Search
UNLIREC contributed to an inter-agency programme funded by the Human Security Trust Fund in Peru on strengthening human security and community resilience by fostering peaceful coexistence. Under this programme, UNLIREC contributed to a course on gender in public policy, where the Regional Centre sensitized 76 participants on why and how to include a gender focus in policies on arms control, and prevention and reduction of armed violence.
UNLIREC also contributed to a project by UN Volunteers in Peru, Colombia, Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago called “Youth Volunteerism for Peacebuilding and Disarmament: Youth Measuring Community Security through Participatory Indicators”, in which youth volunteers developed community-based indicators measuring human security and progress towards the SDGs. Several of the indicators relate to violence against women and girls.
WFP has developed comprehensive protection and gender policies which outline that WFP programmes and interventions must not create, exacerbate or contribute to gender inequalities or discrimination, and must mitigate risks of gender-based violence (GBV). In line with these policies, WFP has developed protection and GBV guidance manuals, which specifically look at concerns of GBV associated with implementing food assistance programmes, including in conflict settings.
In 2018, WFP Ethics Office organised the roll-out of the “Guidance Note about the Prohibition on Engaging Prostitution Services”, aimed at helping employees understand WFP’s expectations of conduct as related to prostitution, considered a form of SEA.
In 2017, UNODC further expanded its activities in developing standards and tools and providing technical assistance to Member States in the field of crime statistics. Among these activities was UNODC’s publication of the Resource Book for Trainers on Effective Prosecution Responses to Violence against Women and Girls and the development of an implementation guide for the Essential Service Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence to assist countries in the implementation of the Essential Services Package at the country level.
Further, UNODC developed a study on the role of women in the smuggling of migrants (to be published in the first half of 2018), as well as a Practitioner's Toolkit on Women's Access to Justice Programming (together with UN Women, UNDP and OHCHR).
To support education sector responses to early and unintended pregnancy (EUP) while supporting the continuing education of adolescent mothers, UNESCO in Eastern and Southern Africa has carried out a 10-country situation analysis on EUP (conducted 2017; published 2018), the findings and recommendations of which will inform follow up country level actions for policy, programmes and advocacy. UNESCO also participates in the Indicator Working Group for the thematic indicators of SDG4, which among other aspects, continues to identify and define indicators for country reporting against the SDG thematic indicator 4.a.2 – Safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments, ensuring that data is not only sex-disaggregated but also to ensure that reporting captures the gendered dimensions of violence in learning spaces.
Gender Studies Research Network in China: UNESCO launched a project to look at policies and programs through a gender lens, identifying how they impact women and men, and then proposing policy and programmatic recommendations to address the gaps and challenges. This Gender Studies Research Network which brings together policy and decision makers, researchers and academics, and NGO leaders aims to address issues of violence against women and girls in a wider perspective.
WHO is implementing work to strengthen the institutionalisation of gender-based violence responses in WHO’s humanitarian work, ensuring the integration of violence against women (sexual violence and intimate partner violence) in the work of the health cluster at global and regional levels, and in selected countries.
UNRWA has created a number of tools to support enhanced Agency capacity to address GBV in emergencies, including UNRWA Guidelines for GBV Risk Mitigation in Emergencies (2017) and a GBV Training Package (2018).
ESCWA, in partnership with UN Women, is currently conducting a full fledged project on estimating the cost of VAW in the Arab region. This project consists of two phases: the first one includes two studies (namely, “Status of Arab Women Report: Violence against Women: What is At Stake” and "Model for costing domestic violence against women in the Arab region"). The former, produced in partnership with UN Women and the Lebanese American University, provides a contextualized understanding of VAW and its importance, examines the existing reporting mechanisms, explores the linkages between VAW and social, economic and health factors, and reviews the relevant methodologies with a view to identify the most suitable one for the Arab region. This first study paves the way for the development of the regional economic model to estimate the cost of VAW in the region, which is addressed in the second study in partnership with UN Women. The second phase of the project focuses on building the capacity of member States on the importance of costing violence against women, as well as piloting the economic model in two Arab countries.
UN Women has continued working with other UN agencies to finalize a UN global joint programme to build sustained national capacities to implement VAW prevalence surveys in line with international standards and SDG monitoring requirements, as part of UN Women’s Flagship Programme Initiative “Better production and use of gender statistics for evidence-based localization of the SDGs”.
In June 2016, UNICRI carried out a survey to explore the level of gender mainstreaming in the working agenda of substance use treatment centres in Italy. Gender responsive approaches are relatively new in the substance use field, although many studies highlight barriers to women's access to substance use services. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate to what extent a gender responsive approach is applied in the Italian substance use treatment services and to explore the professionals’ opinions regarding the advantages and the challenges of applying such approach. The majority of professionals recognize the importance of including a gender responsive approach in their working agenda, and the need for specific training. Overall, the gender-responsive approaches are limited to pregnant women and mothers. A subset considered this approach counterproductive as compared to individualized treatment options. Results seem to indicate a general lack of understanding and awareness among professionals about the potentials of applying gender responsive approaches and about the social, economic and cultural factors that determine health inequalities and influence women's access to services. A reductionistic interpretation of the gender responsive approach seems to prevail, which limits women’s needs to those of pregnant women and mothers and does not take into account the role previous trauma and violence experiences might have on drug use in women.
In 2016, UNRWA worked on the development of a common monitoring framework which aims at systemizing data collection among field offices, and ensuring that data informs programming. UNRWA thus follows up on key indicators related to the number of survivours identified, services accessed, trainings to staff, changes in staff capacity to address GBV, as well as other prevention related indicators.