Support for Policy Development
ESCWA supported the Palestinian Ministry of Women’s Affairs in drafting a “Situation Analysis for the State of Palestine’s Violence against Women and Girls Response,” which aimed to inform the Ministry’s forthcoming Violence against Women Strategy.
ESCWA, in partnership with UNFPA, supported the National Council for Lebanese Women in developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS) for the public and private sector to fully operationalize the “Law to Criminalize Sexual Harassment and [for] Rehabilitation of Its Victims.”
ESCWA delivered a workshop for the Ministry of Solidarity, Social Development and Family Equality in Morocco on “Costing the Implementation of the National Strategy on Combatting Violence against Women and Girls by 2030 in the Kingdom of Morocco” on 29-30 June 2021.
ESCWA supported the Jordanian National Commission for Women in evaluating Jordan’s National Action Plan (NAP) to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), on women, peace and security (JONAP-I (2018-2021)) to inform the design of JONAP-II.
In Colombia, UNODC developed a guide for a conceptual approach to gender-based violence: legal framework, concepts, routes of attention and recommendations regarding citizen security in the COVID-19 pandemic in Santiago de Cali.
In Pakistan and Myanmar, UNODC coordinated national high-level roundtables to build consensus among different sectors for effective responses to GBV and the delivery of quality essential services for survivors.
In 2020, ICAT published a joint Analytical Review, which assessed, among others, persistent gaps in addressing the gender dimensions of trafficking in persons and identified the necessity to focus prevention efforts on eradicating gendered norms around sexual entitlement, coercion and control that normalize violence and constitutes a part of the continuum of violence against women and girls. ICAT also developed a first-ever Action Plan, which highlights several gender-related follow-up actions.
In the framework of the GLO.ACT project, UNODC undertook a gender and human rights analysis of Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants in Pakistan. UNODC also supported the Afghan National High Commission on Trafficking in Persons in the review and updating of their strategic national action plan to address the root causes and respond to the needs of women and girls.
In June 2020, DPO launched the first Handbook to support UN Field Missions in preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), building on the publication of the first UN Policy on this same topic a few months earlier. Both these documents were developed by DPO jointly with the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC) and in consultation with representatives from the United Nations Action Network on Sexual Violence in Conflict and partners at United Nations Headquarters. These documents provide guidance for civilian, military, and police personnel deployed in UN Field Missions on how to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence with a coordinated and survivor-centred approach. Since the release of the CRSV Policy and Handbook, DPO has been supporting their dissemination and implementation in the field.
UNFPA engages in advocacy and policy dialogue at national, regional and global levels, to accelerate action towards ending gender-based violence and harmful practices. By the end of 2020, as many as 114 UNFPA Regional and Country Offices were involved in strengthening national legislation and policy.
For example, Gender-biased Sex Selection and Son Preference programmes are spearheading a movement to end GBSS through the development of national costed action plans, policy and legal reforms as well as through a broad sweeping social movement aimed at changing harmful gender norms that drive male preference.
UNDP is supporting national government to develop policies, strategies and action plans on gender mainstreaming. In Kyrgyzstan, under the Spotlight initiative, UNDP assisted the Ministry of Justice within legal inventory process to conduct gender expertise of prioritized laws in the area of SGBV and GEWE, including the key legal acts concerning domestic violence and ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men.
In Moldova, UNDP has piloted the development and implementation of a Local Action Plan on preventing and combating GBV, developed in a participatory manner, which matches the provisions of the National Strategy on Prevention and Combatting Violence Against Women and Girls 2018-2023.
UNDP, in partnership with the Ministry of Gender, Family and Social Services and key stakeholders, has developed the five-year Gender Equality Action Plan which focused on five key areas/ policy goals in Maldives.
UNDP has supported the Cambodian Ministry of Women’s Affairs in drafting National Policy on Gender Equality and Neary Rattanak V (five-year strategic plan) covering GBV, in multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Similarly, UNDP Country Offices in Serbia, Montenegro, Tajikistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh supported the national authority in preventing and combatting against GBV and DV, as well as enhancing gender equality.
In 2020, WFP launched a new Protection and Accountability Policy (2020). In developing the Policy WFP adopted a field-first approach. Gender and GBV link explicitly to the new Policy—which commits WFP to adopt a specific normative and operational posture when designing and implementing, and reporting on its programmes:
A theory of change that underlines the views, priorities and agency of the people WFP serves as indispensable for WFP to deliver good programming in line with human rights, development, peace & security, and disability inclusion.
