Search
1. Intervention to address VAW in antenatal care setting : WHO and the Wits Institute for Reproductive health have finalised a randomised control trial of an empowerment counselling-based intervention in antenatal care for pregnant women experiencing abuse in Johannesburg, South Africa. The trial found that the intervention was efficacious in reducing IPV, and was acceptable but delivering it would require further efforts.. The findings and intervention training manual will be published in 2018 2. Building on field testing of the WHO clinical handbook for the response to intimate partner violence and sexual violence, WHO is carrying out implementation research to identify effective approaches to roll out WHO clinical guidelines and derivative tools on the health sector response to violence against women. 3. The questionnaire developed for the WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence against women has been updated and now includes questions on non-partner sexual violence, sexual harassment and updated questions on social norms and mental health. The questionnaire will be published in 2018 along with an accompanying question-by-question manual. 4. WHO updated its database on intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence and established a technical advisory group for the VAW inter-agency working group on estimation and data as part of the UN-wide SDG monitoring efforts
ESCWA provided technical support on estimating the cost marital violence through a national consultation with the State of Palestine and a training with the Palestinian Central Bureau for Statistics on developing relevant questions on costing marital violence for a forthcoming prevalence survey on violence. The data gathered within the survey will assist the State of Palestine in developing a comprehensive response to marital violence.
ESCWA, in partnership with UN Women and the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW) at the Lebanese American University, published the study “Status of Arab Women Report 2017: Violence Against Women: What Is at Stake?” The study focuses on intimate partner violence and its economic costs to Arab states, and advocates for costing as an innovative approach and advocacy tool to assess the full impact of such violence on women, families, communities and the state.
ESCWA, in partnership with UN Women, published the technical paper, “Estimating the Costs of Marital Violence in the Arab Region: Operational Model,” which was informed by the earlier study on the “Status of Arab Women Report 2017: Violence Against Women: What Is at Stake?” The paper proposes three different entry points for costing marital violence in the region in an effort to encourage member states to strengthen their socio-economic and legal responses to such violence.
ESCWA published the study "Women, Peace and Security: The Role of Institutions at Times of Peace and War." This study explores the women, peace and security agenda and the response in the Arab region, including an analysis of national women’s machineries, national human rights institutions, the security sector, and civil society institutions during times of stability and conflict and includes case studies on Libya and Yemen.
ESCWA published the study “The State of Gender Justice in the Arab Region,” which maps the barriers and opportunities to achieving gender justice in the Arab region, including formal and informal mechanisms for addressing violence against women. The study calls on Member States to create a more enabling legislative environment, enhance the capabilities of accountability institutions, and foster an empowering socio-economic environment for true gender justice.
DRC :
UN Women supported the UN system through the Gender Score Card in 2015 but in February 2018 the gender focal points of the agencies were on gender accountability. In June and July 2017, there was a regional capacity-building workshop on gender mainstreaming and gender-based violence response in emergencies and humanitarian crises. Several agencies (UN Women, UNFPA, UNHCR, GenCap) took part. The revitalization of the One UN Gender Team allows a good readability of gender interventions in the DRC. Jointly, support was given to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Family for the organization of the forum of ministers and heads of gender division for the coordination of gender issues.
SENEGAL :
UN Women in Senegal, through its leadership ensured the coordination of interventions on the elimination of gender-based violence. Thus, the activities of the gender thematic group work to strengthen this momentum for the protection and health of women and girls.
CABO VERDE:
In additional to mobilizing UN agencies to implement advocacy campaigns and of knowledge sharing, UN Women Cabo Verde has been able to engage different agencies in the elaboration of joint programme proposals to address gender inequality, including gender-based violence. Among projects in pipeline, there are 3 projects related to GBV, being one about Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights program (UN-Women, UNFPA, UNICEF), the second on human security and resilience (UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA and UNODC), and the third one on GEWE, being GBV one out of the three domains. In the two first GBV is considered as one of the main issue to be addressed.
CAMEROON:
UNW Cameroon has coordinated the UNCT SWAP scorecard process and the elaboration of action plan. The country office has been engaged in the implementation of the UNSWAP Scorecard plan and has succeeded in inscribing gender in the 2018 UNCT annual work plan. The office has also worked to mainstream gender in joint programs of the 2018-2020 UNDAF
LIBERIA:
Through the Gender Theme Group, UN Women Liberia coordinates UN Support to the Government of Liberia, especially with international celebrations such as the International Women Day and the 16 Days of Activism. Besides, in 2018, UN Women is hosting a GenCap Advisor to strengthen the capacities of Gender Specialist within the UN System. The GenCap Advisor provides technical leadership and support to UNCT on Gender Equality programming as well as building the capacity to ensure that Gender specific needs are taken into consideration in the planning and the implementation of programes in Liberia. This includes mainstreaming gender in the development of the new UNDAF.
NIGER
UN-Women Niger is the vice-chair of the thematic group. This status enables it to contribute to the coordination of activities on the elimination of gender-based violence, gender mainstreaming and women's rights.
NIGERIA
The UN Women support the GTG to ensuring that the capacity of members are built to enable them better understand the issues of GEWE and GBV.
Gender analysis is at the core of OCHA’s central strategic planning and field-focused operational planning. The IASC Gender Marker, introduced in 2010, also guides OCHA-managed funding and financing. OCHA’s Country Offices has also played a key role in further mainstreaming gender in the Humanitarian Needs Overviews (HNOs) and Humanitarian Response Plans (HRPs). In 2017, in 25% of HRPs gender analysis fully defined how HRP implementation took into account distinct needs/risks related to gender, and in 70% of HRPs gender analysis partially informed implementation.
