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IOM has continued to strengthen GBV programming across diverse operational contexts. IOM conducted 930 capacity-building intiatives for IOM staff, national authorities, and partners to ensure all stakeholders understand how to safely and ethically respond to a disclosure of GBV.  

Through coordination calls, capacity-building initiatives, and deployments, IOM has provided technical support to over 40 country missions in 2024. The support included developing and disseminating materials, offering guidance on GBV-specialized programming, supporting protection scale-ups, and resolving complex GBV challenges.  

As part of these efforts, IOM also launched an e-course “Introduction to gender-based violence (GBV) in crisis” in 2023 and an upcoming e-course on “Introduction to IOM Intersectional Gender Analysis” is planned in 2025. 

Furthermore, IOM reviewed 405 proposals, concept notes, reports, Regional Migrant Response Plans, and Crisis Response Plans from over 70 countries. These reviews ensure alignment with IOM’s institutional standards for addressing GBV, adherence to the Do No Harm principle, and the promotion of gender equality. 

IOM developed the Intersectional Gender Analysis (IGA) toolkit in 2024, which aims to provide practical guidance to apply intersectional gender analysis in their work across different contexts and thematic areas. The toolkit includes guidance on safely collecting and utilizing data on violence, exploitation and abuse. IOM is currently piloting the toolkit in Afghanistan, Costa Rica, South Sudan and Ukraine. The piloting involves GBV technical leads in each country office to ensure protection mainstreaming and clear safe referrals of GBV. Moreover, GBV specialists' involvement adds value to reduce risks of overlooking inequalities and of causing harm, as well as to assure upholding human rights for women, girls and vulnerable groups to GBV.    

In 2020, IOM global GBV support team and Displacement tracking matrix developed tools, guidance and training to strengthen standards for safe and ethical GBV data collection in emergencies. Since 2021 IOM have been rolling this training out across DTM teams.  

In 2023, through the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, IOM developed the study on Gendered Reintegration Experiences and Gender-Sensitive/Responsive/Transformative Approached to Reintegration Assistance. The study examines GBV as it affects women's reintegration and offers recommendations for specialized services for GBV survivors. 

In 2023, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, IOM published the Global Report - Mapping and Research to Strengthen Protection and Assistance Measures for Migrants with diverse SOGIESC, highlighting protection risks and vulnerabilities, including GBV, as well as key assistance measures for migrants with diverse SOGIESC.  

IOM’s efforts to improve the capacity to identify GBV risks continued, including through the use of the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM). The DTM is a system that regularly captures, processes and disseminates multi-layered primary data and information on the mobility, locations, vulnerabilities and needs of displaced populations at national, regional and global levels, now contains protection and GBV risk indicators. In the aims of developing tools to facilitate the analysis and reporting of GBV risk-sensitive data collected through the DTM, DTM-GBV workshops have been organized. The DTM also made progress in standardizing data dictionaries including GBV-risk related data and standard operating procedures for collecting this type of data in its response. Furthermore, IOM decided to review its DTM data monitoring system to better capture its use by other clusters and agencies, including the Protection, Child Protection and GBV sectors. 36 DTM operations reported collecting gender sensitive and GBV-risk related data at the end of 2017.

IOM continued to apply a practical approach to GBV mainstreaming in line with the IASC GBV Guidelines, through several capacity building initiatives such as trainings, development and/or revision of training material, and a number of deployments of Rapid Response Advisors (RRA) and Emergency Response and Induction Training (ERIT) graduates, who mentor CCCM and Shelter actors. RRAs conducted capacity building initiatives, and strengthened the coordination with GBV specialized actors in-country during deployments. Moreover, CCCM Regional Training of Trainers (ToT), with representatives from both the cluster co-lead agencies and the capacity building focal agency, NRC, have taken place. The ToTs have been combined with concrete follow-up actions to prevent and mitigate GBV risks in camp and camp-like settings, which has led to the development of national-level action plans by ToT participants in all nine participating countries.

Together with UNHCR and NRC, IOM initiated and finalized the revision of the Global CCCM training modules. The 2017 revision emphasizes and now emphasizes actions on the prevention and mitigation of GBV in all core modules. Various tools developed facilitate the general mainstreaming of GBV into emergency responses, including a CCCM checklist to support the review of projects; global CCCM and DTM training modules mainstreaming GBV considerations; and a more technical guidance for shelter experts and site planners working in camps.

IOM also continued the rollout of the Women’s Participation Project, which aims at supporting opportunities for women’s equal and meaningful participation in camp governance structures to contribute to reducing risks of GBV. A qualitative assessment to map existing governance structures and barriers for women’s participation in these structures was first undertaken, followed by the development and implementation of a number of strategies in line with the findings of the baseline study, including the establishment of women’ committees and cumulative skills and leaderships training. An assessment of whether the activities undertaken had succeeded was undertaken at the end of the year. Lessons learned demonstrate the need for long-term targeted efforts to shift social norms to enable greater opportunities for women as participants and as leaders.

In an effort to improve the identification of GBV risks and the response to the needs of GBV survivors, IOM has incorporated protection and GBV risk indicators into CCCM tools, such as the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), in an innovative manner. DTM is a system which regularly captures, processes and disseminates multi-layered primary data and information on the mobility, locations, vulnerabilities and needs of displaced populations, both in country and at the regional and global level. Through an initial project piloted in nine countries including the Philippines, South Sudan and Iraq, IOM has integrated context-appropriate GBV risk indicators relating to site layout and infrastructure; security; women’s participation; and knowledge about and availability of services to address GBV in camps and camp-like settings into the DTM system. The newly incorporated indicators complement general DTM assessments which provide sex- and age-disaggregated data, population profiles, and information on general needs and service provision to provide a more holistic understanding of the protection context in a given site. The data collected through the DTM is analysed and shared with GBV responders, as well as all other relevant service providers to improve operational responses.

In Belarus, in partnership with UNFPA, UNICEF and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, IOM provided tools and technical assistance to NGOs to improve national capacity to counteract and prevent domestic violence, especially against women and children. This project launched a Pilot Seminar on the relationship between domestic violence and trafficking in women and children. Counter-trafficking NGOs, judges, prosecutors, law-enforcement officials and representatives of the border troops of Belarus participated in this event. The seminar has brought the attention to and initiated a dialogue among the relevant actors on this topic. It established a forum for relevant parties to work together and improve various legal and support provisions for victims of trafficking and domestic violence. Overall, ten NGOs, 75 NGOs’ staff members, 45 law-enforcement officials and over 40 other specialists received training as part of this project. The project also referred at least 700 victims of domestic violence for specialized assistance.

In the Central African Republic, IOM is working to prevent SGBV among internally-displaced and host populations. IOM is building capacity among National Police and Gendarmerie forces to respond adequately to SGBV case reports, in coordination with UN Civil Police / CIVPOL. In this effort, IOM is also advocating for the increased recruitment of female police officers. These efforts will provide police with the tools to use a survivor-centred approach, as well as educate them in relation to Central African legislation and international human rights law on rape as a war crime.