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In March 2015, the United Nations Secretary-General’s campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women (UNiTE) launched its call to action for the 16 Days of Activism,  ‘Orange the World: End Violence against Women and Girls’. The theme of prevention of violence against women and girls was selected as a focus to provide opportunities to highlight the need for greater investment in ending violence against women and girls at global, regional and country level in the particular context of the new SDG framework with a focus on prevention as a long term solution.

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WFP attended 9 IASC meetings in 2015, in which WFP was playing a pivotal role as a member of the standing committee of the GenCap project & the co-chair of the IASC Gender Reference Group. Gender based violence is a key consideration in WFP's Policy on Humanitarian Protection (2012) that outlines the organisation's position on protection and provides a framework for implementation of its responsibilities in this regard. As part of its modus operandi, WFP seeks to implement food assistance programmes that take the interlinkages between hunger and gender-based violence into account. The objective is to ensure that programmes are safe and dignified, and to support an overall environment in which gender-based violence is reduced and the effects of violence on survivors are mitigated.  

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WFP has contributed to the development of the 2015 IASC "Guidelines for Integrating Gender Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action" and is currently a member of  the IASC GBV Guidelines  Global Reference Group, which is responsbile of the global  roll out of the guidelines.

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WHO is  one of the 13 UN entities of UN Action, leading knowledge pillar by contributing to improved evidence for understanding the scale of sexual violence in conflict and how to respond effectively. In 2015, WHO together with UNODC published a toolkit on 'strengthening the medico-legal response to sexual violence', which aims to support service provision and coordination in low-resource settings, available in English and French. It is being field tested in several countries with the aim of improving coordination across the multiple stakeholders involved.

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In 2013, the UN Trust Fund received 2,410 applications from 145 countries, the majority of them from civil society organizations, with total funding requests of over $1.1 billion. In its 17th grant cycle, the UN Trust Fund continued engaging its inter-agency Programme Advisory Committee, at the global level, and sub-regional programme advisory committees and through its competitive process, awarded $8 million for 17 grants, covering 18 countries and territories. Sixteen civil society organizations and the Government of Antigua and Barbuda received grants that are expected to reach 2.3 million beneficiaries by 2017. In line with the UN Trust Fund’s Thematic Window on preventing and addressing violence against adolescent girls, five of these grants will focus on their specific needs.UN Trust Fund programmes are mobilizing communities in order to change beliefs, attitudes and practices that perpetuate and normalize violence. These initiatives are opening up safe spaces for girls in which they can thrive and develop their potential. They are promoting strategies to end impunity for gender-based violence in conflict situations, including by gathering evidence, strengthening prosecution systems and establishing non-judicial, truth-telling mechanisms. Through the Trust Fund’s support, grantees have made great advances in enabling the implementation of legislation that addresses all forms of violence against women and girls. In 2013 alone, the Trust Fund supported programmes that reached more than 3 million women, men, girls and boys around the world, including more than 30,000 survivors of violence. The work of the Trust Fund remains vital in closing the gap between promises and action.Given the promising results of community-based approaches and the central role of social mobilization to enact change, in the 18th grant cycle the UN Trust Fund will specifically and strategically invest in grass-roots women’s organizations and youth-led organizations, in addition to well-established civil society organizations, Governments and United Nations country teams. Programmes that engage groups facing discrimination and exclusion, such as internally displaced persons, refugees, women and girls living in conflict, post-conflict and transitional settings as well as women with disabilities, will also receive special consideration. Hide

For the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, UN Women led the UNiTE campaign’s global call for action to “Orange the World in 16 Days” and at least 49 countries reported “Orange the World” events and activities. The hashtag #orangeurworld was used by 13,360 users in 24,516 tweets, which reached 37.1 million followers and created 175.8 million impressions. The hashtag #16days was used by 36,422 users in 78,476 tweets, which reached 76.64 million followers and created 519.6 million impressions. This is a new record and exceeds by far last year’s numbers. UN Women’s social mobilization initiative, Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women, transitioned to social media platforms and penetrated online conversations with information and digital advocacy by actively engaging over 130,000 people on Facebook and Twitter and partnered with more than 900 civil society organizations. At regional level, under the leadership of UN Women, and in close collaboration with a number of agencies, the United Nations Country Teams have mobilized governments and civil society, women's and young people organizations, people from the world of art, culture and sports, the media, the private sector, faith-based organizations, women and men from diverse backgrounds around the same cause, to end violence against women and girls. Adherents to the SG Campaign include more than 20 State institutions in Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico; the States of Mexico and Morelos, and the Superior Justice Court of Chiapas (Mexico), the city of Quito (Ecuador), the Government of Almeria (Spain) and the Latin American Union of Municipalities (UIM). Regional institutions such as the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), the OAS Inter-American Commission on Women (CIM/OAS) and the Council of Ministers of Women of Central America (COMMCA), have also joined the SG’s campaign.The Asia Pacific UNiTE secretariat widened and deepened regional partnerships, including with youth, which were critical in the unprecedented expansion of Orange Day, a Campaign initiative which reached at least half a million people across the region in 2013. Hide

