Mar 2013 - Feb 2014

Four UNHCR Senior Regional Protection Officers who are dedicated to SGBV prevention and response took up their posts in Dakar, Nairobi, Beirut and Panama with the responsibility to provide technical support to the development and implementation of country-level multi-sectorial strategies on SGBV prevention and response. As a result, an additional seventeen countries have begun developing and implementing SGBV strategies.

UNHCR conducted missions to emergency operations in order to strengthen SGBV response in several countries including Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo-as part of an interagency mission with UNICEF, UNFPA and UN Action- and Jordan in order to improve collection and analysis of SGBV data. UNHCR also conducted an assessment on SGBV in the Syria crisis-affected countries in 2013 such as Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq with a view to producing an action plan to respond to the needs identified.

In June 2013, UNHCR issued the policy paper “Understanding Community-Based Protection” on key lessons from the delivery of community-based protection. It continued to roll-out its global strategy “Action against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: An Updated Strategy” and assisted individual country operations to develop country-level strategies in 2013. In this regard, three regional workshops were held in Tunis, Amman and Dakar on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in 2013, aimed at strengthening the capacity of UNHCR and partner staff in the field.

In 2013, UNHCR has also developed a Facilitator’s Guide to enable UNHCR and partner staff to conduct trainings on SGBV for various audiences in all types of contexts.

As part of the efforts to roll-out UNHCR’s updated strategy on SGBV, a total of 103 UNHCR staff, partners and government actors participated in regional workshops on SGBV prevention and response held in Tunis, Amman and Dakar in 2013, which focused on the development and implementation of country specific SGBV strategies, including monitoring and reporting on SGBV.

During the reporting period, UNRWA provided training to 1,677 staff members, including basic, in-depth and specialized trainings. In Gaza, the Community Mental Health Programme held training on GBV principles and the GBV referral system itself for 150 Health and Relief and Social Services staff, among them nurses, psycho-social counsellors, and social workers. In Jordan, following the expansion of the GBV referral system to new geographical areas, UNRWA staff members in both the Health and Education programmes working in these areas were trained in detection and referral of survivors.

ESCWA continued to provide training and advisory services for Member States, enabling them to prepare national plans and programmes to fight all forms of GBV and to remove structural foundations of gender-based discrimination.

A new e-learning course on Measurement of violence against women in Latin America and the Caribbean is under review by ECLAC. The course is designed for policy makers with the objective to provide further understanding of what violence against women is, its manifestations and impact.

UNAIDS Gender Assessment Tool for National HIV Responses, including gender-based violence was developed and implemented in 20 countries in 2013. ECLAC has continued its work on awareness-raising by providing training as requested by Member States:

ILO conducted several training sessions on: ILO Recommendation No.