Enhanced Capacity of UN Entity in Relation to Violence Against Women

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.

In coordination with the UN Electoral Assistance Division (EAD/DPPA) UN Women contributed to enhanced UN staff capacities on addressing violence against women in elections (VAWE) through a dedicated sessions delivered during the EAD-UN Staff College course on: A Political Approach to Preventing and Responding to Electoral Violence (7-16 June 2021), with 39 participants from around the world from UNDP, DPPA,  OHCHR, UNMISS and UN Women).

UN Women capacities at the regional and national level have enhanced through its triple mandate and technical leadership on EVAW in Africa region. This is evidenced through the leadership on Africa Spotlight Initiative at both regional and country levels, steep increase in the mobilization of resources, strengthening of partnerships with AUC, regional and national CSOs, government and other partners.   UN Women in Africa also by leveraging on the Africa Strategy and harnessing the technical capacities of the team through establishment of a regional EVAW Community of Practice (COP) and sharing of innovation and technical knowledge through South-South learning.  This helped immensely in initiating, strengthening and upscaling programs on ‘safe markets and safe public spaces’ in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe; addressing tech violence against girls in education institutions through a research and advocacy document; partnerships with regional traditional leaders in establishing a movement of “Council of Traditional Leaders in Africa (COTLA)” and its launch in the sidelines of the African Union Summit in February 2019 through the President of Zambia in grassroot advocacy and prevention of child marriage, FGM and other harmful practices.   Strengthened partnerships with the government and CSOs also helped in technical support in legislative reform, strengthening institutions, establishment of referral pathways and multi-sectoral responses in EVAW in the region.

Technical Support to Country Offices and Partners

ROAP has supported country offices to strengthen capacities on EVAW through dedicated technical support on VAW prevention and Essential Services, webinars, introduction of knowledge products and guidance developed, efforts to establish anti-sexual harassment policies at universities, and providing technical inputs in national EVAWG strategies.

As a response to a social (media) movement against sexual harassment in public space, especially in relation to young actresses and women in the entertainment business, which was started by several actresses in the region of Western Balkans, UN Women Bosnia and Herzegovina mobilized UN agencies to create a joint response to the movement. This initiative gathered relevant portfolios from different UN agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA) putting forward a mapping of actions against domestic violence, violence against women and children, gender-based violence and a plan for joint action together with the government for a large-scale systemic response to sexual violence.

• UN Women Kosovo jointly with UNFPA assisted the Ministry of Justice in developing an emergency protocol for handling cases of domestic violence during the pandemic.
• UN Women Kosovo liaised with donors to respond to the needs of survivors from non-majority communities: liaised with Embassy of UK to support the shelter in North Mitrovica; with Swiss Embassy to support a women's organization providing essential services in North Mitrovica.

In Tajikistan, UN Women led the process of institutionalizing PSEA and development the UNCT PSEA plan. Currently PSEA Country Risk Assessment is being developed.

Number of activities to enhance Capacity of UN Entities in Relation to Violence Against Women, including recent GALS training for several UN agencies have been implemented to date.

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. The findings and the submissions received following a call for input issued by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women contributed to the report the Special Rapporteur presented at the 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council in June 2020.

Under the UNFPA flagship programme for disability inclusion, The We Decide Global Initiative, one key focus area is ending violence against women with disabilities and building UNFPA  internal capacities accordingly. The UNFPA We Decide Disability Inclusion Guidelines have been implemented in 74 Country Offices. Within the scope of the Joint Programme for UN Partnership for Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD) “Building Back Better for All”, UNFPA produced resources that strengthen disability inclusive COVID-19 response and recovery in connection to GBV and SRHR. UNFPA staff was trained on how to use these tools and resources.

UNFPA prioritizes staff capacity-building in the areas of GBV prevention, response, and risk mitigation, ensuring alignment with global standards and enhancing the organization’s ability to effectively address GBV. This includes training on essential frameworks such as the IASC GBV Guidelines, ethical data collection, and survivor-centered case management, equipping staff with the knowledge and skills to deliver impactful programs. 

UNFPA also invests in strengthening staff capacity to generate and analyze data, including prevalence and administrative data, ensuring that evidence-based programs and policies are at the forefront of their interventions. One example of this is the kNOwVAWdata initiative, which provides comprehensive training and support to countries to gather and use VAW data effectively. 

In addition to technical expertise, UNFPA fosters cross-regional learning through communities of practice and knowledge-sharing platforms, facilitating the exchange of insights and innovations across regions. The organization also promotes intersectional approaches that address emerging forms of violence, such as technology-facilitated GBV and coercive control, ensuring comprehensive strategies for all forms of violence. 

By embedding VAW prevention and response across its policies, programs, and staff competencies, UNFPA enhances its ability to drive inter-agency coordination, support national systems, and advance global efforts to eliminate violence against women. 

