UN Women support to the Strategic Note for DRC

UN Women is an agency with a specific mission for gender mainstreaming, in which it is considered that its objective is to increase the active participation of women and girls, taking into account the context of the DRC, mainly in peace-building, in decision-making and in all other areas. With the support of Sida through this strategic note, we have pushed our work more towards the normative and coordination mandate and less towards the operational. It should be pointed out that 2023 was an election year, and the focus of all the work was on increasing the chances of women's participation in elections, but also on supporting women in conflict transformation and the Women, Peace and Security agenda. We should also mention the support of Norway, with whom we carried out a joint mission in North and South Kivu alongside UN Women in the DRC, in Tanganyika and North Kivu. The results of UN Women in 2024 also extended to socio-economic aspects and humanitarian crises affecting women and girls, including assistance in health crises and natural disasters. As regards women's participation in the 2023 electoral process, there has been little increase compared with previous cycles, despite the incentive provided in the electoral law to exempt parties that field more than 50% women, but unfortunately this measure has not been binding. A comparison of the results for the presidential elections shows that 8% (2) of candidates were women, compared with 0%; for the National Assembly, 18% of candidates were women, compared with 14% (67) of elected women; for the provincial assemblies, 26% of candidates were women, to 10% (68) of elected women; and for the municipal elections, 43% of candidates were women, against 19% (183) of elected women. Furthermore, UN Women has supported the development of a gender strategy and action plan, and a strategy containing an early warning mechanism to prevent electoral violence. A resource center has also been set up to build the capacity of women candidates during elections. This is due to women's groups were mobilizing and creating networks, but often lack governance and management skills and entry points to have their contributions recognized and their voices heard by the national government and the international community. Other factors such as discrimination and limitations due to social norms can also contribute to the disadvantage faced by many women.

The general goal of UN Women as an organisation is to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women globally. All interventions, including in DRC, are based on this goal and UN Women DRC has formulated its vision accordingly: "An inclusive, peaceful, and prosperous Democratic Republic of Congo, where women, girls, boys and men are free and secured, enjoy equal rights, and have equal opportunities to access a better life, to make their own decisions to improve their living conditions in order to achieve sustainable peace, security, the respect of human rights and women's rights for the attainment of sustainable development goals" The priority areas of the Strategic Note 2020-2024 are: 1) Governance and Women's political participation; 2) Women's economic empowerment; 3) Ending violence against women; 4) Peace, security and humanitarian action. Building on these priority areas, the Strategic Note has the following strategic impact areas and specific outcomes and outputs of the development results framework. Each strategic area outcome has a theory of change and is aligned with the outputs in the UN Women Global Strategic Plan as well as the UNSDCF outcomes. 1. Governance and Women's Political Participation Outcome 1.1: By 2024, public institutions, the media and civil society, at both central and decentralized levels, effectively exercise their roles for a peaceful, effective and inclusive democratic governance that is conducive to citizen participation and the strengthening of the rule of law. Outcome 1.2: By 2024, people living in the DRC, more specifically the most vulnerable (women, children, refugees and displaced people) will enjoy their human rights, in particular equitable access to justice (including juvenile justice), legal identity and protection, through strengthening judicial and security systems, the monitoring capacities of civil society organizations on human rights and institutional accountability. 2. Women''s economic empowerment Outcome 2.1: By 2024, Congolese people are enjoying sustainable inclusive economic growth driven by agricultural transformation, economic diversification open to innovation and the promotion of young women's entrepreneurship Outcome 2.2: By 2024, people living in the DRC benefit from inclusive social protection and a demographic dividend driven by demographic control and the empowerment of young people and women 3. Ending violence against women Outcome 3. Populations, especially the most vulnerable, enjoy equitable, quality and sustainable access to basic social services, including HIV/AIDS. 4. Peace, security and humanitarian action Outcome 4.1: By 2024, the prevalence of violence and armed conflict is reduced, and the security of people and property is improved, especially for vulnerable people, including refugees/displaced persons, women and young people. Outcome 4.2: By 2024, humanitarian organizations and government humanitarian organizations are providing a coordinated, rapid and effective humanitarian response to those affected by crises in accordance with humanitarian standards and principles to reduce the excess mortality and over-morbidity of those affected. And in management and operations (OEEF - organisational effectiveness and efficiency Results Framework) there are four output clusters: 1) Enhanced coordination, coherence and accountability of the UN system for gender equality commitment; 2) Increased engagement of partners in support of UN Womens mandate; 3) Enhanced quality of programs through knowledge, innovation, RBM and evaluation; 4) Improved management of financial and human resources in pursuit of results.