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2. OCHA participate in the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality: Task Force on Violence against Women.
3. OCHA is an active member of the United Nations Actions against Sexual Violence in Conflict network.
5. OCHA actively supports the roll-out of the IASC Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action, and supports the development and roll-out of inter-agency tools, such as the IASC Gender Handbook. OCHA initiated and continues to guide the IASC Gender Standby Capacity Project (GenCap).
6. OCHA actively supports the IASC processes related to PSEA. OCHA participates in the network of IASC Senior Focal Points on PSEA and is also part of the IASC Task Team on Accountability to Affected Populations and Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
In 2017 and 2018, two key training workshops were held for FAO staff and partners in Somalia (Mogadishu and Hargeissa) and north east Nigeria (Maiduguri). The scope of the trainings was to support the integration of gender, gender-based violence and accountability to affected populations (AAP) in FAO’s programming and planning. They were articulated around participatory, practical and interactive sessions and participants were oriented on relevant global frameworks such as the World Humanitarian Summit, Grand Bargain commitments and the Secretary-General’s Bulletin on PSEA as well as have the opportunity to apply tools for gender and GBV analysis and assessment, amongst others.
In Nigeria, the importance of energy access for affected populations in the context of acute emergencies and protracted crises cannot be overstated. Vulnerable populations – including refugees, IDPs and the communities hosting them – often have very limited access to cooking fuel and other forms of energy. Women and children primarily shoulder the burden of collecting fuelwood and preparing meals for the family. This gender-differentiated role has major consequences in terms of productive time lost and exposure to protection risks and health risks. Against this background, the participatory, practical and context-specific training was delivered on challenges relating to energy access, environment and displacement, with a focus on resilience programming and gender mainstreaming in the three Nigerian states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
ESCWA, in partnership with UNFPA, are assisting the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Lebanon to develop a national strategy to combat violence against women.
ESCWA, in partnership with UNFPA, UN Women, OHCHR and UNDP in Lebanon, is providing technical support to the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) to develop a National Action Plan on women, peace and security.
ESCWA conducted a field visit and a national consultation on estimating the cost of marital violence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This involved engaging with the National Family Affairs Council, in addition to other stakeholders such a government entities and civil society members providing services for survivors of family violence.
ESCWA is developing “Training Guide: The Economic Cost of Violence” that will be used as part of a larger future training and capacity building exercise on how to cost violence against women in the Arab region. The guide provides an overview of what is involved in conducting a costing study, including how to design a survey.
ESCWA facilitated a workshop for the Ministry of Welfare and Social Security in the Republic of Sudan on the women, peace and security agenda, and shared positive experiences from the region and elsewhere. National priorities and possible partnerships were discussed and recommendations shared.
ESCWA supported the General Women’s Union in the United Arab Emirates on developing a national strategy on women, peace and security.
ESCWA, in partnership with UNFPA, facilitated a workshop entitled to “International Mechanisms for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women between the Text and the Judicial Application” that aimed to enhance the capacity of the government of Lebanon and the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) to develop a national strategy to combat violence against women.
ESCWA, in partnership with the Free Sight Association, the Geneva Institute for Human Rights (GIHR), the International Institute for Nonviolence (NOVACT), the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), and the Tunisian Association “TIGAR” for Equitable Citizenship, participated in a workshop that was part a project on “Tunisian Women, Peace and Security.” The workshop brought together 25 participants from local NGOs in the Governorate of Kasserine to discuss their role in the implementation and monitoring of the national action plan on women, peace and security in Tunisia.
ESCWA facilitated a workshop on “The Role of Media and Academia in Implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Lebanon,” to facilitate the development of the women, peace and security agenda in Lebanon.
Gender Unit: An updated Gender Equality and Women, Peace and Security Resource Package is being finalized which includes dedicated chapters on CRSV and SGBV. This comprehensive resource tool will act as the main comprehensive resource and a “how to guide” to integrate gender and WPS for all peacekeeping personnel across all components and functions of peacekeeping operations; and will provide good practices to enhance evidence based programming.
Gender equality programming is a corporate learning priority for the OCHA Learning and Knowledge Management Board. A learning resources catalogue was produced with information on gender equality training (e-courses, onsite training, communities of practice) including a focus on Gender Based Violence (GBV).
Monthly Gender Community of Practice sessions are held for OCHA Gender Focal Points and three in-person trainings have been conducted on gender equality programming in humanitarian action. In total, 60 Gender Focal Points in OCHA have participated at the trainings. CERF has also funded training of hundreds of field staff and service providers on GBV.
At the leadership level and management level, OCHA initiates discussion on gender, GBV and PSEA at Heads of Office Meetings and Annual Retreats. Humanitarian Coordinators (HCs) have an important role to ensure that gender equality programming is therefore central to humanitarian responses. 100% of the ERC-HC compacts incorporate gender, GBV and PSEA deliverables. HCs must provide field level strategic leadership and guidance to Humanitarian Country Teams and inter cluster/sector working groups to translate these important global level commitments, which are also well articulated in the Secretary-General’s Agenda for Humanity, into concrete collective results and deliverables leading to elevated protection of women and girls from GBV.
In 2017, OCHA developed its ‘People Strategy’, which was launched in January 2018. The strategy encompasses specific long-term strategies and approaches to support the achievement of gender parity, such as leadership development and talent pools.
In line with the Secretary-General’s Bulletin “special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse” (ST/SGB/2003/13), OCHA has established clear structures and procedures for ensuring compliance with the zero-tolerance policy. Standard operating procedures are in place for submission and receipt of complaints, reporting, investigation and survivor assistance. PSEA focal points have been established in OCHA offices at headquarters, regional and country levels, and all staff members receive training and information on preventing and responding to acts of sexual exploitation and abuse.
1. WHO together with UNFPA and UN Women published a clinical handbook for health providers titled "Health care for women subjected to intimate partner violence or sexual violence". Adaptation workshops and trainings based on the handbook have been held in multiple settings in 2017, including: Pakistan, Botswana, Namibia, Uruguay, and Zambia and in regional settings (e.g. Caribbean and East and southern Africa). 2. Technical support is being provided to countries and in-country partners who want to conduct national prevalence surveys on violence against women using the WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence methodology. 3. WHO is finalising the development of curricula for use in in-service and pre-service training to strengthen the knowledge, skills and attitudes of health-care professionals and ensure they can respond effectively to women suffering abuse and its consequences.
In reference to trainings and capacity building of WFP employees, a good example related to PSEA could be the online e-learning, made compulsory for all WFP employees, on Prevention of Fraud, Corruption and SEA.
WFP MYANMAR Country Office
1) For the opening of the 16 Days Campaign against GBV, WFP Myanmar closely cooperated with the National Myanmar Gender Equality Network (GEN) and supported its national campaign ‘From Peace in the home to peace in the world: Involve men to fight violence against women.” Furthermore, a brief footage in the IDP camp benefitting from the new transfer modality (e-wallet) in Myitkyina, Kachin State, was produced with statements of internally displaced women and men on the importance of understanding the root causes of intimate partner violence which might arise from changing in-kind assistance to cash based transfer modalities. WFP Field Office closely collaborated with Karuna Mission Social Solidarity (KMSS), UNFPA and UNHCR on various actions suggested to prevent GBV within the families and also in communities where strongly defined gender roles are still deeply embedded within a cultural or religious coat and gender equality neglected on the public agenda. As an example, the humanitarian community together with IDPs competed in the mini marathon organized by the GBV working group.
2) WFP male staff signed up to the WFP Men Stand for Gender Equality pledge and remained highly engaged in contributing to the country wide campaign to prevent GBV highlighted during orange days and events like the International Women’s Day.
3) WFP Myanmar reiterated its commitment to organize monthly orange days in its Field Offices. In March 2018, Myitkyina Field Office dedicated a special event to help staff understand the negative consequences of GBV against women and girls and learned about the importance of promoting a peaceful co-existence that begins at household level. WFP staff acknowledged that in their working environment, women’s voices and suggestions are still less powerful than those provided by men.
The November 2017 sub-regional Workshop on Gender Statistics ( http://www.unece.org/index.php?id=43956) included a session on gender statistics for the SDGs, including the indicators on violence against women. The workshop aimed to develop the capacity of experts from national statistics to collect data and produce statistics in line with the requirements of the SDGs and according to internationally-agreed methodology.
UN Volunteers support a wide-range of UN efforts worldwide to build capacity of women and girls, as well as of communities on gender-related issues. For example, UN Volunteers assigned to UN Women in Quetta, Pakistan, launched a radio project which engaged marginalized women and youth in the establishment of community-based radio programmes for entertainment, information and education.
IOM continued to apply a practical approach to GBV mainstreaming in line with the IASC GBV Guidelines, through several capacity building initiatives such as trainings, development and/or revision of training material, and a number of deployments of Rapid Response Advisors (RRA) and Emergency Response and Induction Training (ERIT) graduates, who mentor CCCM and Shelter actors. RRAs conducted capacity building initiatives, and strengthened the coordination with GBV specialized actors in-country during deployments. Moreover, CCCM Regional Training of Trainers (ToT), with representatives from both the cluster co-lead agencies and the capacity building focal agency, NRC, have taken place. The ToTs have been combined with concrete follow-up actions to prevent and mitigate GBV risks in camp and camp-like settings, which has led to the development of national-level action plans by ToT participants in all nine participating countries.
Together with UNHCR and NRC, IOM initiated and finalized the revision of the Global CCCM training modules. The 2017 revision emphasizes and now emphasizes actions on the prevention and mitigation of GBV in all core modules. Various tools developed facilitate the general mainstreaming of GBV into emergency responses, including a CCCM checklist to support the review of projects; global CCCM and DTM training modules mainstreaming GBV considerations; and a more technical guidance for shelter experts and site planners working in camps.
IOM also continued the rollout of the Women’s Participation Project, which aims at supporting opportunities for women’s equal and meaningful participation in camp governance structures to contribute to reducing risks of GBV. A qualitative assessment to map existing governance structures and barriers for women’s participation in these structures was first undertaken, followed by the development and implementation of a number of strategies in line with the findings of the baseline study, including the establishment of women’ committees and cumulative skills and leaderships training. An assessment of whether the activities undertaken had succeeded was undertaken at the end of the year. Lessons learned demonstrate the need for long-term targeted efforts to shift social norms to enable greater opportunities for women as participants and as leaders.