH focal points who ensure victim-survival-centered approaches. In 2024, the Organization reinforced its investigative capacity through the launch of a hybrid investigation model, supporting the effectiveness and sustainability of the investigations. We note with appreciation the 85% increase in ethics service requests, which is driven by expanded outreach efforts at the regional and country levels, reflecting growing confidence in the ethics function. Furthermore, UN Women took prompt and appropriate action to implement its zero-tolerance approach to misconduct. In 2024, it is noted that there were no disciplinary cases involving staff members, other personnel, or third parties. Against the challenging financial context, we are nonetheless cognizant of the need to identify sustainable resourcing for critical functions, for oversight functions, but also functions like human resources. Results monitoring and reporting, communication and advocacy function— the second line of defence. This is also dependent upon adequate foundation of regular resources, which provide the bedrock for our institutional functions. In closing, UN Women remains proactive and responsive, using oversight insights not only to resolve issues, but to build a more resilient, agile, and accountable organization as we enter into our next strategic plan next year. I would like to thank IEAS and ACO for their support in advancing our mission for gender equality, women's rights, and women's empowerment. Thank you, Madam Vice President.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:05:13]:

Thank you, Madam Deputy Executive Director, for your presentation. And now I would like to open the floor for distinguished delegates who would like to take the floor in relation to this item of the agenda and the presentation we have heard. I see Norway asking for the floor. The distinguished delegate of Norway, you have the floor.


Norway · Delegate [1:05:37]:

Many thanks, Madam Chair.

Madam Vice President, it's a pleasure for me to deliver this statement on behalf of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, United Kingdom, and my own country, Norway. We thank the Internal Evaluation Audit and Investigation Services and the Advisory Committee on Oversight for their reports and insightful recommendations, which provide valuable guidance both for UN Women as well as the Executive Board. We further thank UN Women for its management response and follow-up recommendations. Strong and independent oversight functions are crucial for an organization's accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness. Effectiveness, as well as for ensuring transparency and trust in the organization. 2 questions: can you and women management provide information on how the IAS will be affected by budget cuts already in 2025? And can IAS respond to how this would affect the 2025 program of work for internal audit and investigations? We appreciate UN Women's significant progress towards implementing the long outstanding recommendations, as was just mentioned. However, we note that there are still 19 outstanding recommendations, including 8 with high priority. We highly encourage UN Women to ensure the timely closure of these recommendations. The internal audit report identified 4 areas that required the management's attention. The second line of defence: availability of technical capacity at a decentralised level, finalisation of the statement of internal controls, as well as addressing cybersecurity and data governance risks. We would especially like to underline the importance of strengthening the second line of defence functions and the importance of ensuring sufficient and stable capacity at at the decentralized level. We appreciate the establishment of a hybrid model for investigation, which is enhancing the sustainability and effectiveness of UN Women's investigation services. UN Women's internal investigation function was created as a part of this process, and we see it as crucial that sustainable and long-term funding is secured for this function. We encourage UN Women to assess the resource situation of the investigation function. And we would like— and we would be interested to hear from UN Women management what the plans are to institutionalize the investigation function, also in light of the new budget 2026-27. Let me conclude by saying that we value our continued partnership with UN Women and the important work done by the Internal Evaluation, Audit, and Investigation Service and the Advisory Committee of Oversight.

Thank you.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:08:48]:

Thank you, distinguished delegate of Norway, for presenting the statement on behalf of a group of members. Now I would like to invite the distinguished delegate of Switzerland. You have the floor.


Switzerland · Delegate [1:09:01]:

Thank you very much, Madam Vice President, for giving me the floor. We obviously fully align with the joint statement. read by Norway, but we wanted to ask some additional questions in a national capacity, both on the internal audit report and also the report from the ACO. And we wanted to ask about the budget for the internal investigation function, um, to IEAS. How much would the function need at a minimum, and is the additional €150,000 that we see in, in the budget proposal per year, would that be enough, or would it mean that the budget for audit and evaluation functions respectively would be reduced to cover also investigations? Um, thank you very much to UN Women for mentioning the review of the HR function in your management response. Can you perhaps share some more details on the findings of this external review? Will the capacity of the HR function be increased? If yes, where can we see this reflected in the proposed budget? And if not, could you please elaborate on the reasons? We would also like to ask UN Women Management to share what resources will be allocated for the Quantum Plus initiative. And lastly, could UN Women Management please share where we are on finalizing the statement on internal controls. Thank you very much.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:10:27]:

Thank you, distinguished delegate of Switzerland. I would like now to invite the colleagues from UN Women to respond to these interventions from members. Lisa, you have the floor.


