2014 Bi-annual report—UNDP Regional Centre in Cairo, July 2014
Mid Year Report for 2014
UNDP Regional Centre in Cairo
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2014 Bi-annual report—UNDP Regional Centre in Cairo, July 2014
Introduction
The first half of year 2014 has witnessed grave political and security developments in the Arab world
including new developments in Libya, Iraq, and Palestine with other continuing transitions and
protracted crises. We have also witnessed several parliamentary and presidential elections and the
changing of regimes in countries such as Egypt. Migration and refugee movement continue to stress
countries such as Jordan and Lebanon.
Serving Country Offices in 18 Arab States including Palestine, the UNDP Regional Centre in Cairo
(RCC) has responded to needs in the region while adapting to new developments – externally and
within the organization. Due to the new global UNDP Strategic Plan for 2014-2017, and the
subsequent restructuring at RBAS, including the decision to move many of the functions of the RCC
and regionalize some of the HQ functions to Amman, the RCC has faced some challenges. This
includes staff attrition due to employment insecurity, delays and lack of clarity in budgeting, and
reduction in the number of practice leaders. RCC is now operating with a reduced number of
advisors (five), and a high turn-over of local personnel as information on restructuring decisions was
unfolding. For example, the RCC Management has had to step in and lead the Governance portfolio
in the second quarter of 2014, as the RCC is operating without a Governance practice leader.
Despite these conditions, the RCC has been able to fulfill its commitments to counterparts and
provided a total of 224 services by end July 2014, including 68 missions & event related missions
(please see below tables summarizing these services).
The RCC provided advisory, technical and backstopping services to COs and regional entities, and has
organized or taken part in a number of regional and inter-agency initiatives and events in addition to
producing several regional knowledge products. In addition, the RCC has contributed to global
discussions and policy formulation platforms due to its regional experience and high caliber
expertise. Interventions have covered a large spectrum of development work including governance,
human development and the post 2015 agenda, disaster risk reduction, capacity development,
elections, environment and energy, South-South and triangular cooperation, HIV/AIDs, gender,
common country programming and private sector engagement. Where feasible, this was conducted
in a cross-sectoral fashion. This was accomplished with continuous operational and communications
support.
Moreover, the RCC maintained its convener role in the region in hosting other UN entities that were
involved in regional work: the UNCDF, the UNOSSC and the UNV. On the following pages are
tabulations of the services provided in service type, practice, mode of service delivery and
geographic distribution [please note, the information is derived from the RCC Service Tracker,
available at https://intranet.undp.org/unit/rbas/servicetracker/SitePages/Home.aspx, as uploaded
by individual advisors, RCC Management, and Staff].
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Table 1 - Service type in numbers (See Appendix I for definitions)
Service Type
Monitoring and Evaluation
Other
Partnership building
Policy advice and development
Programme/project implementation
Project formulation
Referral
Research and innovation
Short query
Strategy formulation (programme/operations)
Training
Grand Total
Total
2
18
27
63
16
29
5
20
4
25
15
224
Table 2 - Number of services provided per practice
Lead Service Area/Practice
Communications
Crisis Prevention ＆ Recovery
Environment ＆ Energy
Gender ＆ Women Empowerment
Governance
HIV, Health and Development
Knowledge, Innovation, Capacity
Management/Operations
Other
Poverty Reduction ＆ MDGs
UNDG
Grand Total
Total
29
4
46
67
19
4
1
18
4
30
2
224
Table 3 -Mode of service delivery
Mode of service delivery
Event
Event and Mission
Mission
Virtual support
Grand Total
31
22
46
125
224
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Table 4 - Number of services provided per country
Country
Algeria
Bahrain
Egypt
Global
Iraq
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Morocco
Palestinian Occupied Terr.
Qatar
Regional
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
Sudan
Syria
Tunisia
United Arab Emirates
Yemen
Grand Total
Total
4
3
17
48
9
5
9
4
7
3
1
3
78
6
4
2
2
8
6
5
224
As can be seen from the figures above, just under 50% of all services were provided to regional
events, activities and requests and when added to services globally amount to over 65% of all
services. This is an interesting result as it represents a shift in the demand and supply of services
away from COs to the benefit of regional and global clients. This also reflects the nature of the
region in terms of the perceived need to work regionally across countries regardless of their status
as NCCs, MICs, LDCs or indeed crisis countries.
