Training and Capacity Building

Training on SGBV and CRSV is part of the standard training for civilians, military and police components of the missions.

During the reporting period, UNODC provided training and capacity building on crime prevention and criminal justice responses to gender-based violence against women for criminal justice professionals in Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, State of Palestine, Somalia and Viet Nam. 

For instance, in Kyrgyzstan, 200 police officers and 50 prosecutors received gender-responsive training to support victims of violence, and the Office assisted the Government in establishing a “one-window centre” in Bishkek where victims of gender-based violence against women can access essential multisectoral services.  

UNODC also strengthened justice sector responses to violence against women by enhancing judicial capacities through workshops. In the Dominican Republic, the Office conducted a technical needs assessment on access to justice for women in cases of gender-based violence and trained 103 criminal justice professionals through a capacity-building workshop for judges, prosecutors and police officers.  

In Egypt, UNODC organized nine training workshops for 178 judges on facilitating access to justice for women victims of violence and two workshops for 40 administrative prosecution judges focused on violence against women. 

The Facilitator Guide on Mainstreaming GBV Risk Mitigation was launched in 2020 and until September 2021 a total of 124 participants from sectors have been trained on the topic.

Another 24 colleagues from 15 country operations and HQ graduated from the 2020 Cohort of the GBV Training of Trainers and more than 210 participants were brought together for the 2020 GBV Global Workshop, which was adapted to online modalities.

Across UNHCR, 2,617 UNHCR learners completed at least one level of the GBV e-learning in the period between January 2020 until September 2021.

UNHCR released its Gender Equality Toolkit in 2020 and provided operational support towards the institutionalization of gender equality and women’s empowerment initiatives. To facilitate cross-operational learning and seize opportunities to advance gender equality, UNHCR and partners documented emerging and promising practices in sub-Saharan Africa and collaborated with the Population Council to document community-based protection practices in East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes Region.

IOM has continued to strengthen GBV programming across diverse operational contexts. IOM conducted 930 capacity-building intiatives for IOM staff, national authorities, and partners to ensure all stakeholders understand how to safely and ethically respond to a disclosure of GBV.  

Through coordination calls, capacity-building initiatives, and deployments, IOM has provided technical support to over 40 country missions in 2024. The support included developing and disseminating materials, offering guidance on GBV-specialized programming, supporting protection scale-ups, and resolving complex GBV challenges.  

As part of these efforts, IOM also launched an e-course “Introduction to gender-based violence (GBV) in crisis” in 2023 and an upcoming e-course on “Introduction to IOM Intersectional Gender Analysis” is planned in 2025. 

Furthermore, IOM reviewed 405 proposals, concept notes, reports, Regional Migrant Response Plans, and Crisis Response Plans from over 70 countries. These reviews ensure alignment with IOM’s institutional standards for addressing GBV, adherence to the Do No Harm principle, and the promotion of gender equality. 

In the East and Southern Africa Region, UNFPA and WHO co-developed and co-facilitated a joint training to support integrated SRHR and GBV services. The 6-week training had around 90 participants from 14 countries in East and Southern Africa.

As of August 2021, 128 participants from 35 countries are enrolled in the kNOwVAWdata course, to develop and strengthen their skills on safe and ethical VAW data collection, analysis and reporting.

The UN Trust Fund’s signature wraparound support model responds to the complex and evolving needs of civil society organizations working in challenging and often under-resourced contexts. Alongside funding, the UN Trust Fund offers organizational development support; capacity strengthening; tailored accompaniment; visibility and advocacy; and evidence-based knowledge production.

Between 2021 and 2024, the UN Trust Fund has delivered 81 webinar sessions in support of grant management and compliance of EVAW/G projects, including thematic sessions on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) and Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) among others, recording a total of 5,449 attendees. In 2024, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Trust Fund resumed the yearly in-person training tradition, allowing grantee organizations to share experiences, network and foster a sense of community among EVAW/G practitioners. 

Addressing violence against women and girls requires a whole-of-society approach, ensuring that all key actors–civil society organizations (CSOs), government institutions, law enforcement, judicial systems, and media–have the knowledge and skills to prevent and respond effectively. Capacity-building is essential to fostering sustainable, systemic change. Without proper training, institutions risk reinforcing harmful norms, mismanaging cases, or failing to allocate adequate resources to address gender-based violence.  

Spotlight Initiative made strategic investments in training and capacity development to strengthen the ability of CSOs, policymakers, and law enforcement agencies to advance gender equality and effectively address violence against women and girls. These efforts included training parliamentarians on gender-responsive budgeting, equipping police forces with survivor-centred investigative techniques, and strengthening civil society organizations to engage with government entities and drive change at the grassroots level.  

