National Policies

Under the “UNAIDS Action for Results: Outcomes Framework “ (2009-2011), UNFPA, UNDP, UN WOMEN, WHO, UNICEF, UNHCR and the MenEngage Alliance (Sonke Gender Justice and the Athena Network), also in close collaboration with the Interagency Working Group on Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV – supported countries to address the linkages between GBV and HIV/AIDS in National Strategic Plans; building effective partnerships to achieve this; and strengthening capacity to engage men and boys for promoting and addressing gender equality.

A round table on “Public Policies on Gender based Violence” organized by the Dominican Republic Escuela Nacional de Formación Electoral y del Estado Civil, EFEC, in coordination with UN Women and UNDP.

In November 2011, UNAIDS contributed to a consultation with representatives from 15 countries on how to better address gender-based violence and engagement of men and boys in national HIV responses. Country representatives are developing national action plans to integrate strategic action to eliminate violence against women into their national HIV response.

In Algeria, UN Women contributed to the institutional operational Plan of the National Strategy for the elimination of Violence against Women, in partnership with UNFPA and UNDP.

In November 2011, UNODC in cooperation with UN Women, UNFPA and UNDP and relevant national authorities, organized a joint conference on the role and responsibilities of the State to respond to domestic violence against women in Viet Nam. About 90 officials attended the conference, both from national and local level representing five different Ministries as well as civil society.

In Nepal, UN Women advocated with concerned ministries for allocating budget for responding to gender-based violence (GBV). As a result, specific programmes and budgets were allocated by the government for ending GBV in fiscal year 2011-2012. In addition, GBV has been enlisted as one of the sub-indicators for ascertaining gender responsive budgeting (GRB).

In Cameroon, OHCHR contributed to the elaboration of the Cameroon National Gender policy, which frames the national effort to combat gender-based violence.

In Honduras, the World Bank approved a Development Policy Credit in 2011 with a component on Citizen Security, including prevention of gender-based domestic and sexual violence. Proposed policies will strengthen the capacity of municipal Offices of Women’s Affairs to respond to victims and offer conflict mediation services.

The first Violence Against Women Strategy in the Arab Region was developed in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) with technical support of UN Women to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. The VAW Strategy was endorsed by the Palestinian Cabinet at the beginning of 2011. Technical Committees (five in the West Bank and four in the Gaza Strip), composed of government organizations and non-government organizations working on VAW and human rights, private sector and UNRWA, were formed for the elaboration of the action plan.

In October 2011, UNFPA held the global meeting in Viet Nam on “Skewed sex ratios and why we care the way forward” in collaboration with the Viet Nam UNCT and the Government of Viet Nam with the objectives of: 1) taking stock of emerging trends/state of the art relating to new geographical pockets of skewed sex ratios and subsequently determining strategies for south-south cooperation, especially since some countries, like in the Caucasus, are demonstrating an emerging trend in terms of an imbalanced sex ratio at birth and since other countries like Viet Nam and India have demonstrated some goo