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UNDP implemented various activities for raising awareness and advocacy to prevent VAWG at both national and local level throughout the year. Through massive events, sessions and campaigns held in cooperation with national authorities and civil societies around the world, thousands of participants were provided with information on types of violence, prevention measures, as well as current laws and state programmes to prevent domestic violence.
UNDP Libya Co-organized a webinar on the topic of Violence Against Women in Elections aimed at bringing together the Libyan High National Election Commission (HNEC), civil society organizations and other stakeholders around a discussion on violence against women in elections and efforts to enhance women’s electoral participation. The webinar was an opportunity to raise awareness and interest in the efforts of election stakeholders to protect women’s electoral participation and discuss avenues for effective cooperation and collaboration between government and non-government entities towards accelerating progress for violence against women in elections.
UNDP India organised dialogues with civil society organisations to better understand ground reality from the context of different population groups. Along similar lines, the office advocated for the inclusion of Redress to GBV as an essential service.
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.
UNDP has organized a series of trainings on gender and GBV for local government officials including police and judiciary, CSOs, and survivors.
In Azerbaijan, UNDP trained local women-activists to provide rapid psychosocial support, safety plans, case management and referrals to assist GBV survivors of all genders.
With the support of the Johns Hopkins University, the Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA), a trans-diagnostic mental health intervention developed for delivery by non-professionals, is being implemented in Moldova. CETA is also an evidence-based programme demonstrated to significantly prevent intimate partner violence.
UNDP Iraq , Fiji, Maldives, Serbia, Ukraine, Brazil, Peru and others also provided training on GBV prevention for judges, prosecutors and police officers to end gender-based violence.
The office in Somalia supported a SGBV programme in Mogadishu and Puntland starting in 2020. A fully functional SGBV Unit was established and staffed in Mogadishu. UNDP also worked with Office of the Attorney General in Puntland, with the aim of providing technical support and building the capacity of the institution to promote access to justice for survivors/victims of sexual and gender-based violence
A three days’ workshop, providing Libya law enforcement with information related to offenses that constitute gender-based violence (GBV), was organized by UNDP Libya.
In 2017, UNDP launched the “Ending Gender-based Violence (GBV) and Achieving the SDGs” global project. This project aims to take violence prevention to scale by bringing new partners, strategies and sources of financing to the table. Over three years, it will: design, test and evaluate initiatives that will reduce GBV in select pilot sites; and develop new knowledge, skills and tools to reduce GBV in other contexts. Pilots will integrate GBV into broader UNDP sectoral programming (such as environment and livelihoods) and/or will focus around the principle of leaving no one behind. All pilots will be implemented at the local level, but their lessons will be global. The project will translate evidence from the pilots into policy and advocacy tools, along with instruments such as new financing modalities.
In Latin America, OHCHR in coordination with UNDP Regional Virtual School, finalized the design of a self-learning on-line course on the Latin American Protocol for the investigation of gender-related killings of women. The virtual course was successfully tested by 28 participants from the region (academia, Judiciary, Public-Attorney’s Offices, forensics, psychologists and OHCHR staff). Related traning courses have been organised by OHCHR RGA in Panama, in Bolivia, and other countries from the region.
The UNiTE Group for the Americas and the Caribbean, including 9 agencies -PAHO, UNDP, OHCHR, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNHCR, ECLAC, WFP and UN Women- and the IDB and the OAS, developed 12 Key Messages to Eradicate Violence Against Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean. This unprecedented effort led by UN Women, systematized the lessons learned from all the publications and knowledge produced in the context of the UNiTE Campaign in the last 7 years. These messages were launched in the framework of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, which took place in Montevideo in October of 2016. Thereafter, the messages were the basis for the celebrations of November 25th at regional and country level.
In order to enhance the ability of Country Offices, Regional Service Centres and Regional Bureaux to deliver transformative results for gender equality, UNDP has created the UNDP Gender Equality Seal. The Seal is a corporate certification process that recognizes good performance in gender mainstreaming. It offers three levels of certification (Bronze, Silver or Gold). An office/unit can be certified and awarded after the following four steps: the first step consists of a self-assessment based on a set of benchmarks. In the current round of the Seal, countries have to score positively on several mandatory benchmarks and score a certain % of other benchmarks to get any certification award. One of the benchmarks (3.2) aims at preventing workplace harassment, sexual harassment and abuse of authority and states that an office/unit policy has to be notified and implemented. Specific responsibilities for senior management include communicating the policy to staff; ensuring that staff complete the online training course on harassment and abuse of authority; acting as a role model and resource on the policy for staff members and non-staff personnel; ensure prevention of harassment, especially by supervisors; take prompt action for investigation and redress of any incidents; ensure confidentiality and sensitivity; and ensure that there is no retaliation against complainants. They are 43 currently participating countries that will have to complete this mandatory benchmark to qualify for a Seal certification.
In Nepal, UNDP has supported studies on engaging men and boys to prevent Gender Based Violence and the linkages between masculinities and GBV. This has led to the drafting of a GBV Prevention Peer Education Manual.
In Fiji, Training workshops for Markets for Change Projects (M4C) are held in marketplaces to ensure that marketplaces are gender friendly and safe places for women. The successfully piloted mobile service delivery by Fiji REACH for community education on economic, social and legal rights, in which 1,994 people participated (69% women; 5% children) and provided advisory services to 394 people (75% women) for issues including prevention and support for Sexual and Gender Based Violence.
UNDP and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea hosted an Expert Meeting in 2016 to discuss approaches and challenges provided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with regards to the reduction and elimination of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). The meeting brought together more than 50 practitioners from Governments, United Nations agencies, Academia and Civil Society to explore the intersections of GBV with major social development themes and identify integrated approaches to reducing GBV to help achieve multiple SDG targets.