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As per its Strategic Framework 2018-21, UNV supports members states in developing policies that promote volunteerism and volunteer action. Emphasis is put on mainstreaming gender into these policies and legislation.
WFP launched its technical guidance on accountability to affected populations (AAP) in January 2017. The guidance complements the protection guidance and provides an overview of AAP in the context of WFP’s operations. It is meant to guide staff and partners to better support programme design and implementation in a manner that reflects the needs and views of affected communities, including women and girls.
In 2017, WFP commissioned two external evaluation of its Humanitarian Protection Policy (2012) and the Policy on Humanitarian Principles and Access (2006).
The evaluation of the Humanitarian Protection Policy generated a set of recommendations to strengthen systematically integration of protection and accountability to affected population to WFP’s different frameworks, programmes and processes.
WHO developed and published Strengthening health systems to respond to women subjected to intimate partner violence or sexualviolence: A manual for health managers. As a complementary volume to the clinical handbook for health-care providers, WHO has produced this manual for health managers to design, plan, manage and implement health services to respond to intimate partner violence or sexual violence.
View MoreWHO developed and published Strengthening health systems to respond to women subjected to intimate partner violence or sexual
violence: A manual for health managers. As a complementary volume to the clinical handbook for health-care providers, WHO has produced this manual for health managers to design, plan, manage and implement health services to respond to intimate partner violence or sexual violence.
SUSTAINABLE AND INCLUSIVE URBAN PROSPERITY IN THE STATE OF ALAGOAS – UN-Habitat partnership with the government of Alagoas, Brazil, in which UN-Habitat is going to conduct a local safety diagnosis and public spaces use, with a special focus on women, and elaborate an urban safety and crime prevention strategy, giving a special focus on violence against women and on how to promote a culture of peace.
Women with mental disabilities held in Serbia’s institutions often suffer multiple forms of violence. A recent study by Mental Disability Rights Initiative-Serbia (MDRI-S) uncovered multiple forms of violence, including forced medical treatment such as the administration of contraceptives without informed consent, and forced abortions and sterilization.
The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women is supporting a project run by MDRI-S, a not-for-profit organization that advocates for the rights of women with mental disabilities, with a small grant. MDRI-S is the first organization in Serbia bringing the lives and narratives of women with mental disabilities living in custodial institutions to the attention of the public. MDRI-S advocates for the deinstitutionalization of people with mental disabilities and for the model of living in residential assisted living centers, while at the same time it invests in improving conditions of women still living in custodial institutions by sensitizing service providers to women’s needs.
MDRI-S has brought together numerous policy makers from government, parliament and independent bodies such as the Ombudsman and Commissioner for Equality, to present the findings of their research and recommendations for change. MDRI-S has so far trained 60 service providers on how to address violence against women with mental disabilities in custodial institutions. By involving policy makers and service providers, MDRI-S is ensuring that those working directly with women with mental disabilities are sensitized to have the information needed to prevent abuse from occurring, and encourages policy makers to become advocates and actors for deinstitutionalization.
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.
To address institutionalized violence faced by adolescent mothers in the education sector who face discrimination on the basis of early and unintended pregnancy, UNESCO supported several countries in Eastern and Southern Africa (South Africa, Malawi, Lesotho, Uganda, Tanzania, Swaziland) at various stages in the review and development of national policies on prevention and management of learner pregnancy and reintegration of school aged mothers. Support included the conduct of assessments and data review, through drafting of policy content and via national stakeholder consultations. Further support for Early and Unintended Pregnancy policy advocacy and implementation based on existing sector policies was provided in Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Support for China’s elaboration of its Family Violence law (adopted in 2016)
Gender-Sensitive Indicators for Media (GSIM): UNESCO helps Member States to adopt, review or strengthen legal frameworks on media from a gender equality perspective, to ensure inter alia prohibition of incitement to hatred and any form of gender-based stereotypes and violence within the media. Equally important is that media regulators and public service media carry out yearly assessments of the implementation of gender equality policy in media, and that media regulators effectively use accountability mechanisms in cases of violation of gender equality in media. UNESCO may also help Member States adapt GSIM to become national indicators, and regularly monitor and evaluate gender equality at national level, based on those indicators. For instance, 25 national broadcasters across Francophone Africa now have gender plans as do 2 national media regulators.
UNRWA developed and finalized the new Gender Equality Strategy (2016-2021), 'Integrating Gender, Improving Services, Impacting Lives.' The new strategy consolidates gender mainstreaming in the Agency’s organizational processes and programmes and aims at improving service delivery and reducing vulnerabilities among Palestine refugee women, men, boys, and girls. In this light, it serves to guide and frame all gender-related work by the Agency, including work on GBV.
In Guatemala, OHCHR, though a Progamme named Maya Programme, works with the Public Prosecutor’s Office (indigenous people’s department) on the drafting of a policy on access to justice for indigenous peoples with a human right’s perspective. It requires the Public Prosecutor’s office to “develop and apply specific criteria for the attention, investigation, and criminal prosecution of femicide, sexual violence and other forms of violence against indigenous women.”
In 2016, WFP has carried out a massive in-house sensitisation campaign for its own staff on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. Also, a total of 100 protection/gender focal points from different Country Offices were trained on protection. The training covers gender-based violence and aims at building people's capacities for the integration of protection measures in food assistance programs, including GBV related measures.