UN Women · Director, Independent Evaluation, Audit and Investigation Services · Lisa Sutton [1:10:39]:

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you, distinguished delegates, for your interventions and interest in internal audit and investigation activities. Let me respond to the questions directed to my office, which were primarily around funding. Thank you to the distinguished delegate from Norway on behalf of a group of member states. If funding is cut to the internal audit service, it's natural that that would affect our ability to deliver. I would say in 2025, we are in the middle of the year, we have already completed a number of audits, we may be able to find some very small cost savings this year. However, if that is sustained, then that might also affect our ability to deliver in future years. We're looking at ways to leverage technology. However, we also recognize the value of being on the ground, speaking to UN Women personnel, speaking to partners on the ground, and that requires traveling to the country offices to be able to carry out that work. And let me also respond to the question on budget from the distinguished delegate from Switzerland. Thank you also for your recognition of the building of the internal investigation function, which I believe has already yielded benefits to the organization, and my recommendation that that is sustained. At minimum, we need to ensure that our 2 investigation colleagues' positions are stable and sustainably funded in the 2026 budget going forward. That is the very minimum needed to deliver the investigation function as we have established it. In In a mature organization, UN Women would— in a growing maturity of an organization, UN Women would have its own internal investigation function, and that would yield significant benefits. At the same time, with the funding constraints, we recognize that this hybrid model is the best option for UN Women at present time, and that needs to be sustained. Thank you.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:12:54]:

Thank you, Lisa, for your responses. I would like now to invite Didi to React on member states' interventions.


UN Women · Deputy Executive Director for Resource Management, Sustainability and Partnership · Kirsti Mati [1:13:04]:

Thank you so much, and thank you so much for the pertinent questions and insight, and thank you for your support in helping UN Women become ever more stronger organization. And obviously oversight mechanisms are a key part of, of that. Let me just start off perhaps with some comments on the, on the Norway's question on the long outstanding recommendations. So just pleased to say that out of the 19 outstanding IAS recommendations, 2 already have been closed since the release of the report, and remaining 17 are in progress and on track for implementation. And we will be prioritizing the implementation of the recommendations through dedicated follow-up discussions with respective offices in the remaining months of 2025. So just to be very clear on that one, that's definitely a priority for us, and we are taking that very, very seriously. In terms of the— I want to just make perhaps a broader comment again on the funding situation, and I was partially addressing that already as part of the discussion on the evaluation function. It is a challenging funding situation overall. You are aware of that. And as I mentioned in the previous discussion, we had requested all offices and divisions to reduce the regular resources budget by 15% to be able to address the funding reductions and projected funding reductions in the regular resources. It's critically important that as a management, we are absolutely fully committed in strengthening the oversight functions, the third line of defence, and similarly the second line of defence. And as a management, we are trying to do that balance. How can we make sure that we are strengthening the second line of defence, without which we cannot be implementing the recommendation and ensuring the proper management of the organization. So we need to do that very difficult balance and choices. So there's a strong commitment for us to do that, to ensure that we are investing both in the second line of defense and in the third line of defense in supporting the oversight functions, both investigations, audit, evaluation and ethics. There's no question about that. We need to look at what is the best way to get that. For example, on the investigations, we're just discussing with Lisa earlier this week, we just need to really review again, is the hybrid model that we introduced last year, is that the most effective way for, for us to carry out that role? Is it better to bring all the investigations inside UN Women, or is it better to go back and review, can the partnership with OIOS actually help to bring the efficiency? So we, without giving up on the criticality and investment in investigation function, we need to reassess what is the best way and also most cost-effective way and modality for doing that. So as management, we are open to explore all possibilities. because we want to fulfil that responsibility and ensure that our oversight functions are well resourced, and we need to look at how can we do that most efficiently. Similarly, on the ethics function, no question about that, that we need to make sure that the ethics function is well resourced. And I want to just— I know we will be discussing on the next item ethics, but as I have the floor, I just want to also appreciate Sala Liber, who has worked with us on the ethics function. It's very, very clear that having had that dedicated capacity has increased also the awareness across the organization. But on the positive note, I should say that we have a very high level, 90%, when UN Women— sorry, not UN Women, the UN was carrying out a recent survey on PSC for example, we had 90% of UN Women personnel who were reporting that they were aware of the mechanisms to report any misconduct and wrongdoing. So, but this is, of course, something that the ethics function— the more you are available to provide the support and you reach out to the colleagues, the more requests there will be for ethics function. So we would like to continue having that investment.

