Training and Capacity Building

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, provided capacity development to the Burundian police and judiciary to improve protection mechanisms for survivors of violence against women and to civil society partners, working on violence against women in Indonesia, Thailand, Timor-Leste and the Philippines. It also supported the development of a training course, "Empowerment, HIV and violence against women in the Caribbean." As part of the Safe Cities Programme, UNIFEM and Red Mujer y Habitat supported an online learning course, “Urban violence, insecurity and discrimination”. Hide

In February 2008, UN-INSTRAW, now part of UN Women, in collaboration with the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), published the Gender and Security Reform Toolkit that aim to support gender mainstreaming; the participation of women in the security sector; the capacity-building of the security sector to respond to violence against women. The toolkit includes 12 tools and corresponding practice notes on gender and police reform, gender and border management, gender and justice reform, and gender training for security personnel, among other topics. The Gender and SSR Toolkit was launched during the fifty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Advocacy is being carried out among Member States and other stakeholders to encourage the use of the toolkit in ongoing security sector reform processes. Hide

UN-HABITAT and UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, held a joint workshop during the International Seminar “Cities without Violence, Safe Cities for Women and Girls”, in July 2008 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and presented a joint training initiative on women’s safety audits for cities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Hide

In Burundi, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, , UNDP, UNESCO and UNICEF worked together to provide training and reporting assistance for civil society organizations and police to improve statistics and data collection on cases of gender-based violence. Hide

The “UNFPA Strategy and Framework of Action to Addressing Gender-based Violence, 2008-2011” has been widely disseminated. A booklet entitled “Gender Snapshot: UNFPA Programming at Work” has been published. It includes a chapter on gender-based violence prevention and response. Hide

In the Southern African region, under the framework of the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security and in close collaboration with other UN agencies, UNODC supports activities aimed at strengthening capacity to address gender-based violence as a human rights violation, and empowering survivors, inter-alia, through training. Hide

UNODC is carrying out training of law enforcement officials in Colombia and India, concentrating on investigation and punishment of trafficking in persons with a gender perspective. Regular training for military officials, including NATO, focusing particularly on trafficking for sexual exploitation is also being provided. Hide

UNRWA held workshops on domestic violence, a workshop for health staff on addressing major gender-based violence issues and a workshop on advocacy and campaigning in Lebanon. Protection clusters in North Lebanon were set up to train frontline staff on gender-based violence. Hide

UNHCR organized training courses using the WHO/UNHCR Clinical Management of Rape Guidelines in East Africa and Asia. Hide

UNHCR’s Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls (March 2008) describes the protection challenges faced by displaced women and girls and explains how UNHCR and partners work together to promote gender equality, in particular, to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence through a rights and community-based approach. Hide