Training and Capacity Building

In January and February 2025, UNODC conducted training workshops on the use of non-custodial measures in Bangladesh, in partnership with the Judicial Administration Training Institute, delivering training to criminal justice professionals on gender-responsive alternatives to imprisonment in line with the Tokyo Rules and the Bangkok Rules. 

Sustained, systemic change to end violence against women and girls requires governments, civil society, implementing partners, and UN Country Teams to have the knowledge, skills, and resources to prevent violence and respond effectively. Spotlight Initiative makes strategic investments in training and capacity development to strengthen institutional performance and deepen accountability across these sectors. As a cross-cutting enabler, capacity development underpins results across all of the Initiative's intervention areas; the examples below illustrate selected investments in 2025.

In 2025, across Spotlight Initiative programmes, more than 10,000 service providers spanning frontline health and psychosocial workers, justice personnel, law enforcement, and community actors were trained to deliver quality, survivor-centred services. Spotlight Initiative strengthened the capacity of more than 50 women's rights organizations and relevant civil society organizations to end violence against women and girls[1]. In Ecuador, this included capacity strengthening for Indigenous organizations through intercultural mediation and translation, reducing barriers to participation. In Zambia, women's rights organizations reported increased capacity to promote gender-responsive governance and support community members in reporting GBV cases. At the global level, Spotlight Initiative delivered inception training to UN colleagues in three Spotlight Initiative programme countries, strengthening the quality of comprehensive EVAWG programme delivery from the outset.

These investments strengthened the capacity of frontline institutions, civil society organizations, and UN Teams to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls in ways that are survivor-centred, coordinated, and increasingly embedded within national systems.

[1] As of 15 May 2026, the aggregated number of civil society organizations with strengthened capacity has been corrected from 46 to 53. This figure supersedes all previously reported results, and should be considered the official result.

UNFPA has continued to strengthen national and regional capacities to generate, analyze, and use data on violence against women: 

• For the kNOwVAWdata initiative, this includes a comprehensive learning programme that prioritizes safety and ethics in data collection and  use and   tailored technical support. Particular emphasis is placed on building sustainable in-country expertise, supporting national statistical offices, line ministries, and research institutions to institutionalize high-quality VAW data systems.
• Training and capacity-building activities under the Women at the Centre programme were implemented across all project countries to strengthen gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response systems. These trainings were delivered to caseworkers, social workers, educators, health personnel, outreach workers, and community leaders. Key areas included GBV case management, survivor-centered approaches, referral systems, and Psychological First Aid. In El Salvador and Indonesia, structured certification and accreditation pathways were advanced, including university-based training systems and national institutional partnerships. Specialized training addressed health sector responses, including clinical care for survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence, as well as adolescent-specific GBV risks and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEAH). In Madagascar, capacity building also covered disability inclusion and ethical GBV data management, while Zimbabwe emphasized community outreach and curriculum integration into social work education.
• UNFPA has also organized a dedicated internal technical session on the WHO global estimates on violence against women, aimed at strengthening understanding of estimation methods, data limitations, and their implications for national policy and programming.
• The UNFPA regional office in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) developed a virtual course on strategies to prevent Child Marriage and Early Unions (CMEU)
• In  2024, UNFPA led the successful launch of the GBV Case Management (GBV CM) e-learning program, in collaboration with UNHCR, available in four different languages (English, French, Spanish and Arabic). The program has seen widespread interest and participation, reflecting its value and relevance in  strengthening GBV response capacities. This  milestone highlights UNFPA’s collective commitment to enhancing skills and knowledge to better support  survivors of GBV in humanitarian settings.
• UNFPA ASRO completed a regional mapping of SBC approaches and joint tool review and co-joined a six-day Regional SBC ToT, with UNICEF MENARO, for 8 COs (Iraq, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, Somalia, Jordan, Djibouti, Lebanon) producing actionable work plans and establishing a Regional SBC Community of Practice.
• UNFPA ASRO developed a “UNFPA's Foundational Women-Led Organization Capacity Strengthening Curriculum” a practical training resource designed to bolster the organizational and administrative capacities of women-led and women's rights organizations (WLOs/WROs) in humanitarian and development contexts. Developed through consultations with WLOs across the Arab States, the curriculum addresses capacity gaps identified directly by these organizations.   