Thank you.

because there's no question about that, that there is a benefit of having the ethics function inside the organization. So similarly, we need to do, though, look at what is the most effective way. Is it most effective to continue having the function inside the organization? Is it a better option to try to pool the resources in the UN system together to the UN Ethics Office? We want to just have these on the table to discuss without jeopardizing and giving up on the importance of having the function. I will perhaps ask then in a moment, if you agree, Madam Vice President, I will ask Anna-Karin Järtfors to respond to the specific questions on the Quantum Plus, on the statement of internal controls, and so on. But I would like to I would like to say a few words on the HR function that Switzerland was asking for. So I believe in the previous— in the February board session, I was briefing you that 3 years ago UN Women had conducted actually a benchmarking exercise on the investment that UN Women had done in the HR function. And it became very clear from that benchmarking exercise that our investment in comparison to other UN organizations, were not at all even close to the investments that had been done by other organizations. So in follow-up, we engaged the same external expert to do an overall review of the HR function and to make proposals how we could be strengthening the HR function in the most strategic way. Our external expert started the work. Before the financial context became as constrained, has shared with us an overall plan, 2 kind of scenarios on what the investments should be. And in the current financial situation, then we requested her to do further work in collaboration with the HR team to see what kind of investments would be critical for us to make in the current very, very challenging financial context. As an organization, we remain fully committed ensuring that we are strengthening the HR function, and we are looking at best ways to do that, and we will be reporting back to you. As I said, there are some critical, critical strategic functions that need strengthening: workforce planning, career development, leadership development, and these are also talent management. These are also critical functions to help overall second line of defence. So these are the areas where we are looking at ways of implementing. The pivoting process also is hopefully giving— we are expecting that to give us opportunities by moving a majority of the HR team to a duty station with a much lower cost, so this will enable us also to do some critical investments in the function. But we will be able to report on more details to you in September session. And for details, if I can give to Anna-Karin. Thank you.


UN Women · Director, Strategy Planning, Resources and Effectiveness Division · Anna-Karin Jätfors [1:21:12]:

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you to the distinguished delegates for their questions and comments.

I just wanted to elaborate on a couple of points. First, with regards to our commitment to continuing to strengthen our internal governance and accountability, as the IAS has also acknowledged in the report, we are very pleased that for the first time in our 2024 financial statements, we do have a statement of internal controls over financial reporting. So that's an important first step for us. It builds on good practices that we have reviewed on financial management and really aims to strengthen our transparency, risk management, and our internal assurances. Now, following this statement of internal controls over financial reporting, we are preparing to issue, moving forward, a full statement of internal controls. Specifically with regards to investments, I believe it was from the distinguished delegates from Switzerland, around how we are looking at results-based management. As you know, and you've heard in previous sessions, we are committed to continuing to invest and strengthen our transparency portal. And as you will hear in the afternoon, as part of the development of our next integrated budget, 2026 to 2027, there is also a dedicated $2 million special purpose allocation, specifically for systems development on corporate planning and reporting, and that includes system integration and transparency. We are looking to have the planning module done to— and ready to launch already by January 2026 so that we can begin as of January 1st in line with the strategic plan. And then we will have separate modules coming on monitoring and reporting, uh, also later during 2026. And in line with our integrated approach to results management, that is looking to capture and do planning from the strategic plan to strategic notes of all of our offices and divisions, work plans, and down to the project level, so that we are linking results and resource use at, at all levels. And if I may, maybe just also from the distinguished delegates Norway on behalf of a number of countries, just to highlight a couple of concrete steps that we are taking also on strengthening the second line of defence, in addition to what Didi Marie said. First, in our internal policy management, we are refining all of our policy frameworks to include very clear roles and responsibilities at all levels, both at headquarters and regional office, to have really clear first and second-line responsibilities to make sure that we don't have any gaps and we close any oversight gaps. We are also continuing to monitor performance on the second line, both at the regional— global, regional, and country level through our QBRs. And in fact, in a number of cases, we have also bolstered regional-level capacities for specific oversight functions, including, for example, product management support, strategic planning, etc., as part of also bolstering the second line of defence. Thank you very much, and back to you, Madam Chair.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:24:34]:

Thank you, Madam Deputy Executive Director and Director, for your replies. I would like now to invite Madam Deputy Executive Director Gun-Bon Svanda for making some additional remarks on this topic. You have the floor.


