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A project funded by the UN Trust Fund and implemented by Plan Viet Nam is working to address gender-based violence in and around schools, one of the main barriers to girls’ empowerment and gender equality. A research-based model piloted in 20 schools across Hanoi reached approximately 30,000 adolescent girls and boys aged 11 to 18. Following the model’s success, the Hanoi Department of Education has undertaken to replicate the initiative across 766 schools in the city, potentially reaching more than 500,000 adolescents.
In Mexico, UN Women and eleven other UN agencies launched a campaign against early and child marriage, to establish eighteen as the minimum age for marriage at federal and state level without exception. The Mexican Senate and the Congress of Oaxaca announced reforms on the issue, while the President pledged to support the campaign and eradicate early marriage in law and practice.
At the field level FAO is working on the prevention and mitigation of GBV through specific programmes and approaches such as the Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools in Uganda and Kenya, the Dimitra Clubs in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Burundi and Senegal, and the Safe Access to Fuel and Energy (SAFE) approach in South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, and Kenya, among others. The JFFLS and Dimitra Clubs use empowerment approaches to bring men and women together to proactively work on issues they face in their daily lives, including GBV. Today there are approximately 1,500 FAO-Dimitra Clubs in sub-Saharan Africa (Burundi, DRC, Ghana, Niger and Senegal), with over 35,000 direct beneficiaries and 350,000 indirect beneficiaries, two thirds being women. Programmes implemented as part of the SAFE initiative reduce the risk of exposure to violence that predominantly women and girls face whilst collecting firewood in some of the contexts FAO works.