In 2025, UN Women expanded training and capacity-building to strengthen institutional responses to EVAWG, building on the Essential Services Package and focusing on coordinated, survivor-centred service delivery across health, justice, policing and social sectors.

Across 40 countries, UN Women supported large-scale capacity development, with over 650 organizations strengthening their ability to deliver quality services, goods and resources for women and girls. Targeted initiatives focused on frontline actors, including police, prosecutors, justice officials, service providers and civil society organizations, enhancing capacities in areas such as gender-responsive policing, case management, and psychosocial support.

Concrete results included:

• Distribution of 8,900 gender-sensitive investigation guidelines in Viet Nam, alongside training of police officers
• Training of 60 police personnel in Pakistan on survivor-centred approaches
• Awareness-raising for 80+ members of the UN Strategic Police Advisory Group
• The European Union and UN-Women ACT to End Violence Against Women programme reinforced the leadership, advocacy and capacities of 757 women’s rights organizations, funding 60 of them.

Institutional learning and coordination were further strengthened through innovative approaches, including peer exchange, regional knowledge-sharing and tailored training programmes. The High-Level Network on Gender-Responsive Policing expanded to 22 Member States, reinforcing senior-level commitment to survivor-centred and gender-responsive approaches.

These efforts contributed to improved institutional readiness, enhanced coordination across sectors, and strengthened the quality, consistency and accessibility of services for survivors, including in crisis and complex settings, while supporting the scaling of best practices across regions.

UN Women’s efforts have significantly advanced the response to VAWG at the global, regional, country and community levels. Under the Joint Programme on Essential Services for Women and Girls Subject to Violence, UN Women, in partnership with UNFPA, UNODC, WHO and UNDP, developed, promoted and implemented the Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence,85 the first-ever guidance based on agreed-on global standards for a package of minimum comprehensive services for VAWG survivors in health, policing/justice, social services and the coordination of these services. In addition to providing guidance on coordination and essential actions to be taken by different sectors, the ESP also outlines the enabling environment needed to support the implementation of essential services and provides guidance on estimating resource requirements for a minimum package of services. This is complemented by guidance developed by UN Women and partners on engaging survivors of VAWG safely and strengthening police responses to VAWG crimes during 2021–2022. 

In 2022 and 2023, UN Women supported 30 countries to improve the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of essential services for VAWG survivors, by working to scale up survivor services aligned with international standards, through promoting the ESP and related guidance; strengthen the coordination of services; strengthen justice and policing services; expand social services, in addition to strengthening the enabling legislative and policy environment; and conduct data and research-related activities to support VAWG responses, in both development and humanitarian country contexts. As a result, 44 countries saw an increase in the number of women who access services after experiencing violence or discrimination between 2022-2023. UN Women’s commitment to integrating the ‘leave no-one behind’ principle into its interventions has ensured that programming considers the needs of all women and girls, including those most marginalized.

Specific examples of UN Women’s work include:

• Uganda: Trained 1,500+ community leaders in gender-responsive EVAWG interventions.
• Bangladesh: Developed a Strategic Plan for Gender-Responsive Policing.
• Kyrgyzstan: Integrated gender-transformative curricula into four universities, educating 100+ students.
• Strengthened capacity of 770 institutions to provide survivor-centered services​
• Training packages were developed for prosecutors, GBV counsellors, and psychosocial workers. These materials supported national rollouts across Asia-Pacific to improve justice, health, and social service responses.

Since 2007, the Global Forum on Gender Statistics has been held every two years, bringing together producers and users of gender statistics from national and international statistical offices, government agencies, international organizations, academia, civil society, the private sector, and the donor community. The Forum serves as a platform to promote statistical standards and discuss ways to improve data and evidence for gender policies, including those aimed at eliminating all forms of violence and discrimination against women. 