UN Women · Deputy Executive Director · Neredzai Gubuzdava [1:24:52]:

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Madam Vice President, and to complement and add to my colleagues who have shared, we really appreciate also your feedback and advice and the work around prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse and around investigations. UN Women's mandate and our substantive work is also on violence against women. And therefore, coherence is very critical for us at management level between internal practice and our engagement externally. And next year, we know the Commission on the Status of Women's theme is on access to justice. So for us, the work that we— the discussions today is about internal justice. mechanisms and capacities. So we really appreciate your continued support and resourcing, which ensures that coherence within the support that is needed. Thank you very much.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:25:55]:

Thank you, Madam Deputy Executive Director. Now, if there are no further requests for comments or intervention, we can consider closing the discussion under this item.


Speaker 36 [1:26:06]:

We Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think we can continue with the next item.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:26:09]:

The next item on our agenda is item 5 on ethics. During this item, we'll receive a presentation on the report of the activities of the UN Women Ethics Function, followed by a management response. In addition to the Deputy Executive Directors and the Secretary, I would like to invite to the podium the following colleagues: Nasiri, Chief of Staff; Prasun Chakraborty, Director of Human Resources; and Sarah Lieber, Ethics Advisor. First, I will invite Sarah, UN Women's Ethics Advisor, to present the report on the activities of the UN Women Ethics Function. Then I will invite the Chief of Staff to present the management response. Without further ado, Ms. Lieber, you have the floor.


UN Women · Ethics Advisor · Sarah Lieber [1:26:57]:

Thank you, Madam Chair.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:26:58]:

You have the floor.


UN Women · Ethics Advisor · Sarah Lieber [1:27:06]:

Madam Chair, distinguished delegates and colleagues, thank you for the opportunity to introduce the report on the activities of the UN Women Ethics Function for 2024 in accordance with Executive Board Decision 2022/5. The mandate of the Ethics Function is to cultivate and nurture a culture of ethics, integrity, and accountability, and thereby enhance the trust in and credibility of the United Nations, both internally and externally. From 2023 to 2024, the foundations were put in place to ensure that conflicts of interest could be more effectively mitigated and managed by the organization, and to strengthen UN Women's procedures and policies on protection against retaliation. The Outside Activities Policy and Procedure, as well as the revised Protection Against Retaliation Policy, were issued in early 2024 and represent important steps in embedding ethics in UN Women's policies. I was also routinely invited to comment on revisions to other policies, ensuring that an ethics perspective is reflected. These policy foundations need to be complemented with a significant investment in outreach and awareness-raising to support an ethical culture. In 2024, the Ethics Function engaged in robust outreach efforts to further strengthen awareness with respect to the core values of independence, integrity, and impartiality that apply to all UN Women personnel, with 670 UN Women participations during the reporting period. In addition to delivering tailored training sessions on ethical standards, conflicts of interest, and protection against retaliation at HQ, regional, and country offices, the ethics function sought to expand its outreach efforts to support engagement with UN Women personnel on the importance of upholding ethical standards with its first-ever Joint Ethics Awareness Month and the Leadership Dialogue. In order to amplify impact on a critical and timely topic, UN Women Ethics partnered with the UNDP Ethics Office to launch an Ethics Awareness Month on the topic, Navigating Impartiality in a Polarized World. The topic was particularly relevant given the number of elections in 2024 and UN Women's close working relationships with governments to support gender equality. The topic for the 2024 Leadership Dialogue was Navigating Outside Activities. 1,746 UN Women personnel participated, the highest participation level ever for a dialogue at UN Women. The advisory role is essential in fostering an ethical organizational culture and supporting proactive risk management. During the reporting period, 64% of requests for ethics services were requests for advice. This is a 121% increase from the 160 advisory requests received during the 9-month period from April 1st to December 31st, 2023. The increase is contributable attributable to the comparison period, 9 months in 2023 and a full year in '24, the issuance of the Outside Activities Policy, the growing level of visibility of the ethics function due to outreach efforts and the support of senior management, as well as increased trust that the ethics function will provide timely, independent, confidential, and actionable advice. Conflict of interest risk is also identified, mitigated, and managed through UN Women's investigation and the UN Financial Disclosure Program. In 2024, 100% of UN Women filers submitted their disclosure statements as required. During the reporting period, I received 5 inquiries under the Protection Against Retaliation policy. 4 were requests for advice. In the one request for protection, the complainant requested the suspension of the review. In a matter referred for investigation to OIOS by the UN Ethics Office in 2022, I made a final determination in '24 that retaliation had not occurred. I continued to be an active member of IPON and ENMO during 2024 and attended the annual ENMO conference hosted by WHO in Geneva, which was followed by a mission to UN Women personnel. From January 1st, 2025, I was appointed as the alternate chair of IPON, which you will hear more about in next year's report. In 2025, the ethics function is focusing on continuing to positively influence organizational culture through training on ethics, ethical standards, timely addressing the growing demands to proactively mitigate and manage conflict of interest risk, and engaging with personnel at the onboarding stage to increase awareness of the ethical behavior expected of all UN Women personnel. The independence of the ethics function is fundamental to the effective delivery of its mandates. The function conducts its activities free from external interference and reports directly to the executive director. However, as is noted in the report, the ethics function continues to operate without sufficient long-term resources to enable the sustainable implementation of its mandates. Adequate resources need to be devoted to ensure timely service delivery, targeted outreach efforts to support an ethical organizational culture, and to meet the growing demand for advice on risk due to organizational changes. I wish to thank my colleague Mercedes for outstanding work since her arrival last October. I wish to thank the Executive Board for its continued support of the ethics function and will be pleased to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you, Madam Chair.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:32:20]:

