Measures
UNRWA’s Gender Equality Strategy (2016-2021), Integrating Gender, Improving Services, Impacting Lives serves to guide and frame all gender-related work by the Agency, including work on GBV.
In 2017, UNRWA carried out 135 trainings which engaged 2709 staff members across the Agency (Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, West Bank, and Syria). Trainings focused on GBV and GBV in emergencies targeted staff in UNRWA’s different programmes.
UNRWA has created a number of tools to support enhanced Agency capacity to address GBV in emergencies, including UNRWA Guidelines for GBV Risk Mitigation in Emergencies (2017) and a GBV Training Package (2018).
UNRWA continues to operate referral systems to ensure identification, referral and the access to critical services for GBV survivours. Consolidating partnerships with external service providers to ensure that GBV survivours receive holistic care and also to address high-risk cases which require more specialized services was one of the main activities undertaken during this period.
View MoreUNRWA continues to operate referral systems to ensure identification, referral and the access to critical services for GBV survivours. Consolidating partnerships with external service providers to ensure that GBV survivours receive holistic care and also to address high-risk cases which require more specialized services was one of the main activities undertaken during this period.
UNRWA is a part of the Call to Action on Protection from GBV in Emergencies, and prioritize the implementation of its commitments as part of the Building Safety project on GBV in emergencies.
UNHCR continues successful capacity building of staff, partners, government and people of concern. In 2017, 41 staff from the Africa and Middle East and North Africa regions completed an SGBV learning program, which certified trainers on SGBV prevention and response.
UNHCR’s focus on online training and multiple gender-related modules, including on Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, and Prevention of Harassment, Sexual Harassment, and Abuse of Authority in the Workplace, has seen more than 7200 staff capacitated.
In addition, UNHCR has been systematically mainstreaming SGBV prevention and response into all UNHCR operations. This involves thematic and cross-sectoral responsibilities to more effectively integrate and address SGBV prevention, risk mitigation and response. This effort is an operationalization of the IASC Guidelines for Integrating Gender-based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action.
In UNHCR operations, capacity building and sensitization of communities on SGBV prevention and response were carried out using mass sensitization and awareness campaigns, and targeted trainings of community leaders and influential groups, including youth and male activists against SGBV. Communities have in turn mobilized community-based structures to lead on prevention and response and advocate for action against SGBV.
UNHCR requires all staff to undertake specific actions in their own sector to mitigate risk of SGBV. In 2017, UNHCR issued a Briefing Paper; WASH, Protection and Accountability http://wash.unhcr.org/download/wash-protection-and-accountability/. It includes case studies and a checklist on WASH and safety and security considerations which impact on SGBV.
Under the US Bureau for Population and Refugee Migration funded Safe from the Start project, staff who provide specialised technical support on addressing SGBV prevention, mitigation and response at the onset of emergencies have been deployed to emergency situations in 22 countries (for 197months as of March 2018), to ensure that appropriate assessment, actions and strategies are implemented early. An evaluative assessment in 2016 found that UNHCR operations receiving technical support achieved significant progress in mitigating the risk of SGBV and in improving access and quality of vital services. Results from end of deployment assessments showed that UNHCR operations increased the efficiency of SGBV programming from 31% to 75%, and increased coverage of SGBV programming from 30% to 61%. Further, 56% of operations receiving a deployment have sustained that expertise and carried on the work.
UNHCR is a signatory of the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies and has made 10 commitments aimed at changing UNHCR’s internal institutional policies and implementing SGBV prevention, mitigation and response programmes from the onset of emergencies.
As lead for the Global Protection Cluster, the UNHCR promotes protection as central to the humanitarian response and as a core member of the IASC’s GBV Area of Responsibility, UNHCR works with UN agencies, NGOs and governments to ensure coverage and quality of prevention and response mechanisms in addressing SGBV.
UNHCR is member of the Real Time Accountability Partnership and serves as member of UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, an interagency collation aimed at galvanizing coordinated UN effort to address sexual violence in conflict-related settings.
UNHCR co-chairs the IASC Task Team on Accountability to Affected Populations and Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (AAP/PSEA).
UNHCR is also a member of the UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict Network of Focal Points who support the work of the Special Representatives of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict.