United Nations Children’s Fund

UNICEF has led the development of a Prevention Framework to inform field level programming on how to increase the safety and security of women and children. UNICEF is also working to strengthen programme monitoring and evaluation of interventions to prevent and respond to violence against children. This includes global evaluations of UNICEF’s work in emergency and development contexts to address violence, as well as providing technical and financial support to an interagency action research project on the functioning and effectiveness of community-based child protection mechanisms. As part of a greater focus on programme monitoring across the Organisation, concerted efforts are being made to improve programme monitoring on violence against children globally, and focused support is being provided to countries in East and Southern Africa to improve monitoring and evaluation systems related to violence prevention and response in collaboration with governments. Hide

In May 2011, UNICEF and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) jointly published “Advancing the Field: Caring for Child Survivors of Sexual Abuse in Emergency Settings, A Review of Promising Practices to Improve Case Management, Psychosocial & Mental Health Interventions, and Clinical Care for Child Survivors of Sexual Abuse.” Hide

UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) supported passage of laws criminalizing FGM/C in Kenya and Guinea-Bissau. Hide

UNICEF supported government and civil society efforts to prevent and respond to sexual abuse and exploitation of girls and boys in more than 70 countries (including development and emergency contexts). UNICEF also held its third annual learning course “Advances in Social Norms” at the University of Pennsylvania in July, with 51 participants coming from all regions, the majority from West Africa and South Asia, as well as Headquarters; disseminated the ‘Compendium to the Training Manual to Fight Trafficking in Children’ to all of its regional and country offices; and organized a regional Training of Trainers for UNICEF staff and government counterparts form the MENA region in Cairo, Egypt. Hide

UNICEF Country Offices continued to implement programmes to promote awareness and abandonment of harmful traditional practices in 15 countries covered by the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on awareness and abandonment of child marriage. Hide

UNICEF supported the Second Latin American and Caribbean Conference on the Right to Identity and Universal Birth/Civil Registration of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organization of American States (OAS), and a similar high-level conference in Africa, under the umbrella of the African Union (AU), to continue its advocacy against child marriage and child trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Hide

UNICEF has been leading a mapping exercise on the activities of different actors at the field level to increase the safety and security of women and children, girls especially, and to prevent gender-based violence related to conflict and disasters. This information will be used to inform an overall gender-based violence prevention framework. Through the initiative “Together for Girls” – a public/private sector partnership to address sexual violence against girls–UNICEF has supported the undertaking of two surveys on violence against children in Tanzania and Kenya, with a particular focus on sexual violence against girls. In January 2011, UNICEF officially joined, IRC, UNFPA and UNHCR in the Steering Committee of the Gender-Based Violence Information Management System (GBV IMS). UNICEF finalized an inter-agency training package “The Caring for Survivors of Sexual Violence in Emergencies”, that has been endorsed by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Sub-Working Group on Gender in Humanitarian Action with support from the Gender-based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBV AoR). The training package provides information and skill development, for various stakeholders, in relation to treatment of sexual violence survivors in conflict-affected countries or complex emergencies, including medical treatment. Hide

In 2010, UNICEF in collaboration with Religious for Peace, published the guide “From Commitment to Action: What Religious Communities Can Do to Eliminate Violence against Children”, aimed at helping religious communities harness their spiritual, moral and social strengths to prevent, respond to and eliminate violence against children. This was followed up by a discussion, convened by Religious for Peace and UNICEF, in November on the role that religious communities can play in eliminating all forms of violence against children across the work. Hide

UNICEF has provided support to policy development addressing violence against girls including through the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme to Accelerate the Abandonment of FGM/C. Hide

The newly constructed centre to treat and reintegrate survivors of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a joint project of V-Day, a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls, UNICEF and Panzi Hospital. Hide