The RCC regularly requests performance appraisals from the counterparts that it serves. The
evaluation responses have been positive this year, as was the case since the start of the new
Monitoring and Evaluation system in 2013 with all services rated between 5/5 or 4/5. The following
are some quotes from the evaluations:
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“Extremely helpful and cooperative”.
“Provided excellent quality comments and suggestions”.
“Very responsive to the country office’s needs, and worked extremely well both as a Team
leader, and as a member of the Task force”.
“The quality of the services provided and products delivered were excellent”
“Delivered the services and advice in a very rapid and efficient manner. The quality of the
products and deliverables was above the expectations”.
“The interaction was excellent”.
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Services
Through its team of practice leaders and advisors, the RCC offered support in several forms
including: Strategic Policy Advice and Advocacy; Programme Development and Technical support;
Procurement, Capacity Development; Policy Research and Analysis; and Knowledge Services. A
software-generated count of the services provided (from the Service Tracker) shows that 224
services were provided including 68 missions & even related missions. This number depends on
entries of staff members themselves and it is believed that the count might be lower than the actual
number of services provided by the RCC (please see service tracker for detailed listing of services).
Below are some indicative examples of the work conducted until the end of July 2014:
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A Disaster Risk Reduction mission to Iraq was conducted to facilitate a national workshop on
DRR, to reach consensus on the scope, structure, functions and the organogram of the national
centre for DRR. Another DRR mission to Sudan was conducted to advise the CO on
operationalization of the DRR project and the workplan for 2014; and to share regional good
practices in the national conference on DRR.
The RCC Gender practice provided support and reviewed programming documents in Tunisia,
Kuwait, and Iraq; and has provided support on the formulation of Gender Equality Strategies in
Bahrain and Sudan.
RCC Gender practice supported seven Country Offices in the Gender Seal Exercise.
RCC Governance practice contributed extensive content and advisory services to the work of
BDP (BPPS) on public administration in the Arab World.
RCC Energy and Environment practice was involved in formulating several project documents
and concept notes. Examples include project with LAS-affiliated Center for Renewable Energy &
Energy Efficiency on energy access for the poor in LDCs; a project for a new Sustainable Energy
Center in Bahrain; project with KSA for a global post-2015 fund on sustainability; design of
Sustainable Energy projects as part of Jordan’s resilience plan for Syria crisis response; and
sustainable energy initiatives in Djibouti, Yemen and Somalia the latter pipelined by OFID.
The Poverty Reduction practice leader reviewed and provided support on several documents in
the region. Examples include: the 2013 Somalia MDG Report, the Iraq UNDAF, the Tunisia
UNDAF, the Tunisia MDG Report, the Kuwait CPD, and the Palestine 2013 MDG Report.
The Poverty Practice supported the organization of and made substantive contributions to two
international symposiums (Morocco and Tunisia) on Human Development and the Post 2015
Agenda; also contributed to inception planning and training activities for the roll out of MDG
Acceleration Framework in Yemen (rural livelihoods and employment for women and youth).
In addition, support to the roll out of MAF in Yemen (employment and agricultural livelihoods)
was provided.
The Peer Support Group (PSG) Chairpersonship (the PSG being an instrument of the R/UNDG),
hosted at the RCC, has further incorporated coordination support to the group by managing the
PSG Secretariat. The PSG, with leadership and coordination by RCC management, supported
common programming processes in Tunisia, Iraq, Kuwait, and Algeria.
RCC Communication continued to provide support to the Sub-regional Facility for Syria on
positioning, promotional material and donor communication, and provide support to three COs
on reputational issues.
RCC management participated in a SURGE mission to Ukraine to re-position UNDP/Ukraine in
light of the new context.
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Events
Given its strategic position in the region especially as a convening power, the need for work that is
geared toward the region as a whole or a sub-region among the Arabs States, and though Regional
Programmes were still managed from New York, the RCC was involved in a number of regional
events, from training workshops, regional project development consultations, to high-level events.
Participants in these events reiterated the importance of having a regional platform for
development work. The events were covered by RCC’s communications staff. Some examples are
listed below (please see service tracker for detailed listing of events):
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With regards to Disaster Risk Reduction, a PDNA training was organized in Cairo. The project,
funded by the European union, provided resources to conduct trainings for UN, EU and the
World Bank staff, regional intergovernmental organizations and national governments in
selected high risk countries to develop skills for conducting assessments and developing
recovery strategies.
