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A project in Cambodia is being implemented by ADD International in partnership with local organizations to empower disabled women’s networks and strengthen their capacity to lead primary prevention efforts in six districts in which domestic violence is reported to be high. The target of the project is violence committed by relatives and caregivers against women and girls with disabilities. The aim of the project is to strengthen the capacity of women-led organizations that work for people with disabilities so that they may more effectively support women and girls through prevention interventions. Also under that programme, women and girls with disabilities will be trained to become volunteer role models and a methodology will be developed to analyse the incidence and causes of gender-based violence. The methodology will be disseminated in Cambodia and internationally.
In four regions of Argentina, a project led by the organization FUSA para la Salud Integral con Perspectiva de Género y Derechos Asociación Civil, funded by the UN Trust Fund, has formed an interdisciplinary workgroup to develop policy proposals and strategies to change local laws and policies on violence against women and girls with disabilities so that they adhere to international human rights standards. The organizers of the project are also engaging with and providing training for organizations that advocate for the rights of people with disabilities; thus far, 24 women and girls from such organizations have received training on the rights of women and girls with disabilities and acquired the tools necessary to share what they have learned with a wider audience. Preliminary agreements have been reached with health centres to expand the services they offer, and revised protocols are being reviewed by the ethics committees of those health centres.
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.
Women with mental disabilities held in Serbia’s institutions often suffer multiple forms of violence. A recent study by Mental Disability Rights Initiative-Serbia (MDRI-S) uncovered multiple forms of violence, including forced medical treatment such as the administration of contraceptives without informed consent, and forced abortions and sterilization.
The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women is supporting a project run by MDRI-S, a not-for-profit organization that advocates for the rights of women with mental disabilities, with a small grant. MDRI-S is the first organization in Serbia bringing the lives and narratives of women with mental disabilities living in custodial institutions to the attention of the public. MDRI-S advocates for the deinstitutionalization of people with mental disabilities and for the model of living in residential assisted living centers, while at the same time it invests in improving conditions of women still living in custodial institutions by sensitizing service providers to women’s needs.
MDRI-S has brought together numerous policy makers from government, parliament and independent bodies such as the Ombudsman and Commissioner for Equality, to present the findings of their research and recommendations for change. MDRI-S has so far trained 60 service providers on how to address violence against women with mental disabilities in custodial institutions. By involving policy makers and service providers, MDRI-S is ensuring that those working directly with women with mental disabilities are sensitized to have the information needed to prevent abuse from occurring, and encourages policy makers to become advocates and actors for deinstitutionalization.
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).