Measures

In 2020, 64,796 GBV survivors received psychosocial counselling, 3,297 received legal assistance and 5,736 medical assistance through services provided by UNHCR and partners.

Through the Global Humanitarian Response Plan to COVID-19 (GHRP), over 2 million women and girls reached UNHCR via hotlines and other mechanisms to support GBV, while some 1.18 million women and girls were provided with sexual and reproductive health services.

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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. It is estimated that from the launch of the programme in 2012 until 2019, this technical support increased the efficiency of GBV programming from 35% to 82%, increased coverage of GBV programming from 25% to 59% and facilitated the access of 1.56 million additional persons of concern to GBV programming and services.

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UNHCR developed a Guidance Note on the International Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The Guidance Note aims to serve as a resource for UNHCR staff with regards to: understanding the overall structure and content of the Convention; drafting UNHCR’s confidential comments to the Committee; helping asylum-seeking, refugee, internally displaced and stateless women and girls to understand and claim their rights under the Convention; and, informing other means of advocacy such as judicial interventions, UNHCR comments on draft national legislation, and public communications. 

 

UNHCR has also supported the development of thematic legislation in different operations.

 

In addition, UNHCR launched its internal UNHCR’s Universal Periodic Review Dashboard. The UPR dashboard is a simple interactive tool that allows UNHCR colleagues to easily visualize, filter and extract data and the text of UPR recommendations which are directly related to UNHCR’s persons of concern. It includes data from OHCHR’s Universal Human Rights Index, but it is specifically limited to UPR recommendations related to persons under UNHCR’s mandate and the data has been tagged to allow filtering by regions and themes of relevance to UNHCR. It also provides quick links to past UNHCR UPR submissions and to States’ official UPR pages on OHCHR’s website.

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The Facilitator Guide on Mainstreaming GBV Risk Mitigation was launched in 2020 and until September 2021 a total of 124 participants from sectors have been trained on the topic.

Another 24 colleagues from 15 country operations and HQ graduated from the 2020 Cohort of the GBV Training of Trainers and more than 210 participants were brought together for the 2020 GBV Global Workshop, which was adapted to online modalities.

Across UNHCR, 2,617 UNHCR learners completed at least one level of the GBV e-learning in the period between January 2020 until September 2021.

UNHCR released its Gender Equality Toolkit in 2020 and provided operational support towards the institutionalization of gender equality and women’s empowerment initiatives. To facilitate cross-operational learning and seize opportunities to advance gender equality, UNHCR and partners documented emerging and promising practices in sub-Saharan Africa and collaborated with the Population Council to document community-based protection practices in East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes Region.

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During the last quarter of 2020, UNCHR's registration and case management system, ProGres v4, was upgraded. The operationalization of the CP and GBV modules was supported through a series of trainings and tailored technical support provided to country operation to increase their awareness and understanding of the new enhancements. The continued deployment of the ProGres v4 CP and GBV modules has increased the ability of operations to standardize and disaggregate the GBV and CP Case Management data for program quality and trend analysis.

The collection of survivors' personal data concerning GBV incidents is carried out only if the survivor has consented and wishes to be referred for protection or assistance in accordance with the GBV Guiding Principle and data protection principles, as outlined in UNHCR's GBV Policy. In the case of children, specific procedures for obtaining consent/assent from parents/caregivers and/or children are required, in adherence with the best interests of the child.

A standardized GBV Safety Audit tool has been developed to assess and monitor overall safety and GBV risk mitigation and response measures in operations, and to collect site-level information. Operations are utilizing the tool to inform programming.

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During 2020-2021, UNHCR has continued its proactive engagement with numerous commitments and Inter-Agency initiatives at the global level. UNHCR supported the revision and made renewed commitments to the revised roadmap of the Call to Action on Protection from Gender Based Violence in Emergencies.