As for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, the RCC supported the attendance of 12 LAS member
states, 8 staff from the League of Arab States, and five interns from MEDEC in a three day
workshop for the League of Arab States project “The Arab Contribution to Global Early Action for
Peace and Stability: Building the Pan-Arab Early Warning System”.
RCC Environment and Energy practice lead the World Green Economy Summit side event for
signing and launching of a new MoU between RBAS and Clean Energy Business Council for
regional cooperation on climate, sustainable energy, water, etc.
RCC Environment and Energy practice led the 2014 Arab Community of Practice for Environment
and Energy hosted in Sudan among RBAS, GEF, RCC representatives and all COs in the region.
The focus was on reviewing new SP and changes in UNDP, plans towards the next GEF6 cycle,
and cross-practice synergy with participation of DRR and Gender teams
UNDP Gender practice organized a first ever consultation on Gender for the Arab region on
“Arab Women’s Participation in the Public Sphere, ‘Musharaka’” to help formulate UNDP’s new
Regional Programme on Women’s Participation in the Arab region. The consultation brought
together well over 160 participants from among governments, MPs, academics and civil society
from each and every country in the region.
RCC Gender practice also convened the Regional seminar on gender and conflict and emergency
organized by UNDP, League of Arab States and Karama which brought together women activists
(approximately 60 and 5 international experts from outside the Region) from across the Arab
region to discuss the ongoing crises in the region, to agree on a common language on women
peace and security, to understand better global and regional commitments to advance women,
peace and security and to strategize around entry points for advancing the women peace and
security agenda.
RCC Governance practice organized training on Strategic Litigation in Egypt which convened
judges from the High Constitutional Court in Egypt.
The RACP processed 39 RACP/RBAS submissions. The total value of all 39 Submissions was USD
20,230,068. Ten RBAS countries were serviced during the period January-end July 2014.
RCC organized the second RBAS Regional Workshop for Japan Funded Projects with Special
Focus on Youth Employment to accelerate delivery of projects and share knowledge among COs
receiving Japan Supplementary Budget on issues related to youth employment. The event in
Algeria gathered 35 participants from nine Arab countries in addition to colleagues from RBAS,
BERA and BCPR.
RCC organised the First Arab States Regional South-South Development EXPO, the fruit of a
strategic partnership between the State of Qatar, UNOSSC and UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Arab
States, convened in Doha, Qatar, on 18-20 February 2014. Held under the motto "Solutions to
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Action". The EXPO showcased concrete tested Southern solutions on wide-ranging development
issues including initiatives to address youth and women employment, energy efficiency and
renewable energy, water and food security. Some 520 participants actively contributed to the
work of the EXPO with some 104 solutions presented during seven solution exchange forums
and/or at the solutions exhibition floor. In addition to targeted solution exchange forums that
were led by a number of UN agencies, five special sessions were conducted and led by a number
of multi-stakeholder groups.
RCC management practices, as well as operations, communication, and support staff in RCC
provided support before, during and after the event. Many practices presented solutions in the
EXPO, held booths, led discussions, and helped in organizing and reporting on the entire event.
Under Capacity development, RCC Management led and facilitated training workshops for UNDP
Kuwait and KSA on leadership skills, projects and programme planning, monitoring and
evaluation as well as results based management and the use/application of existing UNDP tools.
The first Regional Youth Volunteering Forum successfully engaged about 100 participants in an
inclusive dialogue regarding the role of youth volunteerism in development.
RCC Communication provided support to all regional events initiated by the RCC (as above) or by
HQ (e.g. launch of the global Youth Strategy and regional consultation on social cohesion). This
included messaging; speech writing/Arabization; drafting and distributing press releases;
conducting press conferences; arrangement of media interviews; social media support and live
tweeting; placement of opinion articles and film production.
Initiatives
The RCC proactively responded to the needs of the region by creating and contributing to new
initiatives and partnerships that are better adapted to the changing environment in the Arab region
(please see service tracker for detailed listing of initiatives). Examples include:
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The RCC is supporting the development of a new LAS EU program on crisis management.
Disaster Risk Reduction designed the Arab Cities Disaster Resilient Programme 2014-17. A seed
funding has been approved by BCPR for the project. The project will be launched by Regional
Programmes Division (RPD) from October 2014. The project will cover 6 cities in the region to
improve their systems on disaster risk management.
