Prevention and Advocacy

In Asia Pacific, the Partners for Prevention (P4P) - an inter-agency initiative of UNDP, UNFPA, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, and UNVs- which works with men and boys to prevent gender-based violence– has developed a comprehensive set of research tools on gender-based violence, including questionnaires, research protocols, and training manuals for the “Gender-based Violence Prevention and Masculinities” Collaborative Research Project for Asia and the Pacific. These tools have been shared with partners in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

In Sri Lanka, UNDP is preparing to use street dramas to present issues related to VAW. In Sierra Leone, UNDP supported 8 civil society organizations to be engaged in awareness-raising on gender laws, sexual gender-based violence, and harmful traditional practices. In addition, 24 radio programmes were organized by UNDP implementing partners for sensitization messages.

OHCHR supported the on violence against women, its causes and consequences in advocating for the elimination of violence against women, such as in the conference on femicide in Latin America, organized with the European Parliament, and in a colloquium on domestic migrant workers in the EU, organized by OHCHR Regional office in Brussels.

DPI promoted the 45th session of the Commission on the Status of Women/15-year review of the Beijing Platform and International Women’s Day 2010, including the issue of violence against women. The Department conducted media outreach and produced information materials, including a poster and information kits for media, delegates and civil society. The Department facilitated a four-week online discussion on “Women and the Media”, one week of which focused on violence against women journalists.

The Department of Public Information continued to provide communications support to the Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, including through managing the campaign website (endviolence.un.org) and related online platforms. Several social media platforms managed by the Department, including the UN Twitter account – which had approached 100,000 followers – regularly featured content on violence against women. News and developments in the global campaign to end violence against women were also covered by the UN News Centres in all the official languages.

ECLAC continued to participate in the regional inter-agency working group, responsible for the regional implementation of the Secretary General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign. ECLAC contributed to the preparations of the Caribbean launching of the campaig

Issues # 7 and 8 of Words to Action, DAW’s (now part of UN Women) quarterly newsletter on violence against women, were issued, with feature articles on the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women, and the 15 year review of the implementation of the Platform for Action.

UNICRI continued to carry out activities related to women’s empowerment in Nigerian Edo State as a preventive measure against trafficking of women. As part of these activities, a second lot of beneficiaries was selected to receive training, micro-credit and all necessary equipment to start small business activities.

In collaboration with “Jagori“, UN-Habitat initiated a Youth and Safety Project in slums in New Delhi. The project is implemented in the relocated community of Madanpur Khadar and focuses on gender-based safety by involving young men and young women, in order to enhance security in the slum for the most vulnerable.A National Youth Crime and Violence Prevention Conference was held by UN Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya, with providing safe spaces for young women and girls, as one of the thematic areas.

WFP used International Women’s Day 2009 as an opportunity to raise awareness and plan activities to prevent gender-based violence including through a film screening, panel discussions and workshop in Burkina Faso; and a declaration signed by WFP and partners, as part of the launch of the National Action Plan for Women in Afghanistan, which included a commitment to “Fast track the enactment of the proposed law to combat violence against women”.In Chad, WFP has become part of a coordinated response addressing issues related to the collection of firewood by the beneficiaries in the camp.