United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

Applying Social Media Tools for the Prevention of Gender-based Violence: Lessons learned from social media communication campaigns to prevent gender-based violence in India, China and Viet Nam’; was launched and disseminated by P4P in 2013. This resource consolidates learning from the P4P initiative ‘Engaging Young Men through Social Media for the Prevention of Violence against Women’. “Let’s Talk Men 2.0” film series7 launched in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka with accompanying tools for discussion facilitators. Hide

The UN Gender Theme Group for the Pacific, co-chaired by UN Women and UNFPA, revised its Terms of Reference to include responses to gender-based violence in emergencies, including the development of Surge Capacity for immediate response in humanitarian emergencies, as well as the development of government-NGO Communities of Practice on gender-based to facilitate capacity-building and prepraredness. Hide

The Violence Against Children Survey part of the Together for Girls Initiative (including UNICEF, UN Women, UNFPA, UNAIDS and WHO as partners) has collected prevalence of and circumstances surrounding violence, targeting females and males aged 13-24, and has already been completed in Kenya, Haiti and Zimbambwe. Results were released in Zimbabwe and Kenya, in May and Novemer 2012, respectively. The results will be released in Haiti, in early 2013. Hide

WHO, PEPFAR, UNFPA, UN Women and the University of British Columbia convened a panel on “GBV and HIV linkages: Taking stock of the evidence and setting an implementation research agenda” at the International AIDS Conference in Washington DC in July 2012. Hide

In October 2012, on the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN WOMEN –co-hosted a high-level event in New York to address the issue of child marriage and called for renewed global action to end the practice. Hide

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. Hide

UNICEF and UNMIL collaborated with Ministry of Gender and Development in Liberia to convene a retreat on Child rape in October 2012. Also in Liberia, UNFPA supported the Ministry of Gender and Development to collaborate with civil society groups to launch and build capacity of the GBV observatory to help raise awareness of the referral pathway and issues rlated to teenage pregnancy, early marriage and rape. Several advocacy initiatives were undertaken by THINK and CEP (UNFPA funded partners) to address the issue of SGBV, including strengthening of six networks and four community outreach sessions. Dialogue was initiated with traditional leaders and men’s and women’s groups to address harmful Traditional Practices, resulting in the Ministry of Internal Affair’s announcement that FGM is prohibited and prosecutable. UN Women continues to expand the Peace Huts, emphasizing the role of women as peace builders and recognizes their key role in engaging with local authorities for prevention, increasing women’s voice and supporting them in engaging with authorities to improve access to justice, and provide active accompaniment of women and girls who are survivors of violence. Hide

In Asia-Pacific, the work of the inter-agency initiative “Partners for Prevention” (P4P) was ongoing. Engagingmen.net (www.engagingmen.net) is a website where practitioners can share resources and learn about training opportunities. “Partners for Prevention” (P4P) organized several training sessions to support national social media campaigns in China, India, and Indonesia. Demand Media, a leading online media company and expert in developing social media platforms, provides pro bono support for the national campaigns. In December 2010, P4P organized a meeting with various stakeholders from Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Fiji, the Philippines and Vietnam, who work to engage boys and men for ending violence against women. The participants agreed to work together to develop regional curricula and a collective approach for knowledge creation and sharing across the region.In December 2010, the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) “Standing Committee of Male Parliamentarians for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Children” met in Port Macquarie, Australia, where male parliamentarians from 13 countries signed a pledge to take action in their own countries and to stand together as a collective group to advocate for more actions for violence prevention among their peers. “Partners for Prevention” is supporting the Standing Committee of Male Parliamentarians as a collaborative partner with AFPPD and UNFPA. “Partners for Prevention” and AFPPD are conducting research on the challenges that parliamentarians face in moving prevention policy forward, and on ways to support them in their role in preventing violence. Hide

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 Cambodia, the research findings on GBV and masculinities are informing a public awareness campaign. P4P is also developing the capacity of national partners in China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Papua New Guinea to conduct research in this area, in order to develop evidence-based programs and policy initiatives to address GBV across the region. Networks of practitioners have been established in South Asia and Southeast & East Asia to support the civil society and UN advocates to implement initiatives on GBV prevention through work with men and boys. Hide

In May 2010, seven UN agencies (UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, UNDP, UNHCR, OHCHR, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO) have launched a three-year UN Joint Program "Ending violence against women - a national priority for Kyrgyzstan". Four strategic compenents of the program include: 1) strengthening policy framework, including through the implementation of the recommendations of the UN human bodies and procedures; 2) improving official data collection system and analysis of collected data; 3) awareness-raising, sensititation and capacity-building with the view to change gender stereotypes; 4) protecting and helping survivors of gender-based violence. Hide