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In March 2018, UNHCR recently released its Age, Gender, and Diversity (AGD) policy which aims to ensure that all persons of concern can enjoy their rights on an equal footing and participate meaningfully in the decisions that affect their lives, families, and communities. The policy outlines 10 core actions that UNHCR will take to apply an Age, Gender and Diversity approach in its work, including reaffirming UNHCR’s five Commitments to Refugee Women: They are 1) ensuring women and girls participate equally and meaningfully in all decision-making, community management and leadership structures, and committees of persons of concern, 2) are provided with individual registration and documentation, 3) have equal access to and control over management and provision of food, core-relief items, and cash-based interventions, 4) have equal access to economic opportunities, including decent work and quality education and health services and 5) have access to comprehensive SGBV prevention and response services.
These serve as concrete measures not only to UNHCR but also other humanitarian actors, to help accelerate progress on Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5.
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.
OCHA refers to and disseminates key guidelines of the IASC, such as the IASC GBV Guidelines and IASC Gender handbook.
OCHA also systematically integrates prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) for consideration in intergovernmental policy processes and inclusion in the normative framework for humanitarian action. In close consultation with the IASC, OCHA drafts the annual reports of the Secretary-General on Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations, and on International cooperation on humanitarian assistance in the field of natural disasters, from relief to development, which contain policy discussions and recommendations on strengthening the gender and GBV aspects of humanitarian action. Importantly, in close collaboration with the IASC, OCHA also advocates for the report topics and recommendations in the intergovernmental fora, including at the ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment, as well as in the Protection of Civilians discussion in the Security Council, including in OCHA’s briefings on behalf of the humanitarian community to the Security Council’s informal Expert Group on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict. OCHA briefed the PoC Expert Group eight times in 2017, covering the situations in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan (Darfur), on conflict-related and broader sexual violence concerns such as rape, sexual slavery, trafficking of women and girls, sexual exploitation and abuse, and broader violence against women.
OCHA also facilitates an online platform - Platform for Action, Commitments and Transformations - www.agendaforhumanity.org, and tracks the implementation of WHS commitments and initiatives through an online reporting system.
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.
Gender Unit: A new DPKO and DFS gender policy- Gender Responsive United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (2018.01) - developed and endorsed in February 2018. The new policy incorporates a targeted focus on ensuring accountability to SGBV prevention and response across the UN Peacekeeping functions
UNMAS: IACG-MA is currently undertaking a review and update to the United Nations Gender Guidelines for Mine Action Programmes (2010) to ensure that the different needs of girls, women, boys and men are incorporated into the full project management cycle of mine action programming.
SSR: In Mali, MINUSMA has supported the inclusion of gender in strategies developed by the SSR National Committee, as well as the implementation of the 2015 peace agreement, which includes a 30% female quota in security institutions. 2. In Somalia, UNSOM has promoted increased recruitment of women to the security sector. It has also provided advocacy and technical guidance for the Security Pact signed between the government and the international community in May 2017, which contains a specific milestone stating that all security sector institutions must adopt and implement a gender strategy.
JCS: Recognising the relevance of women representation as An important element that enables women’s access to justice and response, in coordination with OMA and PD, JCS has drafted a gender parity strategy for its uniformed corrections personnel which lays out clear measures and timelines for the achievement and sustainable maintenance of at least 30% female uniformed corrections officers deployed to UN peace operations.
ESCWA hosted the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia Committee on Women, eighth session, in October 2017 in Beirut, Lebanon. During this gathering of member states, there was a roundtable discussion on the economic cost of violence against women, which addressed the importance of estimating the economic cost of violence against women, the implications of marital violence on women, children, communities and society, and the efforts exerted by Arab countries in designing strategies and adopting laws aimed at combatting violence against women. A second roundtable discussion addressed the role of institutions in times of peace and war in the Arab region, including the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda.
ESCWA drafted a series of briefs to better inform policy in member states, including: “Institutional Mechanisms for Gender Accountability in the Arab Region,” which argues for greater accountability of institutions to achieve gender justice, including efforts to combat violence against women; “Estimating Costs of Marital Violence in the Arab Region: Operational Model,” which outlines the ways in which costing violence against women can be applied to the Arab region; “The Role of Women in Peacebuilding Processes,” which argues for women’s greater participation in formal and informal peace processes, which may impact the perpetration conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence; and, “Enhancing the Role of Institutions in Achieving Gender Equality in the Arab Region: The Economic Cost of Violence against Women,” which advocates for Member States, academia and research institutions to conduct costings of intimate partner violence in the Arab region.
ESCWA, in partnership with the Swedish Institute of Alexandria and UN Women, coordinated a Regional Consultation on the Economic Costing of Violence Against Women. The consultation aimed to assist Member States in their efforts to eliminate violence against women and to implement their international obligations. The Regional Consultation built upon the results of the first phase of a regional project implemented by ESCWA in cooperation with UN Women on the economic cost of violence against women.
ESCWA hosted a panel discussion on “The Role of Women, Youth and Civil Society in Post-Conflict Peace and Reconstruction Processes” as part of a larger discussion on State-building and Institutional Development in Post-Conflict Settings: Opportunities and Challenges in Libya and Yemen. The panel considered the role of women, youth and civil society in post-conflict peace and reconstruction processes. Case studies from Tunisia, Libya and Yemen provided examples of women, youth and other stakeholders, who have successfully challenged restrictive norms and overcame social barriers to actively participate in the reconstruction of their communities and states.
ESCWA, in partnership with the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW) at the Lebanese American University, hosted a Regional Consultation on Current Political Developments and Their Impact on Arab Women. Engaging with human rights and women’s rights experts from the Arab region and beyond, the consultation sought to achieve a better understanding of the current political situation in the region and assess the impact it might have on women and their recent legal and socio-economic achievements, including violence against women legal reform.
UNODC contributed to ICAT Issue Brief # 4: “The gender dimensions of human trafficking a gender issue brief providing recommendations on a gendered approach to prevention and response to trafficking that affects women and girls.
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.
The ILO has supported the Ministry of Labour of Brazil to produce and disseminate training and information materials about sexual harassment at work, including a guide on responses to sexual harassment and a video series of five episodes.
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.