The RCC Environment and Energy practice launched a new partnership with LAS-affiliated
Regional Center for Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency for design of new Arab Future Energy
Index and energy access for the poor programming in LDCs; with Arab Water Council for
exploring new regional water cooperation, and with the Clean Energy Business Council to engage
the role of the private sector in innovation and finance.
The RCC Gender practice developed a concept note for the implementation of the Pan Arab
Women Parliamentary Forum for Algeria.
The RCC Gender Practice prepared a MoU between the Arab Women Organization and RBAS to
be signed in mid-September.
The RCC Management spear-headed programmatic and partnership modalities with the League
of Arab States and other regional partners.
The Poverty Practice and HIV, Health and Development Team jointly developed a project
proposal in support of a new phase of the UNDP ‘Karama (dignity) Initiative’ for the socioeconomic empowerment of people living with HIV in the region.
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After the recent electoral global conference in the Dead Sea (April 2014) with a full session
devoted to intraregional cooperation, and the ensuing discussions including the desirability of
creating a Professional Association of Arab EMBs, it was decided to set the ground for EMBs to
further discuss the possibility to create an Arab EMBs association. Participants agreed on the
establishment of the Arab Network for Elections Administrators.
RCC Communication supported two COs (KSA & Egypt) in developing terms for video and
photographic competitions to mark International Women’s Day and for the latter (EGY) was
involved in review and jurying of the competition. Communication also supported the
production of an infographic video for the Syria Facility (for the Kuwait Donor Conference) and
produced another for the launch of the Musharaka regional programme. As well Communication
supported the production of three documentary films on Legal Empowerment of the Poor
produced by the Governance Team in the RCC, in collaboration with the Ford Foundation
Knowledge products
Responding to knowledge gaps at the regional and even global level, the RCC produced and
contributed to strategic knowledge products (please see service tracker for detailed listing of
knowledge products).
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RCC Environment and Energy practice was involved in formulating impact assessments and the
Sustainable Energy chapter for Jordan’s National Resilience Plan, climate risks elements of the
sub-regional Vulnerability Analysis for Syria crisis response, and a Yemen CO discussion note on
solar energy for human development.
RCC Environment and Energy practice leader was lead author for a new UNDP global report on
Environmental Justice, a main focus of Output 2.6 in UNDP’s Strategic Plan. The report was
launched in New York with an internal UNDP workplan formulated to pursue programming
responses, including options in the Arab region.
RCC Poverty Reduction practice made substantive contributions to the sections on socioeconomic impacts of the Syrian crisis and economic recovery issues in the Comprehensive
Regional Strategic Framework on the Syria Crisis, and other knowledge products on vulnerability
and resilience commissioned by the Sub-Regional Facility for Syria..
RCC Communication oversaw the production and printing of the South-South Cooperation
Mapping tool for the Arab SSC Expo and the Syria Resilience brochure prepared for the Kuwait
Donor Conference.
Concluding remarks and anticipated activities for
the rest of 2014
Given the reconfigurations in the make-up of the UNDP Regional Centre in Cairo, and the move of
many of the RCC’s staff, it is anticipated that the quality of services provided by RCC will be
maintained at a high level of excellence, albeit with smaller volume of work due to budget cuts and
loss of human resources. Some of the expected activities in second half of 2014 include:
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The convening of a Post 2015-focused Arab Poverty Community of Practice. The aim is to
identify opportunities and challenges underpinning UNDP positioning and support to the rollout
of Post-2015 emerging priorities in Arab countries, with a particular focus on empowerment,
equity and resilience-building issues. The CoP will capitalize on the outcomes of recent national
and regional practitioner gatherings and will serve as a platform to further debate, listen and
learn about emerging good practices, challenges (including capacity needs) and lessons from
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UNDP work across the region in responding to emerging priorities for the future agenda within
the framework of the new Strategic Plan.
The screening of two documentaries on Governance and Social Justice issues in Cairo. Each of
the documentaries was produced in three different versions (30 minutes, 7 minutes and 2
minutes). One focuses on a slums neighborhood in Cairo whose residents fear forced eviction
and turn to self-organization to gain social and economic rights; the other tackles porters in
Minya and their struggle to improve work conditions and regulation. These documentaries are
expected to constitute excellent tools to advocate for legal empowerment of the vulnerable
and access to social justice.
