Prevention, Including Awareness Raising and Advocacy

DPI continues to raise awareness globally on the UN’s efforts to address violence against women through various information dissemination mechanisms, including: articles published in the delegate; activities undertaken through the United Nations Information Centres across the globe (e.g. Azerbaijan, Ghana and Panama); the Messengers for Peace programme and Chelize Theron’s advocacy on the issue; publications (e.g. “The Future We Want"; "Involving the Forgotten: Widows and Global Sustainable Development," and "Delivering Justice"); the intra/internet (i.e. six stories on iseek and the dedicated section on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, with relevant informational links and social media tools on the UN Calendar of Observances: Making a Difference); through UN visitor services (12 groups exploring women’s rights and violence and 3 sexual violence); in addition to the UN4U programme that reaches out to NYC schools having involved 62 UN staff members in 2012. Hide

The interagency initiative Together for Girls and UNAIDS co-hosted an event to commemorate World AIDS Day and the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, focusing on the progress made toward addressing gender-based violence and the interface with HIV and on the leadership within the HIV and gender communities to raise awareness and increase access to prevention and care services. UNAIDS also supported Lesotho to use the Campaign on 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence to raise public awareness. UNAIDS supported Sri Lanka to integrate awreness-raising of HIV into its national advocacy and communication under the UNiTE campaign to end violence.The inter-agency intiitative Together for Girls brought greater visibility to empowering women and girls in the context of HIV at the International AIDS Society AIDS 2012 meeting in Washington DC, where the partnership was able to make the connection between child abuse, gender inequality and HIV. Hide

The World Bank has approved two initiatives in 2012 to address prevention in urban contexts: the “Honduras Safer Municipalities” initiative focused on citizen security through integrated approaches (including through school-based GBV prevention programmes) and the “Urban Infrastructure Project (II) – Barrios de Verdad (Bolivia) upgrading 22 neighborhoods, benefitting 15,280 people through infrastructural improvements and the provision of technical assistance to municipalities in the planning, expansion and sustainability of urban service delivery. Hide