Attachments
INTRODUCTION
The Iraq GBV Sub-Cluster has a co-leadership structure of UN with INGO/NGO under the umbrella of the Protection Cluster. At the country level, UNFPA leads the GBV sub-cluster coordination efforts and acts as a provider of last resort, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) is holding the role of co-lead. The GBVIMS Taskforce, GBV Case Management Working Group, Adolescent Girls Task Force, Technology Facilitated GBV Task Force, and GBV Strategic Advisory Group is all geared up under the leadership of the GBV SC to facilitate a well-coordinated rapid GBV response to affected population. The GBV SC coordination structure also aims to improve data collection, enhance case management capacity of partners, and ensure increase partnership and collaboration with UN agencies, government counterparts, INGOs, national organisations including women-led organisation in addressing GBV in Iraq. The GBV SC also works closely with other clusters in GBV risk identification, risk-mitigation and beyond that in mainstreaming and integration efforts in these respective clusters’ response plans.
The sub-cluster has a membership of roughly 44 active organizations, many of them local NGOs. GBV Sub-Cluster partners target individuals at risk of GBV in 62 districts in 16 governorates with access to multisectoral services for GBV survivors and those at risk of GBV, particularly women and girls, female-headed households, and child survivors of GBV, through engaging health, psychosocial, legal, safety and security, and livelihood service providers. Additionally, advocacy and coordination with the child protection, Shelter/NFI, Cash working group, Health, Food Security, WASH, and emergency livelihoods clusters helps to ensure effective GBV mainstreaming and implementation of plans relevant to GBV risk mitigation as per IASC Guidelines (2015). The Iraq GBV Sub-Cluster also advocates and work in partnership with relevant national authorities to ensure that measures to protect women and girls are prioritized in national emergency planning and programming.
About the Iraq GBV M&E Toolkit
In 2019, the Whole of Syria / Turkey Cross-Border (TXB) GBV Sub-Cluster recognized the need to provide more targeted support to its members in the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of GBV programmes and invested in the development of a GBV Monitoring and Evaluation Toolkit that includes a set of standardized M&E tools to be used to enhance the quality of M&E for GBV programmes. The Toolkit´s overarching goal is to ensure that M&E processes are conceptualized, executed and utilized in a safe and ethical manner, and serve to inform the design and implementation of quality, effective and impactful GBV programmes in target communities.
The roll out and dissemination in the TXB operation is showing the toolkit to be promising to enhance the quality of GBV programming across GBV coordination actors. As a best practice to be replicated more broadly, UNFPA, as the lead of GBV coordination mechanisms in humanitarian settings, has adapted and contextualized the Toolkit to Iraq and Jordan, two countries in the Arab States region that raised similar needs as the ones initially expressed by the TXB GBV SC members. This initiative is part of a wider regional effort to enhance experience and lessons-learned exchanges across coordination mechanisms in the region.
The development of the Iraq GBV M&E Toolkit has been informed by in-depth interviews with selected number of organizations in Iraq, and review of existing M&E materials in use. Information gathering leading to the development of this resource has revealed the following important issues related to the overall M&E context in Iraq:
- Globally, M&E practices in the country are incipient and, in particular, practices related to the M&E of GBV programmes. Organizations often lack dedicated M&E human resources and skilled M&E technical capacity; M&E is not an area that is prioritized for investment by donors and/or organizations.
- M&E functions are not sufficiently leveraged; there is a tendency to utilize monitoring functions to capture activity-level data, few organizations are utilizing M&E processes to assess quality of services or capture results of the activities (at a minimum, at output level) to continuously inform and improve programming/services. M&E for GBV programming is often donor-driven; organizations, especially local ones, are using indicators and tools provided by donors.
- Gaps in tools and protocols are evident within several organizations: there are activities/services that are not subject to any M&E; alternatively, in instances where the activity is subject to M&E, the tool is not formalized or there is no guidance document detailing when and how the tool should be used.
Iraq GBV organizations recognize that Iraq GBV M&E Toolkit provides an opportunity to elevate and standardize M&E practices in-country. Based on feedback received during consultations, and considering that the roll-out process will likely involve targeted, in-depth capacity support to enable take-up by organizations, a smaller-scale toolkit for Iraq was deemed more suitable. As such, the first edition of the Iraq GBV M&E Toolkit covers only key GBV services/activities (and corresponding M&E tools);1 these were prioritized for inclusion in the Toolkit based on a number of criteria, including: most common services/activities delivered by GBV organizations in the country, M&E human/technical capacity requirements, synergies with GBVIMS, as well as cluster and donor interest.
The Iraq GBV M&E Toolkit draws on the insights and experiences of international and local organizations implementing GBV programmes in Jordan, Iraq and Turkey Cross-Border operations, as well as wider GBV programming literature.2 Among the myriad of GBV programme tools readily available, identifying those fundamental ones that were eligible for inclusion in this Toolkit has been a critical step in the development of the resource. Thoughtful examination of each potential tool was required to ascertain the degree to which it adds value to the M&E of GBV programmes (and not just to the management of the GBV programme).
In the context of this Toolkit, M&E tools are defined as a sub-set of GBV programming tools that respond to the key M&E objectives of assessing programme quality and effectiveness (primarily, as perceived by those targeted by the activities), and capturing results stemming from programme-supported interventions (output, outcome and impact).
Overlaps may exist, yet M&E tools serve more specific aims than GBV programme tools given that the latter are mostly geared towards facilitating and enhancing the management and implementation of the programme, and ensuring compliance with pre-defined quality standards.