In 2017, out of the 397 projects funded by CERF, 280 (71%) had a Gender Marker 2a indicating strong gender mainstreaming. A total of 77 (19%) had a 2b indicating a targeted gender action and 22 projects (6%) had a Gender Marker 1, meaning limited gender consideration. Eighteen (18 or 4%) were marked “Non- Applicable” as they dealt with the provision of common services to humanitarian partners (air operations, logistics, emergency telecommunications, safety and security), and none (0) were marked 0 which means that all CERF-funded projects for 2017 considered gender to an extent or another in their design. Gender Based Violence was the focus action of 27 projects (7%) of all the 397 projects funded by CERF in 2017, 234 projects (59%) had a GBV component, and 135 projects (34%) had no GBV related activity or component one (1) project was not marked for GBV.
All OCHA managed Country Based-Pooled Funds (CPBFs) apply the Gender Marker in all project proposals. In 2017, 79% of CPBFs projects were designed to contribute significantly to gender equality (76% in 2016), equivalent to $511 million. CBPFs provide the largest source of direct funding for local NGOs, including women’s organizations
In OCHA’s core digital assets – unocha.org, reliefweb.int and HDX – particular attention was given to highlighting how humanitarian crises impact women and children. For example, on ReliefWeb 1,835 documents were posted in 2017 on Gender-Based Violence and 1,288 Women, Peace and Security documents.
In Haiti, priority is given during monitoring activities on collection of disaggregated data by sex on the number and proportion of persons held in police custody without charge for more than 48 hours.
In Guatemala, OHCHR carried out a study to analyse the judgments of the specialized tribunals on the crime of femicide and other forms of violence against women.
In CAR, OHCHR regularly monitors, analyses and reports on patterns and cases of conflict related sexual violence. Data collect and analysis have been done through gender and human rights perspectives owing to the consolidation of protection functions in peace missions
UN Volunteers are an important component of capacity on the ground in the global pursuit of gender equality. The gender ratio of UN Volunteers improved from 43% female in 2015 to 47% female in 2017.
1) FAO, together with UN Country Teams, UN Women, UNFPA and other national and international partners, led the “16 Days of Activism to end Violence against Women” campaign in 5 regions of Niger (Maradi, Tillaberi, Dosso, Tahoua and Zinder). In 120 villages where there are Dimitra Clubs, the campaign raised awareness on gender-based violence.
As part of this Campaign”, which began on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, two further events took place to raise awareness on the links between gender-based violence and its relevance to the work of the Organization.
The first was the ESP-sponsored “Forum theatre around gender-based violence – Out of the box”. Through games and role-plays, participants worked on situations where GBV can occur.
The second event was a UN Rome-Based Agencies event that took place entitled “Ending gender-based violence to end hunger and poverty: The role we play”. As part of the UNiTE campaign, FAO, IFAD and WFP came together to raise awareness of this global pandemic.
2) FAO is actively engaged in the IASC developing global standard operating procedures (SOPs) for community based complaints mechanisms (CBCMs). In addition, FAO made to meet PSEA minimum operating standards, which currently serve as a planning and monitoring tool.
The importance of up-scaling efforts to prevent violence against women is increasingly being acknowledged both by the international community and by civil society organizations. The SASA! methodology is a ground-breaking community mobilization approach developed by Raising Voices for the primary prevention of violence against women and HIV transmission. The methodology has been rigorously evaluated through a randomized controlled trial which demonstrated that SASA! is an effective approach, leading to a 52 per cent reduction in the risk of physical partner violence against women in communities where it was implemented. As a result, a wide range of actors, including NGOs, governments, UN agencies and faith-based groups are up-scaling implementation of this innovative and evidence-based approach. Currently, the SASA! methodology is being implemented in over 20 countries by more than 60 organizations. From 2010 to 2012, the UN Trust Fund supported Raising Voices’ first cohort of organizations across Eastern and Southern Africa to up-scale the SASA! methodology. Building on the learning from this previous grant as well as the increasing requests around the world to implement SASA!, this project works to meet the need for improved learning from, and guidance for, the wide range of organizations using and/or planning to use the SASA! methodology. Raising Voices collaborates with three partner organizations implementing SASA!—in rural Tanzania, in refugee camps in Kenya and in a community in Haiti—to improve guidance on how to adapt the methodology most effectively, maximizing the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of interventions. To date, two rounds of data collection have occurred in the research sites leading to key lessons about how to adapt the SASA! methodology in diverse settings. For example, in Kenya, SASA! is being adapted in the Dadaab Refugee Camp by the International Rescue Committee across their prevention work. Overall the methodology has been highly regarded by project staff and participants. The data collected to date shows that behaviours and attitudes are changing and community members are explicitly denouncing all forms of violence against women as unacceptable. Important lessons are also being learned though, on the importance of actively involving religious leaders and adapting the materials to suit the Somali culture prevalent in the camp. Tools will now be developed for use by other NGOs to help adapt the successful methodology to other contexts.
Morocco MCO
In 2017, through its chair of the Gender Thematic Group, UN Women Morocco organized several thematic sessions on EVAW issues for gender focal points of the UN System. A session was dedicated to the presentation and analysis of the recently-adopted law on human traffiking, and was animated by UN Women's partner from the Ministry of Justice, the Magistrate in charge of criminal cases involving children and women. Another session was co-organized with UNFPA and the Ministry of Health to present its annual report on State of the World Population and the Ministry's sectoral programme on EVAW. Finally, the GTG served as a coordination platform for the 16 Days campaign and all agencies were invited by UN Women to commemorate together the International Day to End Violence Against Women and Girls that was organized on November 24, 2017, with a release of hundreds of ecofriendly orange balloons and with the presence of the Resident Coordiantor and the Ministry of Women's Affairs.
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.