United Nations Children’s Fund

UNICEF and OCHA completed phase 1 of a joint project to prevent use of sexual violence by armed groups. In October 2011, UNODA New York provided expertise to a meeting of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) on ‘Why Women? Effective Engagement for Small Arms Control’ that launched a report on why it is important to include women in small arms control and disarmament initiatives. Hide

UNICEF is undertaking secondary analysis of Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) and Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data on harmful practices (FGM/C and child marriage) to be published in 2012. The organization has also completed the revision of the research toolkit on children born of sexual violence and survivors. Hide

UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) supported passage of laws criminalizing FGM/C in Kenya and Guinea-Bissau. Hide

UNICEF supported government and civil society efforts to prevent and respond to sexual abuse and exploitation of girls and boys in more than 70 countries (including development and emergency contexts). UNICEF also held its third annual learning course “Advances in Social Norms” at the University of Pennsylvania in July, with 51 participants coming from all regions, the majority from West Africa and South Asia, as well as Headquarters; disseminated the ‘Compendium to the Training Manual to Fight Trafficking in Children’ to all of its regional and country offices; and organized a regional Training of Trainers for UNICEF staff and government counterparts form the MENA region in Cairo, Egypt. Hide

UNICEF supported the Second Latin American and Caribbean Conference on the Right to Identity and Universal Birth/Civil Registration of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organization of American States (OAS), and a similar high-level conference in Africa, under the umbrella of the African Union (AU), to continue its advocacy against child marriage and child trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Hide

UNICEF Country Offices continued to implement programmes to promote awareness and abandonment of harmful traditional practices in 15 countries covered by the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on awareness and abandonment of child marriage. Hide

UNICEF has provided support to awareness-raising and advocacy addressing violence against girls, including through the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme to Accelerate the Abandonment of FGM/C. Hide

UNICEF and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) launched a joint initiative to improve programs to address gender-based violence in emergencies and support child survivors. A course “Protecting Women and Child Survivors of Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies through Improved Coordination” has been developed and the first one will be provided in February, in New York. This course focuses on GBV coordinators’ role in their response for children, and in their work with other clusters, especially Child Protection Working Groups/Sub-clusters, to mitigate risk to women and girls in diverse emergency response settings. Hide

UNICEF - including through the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme to Accelerate the Abandonment of FGM/C - has provided support to development of legislation addressing violence against girls at country level. Hide

In January 2011, UNICEF started to co-lead the Sub-Working Group on Gender and Humanitarian Action. UNICEF is the co-lead agency of the Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBV AoR) under the Global Protection Cluster. In January 2011, the Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility Retreat brought together several stakeholders to develop a 2-year workplan including a new focus on Disaster Risk Reduction and Gender-based Violence. Hide