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The IFAD gender team promoted household methodologies (HHM) in the loan portfolio: by enabling families to plan a vision for their household together and analyse why they are not currently achieving their vision, gender inequalities are frequently identified as one of the main reasons for preventing the household from progressing. Intimate partner violence is often cited as an area that needs to be addressed. HHMs are practices in several IFAD-supported projects eg Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda.
At the field level FAO is working on the prevention and mitigation of GBV through specific programmes and approaches such as the Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools in Uganda and Kenya, the Dimitra Clubs in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Burundi and Senegal, and the Safe Access to Fuel and Energy (SAFE) approach in South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, and Kenya, among others. The JFFLS and Dimitra Clubs use empowerment approaches to bring men and women together to proactively work on issues they face in their daily lives, including GBV. Today there are approximately 1,500 FAO-Dimitra Clubs in sub-Saharan Africa (Burundi, DRC, Ghana, Niger and Senegal), with over 35,000 direct beneficiaries and 350,000 indirect beneficiaries, two thirds being women. Programmes implemented as part of the SAFE initiative reduce the risk of exposure to violence that predominantly women and girls face whilst collecting firewood in some of the contexts FAO works.
WFP HQ and Country Offices ran multiple awareness and advocacy activities during the 16-days of UNITE's campaigns in Nov-Dec 2014 & 2015. In addition, from January 2015, every 25th of the month, WFP's internal website is turned orange and few activities take place in HQ and COs to keep alive the mobilisation among WFP staff. On 25 May 2015, WFP Executive Board members actively celebrated the Orange Day.
UN Women, in collaboration with UNFPA and the Turkish Government, held a Global Meeting on “Ending Violence against Women: Building on Progress to Accelerate Change” in December 2015 in Istanbul, Turkey, at which over 150 high-level representatives from over 40 Member States, the Council of Europe, civil society and United Nations entities attended. At the meeting, participants exchanged experiences and renewed their committment to ending violence against women, such as strengthening Government mechanisms for the prevention of and responses to VAW; implementing comprehensive national programmes and involving men and boys as part of the solution.
The Director of UNIC (United Nations Information Centres) New Delhi was the Guest of Honour at the launch of a campaign "Against Acid Violence", organised by Acid Survivors Foundation India (ASFI) at Juniper Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India. The National Director & CEO ASFI presented some alarming statistics that have been collected to show what a widely prevalent phenomenon this had become in India and gave an overview of the work of ASFI. An acid attack survivor thanked ASFI for taking their voice to the world at large. The Chairperson of the National Commission for Women shed light on the justice system noting that there was literally no recourse to justice.
In 2014-2015, OHCHR continued supporting the mandate of the Rapporteur on violence against women, in its active engagement with civil society organizations, including through participation in regional consultations. She participated in three regional consultations, held in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, on the topic of “closing the normative gap” in addressing violence against women at the international level.
UNRWA has developed context-specific GBV prevention initiatives in all its five fields of operation (Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank), building on local partnerships and working with community structures. These initiatives have focused on developing effective approaches to tackle root causes of GBV, addressing power imbalances and gender inequality and engaging communities in the effort to combat GBV. Progress has also been made in involving men and boys in awareness-raising activities and key services, such as involving men in preconception care and family planning counselling in UNRWA health centres.
In Nepal, UNDP has supported studies on engaging men and boys to prevent Gender Based Violence and the linkages between masculinities and GBV. This has led to the drafting of a GBV Prevention Peer Education Manual.
UN Women’s Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Flagship Initiative has helped Quezon City, in the Philippines, take the first step in its safe city programme towards ensuring safe streets: a scoping study that collects information on violence against women and girls in public spaces. The study, drawing in part on the use of safety audits, where women and men, girls and boys walk through neighbourhoods to identify safe and unsafe spaces, revealed a number of issues that had long remained unnoticed, such as insufficient legal protection and fear of retaliation from reporting crimes. Quezon City is just one of 23 cities around the world working with UN Women, local governments, women's rights organizations and other partners to prevent and respond to sexual violence against women and girls in public spaces. They include New Delhi, Rabat, New York, Kigali, and Port Moresby, and since 2015 also Medellin, and Brussels.
UNDP and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea hosted an Expert Meeting in 2016 to discuss approaches and challenges provided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with regards to the reduction and elimination of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). The meeting brought together more than 50 practitioners from Governments, United Nations agencies, Academia and Civil Society to explore the intersections of GBV with major social development themes and identify integrated approaches to reducing GBV to help achieve multiple SDG targets.