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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.
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.
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In 2017, 3 induction/capacity building sessions on GBV tools for around 12 youth-led NGOs active in different areas in Lebanon was organized. The main focus of the induction is Gender Roles & Societal Expectations from both Women and Men in Public and Private Spheres. Furthermore, to support the role of youth-led and women-led organizations, UN Women organized in partnership with ABAAD a GBV/Masculinity TOT training workshop in October 2017 which involved 9 CSOs. The 3 days’ workshop aimed at building the capacities of participating NGOs on the concepts of human security, gender based violence and masculinities and addressing negative coping mechanism. The CSOs were able to utilize their newly acquired knowledge and technical skills while conducting GBV awareness raising sessions within their community to address stigma against GBV survivors and reduce all forms of violence.
The UN Women Gender Specialist secondee to OCHA has been working closely with national and sub-national cluster coordinators, gender focal points and humanitarian funding partners to improve gender outcomes, including conducting training on Gender and Age Marker for 90 participants.
In Algeria, UN Women has reached an important milestone, in strenghtening the Ministry of National Solidarity, Family and Women Condition's (MSNFCF) capacities to collect data on women and girls victims of violence. A modernized and common data collection framework integrating international guidelines and indicators on WSV, with a focus on SDG 5, was developed by UN Women in partnership with the MSNFCF. The new administrative databased named "AMANE" will allow the MSNFCF and its different structures to collect comprehensive data on Survivors seeking aid from its services. All 54 professionals from the Directorates for Social Action and Solidarity (DASS) and from Women Shelter's have benefited from a specific training on how to use AMANE with a component on gender-based violence and gender issues.
As part of UN Women efforts in supporting the Palestinian police to improve the Family Protection and Juvenile Unit (FPJU) performance in dealing with VAW cases, and supporting the implementation of the capacity building plan of the FJPU, a two-day workshop has been conducted in Jan 2018 on cybercrimes against women and girls. 24 police officers from FJPU and the cybercrime unit have been targeted and agreed on recommendations to improve coordination between both units whe dealing with VAW cases. following that, UNW facilitated a meeting between heads of the specialized units of the cyber-crime and VAW, to reflect on the workshops main points and present the findings and recommendations. Both units agreed to discuss internally proposed arrangements, including the assginment of the FJPU as the first responder for the cyber-crime -violence against women and the aspects of coordination mechanisms between the units when dealing with VAW casesto ensure privacy and confidentiality.
UN Women has reinforced and developed partnerships with key departments for the provision of essential services to WSV. Justice professionals (magistrates and legal social workers) were assessed and trained on women’s access to justice and on human trafficking, and benefited from South-South exchanges with their counterparts from Palestine. The training aimed for the magistrates focused on the role of the security services during the investigation phases, the investigation of trafficking cases, and the identification and protection of victims. The dozen magistrates-experts will, following the training cycle, will conduct similar trainings to the rest of the magistrates within the Ministry of Justice thus ensuring national ownership with regards to human trafficking best practices.
UN Women and AWLN held a series of workshops with parliamentarians and legal practitioners on SGBV and women’s access to justice in order to raise awarness of the legal framework, gaps adn challenges, and how to promote services for survivors.
UN Women supported the Jordanian National Commission for Women in strengthening its positioning with female MPs, organizing three capacity building initiatives during the reporting for members of the women’s caucus in the Parliament and adressing issues related to their role in legislative writing, budget design and oversight, implementation of the SDGs, and constituency-building through online outreach. At the margins of one of the sessions, a dedicated session to review the draft cyber crime law was also conducted.
In March 2018, UN Women held two consultation meetings with civil society and government partners in Baghdad (24-26) and Erbil (27-29) to analyze humanitarian response plans from a gender perspective. The meetings also served to build a foundation for improved coordination and communication between government and civil society, resulting in the prioritization of the needs of women and girls.
UN Women Egypt in collaboration with the Office of the Public Prosecution and UNODC organized training workshops for 160 members of the Public Prosecution on how to effectively prosecute crimes related to violence against women. Topics covered included gender sensitive evidence-gathering and investigation, understanding the relevant legal articles in the Penal code and identifying common legal and practical issues faced by women victims/survivors, in addition to the provision of support and protection of survivors. Furthermore, in collaboration with the National Council for Women (NCW), training workshops were conducted for 250 recent law graduates on a career path to becoming judges to elevate their competencies to adjudicate cases related to VAW. Additionally, capacity development support was provided to the Women’s Complaints office of the NCW to strengthen their capacity to provide legal awareness and support services to women victims/survivors of violence, in addition to 80 employees of government-run women’s shelters and the supervisory ministry, to provide protection and support services to women victims/survivors of violence.
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.
In 2017, UNRWA carried out 135 trainings which engaged 2709 staff members across the Agency (Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, West Bank, and Syria). Trainings focused on GBV and GBV in emergencies targeted staff in UNRWA’s different programmes.
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.
In Argentina, OHCHR started supporting the process of adaptation of the Latin American Model Protocol for the investigation of gender-related killings of women (feminicide), similar actions will take place in Chile and Peru. OHCHR RO for Central America and UN Women Regional Office for Latin America organized workshops with the Prosecutor’s specialized Unit for adaptation of the Latin American Model Protocol. The workshop also shared the Brazil experience with the adaptation of the Protocol. Support will continue into 2017. In Chile, the Interagency Group on Gender and Human Rights co-organized a workshop with the Ministry of Interior to discuss the different impact on women, men, girls and boys, and that women and men have different capacities to respond according to their social, economic, cultural and geographical situation and therefore differentiated answers and solutions are required.
In the Asia-Pacific region, UNODC conducted a training of trainers on effective prosecution responses to violence against women and girls, attended by prosecutors from 10 countries.
In Mexico, UNODC supported capacity building for prosecutors and judges in prosecuting violence against women case and providing assistance to victims. A new project in 19 Mexican states started developing capacities of first response police officers and emergency services of the federal police for victims of gender-based violence.
In DRC, the UNJHRO (United Nations Joint Human Rights Office) trained 37 medical doctors on sexual violence forensic expertise, 40 lawyers on the judicial assistance to victims of SGBV, 43 penal court registers’ and prosecution secretaries on the management and handling of SGBV files, 35 magistrates on sexual violence and SGBV related matters as well as protection of victims and witnesses and drafting of judgments. The UNJHRO also organised 3 workshops for magistrates on feminization of justice and fight against impunity of SGBV.