Measures
WFP’s Gender Policy and Protection Policy both cover elements of addressing Gender Based Violence; both policies are supported by guidance manuals for field based staff.
In Myanmar, WFP engages closely with the Protection Cluster and the Humanitarian Country Team to understand and respond to emerging protection concerns. Considering the protection context and to support a principled and coordinated approach to assistance and do-no-harm, WFP has developed a scenario-based intervention whereby indicators relating to the protection of the affected population and humanitarian access determine the scale and scope of WFP assistance.
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.
In Bangladesh, specific focus on context and protection analysis conducted by WFP highlighted GBV risks of populations ability to make ends meet and earn a living – with impacts including trafficking and child marriage. In response to the context analysis, WFP has partnered with UN Women focusing on Self-Reliance projects aimed at supporting socio economic empowerment of women and adolescent girls.
In Sri Lanka, WFP is working alongside UNFPA and the Government of Sri Lanka through its ‘Change’ Project. The project aims to tackle gender equality and women’s empowerment through improved nutrition, food security, sexual and reproductive health, and access to health services in post-conflict Sri Lanka.
In DPRK, WFP is working alongside the UNCT to develop a 2020 work plan with the UNCT. This includes new elements i.e. ’gender equality score’ and ‘human rights score’ incorporated across themes.
In DRC, WFP continues to support the Panzi Hospital to support victims of Gender Based Violence. WFP supports through emergency food and nutrition blanket supplementary feeding programme – which includes nutritious filled food to boost recovery to survivors.
In Malawi, the United Nations Joint Programme on Girls Education (UNJPGE) has aimed to systematically address obstacles faced by adolescent girls and boys and finding solutions that are transforming the reality of communities. The joint programme approach provides a platform for three UN agencies (UNICEF, UNFPA and WFP) to explore integrated approaches and create synergies for impact, putting an emphasis on enjoyment of rights for those vulnerable children, particularly by keeping girls in school. Since the project began in 2014, average school enrolment rates have increased by 31% and 43.5% report a decrease in the number of girls experiencing sexual violence or abuse. WFP is providing homegrown school meals linked to JPGE to more than 169,000 students. Fresh food is bought locally from 12,000 smallholder farmers who also directly benefit from the programme.
In Nepal, advocacy measures were taken on November 25 with a strong voice on Orange the World: Gender Equality to End Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV). WFP Nepal Country Office also marked the opening ceremony of the international campaign with a group photo followed by opening remarks from the Country Director, Pippa Bradford and guest speaker Dr. Aruna Uprety, Nutritionist and Women Rights Activist. The country director expressed her serious concern over the global and national figure revealing incidences and situation of women and girls facing gender-based violence. Similarly, Dr Uprety spoke out about “Chhaupadi” a menstrual exclusion as a one of the cultural violence that subjugate and oppress girls and women from far west region in Nepal. In addition, she also highlighted the adverse impact of such practices on women and girls’ health, education and safety. The office also celebrating the whole 16 days through spreading SGBV messages and videos among staff and concluded the event with powerful story and inspirational message from burn survivor young woman on the closing day of the campaign i.e. December 10. The event was organized with the support of small task force group members representing programme and support function units.
UNRWA field offices in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank participate regularly in the cluster and sub-clusters related to GBV and PSEA. They also play an active role in inter-agency activities marking the 16 days campaign of activism to end gender-based violence and the “UNiTe to End Violence against Women”.
In 2019, UNRWA identified and provided protection services to 9858 persons among the Palestine refugees communities in Jordan, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank. Among the 9.857, 5.240 were GBV survivors that included 25% girls, 6% boys and 2% persons with disabilities.
View MoreIn 2019, UNRWA identified and provided protection services to 9858 persons among the Palestine refugees communities in Jordan, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank. Among the 9.857, 5.240 were GBV survivors that included 25% girls, 6% boys and 2% persons with disabilities.
Among the major undertakings of UNRWA GBV programming has been the systematization of GBV prevention interventions. UNRWA, with the support of an external consulting firm, established a baseline to its GBV prevention activities in 2016, developed a GBV Prevention Framework and road maps for implementation in the field offices and measured the change achieved three years after the implementation of the activities through a GBV Endline study conducted in 2019. The report of the endline study showed the below key findings:
- Overall, UNRWA has taken some important steps to mainstream GBV prevention across its work on gender-based violence;
- Staff awareness, knowledge and understanding regarding GBV prevention have been improved to some extent and to varying degrees but a response focus still dominates and cultural factors remain barriers for some staff;
- The mainstreaming approach has enhanced the sustainability of the prevention element of the project;
- While perception among staff of leadership engagement has improved, there remain important gaps in terms of leadership;
- There is a clear recognition from UNRWA and its partners of the Agency’s comparative advantage in GBV prevention;
- The evidence shows that while prevalence remains high there have been some shifts in knowledge and attitudes at community level regarding GBV awareness;
- UNRWA investment in developing a GBV learning culture has paid dividends but systems for monitoring results need strengthening and resources allocated are still seen as inadequate.
