Search
In 2016, a new record number of at least 105 countries joined the UNiTE campaign’s “Orange the World” movement in support of the 16 Days of Activism. From marches in Uganda, Serbia, and Timor-Leste, a public rally on motorbikes in Pakistan, orange bike rides in India and the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, and the lighting of symbolic buildings in orange across the globe.
In 2016, UNRWA worked on the development of a common monitoring framework which aims at systemizing data collection among field offices, and ensuring that data informs programming. UNRWA thus follows up on key indicators related to the number of survivours identified, services accessed, trainings to staff, changes in staff capacity to address GBV, as well as other prevention related indicators.
ESCWA, in partnership with UN Women, is currently conducting a full fledged project on estimating the cost of VAW in the Arab region. This project consists of two phases: the first one includes two studies (namely, “Status of Arab Women Report: Violence against Women: What is At Stake” and "Model for costing domestic violence against women in the Arab region"). The former, produced in partnership with UN Women and the Lebanese American University, provides a contextualized understanding of VAW and its importance, examines the existing reporting mechanisms, explores the linkages between VAW and social, economic and health factors, and reviews the relevant methodologies with a view to identify the most suitable one for the Arab region. This first study paves the way for the development of the regional economic model to estimate the cost of VAW in the region, which is addressed in the second study in partnership with UN Women. The second phase of the project focuses on building the capacity of member States on the importance of costing violence against women, as well as piloting the economic model in two Arab countries.
UNHCR supported the annual 16 Days of Activism against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in its country operations across the globe in 2016. From November 25 until December 10, UNHCR staff in country and field operations engaged in a number of awareness-raising activities to end sexual and gender-based violence. Activities included the participation of refugees, internally displaced people, stateless people, host-communities, women, men, boys and girls, community leaders, partners and governments representatives in a global effort to promote healthy relationships so that young people can feel safe at home, in their schools and in their communities.
UN Women has continued working with other UN agencies to finalize a UN global joint programme to build sustained national capacities to implement VAW prevalence surveys in line with international standards and SDG monitoring requirements, as part of UN Women’s Flagship Programme Initiative “Better production and use of gender statistics for evidence-based localization of the SDGs”.
In 2016, WFP campaign took place from Friday 25 November 25 to 10 December 2017, focusing on the importance of resources to prevent and eliminate violence against women, men, girls and boys. Importance was given to the financial, technical, and human resources necessary to support concrete activities to end gender based-violence (GBV), and how WFP contributes in each of these categories, and how it could be doing more. During the first week of the campaign, WFP highlighted its internal resources, policies, tools and training materials that contribute to reducing gender based violence; in the second week it looked at partnerships and how they contribute to eliminating gender-based violence (in line with SDG #17 about partnership).
In June 2016, UNICRI carried out a survey to explore the level of gender mainstreaming in the working agenda of substance use treatment centres in Italy. Gender responsive approaches are relatively new in the substance use field, although many studies highlight barriers to women's access to substance use services. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate to what extent a gender responsive approach is applied in the Italian substance use treatment services and to explore the professionals’ opinions regarding the advantages and the challenges of applying such approach. The majority of professionals recognize the importance of including a gender responsive approach in their working agenda, and the need for specific training. Overall, the gender-responsive approaches are limited to pregnant women and mothers. A subset considered this approach counterproductive as compared to individualized treatment options. Results seem to indicate a general lack of understanding and awareness among professionals about the potentials of applying gender responsive approaches and about the social, economic and cultural factors that determine health inequalities and influence women's access to services. A reductionistic interpretation of the gender responsive approach seems to prevail, which limits women’s needs to those of pregnant women and mothers and does not take into account the role previous trauma and violence experiences might have on drug use in women.
The UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, published in December 2016, is they key output of the UNODC research programme on trafficking in persons, and it presents an overview of the key trends and patterns of trafficking in persons. The Report contains gender-disaggregated data on detected trafficking victims and offenders, and forms of exploitation. This edition also provides analyses on, inter alia, women offenders, trafficking for marriage and trafficking of women and girls related to conflict.
UNHCR was actively engaged in the revision of the IASC Guidelines for integrating Gender Based Violence interventions in humanitarian settings published in 2015 and supports the roll-out of the guidelines in the field. In 2016, 11 pilot countries receive training and technical support.
UNFPA is a member of IASC and in contexts where the IASC Cluster Approach has been activated, UNFPA and UNICEF are mandated to co-lead the GBV Area of Responsibility. As co-lead, UNFPA is accountable for working closely with national authorities, partners and communities, to ensure that minimum standards are in place to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in emergencies.