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The United Nations Trust Fund in support of actions to eliminate violence against women is a global, multilateral grant-making mechanism that supports efforts to prevent and end violence against women and girls. The Trust Fund, which was established in 1996 by the General Assembly in its resolution 50/166, is administered by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) on behalf of the United Nations system. With the strong institutional support of UN Women and its regional, multi-country and country offices, and working closely with the rest of the United Nations system through its inter-agency Programme Advisory Committee, the Trust Fund plays a vital role in driving forward collective efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls.
In 2019, DPPA continued to engage as an active member of UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action), which aims to improve coordination and accountability, amplify programming and advocacy, and support national efforts to prevent and address conflict-related sexual violence. DPPA also actively contributed to the UN Standing Committee on WPS, the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANGWE), as well as the Global Compact Working Group on Gender-Sensitive Approaches to Preventing and Countering Terrorism.
UNRWA field offices in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank participate regularly in the cluster and sub-clusters related to GBV and PSEA. They also play an active role in inter-agency activities marking the 16 days campaign of activism to end gender-based violence and the “UNiTe to End Violence against Women”.
UNHCR operations implement awareness-raising activities and prevention programming that aim to address the root causes of SGBV to bring effective behavior and social norms change through long-term approaches. Awareness raising is part of community outreach programming and includes training and capacity-building activities, as well as information sharing with people of concern. UNHCR operations continued to encourage women’s participation in leadership and management structures. Some examples of prevention, awareness-raising and advocacy initiatives organized by UNHCR are the following:
- 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence: UNHCR operations commemorated 2019’s campaign in collaboration with communities with numerous SGBV raising-awareness activities.
- UNHCR applies the methodology of key programmes that aim at reshaping social norms by addressing power imbalances and gender inequality with a community-based approach in different field locations. Models such as SASA!, EMAP (Engaging Men through Accountable Practice) and ZTVA (Zero Tolerance Village Alliance) have been implemented in 8 different field operations.
- In 2019, the Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) Trainer of Trainers (ToT), with a component on prevention, held two different cohorts (Global and Americas) with a total of 47 staff from 34 different operations participating. In Hama City, Syria, 15 SGBV coordinators, case managers and lawyers whose work focuses on engaging men and boys in SGBV prevention were trained.
- As of mid-2019, progress in mobilizing communities to be active in SGBV prevention and survivor-centred protection was improved in 27 refugee, 5 IDP, and 5 returnee situations, and was maintained in 16 situations.
- Through “Safe from the Start” initiative, UNHCR expands innovative multi-sectoral projects with a focus on SGBV prevention and risk-mitigation in numerous operations across all regions.
UNHCR supported a gender audit of the Global Refugee Forum and the processes leading up to it. The audit was led by refugee women from diverse backgrounds with the purpose of drawing attention to gender equality related challenges, including the scale of SGBV in refugee contexts as well as supporting integration of gender equality and measures to address SGBV concretely through the GRF pledging process and in the identification of good practices.
UNHCR also launched the PSEA Community Outreach and Communication Fund in collaboration with ICVA as part of the IASC HC’s Championship and RG2. UNHCR further increased capacity to run systematic sexual misconduct in recruitment processes using the UN “Clear Check” trackers for SEA and SH this detecting if one perpetrator tries to move from one organization to another.
UNHCR continues its commitments to proactively contribute to numerous inter-agency coordination fora and initiatives, such as the Call to Action on Protection from Gender Based Violence in Emergencies and the Gender-based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBVAoR). Likewise, UNHCR is engaged in the UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict and the GBV Accountability Framework, to promote system-wide accountability to SGBV.
UNHCR is also an active member in the IASC Guidelines reference group; different AOR sub-working groups; the Energy in Emergencies Advisory Group and the GBVIMS Steering Committee and sub-working groups, among others.
UNHCR actively and systematically participates in the inter-agency standing committee (IASC) gender reference group (GRG).
UNHCR is involved and co-chairs working groups that align policies and meet minimum standards including the UN SEA Working Group, the High-Level Steering Group and IASC RG2. It has maintained close cooperation with the Office of the Special Coordinator on SEA and the UN Victim’s Rights Advocate. In the last quarter of 2019, UNHCR hosted an investigators conference as the Interim Chair of the CEB Task Force on SH and representing the HC in the current IASC Champion on Protection from SEA and SH.
In Sri Lanka, WFP is working alongside UNFPA and the Government of Sri Lanka through its ‘Change’ Project. The project aims to tackle gender equality and women’s empowerment through improved nutrition, food security, sexual and reproductive health, and access to health services in post-conflict Sri Lanka.
In DPRK, WFP is working alongside the UNCT to develop a 2020 work plan with the UNCT. This includes new elements i.e. ’gender equality score’ and ‘human rights score’ incorporated across themes.
In DRC, WFP continues to support the Panzi Hospital to support victims of Gender Based Violence. WFP supports through emergency food and nutrition blanket supplementary feeding programme – which includes nutritious filled food to boost recovery to survivors.
In Malawi, the United Nations Joint Programme on Girls Education (UNJPGE) has aimed to systematically address obstacles faced by adolescent girls and boys and finding solutions that are transforming the reality of communities. The joint programme approach provides a platform for three UN agencies (UNICEF, UNFPA and WFP) to explore integrated approaches and create synergies for impact, putting an emphasis on enjoyment of rights for those vulnerable children, particularly by keeping girls in school. Since the project began in 2014, average school enrolment rates have increased by 31% and 43.5% report a decrease in the number of girls experiencing sexual violence or abuse. WFP is providing homegrown school meals linked to JPGE to more than 169,000 students. Fresh food is bought locally from 12,000 smallholder farmers who also directly benefit from the programme.