A key component of the GBV Prevention work consisted of engaging communities in self-protection mechanisms and in 2019 UNRWA has been extending the work with communities to strengthen local community-based protection mechanisms including facilitating community awareness and identification of harmful behaviours and GBV risks, as well as activities including prevention awareness messaging and GBV risk mitigation. Specifically, UNRWA offices in Jordan and West Bank have developed a participatory protection assessment aimed at establishing community self-protection mechanisms, which were piloted in the past months.
Specifically Jordan Field Office designed the Building Self-Protection Methodology to strengthen self-protection capacities within the community and is built upon the following resources:
- UNRWA Protection Analysis Guidance and Tool Kit;
- Some of the tools included in UNRWA Guidelines for the Mainstreaming of Gender-Based Violence Risk Mitigation in Emergency Response;
- The Assets Methodology by Population Council.
Then the GBV Focal Points facilitated activities with UNRWA students, parents and teachers and produced a participatory Protection Risk Analysis. The key output of the three first exercises of the methodology allowed the definition of a Protection Risk Chart with a focus on GBV. Based on the risks identified, the community then mapped the assets available and devised a Protection Roadmap to tackle a maximum of three of the risks identified through an array of interventions such as trainings, information sessions, awareness raising, partnership building, etc. These interventions relied on existing resources within the community favouring networking and meaningful participation of the different stakeholders. Building on the experiences of the pilot in Jordan, the Child and Family Protection Programme in West Bank modified the outlined methodology to accommodate its own specific context and to add further GBV and SEA related components. It focused on identifying local community safety mechanisms for students (8th and 9th grade) attending UNRWA schools and parents in order to subsequently strengthen self-protection services and link them to GBV, while involving Child and Family Protection Committees in view of their important role in preventing and reducing GBV incidents in emergencies. Therefore, a set of activities was identified on a broad range of related topics, such as gender roles, sexual and gender-based violence, sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and respective implications in emergencies and was implemented through the community protection plans.
Finally, UNRWA developed and aired 6 TV spots that address, through fiction, a situation related to GBV prevention, risk mitigation and gender discrimination. The TV spots were aired not only on the UNRWA Youtube channel but also in UNRWA installations while refugees were waiting to access services and in discussions groups with communities’ members across the five fields of operation to spur debate among the audience on individual and communal mechanisms to address gender stereotypes and gender-based violence. Furthermore, the episodes were featured during the Women’s Film Week in Amman from 8 to 11 March 2019, organised by UN Women for International Women’s Day. Having generated very positive feedback and reception in the communities and in view of the spots being an excellent tool to open up and facilitate debate, the Gender Section worked on establishing them as a long term tool to be integrated into various programmes even after the end of the project. In order to facilitate their use for other departments, a Companion Guide was finalized in 2019. The guide includes a drive with all videos accompanied by straightforward information on the respective messaging of each of the episodes as well as questions to guide focus group debate. The TV spots and Companion Guide were then used in groups discussions with community members, students, and staff during the 2019, 16 Days of Activism campaign to end GBV from 25 November to 10 December through.
In 2019, UNRWA continued the roll out of the Training Manual on Understanding GBV and 600 staff were trained in all fields of operations of which an average of 85% demonstrated increased capability to address GBV. The e-learning course on GBV risk mitigation in emergencies has been launched in November 2018. It has subsequently been piloted in all five fields of operation and so far, 600 staff have completed the e-Learning course. While continuing to work on increasing knowledge on GBV for all staff, UNRWA put emphasis on respective changes in attitudes and practices, building on the already achieved positive changes in knowledge of many employees. To achieve this UNRWA focused on three core competencies (the survivor-centred approach; communication and counselling; and supervision skills) related to four categories of staff addressing GBV (case identifiers, case managers, case supervisors, and GBV coordinators) and rolled out 199 on-the-job coaching sessions to staff in all fields of operations.
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. The 2018 field-specific capacity-building plans continued to be implemented in 2019 and integrated the latest tools: the on-the-job-coaching and the UNRWA GBV competency framework.