CSOs play a critical role in driving accountability, advocating for policy reforms, and providing essential services to survivors. Over the course of the Initiative, more than 5,500 women’s rights organizations, social movements, and civil society actors received support to enhance their capacity to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. This included training on advocacy strategies, financial management, programmatic implementation, and engagement with government institutions to secure policy commitments and funding.  In the Pacific Regional Programme, Spotlight Initiative partnered with 39 national, local, and grassroots women’s organizations across ten countries to establish new and unique partnerships with government entities through the Pacific People’s Advancing Change (PPAC) grant-giving programme. In Niue, the Makefu Women’s Council collaborated with public safety and health sector officials to ensure their 24-hour helpline was operational for LGBTIQ+ communities, expanding access to vital services.  

Ensuring that commitments to gender equality are backed by sustainable funding requires policymakers who understand how to integrate gender considerations into national budgets. Since 2019, Spotlight Initiative has trained 1,992 parliamentarians and 9,297 government officials in gender-responsive budgeting, enabling them to advocate for and secure increased budget allocations to address gender-based violence. In Liberia, capacity-building efforts led to the establishment of gender-responsive budgeting units within multiple ministries, increasing national budget allocations for sexual and gender-based violence from zero in 2020 to USD 500,000 in 2022. In Papua New Guinea, technical assistance and training efforts helped secure the country’s first-ever national budget line for violence against women and children, which was subsequently increased in the following year. These investments demonstrate the power of training to drive policy change and ensure sustained funding for violence prevention and response efforts.  

Law enforcement officers are often the first point of contact for survivors, making their training critical to ensuring that responses are survivor-centred, effective, and aligned with human rights principles. However, without proper training, police forces may perpetuate stigma, discourage survivors from reporting, or fail to handle cases effectively. Spotlight Initiative supported police training efforts in multiple countries to strengthen institutional responses to gender-based violence. In Trinidad and Tobago, over 400 police officers received training in gender analysis, equipping them with the skills to provide survivor-centred services and referrals. The Initiative’s “training of trainers” model ensured that knowledge was institutionalized, leading to broader cultural shifts in policing. Similarly, in El Salvador, training for judicial actors and law enforcement personnel contributed to the adoption of a national protocol for investigating and prosecuting femicide cases, strengthening accountability within the justice system.  

Training and capacity-building efforts must be sustained across all sectors to ensure a comprehensive and effective response to violence against women and girls. By strengthening the knowledge and skills of civil society organizations, parliamentarians, law enforcement, and judicial actors, Spotlight Initiative contributed to long-term institutional change. These efforts ensure that national policies were properly funded, that survivors receive justice, and that systemic approaches were embedded at all levels to prevent and respond to gender-based violence.

UNDP has organized a series of trainings on gender and GBV for local government officials including police and judiciary, CSOs, and survivors.

In Azerbaijan, UNDP trained local women-activists to provide rapid psychosocial support, safety plans, case management and referrals to assist GBV survivors of all genders.

With the support of the Johns Hopkins University, the Common Elements Treatment Approach (CETA), a trans-diagnostic mental health intervention developed for delivery by non-professionals, is being implemented in Moldova. CETA is also an evidence-based programme demonstrated to significantly prevent intimate partner violence.

UNDP Iraq , Fiji, Maldives, Serbia, Ukraine, Brazil, Peru and others also provided training on GBV prevention for judges, prosecutors and police officers to end gender-based violence.

The office in Somalia supported a SGBV programme in Mogadishu and Puntland starting in 2020.  A fully functional SGBV Unit was established and staffed in Mogadishu. UNDP also worked with Office of the Attorney General in Puntland, with the aim of providing technical support and building the capacity of the institution to promote access to justice for survivors/victims of sexual and gender-based violence

A three days’ workshop,  providing Libya law enforcement with information related to offenses that constitute gender-based violence (GBV), was organized by UNDP Libya.

UN Women’s efforts have significantly advanced the response to VAWG at the global, regional, country and community levels. Under the Joint Programme on Essential Services for Women and Girls Subject to Violence, UN Women, in partnership with UNFPA, UNODC, WHO and UNDP, developed, promoted and implemented the Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence,85 the first-ever guidance based on agreed-on global standards for a package of minimum comprehensive services for VAWG survivors in health, policing/justice, social services and the coordination of these services. In addition to providing guidance on coordination and essential actions to be taken by different sectors, the ESP also outlines the enabling environment needed to support the implementation of essential services and provides guidance on estimating resource requirements for a minimum package of services. This is complemented by guidance developed by UN Women and partners on engaging survivors of VAWG safely and strengthening police responses to VAWG crimes during 2021–2022. 

