United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

In October 2013, UN Women launched Voices against Violence, a pioneering co-educational and non-formal education curriculum on ending violence against women and girls, designed for various age groups ranging from 5 to 25 years, in partnership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. It provides girls, boys, young women and young men with tools and expertise to understand the root causes of violence in their communities, to educate and involve their peers and communities to prevent such violence, and to learn about where to access support if they experience violence.Increasingly, UN Women is strengthening prevention interventions that include and also go beyond awareness-raising, to engage with schools, faith-based organizations, media and communities at large. In Mozambique for example, UN Women successfully advocated for the UNCT to adopt ending violence against women as one of two signature themes for the country and in partnership UNFPA and UNICEF, national institutions and civil society organizations developed and are implementing a comprehensive approach to prevent violence against women and girls in a total of five districts in 4 provinces, reaching opinion and community leaders and enlisting youth as agents for change in seven secondary schools. In India, UN Women contributed to prevention of trafficking in women and girls through the establishment of 40 Anti-Trafficking Vigilance Committees as well as to increasing the evidence base through research on various forms of VAW and strategies to address them. In Timor-Leste, UN Women was included in the curriculum reform reference group and provided inputs on school curricula and lesson materials related to VAW prevention and promotion of gender equality for potential integration in the Basic Education Curriculum. Hide

The Asia-Pacific Regional Coordination Mechanism Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (TWG-GEEW), co-chaired by ESCAP and UN WOMEN, continued its engagement in support of the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda. The Thematic Working Group convened the “Second Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Regional Advisory Group on Women, Peace and Security” on 1-2 August 2013. The meeting provided a forum for the Regional Advisors to share experiences and good practices, as well as identify common concerns and strategies for accelerating progress in effective implementation of UNSCR 1325 and related resolutions. The meeting addressed the particular vulnerabilities of conflict-affected populations and concluded with recommendations on policies and strategies to strengthen implementation of the WPS agenda in Asia and the Pacific, including through national action plans to effectively protect women and girls in conflict situations. Hide

In Cambodia, with the support of UN Women, the 2nd National Action Plan to Prevent VAW has been drafted, with advocacy, capacity development, VAW costing and prevention being established as government priorities. A participatory mechanism for EVAW coordination in Cambodia has been also established, setting the ground for an integrated multi-sectoral approach. Hide

UN Women continues to lead a global knowledge management initiative to address violence against women and girls, reaching 1,428,563 visitors from 232 countries and territories in four years. By the end of 2013, the Virtual Knowledge Centre (http://www.endvawnow.org) provided 11 programming modules in English, French and Spanish covering various sectors (Health, Justice and Security); settings (Safe Cities and Conflict/Post-conflict/Emergency); and interventions (Shelter, Legislative Development and Reform; Working with Men and Boys; Monitoring and Evaluation), with a tools database of over 950 tools in more than 65 languages. Hide