Capacity Building for UN

In September 2009, UNFPA held a regional meeting in Namibia to develop a UNFPA Africa-wide regional strategy on GBV.

In October 2008, UNHCR finalized a three-year Strategic Plan to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence.

OHCHR examined the feasibility of deploying gender advisors, including on violence against women, to regional offices, and completed a needs assessment mission to the Regional Office in Beirut in October 2008. OHCHR continued to develop a gender strategy for Colombia, including sub-strategies related to violence and a consultant was recruited for its implementation phase.In the Middle East and North Africa region, OHCHR worked to develop a strategy to combat crimes committed in the name of “honour”.

Following the Fifteenth Meeting of Specialized Agencies and Other Bodies of the United Nations System on the Advancement of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (Bogotá, 23 April 2008), a regional interagency working group has been established to define the strategy and ways to implement the Secretary-General’s campaign. ECLAC is acting as the link between the regional and global levels for the Secretary- General’s campaign to eliminate all forms of violence against women.

In 2013, UNDP progressed work on a forthcoming publication “UNDP Support for Domestic Violence Law Reform” to assist staff and partners to support national and other partners to undertake domestic violence law reform.UNDP supported several initiatives to enhance capacity of the UN system in addressing VAW through a training to UNCT members on their professional and personal roles in addressing VAW and in changing societal attitudes (Albania); compulsory online training course for UNDP staff on “UN Programme on the Prevention of Harassment, Sexual Harassment and Abuse of Authority in the Workpl

OHCHR supported the following human rights mechanisms: the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (SRVAW) in the conduct of 3 official country visits in the reporting period: India (22 April to 1 May, 2013), Bangladesh (20 to 29 May, 2013), and Azerbaijan (25 November to 5 December, 2013); the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children in convening 5 regional consultations (Geneva, Santiago, Bangkok, Abuja and Amman) and two global consultations (New York and Vienna) on the right to an effective remedy for trafficked persons p

UNICEF has been consolidating key actions to address violence against children, including through the provision of support to the field with programme response to prevent and respond to violence in early childhood, violence in schools, and sexual violence, as well as through regional and global partnerships. This includes the Together for Girls Initiative to End Violence against Children, which reaches 14 countries across 4 regions, and which has been established as a global reference on ending violence against children.

In November 2013, the second Gender Academy, supported by ILO, UN Women and the European Commission, was held at the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITC-ILO). The Academy examined policies and methods to respond to gender-based violence and risks at work.

Two Global Strategic Priorities of UNHCR for the coming two years will focus on SGBV by addressing provision of support to SGBV survivors as well as prevention and protection of SGBV survivors through community involvement. In order to strengthen its accountability, UNHCR also began focusing on joint monitoring and evaluation for the implementation of its three strategies on Education, Child Protection, and SGBV, as these three areas are complementary and often overlapping, and organized a seminar for protection and programme officers to this end.

The new UNDP Strategic Plan (2014-17) includes for the first time specific reference to sexual and gender based violence. The second corporate gender equality strategy (2014-17) also prioritizes actions to prevent and respond to SGBV.