United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees

Two Global Strategic Priorities of UNHCR for the coming two years will focus on SGBV by addressing provision of support to SGBV survivors as well as prevention and protection of SGBV survivors through community involvement. In order to strengthen its accountability, UNHCR also began focusing on joint monitoring and evaluation for the implementation of its three strategies on Education, Child Protection, and SGBV, as these three areas are complementary and often overlapping, and organized a seminar for protection and programme officers to this end. Hide

Between August and December 2013, UNHCR carried out a comprehensive review of the 2012 Participatory Assessments (PAs) in 42 different countries. This review looked at the process used in different locations to carry out PAs, the content of the assessments, and their outcomes in terms of strategic planning. With PAs being one of the elements of UNHCR’s participatory approach and AGD being a strategy to promote gender equality and respect for human rights which informs all stages of strategic planning, the review makes recommendations for addressing the identified weaknesses, mainly through a revision of the UNHCR Tool for Participatory Assessments in Operations. Hide

UNHCR carried several awareness-raising activities which culminated in the 16 Days of Activism Campaign, which focused on the theme Safety in School: Teachers and Students Unite to Make Schools SGBV-Free. Hide

UNHCR, as part of the Global Team responsible for the Gender-Based Violence Information Management System (GBVIMS) provided technical support in data collection and analysis to 10 countries including missions to Jordan and Lebanon. Hide

Four UNHCR Senior Regional Protection Officers who are dedicated to SGBV prevention and response took up their posts in Dakar, Nairobi, Beirut and Panama with the responsibility to provide technical support to the development and implementation of country-level multi-sectorial strategies on SGBV prevention and response. As a result, an additional seventeen countries have begun developing and implementing SGBV strategies. Hide

UNFPA and UNHCR are in the process of supporting the Ministry of Gender in Liberia to develop a GBV Information Management System. The GBV IMS will be modelled on the global GBV IMS which is already being piloted in several countries. The work will be supported by the Global IMS surge team and locally by the Liberia Institute for Geo- Statics and Information (LISGIS). The system aims to harmonise all existing data sources on GBV and strengthen systems for storage and dissemination. Hide

UNHCR field operations continued to collect and analyze data on sexual and gender-based violence incidents in collaboration with partners, according to UNHCR and interagency guidelines and principles. However, SGBV remains widely under-reported and thus it is estimated that the number of known cases represents only a fraction of actual cases. UNHCR is working to strengthen and harmonize data collection on SGBV by rolling out the Gender-Based Violence Information Management System (GBVIMS) in selected operations in 2012, including in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Chad. Hide

UNHCR held four regional workshops on sexual and gender-based violence, aimed at strengthening the capacity of UNHCR and partner staff in the field of prevention and response, as well as monitoring and evaluation. The workshops also included the 2011 “Action against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: An Updated Strategy” and will assist individual country operations to develop country-level strategies. UNHCR has also recently recruited four senior protection officers, being also responsible for developing multi-sectoral strategies on sexual gender-based violence at country level. 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

UNHCR advocated for legal reforms related to gender equality and sexual and gender-based violence in 2012. For example, in Georgia a new law on domestic violence requires police to respond immediately to cases of domestic violence, and even if there is no apparent injury but violence has occurred, the police is required to issue a restrictive order. Hide