The issuance of publications on constitutional reform in the Arab States, by NYU and IDEA. The
RCC established a multi-disciplinary peer review committee with support from colleagues in HQ
to provide comments before completion of the studies and publication.
Environment & Energy Practice will support convening of the 3rd Arab Water Forum in
December 2014 in Cairo with a lead role in convening four AWF sessions; complete new Arab
Future Energy Index with LAS-affiliated energy center with a high-level launch event. Convening
a business partnership forum in November 2014 in Dubai with Clean Energy Business Council.
Support to COs Iraq and Tunisia for EE portfolio reviews following new CPDs and view to
expanding cooperation on climate, energy, water. Support to CO Jordan for environmental
assessment of long-term Syria crisis risks and programming. Support to COs in Djibouti, Somalia,
Yemen on extractive sector activities in the oil/gas sector.
The publication of several policy briefs on topics related to several practices, including housing,
and Gender equality in transitions towards democracy, environment and energy.
The publication of the Regional Mapping of Governance activities synthetic report. The
mapping aims at gathering information and components of all UNDP initiatives implemented in
the region; highlighting similarities, possible gaps and good practices to produce a synthetic
report focused on capacity development and regional support to Governance issues.
The publication of a Training Package on Gender Responsive Budgeting for the UAE Country
Office and the Supreme Council for Women. This will be a great step to ensure gender
mainstreaming in the UAE National Plans and Budgets. This is very important given the fact that
the request came from the government indicating the presence of political will.
Providing Guidance and support to develop the Four Year Strategic Plan for the Arab Women
Organization of the League of the Arab States under the New Leadership under RBAS
Leadership. This is an excellent chance for UNDP to be involved for the first time with the
Organization and hence it is an opportunity to introduce focus areas like Gender and Climate
Change, Gender and Trade, Peace and Security. This will be a first step in the implementation of
the cooperation agreement that is expected to be signed by RBAS and the Arab Women
Organization in September.
The production of two studies on HIV sensitive social protection and socio-economic profiling of
People Living with HIV, under the Karama initiative.
Convening a regional event on Urban Disaster Risk Reduction at the City Level. This event is
organized under the Arab Cities Disaster Resilience Project, which is jointly implemented by
UNDP, UNISDR and SDC. It is a training event that will gather city authorities and UNDP country
office staff, and will involve sharing good practices on urban disaster risk reduction.
Organizing a Regional Coordination Officers meeting and a Peer Support Group meeting, both
focusing on the new Delivering as One SOPs. This will allow UNDAF roll-out countries to use
Delivering as One tools even if partially, and will enhance the capacity of the PSG in providing
quality assurance services to such national processes.
The RCC looks forward to continued engagement at the global, regional, and country -level.
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Appendix I
Nr.
1
2
3
4
Service type
Strategy
formulation
(programme/op
erations)
Partnership
building
Project
formulation
Programme/Proj
ect
implementation
5
Monitoring and
Evaluation
6
Research
and
innovation
7
Policy advice
8
Review
oversight
9
Training
10
Short query
11
Other
and
Definition
Support
to
the
strategic
development
(operational/programmatic).
E.g. inputs into strategy related documents such as CPAP
and UNDAF
Activities related to partnership development (donors and
other public stakeholders or private organizations). This
may include organizing meetings, provision of contacts,
attending events/conferences with the aim of partnership
building.
Support to the development of a
project via
comments/inputs to a project document, etc.
Activities related to projects including project
development,
implementation,
programme/project
support.
Assistance with the development of Monitoring and
Evaluation systems and mechanisms. The category also
includes project and programme related M&E support.
Identifying, analyzing and processing information (data and
text), contributions to analytical document and technology
developments.
Advisory services that are not directly connected to
projects or programming, but a general advice at the policy
level (this includes UN and governmental policies).
E.g. advice on policy intensive reports, contributions to
governmental strategies and planning documents.
Activities that aim to ensure that an approval or a request
is conducted in accordance with UNDP internal policy or
requirement.
E.g. reviewing and oversight of procurement request
before approval is made
Support to capacity building by participation as a resource
person/presenter for the benefit of UNDP internal or
external clients.
Support offered by shortly responding to a question/query
from a client (time spent on query: 1 - 3 hours).
Any service that does not fall under one of the previous
categories.
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