To strengthen capacity in measuring and analyzing data on violence against women, UNSD has conducted regular workshops, including through projects under the Development Account Programme, focused on strengthening countries’ statistical capacity in terms of making better use of existing data and communicating gender indicators; producing gender statistics in selected areas, including on violence against women.  

UNFPA is committed to strengthening the capacity of governments, implementing partners, and its own staff to prevent and respond to GBV effectively. Through comprehensive training and capacity-building initiatives, UNFPA equips all actors involved in GBV prevention and response with the necessary knowledge, skills, and systems. 

• As of February 2025, 300 participants from 67 countries have completed the kNOwVAWdata course, focusing on safe, ethical VAW data collection, analysis, and reporting. 
• ASRO supported Al-Azhar in conducting TOT workshops for students from Somalia, Djibouti, Sudan, and Yemen, training future religious leaders to address GBV, FGM, and child marriage. ASRO also helped develop a framework for a Religious Leaders Network to enhance collaboration in combating harmful practices. 
• In EECA, UNFPA strengthened multi-sectoral responses to GBV through regional ToT workshops, training 35 stakeholders per country and developing tools for monitoring and implementing standard operating procedures. 
• PSRO developed and rolled out a GBV Risk Mitigation Curriculum for the Pacific Sub-Region, focusing on climate disaster contexts, across 4 countries. 
• WCARO conducted capacity-building workshops on the Essential Services Package and GBV case management in The Gambia and Equatorial Guinea for UN personnel, government officials, and partners. 
• ​​​In LAC, UNFPA developed 3 self-administered virtual courses on the Essential Services Package, clinical management of sexual violence, and child marriage prevention, reaching over 10,000 public servants across 15 countries. From these courses, a community of practice was established, running from 2020 to 2022 and generating 20 webinars on GBV, with 1.6k subscribers and 198k views.  Moreover, since 2021, UNFPA and PAHO have developed a course on the clinical management of sexual violence in Latin America. The course has been disseminated at the regional level and is currently being rolled out by the ministries of health in four countries: El Salvador, Brazil, Guatemala, and Ecuador. 

Effective monitoring and reporting of cases of gender-based violence contributes to increased accountability and reduced impunity in order to better prevent such violence in all contexts where OHCHR operates. OHCHR has developed a blended training on monitoring/investigating and reporting on gender-based violence for human rights officers, including from field presences, peace mission, investigative bodies and HQ sections, adopting a human rights- and evidence-based approach. OHCHR also developed tools to enhance the capacity of field presences in monitoring gender-based violence, enabling colleagues and other human rights protection actors to highlight and address such acts as human rights violations. OHCHR has tailored training sessions to the needs and specificities of each context, with a focus on country offices participating in the Gender Accreditation Programme (GAP) also led by OHCHR. 

In emergency contexts—including Ukraine, Afghanistan, Palestine, Ethiopia, and other L2 and L3 countries FAO has increasingly integrated training on GBV risks and resilience into its gender analyses, vulnerability assessments, and the formulation of gender-responsive, inclusive policies and humanitarian projects. These sessions specifically aim to equip staff with the knowledge and practical tools needed to anticipate, prevent, and address GBV in crisis situations.

During the reporting period, UNODC provided training and capacity building on crime prevention and criminal justice responses to gender-based violence against women for criminal justice professionals in Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, State of Palestine, Somalia and Viet Nam. 

For instance, in Kyrgyzstan, 200 police officers and 50 prosecutors received gender-responsive training to support victims of violence, and the Office assisted the Government in establishing a “one-window centre” in Bishkek where victims of gender-based violence against women can access essential multisectoral services.  

UNODC also strengthened justice sector responses to violence against women by enhancing judicial capacities through workshops. In the Dominican Republic, the Office conducted a technical needs assessment on access to justice for women in cases of gender-based violence and trained 103 criminal justice professionals through a capacity-building workshop for judges, prosecutors and police officers.  

In Egypt, UNODC organized nine training workshops for 178 judges on facilitating access to justice for women victims of violence and two workshops for 40 administrative prosecution judges focused on violence against women.