Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Project II (GEP II) is a three-year project implemented by United Nations Development Programme in close collaboration with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs from 2013 - 2015. This report covers results achieved in the third quarter, from July - September 2014.

The first pillar of the project aims to improve the capacity of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) for policy making and oversight of the National Action Plan for Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA). A significant milestone was achieved in this quarter. With GEP II support, MoWA produced a harmonized and refined set of indicators for monitoring NAPWA that is consistent with national and international commitments on gender equality as well as best practices in results-based management. This enables the ministry to systematically collect data on performance indicators related to security, governance, rule of law and human rights, economic and social development. This document lays the foundation for a stronger monitoring and evaluation system led by MoWA. The project also initiated a partnership between MoWA and the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (MICT) for developing a database for NAPWA monitoring. The database will be hosted and maintained by MICT until MOWA builds its technical capacity and hires human resource to maintain the database on its own. Bringing government institutions to work together on this endeavour assures national ownership, institutionalization, cost effectiveness and sustainability of GEP II efforts.

GEP II has now established the Gender Studies Resource Center at Kabul University to support the university’s effort at instituting a master’s degree program in gender and development. The project has collected a total of 1,500 books from national government and international organizations as well as individuals who are keen to supporting this effort. The resource center is envisioned to house books and materials that students will use once the post-graduate degree programme on gender is fully launched.