Complementing WFP’s food security analysis with a solid context analysis that deepens WFP’s understanding of the different risks faced by people where WFP operates, how that operational and risk context is evolving, which factors contribute to this threat (gender, age, disability) and the subsequent effects on peoples’ vulnerability to food insecurity and malnutrition.
Evidence-based decision making as imperative to understanding barriers to inclusion in safe programming. Data must be disaggregated by sex, age and disability.
A shift towards the centrality of protection and accountability across a range of critical functions to ensure the safety, appropriateness and dignity of food and nutrition assistance. This requires broadening our understanding of protection beyond programming.
With regards to the progress made towards the implementation of the WFP Gender Policy (2015-2020) an evaluation carried out in 2019 provided eight recommendations that were endorsed by the management and found that while the Policy is still relevant for WFP’s mandate, it “needs to be updated to support WFP’s work at country level firmly within UN system efforts to accelerate the support to government partners to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.” The update of the Gender Policy will not involve the change of the main goals of the policy, but it will involve the alignment to the new Strategic Plan (2022-2026), the current WFP and UN framework, and it will also include a structured and detailed Theory of Change. In December 2020 the Gender Office commenced the process. Initial key informants’ interviews have been carried out and the internal reference group has been established. Additionally, a survey was launched at the end of January 2021 addressed to any WFP employee and partners, to gather the broadest possible perspective on what the updated policy should include. The next steps will be a deeper desk review and the development of the first draft of the updated policy, that will be presented to the EB for the first of two informal consultations on July 8thth 2021. The final document will be presented to the first EB session of February 2022.
In 2021, WFP undertook the review and update of the Executive Director Circular on Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (OED2014/020). This ED Circular serves as WFP’s policy framework for PSEA and was last updated in 2014. Since, policies, procedures and other applicable standards and guidelines as related to PSEA have been updated, WFP considers it a good practice to update the Circular to support effective administration, compliance and oversight. It is anticipated that the updated Circular will be finalized by January 2022.
In Bolivia with UN-Women’s technical assistance, the Office of the Ombudsman commissioned an analysis of the level of compliance with the legislation on VAWP at sub-national levels. The research findings concluded that only 19% of Municipal Autonomous Governments and 5 out of 9 Departmental Autonomous Governments have internal regulations in line with Law 243. The publication titled "Regulatory Package, for the Prevention and Sanctioning of Harassment and Political Violence against Women, in Departmental Autonomous Governments and Municipal Autonomous Governments",[1] aims to assist Municipal and Departmental Autonomous Governments to tackle key barriers to address VAWP providing tools to develop and implement regulations and procedures in line with the national law including: i) a model proposal for General Rules of Procedures of the Departmental Assembly or the Municipal Council; ii) draft Rules of Procedure of Ethics Commissions; iii) internal staff regulations and iv) a model proposal for the disciplinary regime
An institutional protocol to monitor and address Violence Against Women in Elections was developed by the National Electoral Commission in Liberia. UN Women provided technical support .
UN Women ESARO supported the development of a model law for establishment of special mechanisms to fast track SGBV cases by International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) with UN Women support. This had been one of the articles of the Kampala Declaration (2011) and provides a comprehensive framework to facilitate development of national instruments to fast track prosecution of SGBV cases.
In Kenya, UN Women provided both financial and technical support in the development of the GBV policy for Migori County. This was done through a participatory, multi-sectoral workshop attended by state and non-state GBV actors in the county.
In South Africa, UN Women as the lead UN agency has significantly made financial and technical contributions to the Coordination stream of the work of the Interim Steering Committee to ensure that the structure and legislation are drafted and the drafting of the Nation Strategic Plan. Other UN agencies have contributed in other streams of work.
Funding intersectional violence against women and girls (VAWG) services
This policy brief highlights the value that ‘by and for’ organizations bring to the fight to end violence against women and girls (VAWG) and examines how the current funding landscape jeopardizes the existence and autonomy of these organizations. It provides key recommendations on improving the nature of funding frameworks to support organizations that address the specific needs of minoritized women and girls.
Good Practices in Responding to Domestic Violence : A Comparative Study
With the aim of assisting the Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina in supporting responsible government bodies to advance minimum standards in ensuring response and assistance to victims of gender-based violence, good practices were analyzed across four countries, two EU Member States (Austria and Spain), and two non-EU States within the Western Balkan region (Albania and Serbia). This document provides a detailed, technical description of national programmes and initiatives that have been recognized internationally as good practice. It provides comparative information from the four selected countries in order to demonstrate distinct approaches and models. The aim is to provide diverse options to assist relevant actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina in selecting the best approach tailored to their current needs and circumstances in line with international standards. For each practice, after setting forth the relevant international standards based on the Istanbul Convention, the UN Guidelines on Essential Services Package, jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights and Council of Europe Guidelines, the flagship best-practice initiatives are described, comparing like models, where good practice exists in more than one country. Challenges to implementing each good practice model are also noted, including deviations from international standards as well as practical barriers to implementation.
