Training and Capacity Building

The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific (UNRCPD) initiated a region-wide project on the issue of women, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control. UNRCPD conducted two sub-regional workshops on gun violence and illicit small-arms trafficking from a gender perspective, for Southeast Asia in July and for South Asia in September, respectively. 

The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) organized a technical workshop on ATT Evaluation of Transfers and Reports for Guatemala. The training covered risk assessment under the ATT, which requires that States assess the risk that the conventional arms, ammunition or parts and components being transferred are being used to commit or facilitate serious acts of gender-based violence or serious acts of violence against women and children. UNLIREC also carried out a Gender & ATT Table Top Exercise in San Salvador aimed at assisting the State in understanding the obligations under the ATT and providing practical insights into the ATT´s risk assessment methodology, emphasizing the importance of gender-based criteria. UNLIREC organized a training course on Firearms and Ammunition Evidence Management, which underlined the gendered aspects of small arms and highlighted the links between armed violence and gender-based violence.

Training and capacity-building remained a key area of the UN Trust Fund’s work both online and in face-to-face workshops. For example, the fund has implemented 10 online training modules, developed in 2017, on how to ensure accountability for grants, in accordance with the Project Cooperation Agreement, including sessions on project design, monitoring and evaluation; financial and operational management; and ethics and safety. The course is open to new Trust Fund grantees and their implementing partners and is offered as refresher training to all current grantees. By December 2018, the sessions had been delivered live in three languages and recorded to ensure wider participation and share knowledge.  In September 2018, the Trust Fund held a five-day knowledge-exchange workshop in Amman, involving eight current and new grantees working on ending violence against women and girls in humanitarian contexts. The event provided an opportunity for grantees to obtain access to training to respond to programmatic and operational gaps in capacity, exchange learning and knowledge and document knowledge in a format that can be used for both internal and external purposes. 

1) Conducted open residential courses, focused on practical strategies to prevent and address violence and harassment at workplace level: "Violence and Harassment in the World of Work: what to do?" 19-23 Nov 2018, Turin - Language: English, French.

2) (In collaboration with Fair Wear Foudation whithin project "Safe and Equal") tailor-made trainings on prevention of Workplace Violence and Harassment for managers and/or workers' reps of garment factories in Indonesia (sept 2018), Vietnam (Oct 2018) and Myanmar (Dec 2018).

Cuba Country Office:

• While carrying out sensitization workshops in the field on various gender issues (i.e. masculinities and gender stereotypes), WFP always included a section to advocate on the importance of preventing gender-based violence and on the organization’s commitment in this area.
• WFP is also supporting small initiatives for women’s empowerment in selected cooperatives (i.e. a vegetable garden and poultry farming), which ultimately will also contribute to reduce gender-based violence at the local level.

WFP Headquarters

The Gender Office organized two “training of trainers” workshops on Social Norms in HQ.

These training sessions equipped field officers with skills to address discriminatory gender norms, including harmful masculinities and femininities, to create transformational changes at the individual, organisational and societal levels for gender just outcomes.

In June 2018, the workshop was attended by 18 participants from 13 Country Offices, and three participants from Dakar Regional Bureau.

In October 2018, the workshop was attended by 11 participants from 9 Country Offices, and one participant from Bangkok Regional Bureau.

Iraq Country Office:

In September 2018, WFP / Iraq / Baghdad conducted an awareness session for our cooperating partner Mercy Hands on Social Norms and the transformation of gender.

Nicaragua Country Office

• Let's Paint the World of Orange: Support Survivors of Gender-Based Violence.NICO´s efforts have focused on prevention actions through training and empowerment of members of cooperatives, women and young people, which allows greater awareness and address this problem within the organizations of producers.
• In addition, as part of this campaign, NICO makes efforts to involve men in the processes of accompaniment and learning about the construction of new masculinities, social norms and new leaderships in order to achieve the transformation of gender relations in the workplace and personal life.
• Talks: “Aprender, Involucrarse y estar Alerta para prevenir la Violencia Basada en Género”; “Introducción a la charla sobre Normas Sociales”; Aprendiendo sobre Mitos y Realidades de la Violencia Basada en Género (VBG).

Syria Country Office:

In June 2018, WFP facilitated two-days training on discriminatory social norms for 26 staff of Gender Results Network members and senior management, the training was facilitated by Ahmad Hammoud and Fatema Hammadi with support of Alan Gerieg. The training focused on interactive activates and exercises which promote great participation and better understanding of the norms and the way to address the patriarchal masculinities inside WFP workplace, social live as well as through WFP’s activities across Syria country, thus ensure that different needs for women, girls and men, boys are addressed.

ESCWA, in partnership with UNFPA, supported the Lebanese Ministry of State for Women’s Affairs to develop a national strategy on violence against women. This consultative national strategy, included interviews and focus group discussions with line ministries; several national and sub national validation workshops; and a high-level meeting to discuss the draft strategy.

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, in partnership with UNFPA, supported the Lebanese Ministry of State for Women’s Affairs to develop a project on costing violence against women. This included developing a project proposal, conducting field work, holding national consultations, developing an operational model for Lebanon, holding a second national consultation, developing a national survey to measure the prevalence of violence against women, analysing the government budget, and developing a national survey for services.

