United Nations Development Programme

The new UNDP Strategic Plan (2014-17) includes for the first time specific reference to sexual and gender based violence. The second corporate gender equality strategy (2014-17) also prioritizes actions to prevent and respond to SGBV. Hide

UNDP, in collaboration with N-Peace, organized training on Building Advocacy Skills for Effective Implementation of National Action Plan (NAP) on UN SCR 1325 and 1820. In Egypt, UNDP supported the Cairo Regional Center for Training on Conflict Resolution and Peacekeeping Center (CCCPA) in mainstreaming gender across its various training modules. It also provided training for police officers in Ivory Coast; supported investigation on alleged mass rapes and sensitized population in DRC. Hide

UNDP supported Governments to ratify (republic of Serbia) or implement, through national legal reforms (Albania) the Istanbul Convention (The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence).UNDP supported the development or revision of laws and constitutions, including the new Constitution in Tunisia with ground-breaking provisions to ensure women’s equality, while explicitly committing to eliminate violence against women; the Constitution of Zimbambwe which removed clauses allowing the application of gender discriminatory customary laws; changes in Criminal Legislation of Albania, increasing sanctions against perpetrators of gender-based and domestic violence; a new law in Kyrgyzstan on social and legal defense and protection from family violence, in partnership with UN Women; the Law against the Trafficking in Human Beings and its Administrative Instructions in Kosovo; revision of laws on women’s access to land rights (especially upon divorce and widowhood) as well as the law on family and marriage, in cooperation with UN Women and UNAIDS (Vietnam); Law 82 on Femicide in Panama and establishment of the Specialized Prosecutors Office on VAW and the National Committee against VAW (CONVIMU); the Domestic Violence Bill to ensure the criminalization of domestic violence in Mauritius; and the draft Family Protection Bill of the Solomon Islands. UNDP also supported the Governments of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and Palau in costing the implementation of laws addressing domestic violence. In Zambia, it also supported the establishment of a multi-sectoral mechanism for the implementation of the Anti GBV Act. Hide

UNDP also organized numerous activities to raise awareness on the issue such as national campaigns on VAW in Albania, on trafficking in Argentina and Kosovo; the “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World” campaign in Uzbekistan, as a part of the UNCT; sensitization of population in Cambodia and Madagascar, of pupils in Sierra Leone, university students in Timor-Leste, religious leaders in Afghanistan, and journalists in Algeria; production of awareness-raising material(videos, leaflets etc) in Argentina, Europe and CIS, Uzbekistan, Peru, as well as advocacy material on CSW 57 in Ghana; information sharing about procedures and available services for survivors of VAW in India. Hide

UNDP also supported capacity building efforts through mainstreaming of gender and juvenile justice issues within the work of the Ministry of Justice and the establishment and training of the Juvenile Justice Unit in OPT; the establishment of specialised units in Libya and Iraq; an assessment of the capacity of the National Police as well as of the specialized EVAW units of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Afghanistan. In addition, it supports the development of several tools such as guidelines for Family Protection Units of the Police and curricula for lawyers, judges and prosecutors on how to deal with cases of VAW (OPT), protocols for police (Panama), including on femicide, trafficking and sexual violence (Guatemala), and training material for judges, lawyers and paralegals in India. It further supports the Gender Unit of the civilian police force in OPT including, through the development of an accredited diploma program, as well as the establishment of a Coordination Committee for the Gender Units in the different security services. Training was further provided by UNDP for female prosecutors in Central America and the Caribbean; for youth as paralegals in Tajikistan; for various governmental authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chile, Iraq and Panama; for judges, prosecutors and police officers in Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Somalia, and Timor Leste. Hide

UNDP supported a baseline survey on determining population knowledge, attitude and perception about the prevention and prosecution of SGBV in Liberia in the HUB region where legal and protection services will be provided from 2013. Hide

UNDP has also worked in Thailand to improve the the management of VAWG data system across responsible agencies and produced a report “Dataset according to Violence Against Women/Girls (VAWG) Indicators and data cooperation mechanism in two pilot provinces” on its use; produced cutting-edge findings on men’s experiences, attitudes and use of violence including comprehensive cross-country comparable data on men’s violence perpetration for the first time in the Asia Pacific region under the P4P programme; and is developing a joint report to obtain reliable and relevant data on the prevalence and forms of gender based violence in selected countries in the Caribbean to feed into a baseline study which will help formulate evidence-based conclusions and recommendations for policy and programmatic responses on legal aid for women, supported through the UNDP Region Service Center in Latin America and the Caribbean. Hide

UNDP has supported a number of data collection initiatives to support planning, including: research on bottlenecks in the justice chain in the Democratic Republic of Congo; a mapping of specialized services in Serbia; monitoring of cases presented to the Legal Help Centres in Afghanistan; action-oriented research on gaps and issues in accessing justice in Pakistan; a readiness assessment for institutions devlivering services for HIV and GBV in Papua New Guinea; and a study in Panama on the “...Inter institutional obstacles, conducts and attitudes that hinder the effective implementation of domestic and sexual violence laws and most vulnerable population.” UNDP has supported the development of a methodology for the economic costs of gender-based violence in the family context in Kyrgyzstan as well as conducted research on the vulnerability of women affected by HIV and GBV; and provided technical support to Ministry of Women’s Affairs to conduct the Feasibility Study on One Stop Service Centers (OSSC) with UNICEF and UNFPA. 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

UNDP, UN WOMEN and UNICEF have collaborated on a number of initiatives, including: development of “Integrated Responses to Gender-Based Violence in Serbia" to be implemented in 2013-2014 with funding from UN Trust Fund to end Violence against Women; the joint programme “Every Safe Home: Supporting Thailand towards Effective Implementation of Protection of Domestic Violence Victims” aimed at strengthening coordination, capacity-building and public awareness to end violence against women in public and private spaces; and integration of GBV in the security sector reform process of Guinea. Hide