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UNICEF and OCHA completed phase 1 of a joint project to prevent use of sexual violence by armed groups. In October 2011, UNODA New York provided expertise to a meeting of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) on ‘Why Women? Effective Engagement for Small Arms Control’ that launched a report on why it is important to include women in small arms control and disarmament initiatives. Hide

OCHA supports the Gender Standby Capacity Project (GenCap), in collaboration with the Inter‐Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), aimed at building the capacity of humanitarian actors at country level to mainstream gender in all sectors of humanitarian response. From June 2007 to April 2011, 54 GenCap Advisers have supported 30 Humanitarian Country Teams. A Gender-Based Violence (GBV) window has been established in the GenCap Roster. In August 2011, the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI) embarked on an evaluation which was commissioned to inform the decision over whether the GenCap Project should be phased out, maintained or expanded, in addition to providing concrete suggestions for change. In mid‐September the evaluators interviewed a broad spectrum of stakeholders in Geneva. Field visits included South Sudan, Sudan, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. Two learning workshops were conducted to verify findings and refine recommendations. The evaluation found that GenCap advisers have made an effective contribution to raising awareness and increasing the understanding and acceptance of gender among humanitarian actors. It concluded that the GenCap project remains highly relevant and should be continued in the medium‐term future. Hide

A 2011 study “Sex and Age Matter” produced by the Feinstein International Center and sponsored by OCHA and CARE International demonstrates that the humanitarian community needs to greatly increase its collection and use of sex and age disaggregated data (SADD) to better inform programming. Researchers thoroughly reviewed numerous published reports from academia, the UN, non-governmental organizations on the effects of natural disasters and armed conflict on civilian populations, with a focus on publications that used SADD, gender and generational analyses to document and analyze those effects. The report can be found at: http://www.unocha.org/what‐wedo/ policy/thematic‐areas/gender‐equality. Hide