Capacity Building for UN

UNFPA’s partnership with UNICEF globally and in 12 country offices in co-chairing and implementing activities under the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme and Trust Fund on Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C) and activities under the Trust Fund are ongoing.

OIOS’ evaluation of the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) showed that progress had been made in mainstreaming gender into the Mission's agenda and tasks. For example, the Mission prepared gender equality guidelines and a gender strategy, which was instrumental in establishing Vulnerable Persons Protection Units in all Sudanese police stations and had demobilized more than 6,000 women combatants by September 2010.

The Nordic Trust Fund (NTF) is supporting the Democratic Republic of Congo country team of the World Bank to explore how women’s and children’s human rights addressing gender-based violence (GBV) along with other issues can be taken into account in the Bank’s country program.

UNFPA developed and pilot-tested the Gender Marker system over 2011 in the country offices of Azerbaijan, Burundi, Indonesia and Turkey. The Gender Marker system will allow the Fund to track its investments on gender and will be mandatorily used by all UNFPA country offices from 2013.UNFPA continued to lead the Gender-based Violence cluster coordination efforts to address gender-based violence/violence against women in Haiti, and now in the Philippines and Pakistan in the aftermath of natural disasters.

UNRWA has continued to regularly participate in the various UN taskforces, such as the UN Country Team Gender Taskforce, which aim to build national strategies to end violence against women in Lebanon, Syria and the Occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). In the latter, UNRWA has continued addressing gender-based violence through its participation in interventions and activities within the Millenium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F) Gender equality and Women’s Empowerment Project (Joint agency project).

The UNFPA sub-regional strategy on Gender-based Violence for Latin America and the Caribbean region was released in September 2011.

In June 2011, UNHCR published its “Action against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: An Updated Strategy”, which highlights six action areas: protecting children, persons with disabilities and LGBTI persons against sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), addressing survival sex, engaging men and boys and providing safe access to domestic energy and natural resources. It also includes recommended actions in three institutional focus areas, in order to strengthen UNHCR’s capacity and expertise in addressing SGBV.

OHCHR continued supporting the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its causes and consequences: in supporting three country visits to Jordan (11-24 November 2011), Somalia (9 – 16 December 2011) and Italy (15-26 January 2012); in strengthening partnerships with other human rights mechanisms, including the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW); and in convening an Expert Group Meeting on gender motivated killings of women.

In September 2010, UNFPA developed the draft of the sub-regional strategy on Gender-based Violence for Latin America and the Caribbean region via a workshop held in Guatemala.

In Panama, the OHCHR has participated in the Common Country Assessement (CCA)/UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) processes of Panama throughout 2010 and has an active role in the inter-agency group of gender and the SG UNITE Campaign. The OHCHR organized a human rights-based approach training in Costa Rica, highlighting, inter alia, issues related to women’s rights and violence against women.