In 2022 and 2023, UN Women supported 30 countries to improve the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of essential services for VAWG survivors, by working to scale up survivor services aligned with international standards, through promoting the ESP and related guidance; strengthen the coordination of services; strengthen justice and policing services; expand social services, in addition to strengthening the enabling legislative and policy environment; and conduct data and research-related activities to support VAWG responses, in both development and humanitarian country contexts. As a result, 44 countries saw an increase in the number of women who access services after experiencing violence or discrimination between 2022-2023. UN Women’s commitment to integrating the ‘leave no-one behind’ principle into its interventions has ensured that programming considers the needs of all women and girls, including those most marginalized.

Specific examples of UN Women’s work include:

• Uganda: Trained 1,500+ community leaders in gender-responsive EVAWG interventions.
• Bangladesh: Developed a Strategic Plan for Gender-Responsive Policing.
• Kyrgyzstan: Integrated gender-transformative curricula into four universities, educating 100+ students.
• Strengthened capacity of 770 institutions to provide survivor-centered services​
• Training packages were developed for prosecutors, GBV counsellors, and psychosocial workers. These materials supported national rollouts across Asia-Pacific to improve justice, health, and social service responses.

In 2020, WFP also focused on capacity building, prioritising dedicated resources for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) and adapting its current practices to the COVID19 context. A few examples of the work WFP did to translate exiting guidance into practice and the outcome of these initiatives are outlined below.

WFP provided feedback and supported the development of material for the GBV IASC online course that was launched in 2021. This material includes videos from WFP country offices in India, Colombia, and Uganda on how they mainstream GBV mitigation into food security and nutrition assistance/services.

WFP facilitated a webinar for the WFP Cash-based Transfer (CBT) learning series on mainstreaming GBV mitigation into cash-based assistance. This was an opportunity for the Women Refugee Council (WRC) and CARE subject experts to introduce WFP to existing guidance that complements the IASC Guidelines and present country-level good practices.

WFP used the opportunity to develop new commitments for the Call to Action on Protection from GBV 2021-2025 Roadmap to engage country offices, regional bureau (RB) and the foods security cluster to raise awareness about the IASC Guidelines, review existing practices and initiatives and jointly define priorities and indicators to measure the impact of the new commitments. The commitments were approved in April 2021 and will be officially launched in June 2021 in a webinar addressed to dedicated protection and gender personnel and in a broader event in December 2021.

WFP conducted regional online training sessions for PSEA Focal Points in all six-regional bureau (RB), co-hosted by NGO Unit, the Office on Inspections and Investigations (OIGI) and the respective RB, with participation from approximately 60 Country Offices.

As part of its interagency engagements, WFP committed to designating Inter-agency PSEA Coordinators in Afghanistan, Colombia, Mozambique, Sudan and Nigeria WFP supported their recruitment and induction.

Integrating PSEA into core WFP Training Initiatives-The Ethics Office worked closely with the Field Security Division to integrate a PSEA module within the WFP Safe and Secure Approaches in Field Environments (SSAFE) Training Course to support WFP employees that are part of processes.

Supported the dissemination of the Harmonised UN IP PSEA Assessment -The Ethics Office and NGO Unit co-hosted a session to introduce the tool to field colleagues which was attended by over 150 participants across WFP. In addition, WFP initiated a field pilot of the Assessment Tool with selected Country Offices.

The IASC “Say No to Sexual Misconduct” learning package was developed and launched to equip partner organizations with the awareness and skills to define, detect and respond to SEA. WFP had a lead role in adapting the package, working together with UNHCR, other UN agencies and IASC members, from an earlier initiative by IOM.

Some highlights from the country level: in Nepal, WFP supported the development of a facilitator guide that incorporates gender and inclusion including gender-based violence with updated facts supported by data and reporting mechanism in place to address sexual exploitation and abuse. The session is developed particularly for the participants of emergency logistics trainings. In Myanmar, guidance was prepared based on GBV risks in cash-based interventions in Rakhine State. In Nicaragua, WFP implemented an initiative call "the construction of new masculinities for the transformation of gender relations in WFP and the smallholder farmers”. WFP’s male staff and smallholder farmers’ organizations sensitized and trained on issues of violence prevention and new masculinities.