Thematic Evaluation of UN Women’s Contribution to Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services

UN Women merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system, which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment: the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW); the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW); the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI); and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). UN Women prioritizes ending violence against women and girls as one of its key corporate goals, as reflected in its Strategic Plan (SP) 2011-2013. UN Women wished to carry out a corporate thematic evaluation of UN Women’s predecessor entities’ contributions to Prevent Violence Against Women and Expand Access to Services. The evaluation had both formative and summative elements. Its purposes were to i) assess the contributions of UN Women’s four predecessor entities from 2008 to 2011 to supporting countries in preventing violence against women and girls (VAWG) and expanding access to services; and ii) to analyze how well UN Women is strategically positioned to implement its new mandate of normative, operational and coordination work in the area of violence against women. The assignment included a workshop for the development of UN Women’s Theory of Change related to its VAW work; an evaluability assessment; a portfolio analysis of the work done in VAWG by UN Women’s predecessor entities; seven case studies; and the evaluation synthesis report.