UN Women Analysis of the Capacities for the Implementation of Council of Europe Convention of Preventing and Combating Domestic Violence and Violence against Women in Police and Free Legal Aid Sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina
With this analysis, UN Women seeks to support the Agency for Gender Equality of the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees Bosnia and Herzegovina to establish minimum standards for service provision to survivors of gender-based violence in several sectors in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The analysis examines the two sectors' capacity to implement the standards derived from the Istanbul Convention including state obligations and due diligence, integrated policies and data collection, prevention, protection and support, substantive law, investigation, prosecution, and procedural law. In addition to the detailed assessment of legal, operational and institutional framework, the analysis further examines the capacities of responsible sectoral governmental institutions and service providers at the local level, including relevant NGOs. Detailed information from institutions and service providers were collected from interviews, representing the opportunity for identifying a new way of understanding the topic at hand. The analysis will add to the evidence-based support to the activities of institutions in the country with a view of meeting the obligations that stem from the Istanbul Convention, and ultimately providing adequate support to victims of gender-based violence and domestic violence, as well as processing of perpetrators.
https://eca.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2019/05/bosnia-police-and-free-legal-aid
National Action Plan on Anti-Trafficking in Persons (2021-2025) in Malaysia
The National Action Plan on Anti-Trafficking in Persons (2021-2025) or “NAPTIP 3.0” was successfully launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs on 31 March. The new NAPTIP provides the policy and implementation directions for Malaysia’s anti-trafficking efforts in the next five years. The NAPTIP 3.0 was developed through a collaborative process among the Malaysian Council for Anti-Trafficking in Persons, UN Women, ILO, UNODC (as the implementing agencies of the Safe and Fair Programme) and civil society organizations. The inputs from UN Women and ILO mainly focused on enhancing the prevention of trafficking in persons by addressing risk factors, protection through legal remedies and provision of services to survivors, including increased prosecution of TIP.
A Guidance Note to Develop Migrant-Sensitive National Action Plans on Violence against Women
This guidance on inclusion of women migrant workers’ rights and realities related to VAW builds on the UN Women resource, “Handbook for National Action Plans on Violence Against Women”. The Guidance note provides specific recommendations to ensure the concerns and interests of women migrant workers are incorporated into National Action Plans on Ending Violence Against Women.
UN Women Albania:
1- Supported the Albanian State Police to develop policy and procedures against harassment and sexual harassment to protect women and men among the police forces.
2- Supported the Albanian State Police (ASP) to develop an E-Learning Course on the Policy against Harassment, including Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.
3- Supported five municipalities (Durres, Korce, Tirane, Elbasan, Lezhe) to effectively apply gender responsive planning and budgeting in the local MTBP, with a focus on budgeting in VAWG
With UN Women support, Ministry of Interior of Federation Bosnia and Herzegovina has improved standardization of police response to violence against women and domestic violence in Federation of BiH (FBiH). A Framework policy and 10 proposals for improved cantonal policies for internal division of tasks in response to cases of domestic violence was developed to standardize roles within the police force. In place are also a Manual for in-service training of police officers on the response to cases of domestic violence and recommendations for changes in the FBiH Police Academy curriculum for improved knowledge of police cadets on legal and institutional response to DV and VAW.
In Ukraine, with the aim of strengthening the local gender machinery and enabling local governments to develop, implement, monitor and coordinate gender-responsive policies, UN Women successfully advocated with local public authorities the establishment of 13 Local Gender Coordination Councils[ with an extended mandate focusing on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and Safe Cities for Women and Girls. Furthermore, because of UN Women advocacy efforts 5 Deputy Heads of communities were appointed as Commissioners on Gender Equality and Prevention and Combating of Domestic and Gender-based Violence delegated with the promotion of equal rights and equal opportunities for women and men at the community level. In Ukraine, women, and girls from 12 communities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts benefit now from socio-economic development programs and target programs inclusive of measures on preventing and combating violence against women and girls. UN Women provided expert support to local authorities and tailored capacity development for Self-Help Groups on preventing gender-based violence and participation in decision-making processes.
In Ukraine, 3 conflict-affected communities adopted Safe Cities for Women and Girls Programs using evidence generated by the UN Women Multi-site Scoping Study on the risks and experiences of sexual violence encountered by women in public spaces in conflict-affected East of Ukraine.