Thank you very much, Sarah, for your presentation. I would like to invite now Mr. Mohamed Nasseri to present the management response. You have the floor.


UN Women · Chief of Staff · Mohamed Nasseri [1:32:31]:

Thank you, Madam Chair. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, and esteemed colleagues, it's a privilege to speak today on behalf of UN Women and to share our management perspective on the 2024 report of the Ethics Function. As you know, the Executive Director, as mentioned yesterday by the Secretary, was called to the UN SDG meeting this morning, but rest assured, our ethics work and support to the function remains a priority for her. Let me begin with heartfelt thanks to the Executive Board. Your steadfast support continues to uphold a culture of ethics and accountability across our organization. DED Mahdi has touched upon the Ethics Function in the prior session, and my intervention is fully aligned with hers. For UN Women, ethics is not a side concern. It's our foundation, the bedrock of trust, a North Star that guides how we work and why we work. We view the ethics function as central to this mission. The 85% increase in service requests is telling. It signals not only rising demand but rising Trust. Trust in the confidentiality, impartiality, and timely support provided by the ethics team. To this team, to Sarah, and to Mercedes, we extend our deep appreciation. Your quiet, steady work sustains the integrity of the whole. We note the steps taken to strengthen accountability, especially the review and update of the Protection Against Retaliation Policy. These safeguards matter. They are more than paperwork. They are promises made real. We welcome the surge in learning and outreach. The record participation in the 2024 Leadership Dialogue on Outside Activities speaks volumes. Ethics is not an add-on. It is an integral part to the leadership of every day and every level. We also applaud the collaboration with UNDP to launch the first Joint Ethics Awareness Month. This is the future— coherence across the system, unity in principle. UN Women remains fully compliant with the Financial Disclosure Programme. This is essential not just to detect and manage conflicts of interest, but to preserve the confidence of those we serve. Ethics is not just about rules. It's about people, about creating an environment where colleagues can raise concerns freely, where they can speak openly and act boldly without fear of retaliation. We thank the Ethics Function for its continued guidance on these sensitive matters, and for timely referrals in line with protocol. Excellencies, system-wide coherence matters too. That's why we fully support continued participation in UN forums, such as the Ethics Panel and the Multilateral Ethics Network. Shared learning strengthens us all. UN Women remains firmly committed to ensuring that the ethics function is fully independent and adequately resourced. An ethical culture does not arise by chance. It is built, safeguarded, and respected. Looking ahead, we must define what a properly resourced ethics function should look like. We cannot continue to do more with less. For every internal support or oversight function, or second line of defense we fund, we must weigh the impact on the resources available for the women and girls we serve. Given our current financial constraints and guided by the UNAID principles of streamlining and coherence, we are actively exploring ways to establish a shared service model for the ethics function with other agencies, We will continue to examine these options, and we will report back to you on progress. Finally, I wish to sincerely thank our Ethics Officer Advisor, Sarah Labour, for her outstanding service. She has helped shape a function that is rigorous, resilient, and trusted. We wish her continued success as she takes on her next chapter. As she moves on, UN Women remains committed on building on the strong foundation she leaves behind, ensuring ethics continues to anchor our work and inspire our way forward. With that, I thank you.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:37:39]:

Thank you, Mohammad, for your intervention and for the presentation of your remarks. Now I would like to invite Member States to take the floor if any of you would like to make any comment or question in relation with the presentation we've just heard from the colleagues of UN Women. It seems that everything has been clear. I see Switzerland. Oh, Switzerland, you have the floor, and after you, Canada.


