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A Report on “The Impacts of the Crisis on Gender Equality and Women’s Wellbeing in European Union (EU) Mediterranean Countries” was prepared with the involvement of researchers from France, Greece, Italy and Spain. The report included the findings of the gendered impact of the crisis and its consequences for women in the EU Mediterranean Basin.
This study was intended to address the gap in the research about gendered impacts of the economic crisis at national and regional levels and to contribute to the Post-2015 development framework.
It provided insights on the impact of economic downturn on women’s well-being and supported the strategy for promoting women’s rights and gender equality, with a view of attaining the MDGs for 2015. It also explored possible strategies, which can help to minimize risks and alleviate vulnerable situations.
Data Collection
UNHCR utilises the Gender Based Violence Information Management System, an inter-agency initiative enables humanitarian actors to effectively and safely collect and analyse SGBV incidents reported by survivors. This system helps informs improvements in response services, in SGBV prevention, and in coordination. It has been introduced in 20 UNHCR operations, 7 of which were in 2017.
Analysis and research
UNHCR conducted a population-based assessment of the impact of solar-powered street lights in Uganda’s Rhino Camp. The assessment indicated perceptions of prevention of violence and crime, improvement of safety, and productive night-time activity in the refugee settlement was carried out in 2017 in cooperation with refugees who led the collection and analysis of the data. The study represents the first known research on the protective effect of community lighting in a refugee settlement.
A study by the Population Council, UNHCR and local Ugandan organizations, tested the effectiveness of implementing a community-based SGBV prevention model in emergency settings - the Zero Tolerance Village Alliance intervention, in Western Uganda, proved to be particularly effective in moderating negative gender attitudes and beliefs related to SGBV and positively changing perceptions of community SGBV norms.
A compilation of promising practices to address Gender Equality in the Middle East and North African region was released in 2017. This report contains in-depth information on seven gender equality promising practices that are part of UNHCR’s response to the Syria crisis in the Middle East and North Africa. It reflects catalytic initiatives that seek to address specific gender-related protection needs and risks of diverse Syrian women, men, boys and girls implemented by UNHCR and partners.
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 Vietnam, UNODC supported the revision of the draft law on legal aid, focusing on strengthening access to justice for women and children.
In Myanmar, UNODC is preparing standard operating procedures for the police on responding to cases of sexual and gender-based violence, and on the recruitment, retention and promotion of women in the police force.
In Kyrgyzstan, UNODC supported the judicial reform process that resulted in the adoption of new criminal legislation, and trained over 50 criminal justice practitioners who will facilitate further training on the new legislation for law enforcement, prosecutorial and judicial bodies.
In Southern Africa, UNODC supported Lesotho in the review of its domestic violence bill and coordinated a consultative workshop in preparation for a legislative drafting workshop.
To support education sector responses to early and unintended pregnancy (EUP) while supporting the continuing education of adolescent mothers, UNESCO in Eastern and Southern Africa has carried out a 10-country situation analysis on EUP (conducted 2017; published 2018), the findings and recommendations of which will inform follow up country level actions for policy, programmes and advocacy. UNESCO also participates in the Indicator Working Group for the thematic indicators of SDG4, which among other aspects, continues to identify and define indicators for country reporting against the SDG thematic indicator 4.a.2 – Safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments, ensuring that data is not only sex-disaggregated but also to ensure that reporting captures the gendered dimensions of violence in learning spaces.
Gender Studies Research Network in China: UNESCO launched a project to look at policies and programs through a gender lens, identifying how they impact women and men, and then proposing policy and programmatic recommendations to address the gaps and challenges. This Gender Studies Research Network which brings together policy and decision makers, researchers and academics, and NGO leaders aims to address issues of violence against women and girls in a wider perspective.
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 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.
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.