In Moldova, with UN Women CO support, The Ministry of Health Labor and Social Protection co-created/developed with all relevant institutions (Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, NGOs, Probation, and women's survivors of violence) the Intersectoral protocols and referral mechanisms on EVAW, which are awaiting approval by the Government in 2021. As well, UN Women CO supported the development of intermediary analysis of EVAW Strategy and as a result a new Plan for 1,5 year was developed and awaiting approval by the Government.
UN Women Kosovo, supported development of the Kosovo Programme for Gender Equality (2020-2024) and the Action Plan (2020-2022), which was approved by the Kosovo government on 23 May 2020. The decision obliges the institutions of Kosovo to implement this Programme according to the activities foreseen in the Action Plan, while the Agency for Gender Equality within the Office of the Prime Minister is obliged to monitor the implementation and to annually report on the implementation of the program. Provisions from the UNSCR 1325, gender sensitive transitional justice activities and support for mainstreaming gender into the security sector were also included in the Kosovo Gender Programme 2020-2024, with direct support of UN Women.
With UN Women Kosovo support, in November 2020, Policy against Sexual Harassment in Public Administration in Kosovo, was adopted by the government. The aim of the policy is to serve as an instrument and in creating a workplace environment free from of any form of sexual harassment and sanction such action. A new Kosovo Strategy and Action Plan on Protection from Domestic Violence (2022-2026) is currently in drafting process, with the support of UN Women.
In Tajikistan, UN Women assisted the GoT in developing localized integrated referral system for survivors of violence.
UN Women ESARO supported the development of a model law for establishment of special mechanisms to fast track SGBV cases by International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) with UN Women support. This had been one of the articles of the Kampala Declaration (2011) and provides a comprehensive framework to facilitate development of national instruments to fast track prosecution of SGBV cases.
In Kenya, UN Women provided both financial and technical support in the development of the GBV policy for Migori County. This was done through a participatory, multi-sectoral workshop attended by state and non-state GBV actors in the county.
In South Africa, UN Women as the lead UN agency has significantly made financial and technical contributions to the Coordination stream of the work of the Interim Steering Committee to ensure that the structure and legislation are drafted and the drafting of the Nation Strategic Plan. Other UN agencies have contributed in other streams of work.
Funding intersectional violence against women and girls (VAWG) services
This policy brief highlights the value that ‘by and for’ organizations bring to the fight to end violence against women and girls (VAWG) and examines how the current funding landscape jeopardizes the existence and autonomy of these organizations. It provides key recommendations on improving the nature of funding frameworks to support organizations that address the specific needs of minoritized women and girls. The policy brief is available here.
Good Practices in Responding to Domestic Violence a Comparative Study
With the aim of assisting the Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina in supporting responsible government bodies to advance minimum standards in ensuring response and assistance to victims of gender-based violence, good practices were analyzed across four countries, two EU Member States (Austria and Spain), and two non-EU States within the Western Balkan region (Albania and Serbia). This document provides a detailed, technical description of national programmes and initiatives that have been recognized internationally as good practice. It provides comparative information from the four selected countries in order to demonstrate distinct approaches and models. The aim is to provide diverse options to assist relevant actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina in selecting the best approach tailored to their current needs and circumstances in line with international standards.
For each practice, after setting forth the relevant international standards based on the Istanbul Convention, the UN Guidelines on Essential Services Package, jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights and Council of Europe Guidelines, the flagship best-practice initiatives are described, comparing like models, where good practice exists in more than one country. Challenges to implementing each good practice model are also noted, including deviations from international standards as well as practical barriers to implementation. The study is available here.
UN Women Analysis of the Capacities for the Implementation of Council of Europe Convention of Preventing and Combating Domestic Violence and Violence against Women in Police and Free Legal Aid Sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina
With this analysis, UN Women seeks to support the Agency for Gender Equality of the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees Bosnia and Herzegovina to establish minimum standards for service provision to survivors of gender-based violence in several sectors in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The analysis examines the two sectors' capacity to implement the standards derived from the Istanbul Convention including state obligations and due diligence, integrated policies and data collection, prevention, protection and support, substantive law, investigation, prosecution, and procedural law.
In addition to the detailed assessment of legal, operational and institutional framework, the analysis further examines the capacities of responsible sectoral governmental institutions and service providers at the local level, including relevant NGOs. Detailed information from institutions and service providers were collected from interviews, representing the opportunity for identifying a new way of understanding the topic at hand. The analysis will add to the evidence-based support to the activities of institutions in the country with a view of meeting the obligations that stem from the Istanbul Convention, and ultimately providing adequate support to victims of gender-based violence and domestic violence, as well as processing of perpetrators. You can read the analysis here.