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Two WHO publications on violence against women have been released. Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence: taking action and generating evidence provides a framework for developing policies and programmes for the prevention of intimate partner and sexual violence. It emphasizes the importance of evaluating prevention initiatives in order to improve their effectiveness, and expand the global evidence base in this area. Addressing violence against women and HIV/AIDS: what works? summarizes existing evidence on the intersections between violence against women and HIV/AIDS and interventions to address them. It builds on a review of these interventions and summarizes the presentations, discussions and recommendations from an expert consultation hosted by WHO and UNAIDS. The report provides policy and programmatic recommendations for national and international HIV/AIDS programmes and for future programme development, evaluation and research efforts.WHO, with UNFPA and UNICEF, held a meeting in Kenya to develop a global strategy to eliminate the medicalization of female genital mutilation.In June 2010, a joint policy statement on stopping medical service providers from performing female genital mutilation was issued by the WHO, on behalf of a group of UN agencies. Hide

As Protection Cluster chair, the OHCHR promoted coordination on strategy and advocacy among actors working to address violence against women in Timor-Leste. Hide

In every region, UNDP – with its national partners and in collaboration with UN Country Teams- continues to support the development and implementation of strategies and actions plans on domestic violence. As convener of the gender thematic window of the MDG Achievement Fund (MDG-F), UNDP supports and partners in the implementation of a number of joint programs which address gender-based violence in an integrated manner, including in many cases through the development of national strategies. Joint programmes with an explicit focus on gender based-violence are supported by the MDG-F Trust Fund in Bangladesh, Colombia, Guatemala, Morocco, OPT, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.UNDP Kosovo supported the development and implementation of the National Strategy and Action Plan against Trafficking in Human Beings (2008-2011). UNDP works with partners to ensure that background and contextual information on gender discrimination and gender-based violence is included in national plans and through them reflected in Common Country Assessments/United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks (CCA/UNDAFs). Hide

In collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)/Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean, DAW, now part of UN Women, organized an expert group meeting on good practices in national action plans on violence against women, which took place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, from 13 to 15 September 2010. During the meeting, experts identified key elements and good practice examples for the development, content, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of national action plans on violence against women. Further information regarding the expert group meeting, including expert discussion notes, is available on line at: https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/v-egms-nap2010.htm. Hide

UNFPA is leading the coordination efforts of the gender-based violence cluster to address GBV/VAW in Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake. UNFPA Country Offices – in more than 32 countries – are operationalizing various components of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, under the four pillars of the Resolution. UNFPA’s partnership with UNICEF globally and in 17 country offices in co-chairing and implementing activities under the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme and Trust Fund on Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C) and activities under the Trust Fund are ongoing. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, continues to provide technical assistance to advocates, including national women’s machineries, for the development of National Action Plans to end violence against women in: eight Caribbean countries; the Seychelles, through work with the Ministry of Health and Social Development; and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, through a workshop with the Palestinian Ministry of Women’s Affairs on the National Strategy to Combat Violence against Women. UNIFEM issued a ‘Ten Point National Accountability Checklist’ on ending violence against women for policy-makers, parliamentarians, and advocates to strengthen due diligence in the development and tracking of national and local policies/programmes. UNIFEM partnered with excluded groups of women, including indigenous women, HIV-positive women’s networks, young women and migrant women workers from Africa, Asia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Latin America and the Caribbean to hold policy-makers accountable to eliminate violence.UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, launched its online Global Virtual Knowledge Centre (http://www.endvawnow.org) which provides state-of-the-art, evidence-based guidance to develop capacities of country-level practitioners in effective design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes. Hide

Through a gender-based violence Coordination mechanism established by UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, and GIZ in 2010, Cambodia has been at the forefront of joint advocacy and behavioral change initiatives. Hide

Under the project “Violence against women and HIV/AIDS: what works?” WHO, with UNAIDS, is reviewing the evidence base for interventions to address violence against women and HIV/AIDS. WHO organized a meeting of programmatic interventions to address these intersections, with a focus on intimate partner and sexual violence and violence against sex workers. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, contributed to policy development on gender-based violence in Cambodia, Egypt, Moldova, Morocco, Tanzania and Tunisia. Efforts by UNIFEM on gender-responsive budgeting led to national and municipal budget allocations for violence against women programmes in Bulgaria and Brazil. In October 2009, UNAIDS held a technical consultation of leading experts, practitioners, and researchers to review evidence on programme interventions to address violence against women through HIV-related entry points. Hide

In every sub-region, UNDP, in partnership with national partners and United Nations Country Teams, provided support to the development of a strategy and national action plan on domestic violence. UNDP also assisted efforts to develop and implement strategies and action plans to combat trafficking in persons in Serbia and Kosovo. Hide