Monthly Corner

Evaluation of UN Women’s Work on the Care Economy in East and Southern Africa 

A regional study of gender equality observatories in West and Central Africa, carried out by Claudy Vouhé for UN Women

Sources: UN Women

This regional study offers an inventory and analysis of the legal framework of gender observatories, their attributions, functions and missions. It is based on exchanges with 21 countries, in particular the eleven countries that have created observatories. It compares the internal organisation and budgets of the observatories between countries, looks at operational practices, in particular the degree of involvement in the collection and use of data, and identifies obstacles and good practices in terms of influencing pro-gender equality public policies. Finally, the study draws up a list of strategic recommendations intended for observatories, supervisory bodies and technical and financial partners.

MSSRF Publication - November 2025 - Shared by Rajalakshmi

Ritu Dewan - EPW editorial  comment on Labour Codes

Eniola Adeyemi Articles on Medium Journal, 2025

An analysis of the “soft life” conversation as it emerges on social media, unpacking how aspirations for ease and rest intersect with broader socio-economic structures, gendered labour expectations, and notions of dignity and justice

Tara Prasad Gnyawali Article - 2025

This article focused on the story of community living in a wildlife corridor that links India and Nepal, namely the Khata Corridor, which bridges Bardiya National Park of Nepal and Katarnia Wildlife Sanctuary of Uttar Pradesh, India.
This article revealed how the wildlife mobility in the corridor affects community livelihoods, mobility, and social inclusion, with a sense of differential impacts on farming and marginalised communities.

Lesedi Senamele Matlala - Recent Article in Evaluation Journal, 2025

Events

Vacancies

UN Women has announced an opportunity for experienced creatives to join its global mission to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The organization is recruiting a Multimedia Producer (Retainer Consultant) to support communication and advocacy under the EmPower: Women for Climate-Resilient Societies Programme.

This home-based, part-time consultancy is ideal for a seasoned multimedia professional who can translate complex ideas into visually compelling storytelling aligned with UN Women’s values.

Application Deadline: 28 November 2025
Job ID: 30286
Contract Duration: 1 year (approximately 200 working days)
Consultancy Type: Individual, home-based

Members

If evaluators behave like auditors!

I had the great pleasure today of attending a wonderful webinar on adapting evaluations during the COVID pandemic. I especially enjoyed a very inspiring presentation by our very own Rituu and her exchanges with us. Here a few insights and lessons from her discussion:

Key points (from my perspective):
  • If evaluators behave like auditors they will be perceived as such.
  • A truly participatory evaluative process creates, especially for funders, commissioners and managers, time and space to reflect, exchange, learn; in other words, evaluative thinking.
  • The fundamental evaluation question is, or should be, about the impact on (I would say value for) the community despite the fact that this may not be the commissioner’s question; this is what is meant by independent evaluation. (autonomy of evaluative judgment is another aspect).
  • “NGOs were much better at it because they lived through it”. Yes! Lived experience is a deep, rich and meaningful source of knowledge and wisdom. If you eliminate that source ,e.g., by way of “standards of evidence” among others, we are not only cutting ourselves off from knowledge and wisdom (which come adapted to context) but we are adding to disenfranchisement (including to ourselves).
  • The ethics of sharing data is a wonderful opportunity to engage with ourselves as so-called evaluators and I think that participatory analysis is absolutely fundamental to participatory processes and to empowerment.
  • I love, and think, that evaluation should be about, “dreaming up ways to shift power”.

Thank you so much Rituu!

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Comment by Rituu B Nanda on June 15, 2021 at 20:14

Corey Oser's learning from the same participatory review

1. NUMBERS TELL PART OF THE STORY
2. PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION is WORTH it
3. STORIES R EVIDENCE
4. INDIVIDUAL JOURNEYS r PART OF ORG CHANGE
5. TRANSFORMATION DEEPER THAN SUSTAINABILITY
Comment by Fabiola Amariles on June 2, 2021 at 23:58

Great insights, Ian. Thanks for sharing.

I could not attend Rituu´s presentation because it overlapped with another one.  Is there any video available? 

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