OHCHR undertook a project on mapping of women’s access to justice in non-conflict and conflict contexts by members of the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE) taskforce. Hide

UNICEF continued to support the work of the IASC Task Force on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), producing the Minimum Operating Standards on PSEA (MOS-PSEA) by UN and non-UN personnel and their accompanying guidelines. The DVD “To Serve with Pride” was also updated. Hide

Demand for UN Trust Fund support remained steady in 2012. The UN Trust Fund completed its 16th grant making cycle, which involved the review of 2,210 applications by 105 reviewers at the global and field level. The participation of 18 UN agencies in the extensive review process demonstrated the Fund’s ability to bring together different agencies to address violence against women, and ‘Deliver as One’ in action. The UN Trust Fund awarded US$ 8.4 million in new grants to 12 initiatives in 19 countries. The new grants are expected to reach nearly 2 million beneficiaries by 2015. By the end of 2012, the UN Trust Fund’s active portfolio included 95 programmes, covering 85 countries and territories, for a total value of over US$ 63.5 million.The UN Trust Fund continued its support of global learning initiatives through its Special Thematic Windows. The Special Window under the 16th grant-making focused on addressing violence against women in conflict, post-conflict and transitional settings. The UN Trust Fund awarded close to US$ 3.5 million to four new programmes working on this issue, including its first ever grants to Libya. Grantees will scale-up proven approaches to service delivery for gender-based violence in humanitarian contexts, address the urgent matter of accountability for gender-based crimes in these settings and work to ensure transitional justice mechanisms are designed in ways to better address the specific needs of survivors of violence.As part of the UN Trust Fund’s US$ 9.6 million Special Thematic Window addressing the intersection of HIV/AIDS and violence against women, grantees are working to access critical services for marginalized groups such as street-involved and homeless women, sex workers and women living with HIV/AIDS. In 2012, the UN Trust Fund produced a policy paper, Effective Approaches to Addressing the Intersection of Violence against women and HIV/AIDS, based on lessons learned from its programmes addressing the twin pandemics. The paper, presented at the International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. in July, reinforced the message that investing in long-term interventions and challenging discrimination and harmful norms against women and girls is investing in a future with zero violence and zero HIV/AIDS.Given that exposure to violence at a young age has devastating and potentially life-long physical and mental health consequences, the 17th cycle Call for Proposals, launched in Iceland on 17th November 2012, includes a special focus area on addressing violence against adolescent and young girls. The special focus capitalizes on the first ever International Day of the Girl Child celebrated on the 10th October 2012 in order to seize the momentum and reinforce the commitment to respect, protect and realize the human rights of girls.The UN Trust Fund also continued its efforts to develop the capacities of grantees to conduct effective monitoring and evaluation and enhance its overall processes for capturing and disseminating knowledge. It held a five-day capacity building workshop in Mexico City that brought together 14 organizations from across the globe to ascertain how their evidence-informed approaches can be strengthened. Close monitoring and collaboration will continue with these partners throughout programme implementation.In June 2012, the President of the 66th Session of the General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, hosted a cultural event in the General Assembly Hall with the aim of boosting support for the UN Trust Fund and celebrating UN Women. Through this event the General Assembly reaffirmed its commitment to the cause of ending violence against women and the mandate of the UN Trust Fund to take action on behalf of the UN system. The increasing commitment and partnership was illustrated by first time donor contributions from countries across Africa, Latin America, Asia and Arab States that followed this special event. Hide

OHCHR continued to work closely with the Standing Committee on Women, Peace and Security on implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 and within UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict and, through this network and in cooperation with all relevant UN entities, has been closely involved in the development of guidance for the operationalization of SC resolutions on conflict-related sexual violence. Hide