Key Capacity-Building Efforts in 2024 

• WCARO Regional Capacity-Building: In 2024, UNFPA WCARO provided targeted capacity-building support to Country Offices on social norms and harmful practices. This included in-person and virtual training, as well as a regional workshop with SWEDD, where participants from 14 countries were equipped with essential knowledge on social norms, programming, and GBV response. 
• Global Training on Technology-Facilitated GBV: In 2024, UNFPA facilitated global in-person training on Technology-Facilitated GBV (TFGBV), strengthening global capacity to address this emerging issue and ensure the implementation of evidence-based programming. 

UN Action serves as the global knowledge hub on conflict-related sexual violence. Leveraging the expertise and experience from its 26 member entities, it develops new, gap-filing, knowledge, guidance, and tools to support practitioners, policymakers, and others to respond to conflict-related sexual violence and disseminates/socialises this knowledge for practical implementation. Thematic areas include: trafficking-in-persons and conflict-related sexual violence, mental health and psychosocial support to survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, economic empowerment for survivors and communities affected by sexual violence, implementing the conflict-related sexual violence mandate in the wake of mission transitions and drawdowns, and what it means to take a survivor-centred approach to CRSV. UN Action has also provided trainings on the prevention and response to conflict-related sexual violence on an ad-hoc basis. 

OHCHR has developed an office-wide strategy on gender-based violence, which includes the prevention of sexual violence in conflict, to ensure all our operations adopt a comprehensive approach to eradicating and redressing it. The strategy, embedded in the current Office Management Plan, ensures that dedicated resources are used efficiently and with maximum impact. It focuses on the root causes of gender-based violence, including harmful gender and social norms, by addressing gaps in the protection of civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights. 

In 2024, IOM continued to pursue key milestones set against commitments made under the Global Call to Action on Protection against GBV in Emergencies 2021-2025 Roadmap. The following milestones were met in 2024:  

• A substantial increase of 45% in the number of countries worldwide implementing measures to mitigate gender-based violence (GBV), totaling 58 countries across various regions.  These interventions included activities such as structural adaptations, consultations with women and girls, safety audits, and handling GBV disclosure trainings.   
• More than eight country missions affected by crisis reported engagement in GBV specialized activities aimed at providing GBV survivors, including survivors of conflicted affected Sexual violence, with timely and vital GBV services that supported their well-being, recovery, and resilience.   

 IOM provides opportunities for access to financing for organizations and associations that address GBV, including through IOM’s managed Rapid Response Fund (RRF) in humanitarian contexts. Through the RRF, IOM has provided grants to women-led organizations (WLOs) during the onset of newly emerging crises, enabling the delivery of GBV response services in some of the most remote locations. IOM's Director General has committed to scaling up such mechanisms to break down barriers and ensure that WLOs have timely access to funding. IOM has institutionalized many interagency recommendations, including systems to ensure funding can be allocated directly to women-led organizations and local actors. By lifting preexisting administrative barriers, funding provided to one women-led entity in an emergency setting enabled them to co-chair the national GBV coordination mechanism, lead the national strategy, and move beyond consultation to steering priority setting.

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.

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

In August 2020, UNDP India in collaboration with UN Staff Association of India organized a webinar for UN staff with focus on factors and conditions that aggravate incidence and severity of Violence Against Women during COVID lockdown. In addition to the webinar, UNDP Management and Staff association conducted three rounds of surveys to understand how staff were coping with lockdown and working from home. One of the surveys dedicated to women staff was to better understand needs for information and counselling support on violence.

UNDP Bangladesh, as the member of Gender Equality Theme Group and Local Consultative Group on Women’s Advancement and Gender Equality, contributed significantly in joint learning regarding SHAA and SEA through sharing good practices and helping in designing and implementing advocacy events in different occasions such as 16 days of activism, International Women’s Day.

In Malaysia, UN GRG conducted a capacity building session to introduce Political Engagement Strategy Activation Toolkit in June 2021.

UNDP also has ‘Gender Equality Seal’ programme to recognize and certificate the good performance of its country offices with regards to gender mainstreaming.

UN Women capacities at the regional and national level have enhanced through its triple mandate and technical leadership on EVAW in Africa region. This is evidenced through the leadership on Africa Spotlight Initiative at both regional and country levels, steep increase in the mobilization of resources, strengthening of partnerships with AUC, regional and national CSOs, government and other partners.   UN Women in Africa also by leveraging on the Africa Strategy and harnessing the technical capacities of the team through establishment of a regional EVAW Community of Practice (COP) and sharing of innovation and technical knowledge through South-South learning.  This helped immensely in initiating, strengthening and up-scaling programs on ‘safe markets and safe public spaces’ in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe; addressing tech violence against girls in education institutions through a research and advocacy document; partnerships with regional traditional leaders in establishing a movement of “Council of Traditional Leaders in Africa (COTLA)” and its launch in the sidelines of the African Union Summit in February 2019 through the President of Zambia in grassroot advocacy and prevention of child marriage, FGM and other harmful practices.   Strengthened partnerships with the government and CSOs also helped in technical support in legislative reform, strengthening institutions, establishment of referral pathways and multisectoral responses in EVAW in the region. 

UN-Women continued to support the mainstreaming of gender and development of training sessions on violence against women in politics, which were delivered in the United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) 2019 courses on Political Approaches to Preventing and Responding to Election-Related Violence.