Switzerland · Delegate [1:38:10]:

Thank you very much, Madam Vice President, for giving me the floor, and thank you very much to the Ethics function, and Sarah for the report and all the work you have done. We also thank Didi, Madi, that you have already touched upon the question of funding, as well as Mohammed for your explanations and elaborations. We had a question on funding, but we take note of UN Women's commitment, and we also take note of the proposal for a shared service that you have just mentioned. Could you perhaps share more details on that said shared service that you're exploring? Which agencies are you looking at partnering with? What is the timeline by when such a shared service would come into existence? What are your ideas for bridging any, like, kind of gaps between the current model you have and a potential new model? And obviously, by when would you be reporting back to us, the Executive Board, on how you will proceed with the ethics function? Thank you very much.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:39:19]:

Thank you, distinguished delegate of Switzerland. And now I give the floor to the distinguished delegate of Canada.


Canada · Delegate [1:39:27]:

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Canada also wishes to thank the ethics advisor for the presentation and for the full list of solid results achieved in the reporting period. Canada notes the support given by UN Women management to the ethics advisor function and for helping to foster cultural change in the organization. We certainly note the comments made by management in this discussion and the previous one regarding the capacity of the ethics function and the intentions in this regarding different options, which we encourage. We simply want to add to this discussion the encouragement to finalize key policies currently under review, such as the policy on gifts and hospitality, as well as an increase in participation in mandatory ethics training, which would continue to contribute to that organizational cultural change. Thank you. Thank you.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:40:25]:

Thank you, distinguished delegate of Canada. I would like now to turn back the floor to the Secretariat. Would like to respond to the intervention from member states. Sarah, you have the floor.


UN Women · Ethics Advisor · Sarah Lieber [1:40:42]:

Thanks very much for your questions, distinguished delegates. We are indeed attempting to finalize some of the key policies, including the policy on gifts and hospitality. And we're currently working on creating an online system which will help personnel to streamline their requests for how to dispose of gifts and also make it easy— easier for those who have to receive and give instructions on disposal of gifts. Mandatory ethics training, as is noted in the report, the online ethics integrity training We had an increase this year in the percentage of completions for staff, which is very encouraging. We also include in the outside activities request form, there has to be a certification that that training was taken before a member of personnel can request outside activities review and approval. So thanks very much for your comments. I believe the rest are about— the remaining questions are about shared services.


Speaker 49 [1:41:42]:

Thank you.


UN Women · Ethics Advisor · Sarah Lieber [1:41:42]:

Service and from Switzerland. So, back to you, Madam Chair.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:41:46]:

Thank you, Sarah. Mohamed, would you like to make a few remarks in addition to the questions? Please, you have the floor.


UN Women · Chief of Staff · Mohamed Nasseri [1:41:54]:

Thank you, Madam Chair, and very briefly on the question from Switzerland. Indeed, we are exploring with the EXCOMM agencies under the development cluster that we're working on, on the shared services. We're also looking into going back to the UN Ethics Office. That's another option. But rest assured, as Board, we will not going to have any gap between the current arrangement and any future arrangements. So the function will continue to be fully operational until we finalize and fully explore other models, and we will be happy to report to you in the September session, and if we come up with an earlier solution, we will call for an informal through the Executive Board Secretariat to brief you on that. Thank you very much.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:42:47]:

Thank you to the colleagues for their replies. I don't see any further requests for intervention from member states, and with this we can conclude also the discussion under this item. And before suspending for lunch, please allow me to give the floor to the Secretary for some quick reminders on the continuation of our session. Jean-Luc, you have the floor.


UN Women · Deputy Secretary of the Executive Board · Jean-Luc Bauriez [1:43:14]:

Yes, thank you very much, Madam Chair. I consulted with the— since we are finishing a bit earlier, I consulted with the facilitators and so we recommend that we will regroup for the negotiations at 12:45 in Conference Room B, and we will go through the decisions one by one. And then we, of course, resume for the— this afternoon session at 3 PM in this room. Thank you, Madam Chair.


Albania · Vice President of the Executive Board · Suela Janina [1:43:41]:

Thank you, Jean-Luc, for this information. This comes to the end of this session, so the plenary meeting is adjourned and we'll resume the plenary session at 3 o'clock PM.