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ESCWA, in partnership with UN Women, ABAAD Resource Centre for Gender Equality and the Lebanese American University, has commemorated the 16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence campaign (25th November-10th December 2016) and organised a series of awareness raising activities. These include a video competition among the youth in the Arab region to send a message on 'how to stop violence against women', a panel discussion with experts and CSOs on estimating the cost of VAW, and a public event to promote civil engagement on the topic.
In 2016, UNRWA has worked on the development of a GBV prevention framework which consists of two parts: the first provides a series of processes that need to be put in place to strengthen GBV prevention from an organisational perspective; the second part includes an outline of the key components/ steps in designing successful GBV prevention activities.
The UN Women Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean, in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), hosted the meeting “Preventing and Responding to Violence Against Women and Girls in Latin-America and the Caribbean: Lessons learned across the globe”, which was held in Panama City from December 5 to 7 of 2016. This event provided a unique space, bringing together several UN agencies, government officials, diplomats, civil society organizations, global researchers and other experts in the field of preventing and responding to violence against women and girls to exchange experiences and explore ways to implement effective and promising practices to address violence against women. This approach sought to drive change in the region, which has been characterized by the lack of evidence-based interventions and rigorous evaluations. A total of 25 countries were represented in this meeting and UN women key guidance documents such as the UN prevention Framework to End Violence against Women and Girls as well as the Essential services guidelines were disseminated.
UN Women collaborated with UNESCO to develop a guidance toolkit on prevention of and response to violence against women and girls in the educational sector: “Global Guidance on School-related Gender-based violence” in December 2016 (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002466/246651E.pdf). UN Women continues its collaboration with UNESCO to develop similar toolkits to engage the media and sporting organizations in prevention of and response to VAW. These technical documents provide key information to governments, policy-makers, practitioners and civil society who wish to take concrete action against violence against women and girls. It introduces approaches, methodologies, tools and resources that have shown positive results.
UN Women established a Community of Practice (CoP) for stakeholders working on the prevention of and response to violence against women and girls. Specific objectives of the Flagship Programming Initiatives (FPI) CoP include: Making existing knowledge, tools and approaches on the practice available and easily accessible to members of the CoP, allowing members to share concrete experience, challenges and good-practices on the implementation of the FPI so that members can “learn from others”, and generating new knowledge and tools. This community of practice, which follows various channels of communication (knowledge online platform, webinars, email helpdesk and a focal points’ meeting) will be strengthened based on its users’ experience and on new developments within UN Women’s programmes.
On 3 October 2016, UNESCO organized a Round Table on “Education and Gender Equality: The Perfect Partners for Development - Reflections on child, early and forced marriage – effects on school drop-outs.” During the event, the 2016 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report Gender Review was also launched. The Round Table was part of UNESCO’s celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child and aimed at reflecting on the fundamental link between gender equality and education, with a specific focus on the impact of child, early and forced marriage on education prospects for girls.
The UNiTE Group for the Americas and the Caribbean, including 9 agencies -PAHO, UNDP, OHCHR, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNHCR, ECLAC, WFP and UN Women- and the IDB and the OAS, developed 12 Key Messages to Eradicate Violence Against Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean. This unprecedented effort led by UN Women, systematized the lessons learned from all the publications and knowledge produced in the context of the UNiTE Campaign in the last 7 years. These messages were launched in the framework of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, which took place in Montevideo in October of 2016. Thereafter, the messages were the basis for the celebrations of November 25th at regional and country level.
In 2016, a regional workshop was held in Kenya on Community Engagement in Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) Prevention and Response emphasizing the importance of community based protection and its impact on SGBV. The event was organized in partnership with the Council of Kenya who launched the outcome of their research projects conducted in Uganda. The event sought ultimately to strengthen SGBV prevention and response programming through systematic and active community engagement. The aim was also to strengthen and facilitate technical exchange and information-sharing among UNHCR and Partners in the region. The workshop discussed findings from relevant baseline reports. The “Zero Tolerance Village Alliance Intervention”, a community based SGBV prevention model found to be effective in emergency settings, highlighted important issues with implications for SGBV programming in emergency settings in sub-Saharan Africa. Issues discussed included gender attitudes and beliefs amongst women and men, the concept of rape and physical violence against both men and women, the consequences of low levels of formal education and justifications for gender based violence.
In June 2016, UNHCR held its NGO Annual Consultations with a thematic session on “Youth Addressing Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, Challenges and Opportunities”. The session placed youth at the centre of the discussion and provided a platform to exchange innovative ways to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Refugee and internally displaced youth face SGBV, including domestic violence, child marriage, and survival sex. Topics discussed included how diverse youth are taking action to prevent and respond to SGBV and how UNHCR and NGO partners can better involve and support youth in their work to prevent and respond to SGBV. The importance of including survivors, persons with disabilities and sexual minorities into efforts and how to work to better integrating these groups was also discussed, in addition to how can we work together to engage men and boys in SGBV prevention and response.
During 2016, in Cameroon, Djohong, UNHCR worked to use education and peer support to address SGBV experienced by young women. The aim is to reduce the rate of forced and/or early marriage and early pregnancy among young women through peer education and support. The project aims also to reduce the number of youth without work in refugee camp communities through peer support network and art training. In addition, the projects sought to reduce the use of drugs and involvement in crime by providing training and leadership opportunities.