National Policies

IOM signed an agreement with the Colombian Ministry of Justice in order to provide technical assistance and support in the de-centralization of the national strategic plan.

In collaboration with leading experts at the London School of Tropical Medicine, UNAIDS together with WHO and the Global coalition on women and AIDS developed costing estimates for integrating programmes that address violence against women into national AIDS programmes. Interventions on violence against women were included in the 2007 UNAIDS “Financial Resources Required to Achieve Universal Access to HIV Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support”.The Global Coalition on Women and AIDS has actively provided technical and financial support to regional coalitions of women leaders.

UNFPA is working in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders to address gender-based violence, including policy reforms.

UNICEF facilitates the establishment of partnerships with governments and non-governmental organizations, and places emphasis on the development of national action plans on gender-based violence.

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, in partnership with national counterparts, ministries, civil society and UN sister agencies, provided support for the development of national strategies and plans in Albania, Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Kazakhstan and Slovakia.Under the UNIFEM-supported Safe Cities Programme in the Southern Cone of Latin America, a protocol is under development to guide the Urban Municipal Guard in Rosario, Argentina, in responding to gender-based violence, which is stimulating policy reforms in Santa Clara, Chile, and lessons are being shared with local authorities in Bolivia, Bra

Research carried out on domestic violence, with UNDP support, has contributed to policy development and promotion of women’s human rights in Mexico, Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Jamaica, Croatia, and Belarus. In Jamaica, the findings of a research on gender-based violence were fed into the development of a national action plan, including the identification of school based initiatives and the role of the family to address gender-based violence.

In July 2007, ESCAP held an expert group meeting for senior law-making officials and national machineries for women to review the concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and integration of the Convention in domestic law.

DPKO gender units/advisers work to ensure that women’s non-governmental organizations are included in common efforts to combat violence against women, including trafficking, as is the case in Kosovo. Gender advisers encourage increased collaboration between the police, national victim-support organizations and the judicial system, as is the case in Sierra Leone.

The World Bank is providing Uruguay with a US$300,000 Institutional Development Fund grant to tackle domestic violence, including support to the implementation of the country's first national plan on domestic violence approved in 2004.

Follow-up activities to the WHO World report on violence and health, 2002, and the multi-country study, include launches in over 50 countries; national reports on violence and health; the appointment of focal points on violence in ministries of health in almost 100 countries; and the development of policies on violence against women in collaboration with regional and national partners. The Pan-American Health Organization has developed a model of laws and policies on domestic violence against women that has been validated by four countries in the region and will be implemented in 8 countries.