62 . MOPAN 2017-18 ASSESSMENTS . UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY FOR PALESTINE REFUGEES IN THE NEAR EAST Strengthening UNRWA’s gender architecture has been identified as a priority for the GES. Structurally, there is some inconsistency as to where gender ‘sits’ across the organisation. At a HQ level, gender sits within the Protection Division, although this structure has not yet been replicated across all fields and gender is found variously under protection, RSS and planning. The location of gender within the protection division and the focus of the gender section’s main project ‘Building Safety: Mainstreaming GBV Interventions into Emergency Preparedness, Prevention and Response’’ on GBV has meant that the protection aspects of gender are high profile within the organisation, but there is not necessarily a broader focus on gender outside of protection concerns, for example, gender mainstreaming. The key pillar to support gender mainstreaming across the organisation is UNRWA’s Gender Task Forcewhich consists of seventy Gender Focal Points from the various programmes and field offices. Gender Focal Points meet regularly at field and Agency level to coordinate gender mainstreaming and build capacities. However, gender is an ‘add-on’ to existing staff responsibilities and as such, can be deprioritised in the face of scarce human and financial resources. Within UNRWA’s core budget, there are limited designated core funds from the Programme Budget allocated to gender. There is only one staff member (Head of Gender Section) funded by the Programme Budget across the whole of the organisation. Funding for gender mainstreaming activities is generated through the allocations in existing programmes which address gender issues, or through raising extrabudgetary resources for specific interventions (e.g. GBV referral system in UNRWA). However, a gender marker has been introduced for the Programme budget to monitor resource allocation and tracking of funds dedicated to gender, which reveals that 64.4 per cent of the budget is coded as contributing in significant way to gender mainstreaming. This is largely attributed to the education programme given the size of the programme that was scored as gender sensitive. In its work on GBV, UNRWA’s Gender Unit has sought to build the capacity of staff working on GBV prevention and response, including the development of GBV road-maps for all field offices which details GBV prevention work outcomes, 1, 3, 8, 10, 25, 35, 44, 47, 51, 50, 52, 74, 75, 76, 83, 114, 119 outputs and activities for all the Agency’s field offices based on a GBV Prevention Framework. The organisation is committed to addressing gender in terms of HR; UNRWA’s People Strategy also commits the organisation to addressing human resources issues related to gender, in supporting a move towards gender parity in management and leadership positions and to ensuring gender and Cultural sensitivity training is provided. The HRD has developed a Gender Parity Action Plan based on the UN System-wide Strategy which has a baseline assessment of gender parity across the organisation and will be reviewed regularly. UNRWA has implemented measures for increased organisational accountability mechanisms for senior managers with respect to gender equality. All UNRWA directors have signed a compact with the UNRWA Commissioner-General which contains references to gender equality. UNRWA has sought to incentivize staff commitment and contribution to gender mainstreaming by launching the Gender Champion Awards which recognizes selected staff’s significant contributions to the advancement of gender equality. At a UN-wide level, UNRWA is engaged with the system-wide gender mainstreaming accountability framework (UN-SWAP) to strengthen its accountability in meeting GEEW results. Relative to the aggregate performance of Funds and Programmes entities, UNRWA’s progress towards meeting UN-SWAP requirements was found to be below average in 2017. UNRWA was assessed as “meets” or “exceeds” requirements for 66 per cent of the performance indicators; whereas Funds and Programmes entities on average “meet” or “exceed” them for 73 per cent. Gender mainstreaming in evaluation, audit, resource tracking, resource allocation and gender architecture/parity are highlighted as areas requiring UNRWA focus going forward. MI 2.1a Evidence confidence High confidence