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In December 2008, a senior World Bank manager made a presentation at the “Cairo Declaration on FGM + 5 Meeting”. In November 2008, the World Bank contributed to the “Women and Security” conference in Abu Dhabi, organised by the Arab Women's Organizations.

UNECE, together with the World Bank Institute, published a 15 minute video on gender-based violence and issues in its measurement (www.unece.org/stats/video/violence.htm).

The World Bank “The Measuring Empowerment in Four Countries” programme is piloting a mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) approach to measuring empowerment in different contexts. The study is being implemented in Ghana, Ethiopia, Jamaica, and Bangladesh. The study focuses on the empowerment of women, and the questionnaire that is administered to women only includes questions on domestic violence and violence against women outside of the home. In Bangladesh, the partner for the implementation of the programme was the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

The World Bank’s Post-Conflict Fund (FCF) is supporting a “Risk Assessment of Schools in Afghanistan and Identification for Mitigatory Action”. The objective is to assess the specific local context of attacks on schools, teachers and students (attacks primarily target females) and to identify sustainable models for community involvement in protection of schools. This research is being conducted by CARE International.

A World Bank report on Bangladesh dated March 2008 on gender and social transformation entitled “Whispers to Voices” (2008) examined among other aspects, attitudes towards and extent of gender based violence (GBV). As a follow up, the Nordic Trust Fund (NTF) is supporting work in Bangladesh that addresses GBV by exploring the social and economic impacts of women’s employment and its possible linkages to violence against women.

In India, a 2011 World Bank report entitled “Poverty and Social Exclusion in India” explores the association between domestic violence and health outcomes for women and their children. An upcoming gender study in Brazil will analyze gender equality and the impact of several home-grown policies and programs on protection of human rights and gender-based violence prevention in particular.

The World Bank’s first global study of urban violence, “Violence in the City” (2010), included analysis of gender based violence (GBV) in urban neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Dili, Timor-Leste; Nairobi, Kenya; Johannesburg, South Africa; and Fortaleza, Brazil. The study reported lifetime sexual violence victimization ranging from 08.% to over 20% in some neighborhoods, with over half of all incidents occurring in public spaces.

In 2009, the World Bank launched the study “Risky Business for Poor Women Traders in the Great Lakes Region”, and the results of the study were captured in a report in January 2011. It identified challenges, including harassment and physical violence against women, and opportunities for cross-border trade between the Eastern Democratic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, and brought both national and regional technical and political recommendations to key stakeholders.

The World Bank is providing Uruguay with a US$300,000 Institutional Development Fund grant to tackle domestic violence, including support to the implementation of the country's first national plan on domestic violence approved in 2004. Specific actions include: designing a comprehensive strategy aimed at identifying a broad range of policies and administrative measures to fulfill Uruguay’s international commitments on gender equality; developing a national database of gender-disaggregated statistics to inform decision-makers of areas where services are required based on concrete data; and building institutional capacity to address and report on women’s human rights and gender-based violence.

In Honduras, the World Bank approved a Development Policy Credit in 2011 with a component on Citizen Security, including prevention of gender-based domestic and sexual violence. Proposed policies will strengthen the capacity of municipal Offices of Women’s Affairs to respond to victims and offer conflict mediation services.