Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality
The Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE) is a network of gender focal points of United Nations offices, specialized agencies, funds and programme, providing a platform for monitoring and overseeing the mainstreaming of gender perspective in the programmtic, normative and operations work of the UN System. With respect to violence against women, the network has closely followed the activities of the UN system, and has been a platform to share information and promote coherent, multi-sector approach to EVAW through dedicated sessions on the subject during IANWGE annual sessions, inter-sessional meetings, and the OECD DAC Gendernet-IANWGE Joint workshops, as relevant.
2 United Nations Plaza, 12th floor, New York, NY 10017,USA
The Network has in the past convened a Task Force on violence against women, in which the Network addressed all forms of violence against women, at the global, regional and country level. The Task Force aimed to: enhance support to Member States in their efforts to eliminate violence against women; strengthen systematic and timely information exchange among entities of the United Nations system about existing and planned strategies, programmes and activities on violence against women, at global, regional and national levels; achieve an enhanced understanding of resources available from the United Nations system, at the national level, to support work by Governments and non-governmental organizations to prevent and respond to violence against women; and ensure leadership by senior officials of entities of the United Nations system to address violence against women.
In 2008, the Task Force began a joint programming pilot initiative to address violence against women in ten pilot countries: Burkina Faso, Chile, Fiji, Jamaica, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Paraguay, Philippines, Rwanda, Yemen. The initiative brought together relevant stakeholders at the national level, including Government actors, the UN Country Teams, and civil society stakeholders to harmonize initiatives and budgets, and maximize each stakeholder’s comparative advantage, to end violence against women. The ten pilot countries were selected on the basis of a number of factors, including: support from UN entities for programmes on violence against women; evidence of substantial efforts and commitment at the national level to address and eliminate violence against women; existence of baseline data on violence against women; and a geographical balance of the countries represented.
The six steps in the joint programming pilot initiative were:
*Step I: A baseline assessment is conducted to determine: existing initiatives addressing violence against women, including in the areas of law, service-provision, prevention, and data collection; stakeholders involved and their respective capacities and strengths; existing data on violence against women; gaps and challenges to addressing this issue in a concerted manner; and identified priorities for action.
*Step 2: Based on the baseline assessment, a national multi-stakeholder workshop is held. These workshops are instrumental in developing a multi-sectoral framework that brings together UN system actions in support of national efforts to address violence against women, including in support of the implementation of national action plans on violence against women where such plans exist; or to assist in the development of such plans where they do not yet exist.
*Step 3: A joint national committee is formed, consisting of stakeholders from Government, the UN, and civil society.
*Step 4: The joint national committee drafts a multi-sectoral joint programme proposal which is submitted to various bodies for funding.
*Step 5: Joint programming activities are implemented based on availability of resources.
*Step 6: Monitoring and evaluation is undertaken to identify lessons learned and scale up efforts.
During IANWGE’s Annual Meeting, violence against women is regularly included during the session on Thematic areas of System-wide Relevance. Members are briefed on updates related to the prevention of violence against women, the availability of essential services for survivors, and violence against women data collection.
In 2014, Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality provided briefings and updates on the Secretary General's UNiTE Campaign during the 13th and 14th annual sessions of the IANWGE as well as inputs from participating agencies for the final report to the Campaign’s High Level Steering Committee.
Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality organized a session on Ending Violence againt Women during the 15th Annual session of the IANWGE with panelists from UN Women and UNODC in March 2016.