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Inter-agency regional workshops were held in Bangkok, Nairobi, and Johannesburg to facilitate roll-out of the Gender Handbook. The Gender-Based Violence Guidelines were translated into Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Spanish and Portuguese.In June 2008, the IASC Sub Working Group on Gender released a SOP template for prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence in IDP settings, based on the UNHCR template. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, in collaboration with Avon Products, Inc. convened a global summit in March 2008 wherein Avon Products, Inc. committed $1 million to the UN Trust Fund – the Fund’s largest single, annual, private sector contribution ever. Hide

Grant applications for the 2008 Call for Proposals were invited from governments, civil society organizations, and, for the first time, for UN Country Teams (UNCTs). Technical review teams and global and sub-regional inter-agency Programme Appraisal Committees (PACs), reviewed the received concept notes.As part of its’ ongoing effort to enhance grantees’ capacity in programming and monitoring and evaluation, the UN Trust Fund convened a second workshop on Program Design and Evaluation for grantees working on violence against women and HIV/AIDS, in collaboration with Johnson and Johnson and with technical assistance from PATH. Hide

UNHCR is leading the development of guidelines on establishing community-based complaints mechanisms for sexual exploitation and abuse by humanitarian personnel and peacekeepers, through the Executive Committees on Humanitarian Action and Peace and Security (ECHA/ECPS) and UN NGO Task Force on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA). Hide

UN Action is providing strategic and technical support to selected UN Country Teams and Peace Keeping Operations to strengthen their efforts to prevent sexual violence, protect women, respond to the needs of survivors, and ensure judicial redress. It is also training a cadre of senior GBV Coordinators.UN Action’s advocacy efforts focus on raising public awareness and outrage about rape in war, as well as generating political will from bodies such as the Security Council and Human Rights Council to address rape in war as an issue of international peace and security, and a war crime as well as gross violation of human rights. UN Action is building a knowledge hub, mapping good practices and effective responses to the needs of survivors and their communities. Hide

As the co-conveners of IANWGE’s Task Force on violence against women, UNFPA and UNDAW drafted a proposal for joint programming on violence against women in 10 pilot countries. Hide

In November 2007, the UN Trust Fund awarded nearly $5 million in support of effective implementation of national laws, policies and plans of action on ending violence against women, as well as to initiatives addressing the inter-linkages between violence against women and HIV/AIDS.In 2007, Member States, private-sector and other donors raised their contributions to the UN Trust Fund, resulting in more than a tenfold increase over the past four years. However, the demand for support continued to far outstrip its resource base, with more than $105 million in requests received in 2007.Donors to the UN Trust Fund in 2007 include the Governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States of America, and UNIFEM national committees in Iceland, Switzerland and the United States. In addition, the UN Trust Fund has benefited from partnerships with the private sector. With the support of Johnson & Johnson, a special window on the interlinkage between violence against women and HIV/AIDS was opened in 2005. In addition, there have been other modest contributions from private-sector partners such as TAG Heuer, Omega, Leo Burnett and non-profit organizations, such as Zonta International, the Transition Network and many individual donors. Hide

The IASC Task Force on Gender and Humanitarian Assistance issued a statement of commitment on actions to address gender-based violence, re-emphasizing members’ individual and collective responsibility to undertake concerted action aimed at preventing gender-based violence, ensuring appropriate care and follow-up for victims/survivors of sexual violence and working towards holding perpetrators of sexual violence accountable.In 2005, the IASC Task Force on Gender and Humanitarian Assistance published Guidelines for Gender-based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Emergencies: Focusing on Prevention and Response to Sexual Violence. The Guidelines are a tool for actors in the field to establish a multi-sectoral coordinated approach to gender-based violence programming in emergency settings. OCHA’s role has been to provide support for the development and use of the IASC Guidelines. Hide

In February 2007, OHCHR formally joined the UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict. Hide

OHCHR participates in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Sub-Working Group on Gender Mainstreaming in Humanitarian Assistance. OCHA is a co-chair of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s (IASC) Task Force on Gender and Humanitarian Assistance. OCHA is facilitating the production of an IASC document on members’ policies in addressing gender-based violence in order to establish a coordinated programme built on the expertise and capacities of the IASC members. Hide