Capacity Building for UN

UNDP works to enhance capacity of staff in relation to violence against women.

In 2020, through the Safe from the Start programme, UNHCH deployed gender-based violence specialist staff to 12 operations such as Burkina Faso, Burundi, Mali, Yemen and Sudan, including L2 and L3 emergencies. From quarters 1 to 3 of 2021, GBV experts have been deployed in Mali, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Trinidad and Tobago, among others.

With the Office of the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, UNFPA convened an Expert Group Meeting to gather current and past research and information by leading media organizations, news entities and key women journalists on the status, consequences and causes of threats to women journalists worldwide.

UN-Women completed the implementation of the recommendations of the independent, victim-centered review of its policies and procedures on tackling SEA and SH in June 2021. Through targeted actions, UN Women was able to maximize the clarity and cohesion of its policy and governance framework, strengthen its prevention and communication efforts, establish sufficient field capacity and proper operationalization, and ensure accountable and transparent investigations.

Protection Policy is being updated in November 2020. A cross cutting theme identified is Gender Based Violence, which will set the direction for broader Mainstreaming across programmes. This will be of closer focus over the coming years to build on existing initiatives and create opportunities for new programmes. 

The United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women is the only global grant-making mechanism exclusively dedicated to eradicating all forms of violence against women and girls. The UN Trust Fund is managed by UN Women on behalf of the UN system and involves 24 UN organs and bodies in its decision-making processes through Regional and Global Programme Advisory Committees (PACs).

In 2019 UNRWA dedicated crucial efforts to standardizing and institutionalizing GBV related interventions in interplay with evidence from recently developed monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. Combining different tools and methodologies developed between 2017 and 2019, UNRWA developed a capacity building approach, finalized in 2019, that worked on changing knowledge, practice, and attitudes of staff in a large organisation (with over 30,000 staff) that provide direct services to over 5 million Palestine refugees.

UNODC established a new professional network on violence against women, composed of staff working on gender-based violence across UNODC, in order to more effectively assist countries in preventing and responding to violence against women. 

UNHCR has improved data management and analysis on SGBV, which strengthened programming and enhanced services for survivors and those at risk. Moreover, UNHCR has deployed senior-level protection staff to ten emergency operations in 2019, covering all L3 emergencies, where they strengthened coordination among partners, ensured access to quality of SGBV services, trained staff, and worked with diverse communities to address SGBV.