UNHCR engaged with the Gender-based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBVAoR) and its Task Teams, particularly on the GBV Minimum Standards, Localization and the Policy and Advocacy Reference Group, supporting the development of the GBViE Minimum Standards Facilitation Guide and Contextualization tool, the development of Covid-specific guidance, as well as several advocacy pieces.UNCHR also participated regularly in the Inter-Agency standing committee (IASC) Gender Reference Group (GRG) and in the IASC Guidelines Reference Group.UNHCR serves as a member of the UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict and has supported the SRSG SVC’s Office with human resources to support coordination.

UNHCR co-chairs Results Group 2 on Accountability and Inclusion supporting humanitarian leaders and responders in demonstrating system change through collective approaches to accountability and inclusion. It includes PSEA as well as ensuring consideration of diversity characteristics such as gender.UNHCR is a member of the GBVIMS Steering Committee and its technical team, PRIMERO coordination committee and PRIMES.  

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The UN Trust Fund took specific steps to ensure that organizations were strengthened and supported during the COVID-19 pandemic. Feedback from Civil Society and Women’s Rights Organizations (CSOs/WROs) in 2020 and 2021 showed that many were concerned about survival of the women and girls they serve, while ensuring their organizational existence. In response to needs voiced by CSO/WRO partners, the UN Trust Fund organized a series of webinars and training. Training covered areas such as project modification (96 per cent of attendees rated this as useful or very useful); cash-based interventions (80 per cent of attendees rated this as useful or very useful); and procurement and recommended procedures (94 per cent of attendees rated this as useful or very useful). In a post training survey, all respondents indicated that the knowledge and skills gained from the training will be useful for them even beyond the management and implementation of the current project. In general, organizational capacity development activities reached more than 1,100 grantee participants in 2020. Grantees were also provided with training on effective management of projects, preventing sexual exploitation and abuse, as well as ethics and safety.  Hide

The United Nations Trust Fund in support of actions to eliminate violence against women (UN Trust Fund) is a global, multilateral grant-making mechanism that supports effort to prevent and end violence against women and girls. The UN Trust Fund, which was established in 1996 by the General Assembly in the resolution 50/166, is administered by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) on behalf of the United Nations system. With the strong institutional support of UN Women and its regional, multi-country offices, and working closely with the rest of the United Nations system through its inter-agency Programme Advisory Committee, the Trust Fund plays a vital role in driving forward collective efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls.

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Help Age International implemented a UN Trust Fund-funded project in Moldova which worked to make older women survivors of gender-based violence feel safer.  Through the project, Help Age International provided key recommendations for integrating the needs of older women survivors into the National Strategy on preventing and combating violence against women and violence in the family for 2018-2023 and its Implementation Plan for 2018-2020. In addition, 359 members of 32 district multidisciplinary teams and 26 representatives of Centres for Assistance and Protection received training on preventing, identifying and addressing violence against older women, exceeding targets. An evaluation of the project found that it exceeded its target by nearly threefold, reaching 512 women survivors of violence through individual and group counselling, as well as through diverse outreach activities. In addition, 2,510 older women at risk of violence benefited from different outreach activities and 12,033 women in eight communities benefited from its awareness raising campaigns. The feedback from people who participated in the evaluation process indicated that the project was and remains “highly relevant” and “extremely needed for older women at risk of violence and survivors”.  Hide

An initiative by Persatuan Sahabat Wanita, Selangor (Friends of Women Organization, Selangor) in Malaysia focuses on addressing the rising problem of harassment of women workers, particularly undocumented migrant and domestic workers, who are at heightened risk of all forms of gender-based violence. Some activities could not be carried out as planned during 2020 because the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic required the grantee to adapt some initiatives, deliver some virtually and postpone others. Nevertheless, despite the challenges, progress was made in some key project areas, including: the development of an app to report abuses and provide information; gathering and analysing baseline data using responses from 100 women; disseminating information relating to sexual harassment, including launching a video on sexual harassment on Facebook during the 16 Days of Activism, which was widely viewed; and training 15 domestic worker leaders during a short lifting of the ban on gatherings due to COVID-19. The grantee also provided relief to those most at risk during the pandemic and 60 families received emergency aid. Hide