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UNRWA field offices in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank participate regularly in the cluster and sub-clusters related to GBV and PSEA. They also play an active role in inter-agency activities marking the 16 days campaign of activism to end gender-based violence and the “UNiTe to End Violence against Women”.

UNRWA is actively participating in the inter-agency coordination mechanisms at the country and regional levels. Specifically during the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV, UNRWA coordinated its activities with the United Nations country teams and the regional gender team to contribute and support the “Hear Me Too” campaign.

UNRWA participates in the different cluster meetings in its fields of operation, and also inter-Agency working groups. UNRWA also grounds its work on raising awareness of the UN Secretary General's UniTE Campaign, such as the Agency's participation the 16 Days of Activism against GBV. 

UNRWA is a part of the Call to Action on Protection from GBV in Emergencies, and prioritize the implementation of its commitments as part of the Building Safety project on GBV in emergencies. 

During the reporting period, UNRWA provided training to 1,677 staff members, including basic, in-depth and specialized trainings. In Gaza, the Community Mental Health Programme held training on GBV principles and the GBV referral system itself for 150 Health and Relief and Social Services staff, among them nurses, psycho-social counsellors, and social workers. In Jordan, following the expansion of the GBV referral system to new geographical areas, UNRWA staff members in both the Health and Education programmes working in these areas were trained in detection and referral of survivors. UNRWA also held two GBV Learning Workshops in March and October 2013, bringing GBV teams from the different areas of UNRWA’s operations together to discuss results, challenges, and reflect on lessons learned.

UNRWA is strengthening the capacity of its counselors in the health centres, its lawyers in legal advice offices, and its social workers in the women program centres to offer a more targeted intervention to victims in Gaza and West Bank through the Community Mental Health, the MDG-Gender and the Equality in Action programs.

In Jordan, UNRWA and UNICEF supported the Ministry of Health in developing guidelines (pilot version) for medical and paramedical staff on addressing violence against women. UNRWA organized a workshop with practitioners from all over the region to develop lessons learned that were documented in the first issue of UNRWA Gender Series on referral systems for victims of violence.

UNRWA conducted several trainings in West Bank and Gaza reaching members of the community involved in services provision, women, men and religious leaders on the provision of assistance to victims of gender-based violence.

In 2019, UNRWA continued the roll out of the Training Manual on Understanding GBV and 600 staff were trained in all fields of operations of which an average of 85% demonstrated increased capability to address GBV. The e-learning course on GBV risk mitigation in emergencies has been launched in November 2018. It has subsequently been piloted in all five fields of operation and so far, 600 staff have completed the e-Learning course. While continuing to work on increasing knowledge on GBV for all staff, UNRWA put emphasis on respective changes in attitudes and practices, building on the already achieved positive changes in knowledge of many employees. To achieve this UNRWA focused on three core competencies (the survivor-centred approach; communication and counselling; and supervision skills) related to four categories of staff addressing GBV (case identifiers, case managers, case supervisors, and GBV coordinators) and rolled out 199 on-the-job coaching sessions to staff in all fields of operations.  

UNRWA conducted training on gender-based violence, detection and referral of survivors, for community-based organizations and Health Ministry representatives, including in Gaza and the West Bank.

During the reporting period UNRWA trained 2,278 staff in all its fields of operations as part of the roll out of the capacity building plans. The trainings focused on anchoring the survivor centred approach in the UNRWA response to GBV and on rolling out the tools for GBV risk mitigation in emergencies.