In Nepal, advocacy measures were taken on November 25 with a strong voice on Orange the World: Gender Equality to End Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV). WFP Nepal Country Office also marked the opening ceremony of the international campaign with a group photo followed by opening remarks from the Country Director, Pippa Bradford and guest speaker Dr. Aruna Uprety, Nutritionist and Women Rights Activist. The country director expressed her serious concern over the global and national figure revealing incidences and situation of women and girls facing gender-based violence. Similarly, Dr Uprety spoke out about “Chhaupadi” a menstrual exclusion as a one of the cultural violence that subjugate and oppress girls and women from far west region in Nepal. In addition, she also highlighted the adverse impact of such practices on women and girls’ health, education and safety. The office also celebrating the whole 16 days through spreading SGBV messages and videos among staff and concluded the event with powerful story and inspirational message from burn survivor young woman on the closing day of the campaign i.e. December 10. The event was organized with the support of small task force group members representing programme and support function units.
As part of efforts to further build the capacity of staff and senior mediation practitioners to implement the WPS agenda, including on issues of conflict-related sexual violence, DPPA in 2019 conducted the 10th UN High Level Seminar on Gender Inclusive Mediation Strategies, one Gender/WPS Staff Training and a pilot workshop on Gender Conflict Analysis. DPPA continues to mainstream gender and WPS into thematic trainings, including in the UN Ceasefire Mediation and Management training. DPPA also continues to disseminate the Guidance launched in 2012 on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Ceasefires and Peace Agreements. These aim to further build the capacity of staff and senior mediation practitioners to implement the WPS agenda, including addressing issues of conflict-related sexual violence.
ESCWA in partnership with the Center for Social Protection and Rehabilitation in the State of Qatar (AMAN) organized a workshop to increase the participants’ awareness of pertinent good practices emanating from international standards and norms, and therefore methods and mechanisms to address violence against women on the national level. This workshop comes as part of Qatar's efforts to promote the advancement and protection of women from all forms of violence and the State's commitment to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Sustainable Development Goals, with the aim of introducing international frameworks on combating violence against women and relevant national machineries
ESCWA in partnership with the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs and Population (July 2019) organized a national workshop which discussed international instruments and best practices to address violence against women in Syria, in in cooperation with the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs and Population. The workshop focused on relevant national mechanisms, including legislations, policies, strategies or services, and role of the various stakeholders, both governmental and non-governmental, and service providers involved in this issue. The workshop brought together representatives of government agencies (concerned ministries such as social affairs, labor, health, interior, justice, and the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs) and non-governmental organizations (civil society).
ESCWA, the Council of Europe (CoE), OHCHR, UNFPA, UN Women, ESCWA, and UNODC contributed to a national conference on the Preventing and combating violence against women: One year after the promulgation of Organic Law 2017-58 on the elimination of violence against women: Implementation challenges and recommendations (Tunisia, March 2019). The conference addressed the status of Law 2017-58, examining interventions in the security, justice, health and psycho-social sectors and developing a way forward. To initiate the discussion, ESCWA provided an overview of the implementation of violence against women laws across the Arab region and discussed Arab States’ international legal obligation to combat all forms of violence against women and conform to the due diligence standard. ESCWA also contributed to a panel on ways to counter gender stereotypes in the media, raise awareness of violence against women, and prevent recidivism amongst perpetrators. The conference closed with a commitment to fully implement Law 2017-58 in a holistic manner.
In its efforts to build the capacities of Arab countries to cost VAW, ESCWA facilitated a national consultation in Iraq and Lebanon with representatives from governmental and non-governmental organisations providing services for women survivors of violence, to share with participants the key findings of the field mission and agree on key elements relating to estimating the cost of violence. The findings of the workshop were used as a basis for the related national operational model to be used for costing VAW.
ESCWA in partnership with Westminster Foundation for Democracy organized a capacity building workshop focused on the role of parliamentarians and the experience in Iraq. Parallel to this, a draft guideline for the role of parliamentarians in costing violence against women is being produced.
Activities on training and capacity building in 2019 include:
- Two-hour session in October 2019 on Convention No. 190 and Recommendation No. 206, held at ITC for the global technical team of the ILO Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch
- Learning- track workshop on Tackling Violence and Harassment in the World of Word: Developing a Policy, held on 18-20 November 2019 for participants -- including representatives of ILO member States, and workers’ and employers organizations – during the ITC Gender Academy. The ITC Gender Academy is a global international event on gender, work and employment, gathering experts and successful practitioners. Cutting-edge topics are presented and discussed in a series of master classes with simultaneous interpretation into English, French, Spanish and Arabic. A range of elective workshops, including the sessions on violence and harassment, offer additional insight into specific subjects, develop skills and provide room for application and knowledge-sharing.
- From February to April 2019, six one-day courses on preventing and addressing gender-based violence in garment supply chains held for Fair Wear Foundation member brands in Zurich, Stockholm, Mechelen, Amsterdam, The Hague and Cologne
- Two-hour master class on Convention No. 190 and Recommendation No. 206 during the ITC International Labour Standards Academy, held in May 2019.
- Sensitization session on Convention No. 190 and Recommendation No. 206, held in October 2019 during annual meeting of all gender focal points from Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development and European Union delegations
- Lunch-time session in May 2019 at ITC on Convention No. 190 and Recommendation No. 206, for all Campus participants and staff
- In the framework of the WeEmpower Project, ILO is developing different training modules for policy makers and the private sector on the topic of violence and harassment in the world of work
- ILO carried out capacity building activities for social partners in Argentina and Nepal, among others, on Convention No. 190 and on gender-based violence in particular