ESCWA conducted three field visits to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a national consultation to discuss elements of an operational model on estimating the cost of marital violence. This involved engaging with the National Family Affairs Council, in addition to other stakeholders such as governmental entities and civil society members providing services for survivors of family violence.

ESCWA conducted a field mission to Iraq to prepare for the implementation of a project on costing violence against women in Iraq.

ESCWA participated in a consultation with the Egyptian National Council for Women and the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) to discuss practical steps towards carrying out a national study on violence against women with disabilities. This meeting was the second such consultation facilitated by ESCWA to determine the parameters and methodology of the study.

ESCWA facilitated a Regional Workshop on the Measurement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Violence against Women and Time Use Statistics Indicators with senior gender experts/statisticians from national statistical offices, ministries of gender equality and women’s affairs. The workshop addressed selected SDG indicators, focusing on the following gender concerns: physical, sexual, psychological violence against women perpetrated by an intimate partner and sexual violence against women perpetrated by a person other than an intimate partner.

ESCWA supported the Ministry of Women, Family, Childhood and Elderly in Tunisia to better understand the availability and quality of data needed to carry out an estimation of the cost of violence in Tunisia.

ESCWA, the League of Arab States and UN Women, in partnership with the Swedish Institute in Alexandria and UNDP held a workshop on the different pillars of reporting when preparing National Voluntary Reports (VNR). Discussion included the tools available at the regional level to report on SDG 5, and the role of national stakeholders in preparing the VNR.

ESCWA and UNFPA Regional Office in Beirut organized a workshop on monitoring, control and protection of human rights including sexual and reproductive health and rights. This workshop targeted national human rights institutions and National Women’s Machineries in the Arab region, as well as in some countries of the Horn of Africa. The workshop sought to strengthen collaboration between National Women’s Machineries and national human rights institutions, especially in documenting the status of women and women’s sexual and reproductive health within the framework of international conventions.

UNREC organized a train-the-trainers inter-institutional course on small arms control as part of a capacity-building project for Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. Module 1, entitled “Human Security, Human Rights, Proliferation of SALW and Armed Violence”, addresses violence against women and girls.

UNREC organized a workshop for civil society organizations from Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria that allowed participants to develop advocacy and awareness tools to reduce women’s participation, including forced participation, in terrorism and related arms trafficking, thereby also contributing to a reduction of violence against women. 

UNLIREC organized a training in Colombia on the Arms Trade Treaty that included sessions and practical exercises on how to conduct the risk assessment on gender-based violence or violence against women and children required by the treaty. In that regard, UNLIREC has developed a risk assessment tool to be used in practical exercises: http://unlirec.org/documents/HerramientaImplementacionGenero-ATT_Espannol.pdf. 

More generally, all activities that contribute to better SALW control will also contribute, at least indirectly, to lowering gun violence and thus, violence against women and girls committed with guns. The gendered impact of the illicit trade in SAWL and gun violence is always addressed in relevant activities of the ODA Regional Centres such as capacity-building on the implementation of SALW control instruments. 

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.  

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.

The UN Trust Fund is committed to funding organizations that are operating at the grassroots level, focused on women’s rights, and are women-led. This includes building the capacity of grantee organizations to achieve results and sustain their impact even after the UN Trust Fund grant ends. 


One measure of the UN Trust Fund’s success is the extent to which its grantees are successful in obtaining new and additional funding that ensures building the sustainability of the organisation and the work beyond the Trust Fund supported project. In an Annual Partner Survey of UN Trust Fund grantees, 46% of respondents reported success in obtaining funding to continue, replicate or scale up the project funded by the UN Trust Fund or to implement other EVAW related projects.  More specifically, US$ 6,467,457 has been raised during 2017 to scale up, replicate or sustain the results of the UN Trust Fund projects and US$33,122,307 for other EVAW projects. 77% of respondents reported that the UN Trust Fund grant was instrumental in helping their organization mobilise additional funds. In the same survey - which attracted 139 respondents from 83 organisations - the majority were satisfied or very satisfied with their experience as a grantee (94%), especially with the capacity development training provided by the UN Trust Fund (91% reported that the training was very useful or useful).

UNHCR continues successful capacity building of staff, partners, government and people of concern. In 2017, 41 staff from the Africa and Middle East and North Africa regions completed an SGBV learning program, which certified trainers on SGBV prevention and response. 

UNHCR’s focus on online training and multiple gender-related modules, including on Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, and Prevention of Harassment, Sexual Harassment, and Abuse of Authority in the Workplace, has seen more than 7200 staff capacitated. 

In addition, UNHCR has been systematically mainstreaming SGBV prevention and response into all UNHCR operations. This involves thematic and cross-sectoral responsibilities to more effectively integrate and address SGBV prevention, risk mitigation and response. This effort is an operationalization of the IASC Guidelines for Integrating Gender-based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action.
 
In UNHCR operations, capacity building and sensitization of communities on SGBV prevention and response were carried out using mass sensitization and awareness campaigns, and targeted trainings of community leaders and influential groups, including youth and male activists against SGBV. Communities have in turn mobilized community-based structures to lead on prevention and response and advocate for action against SGBV.