10/43 Report of the United Nations Development Fund for Women on the activities of the Fund to eliminate violence against women - Note by the Secretary-General

United Nations A/HRC/10/43–E/CN.6/2009/10

General Assembly Economic and Social Council

Distr.: General 18 December 2008

Original: English

08-66140 (E) 200109 *0866140*

Human Rights Council Tenth session 2-27 March 2009 Item 2 Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Secretary-General

Commission on the Status of Women Fifty-third session 2-13 March 2009 Item 3 (c) of the provisional agenda* Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”: gender mainstreaming, situations and programmatic matters

Report of the United Nations Development Fund for Women on the activities of the Fund to eliminate violence against women

Note by the Secretary-General

The Secretary-General has the honour to transmit herewith to the Commission on the Status of Women and the Human Rights Council the report of the United Nations Development Fund for Women on the activities of the Fund to eliminate violence against women, which was prepared in compliance with General Assembly resolution 50/166.

* E/CN.6/2009/1.

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Report of the United Nations Development Fund for Women on the activities of the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women

1. The United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women (United Nations Trust Fund) is a multilateral mechanism supporting the local, national and regional efforts of Governments and non-governmental organizations to end violence against women and girls. Established in 1996 by the General Assembly in its resolution 50/166, the United Nations Trust Fund is administered by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) on behalf of the United Nations system. By the end of 2008, it had supported 291 initiatives in 119 countries and territories with more than $44 million.

2. The present report to the fifty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women and the tenth session of the Human Rights Council describes progress according to the strategic directions of the United Nations Trust Fund in 2008, as well as the programming of UNIFEM on violence against women.

Background and context

3. The normative environment for strengthening efforts to address violence against women and girls has improved considerably in recent years. An increasing number of Governments have passed national laws, policies and plans of action and States Members of the United Nations have repeatedly issued resolutions. In 2006, the General Assembly, in its resolution 61/143, recommended that Member States pursue systematic, multisectoral and sustained approaches to eliminating all forms of violence against women and back those with appropriate institutional and financial support, including to the United Nations Trust Fund. In 2007, the Assembly, in its resolution 62/133, called on the international community to deepen its support for national efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls. In its resolution 63/155 on that issue, adopted at its sixty-third session, the Assembly stressed the importance of new and increased contributions from all States to the Fund in order to achieve the target set by the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

4. Also in 2008, the Human Rights Council, in its resolution 7/24, encouraged the allocation of adequate resources to initiatives at national, regional and international levels to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls. And specifically on the issue of sexual violence, the Security Council adopted resolution 1820 (2008), in which it demanded the cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of sexual violence against civilians and noted that rape and other forms of sexual violence could constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.

5. United Nations reform and the emphasis on “delivering as one” are also galvanizing an increasing number of United Nations agencies, funds and programmes to intensify their contributions to eliminating violence against women and girls, both collectively and within their own mandates. In 2006, the in-depth study of the Secretary-General on all forms of violence against women (A/61/122/Add.7) offered a ground-breaking synthesis of global knowledge, good practices and obstacles to ending violence against women and girls. In February 2008, at the opening of the fifty-second session of the Commission of the Status of Women, the Secretary-General launched the UNite to End Violence against Women

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Campaign. The multi-year initiative aims at mobilizing public opinion and securing political will and increased resources in order to make existing commitments to ending violence against women a reality by 2015, the target date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

6. At the midpoint for achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and with gender equality and women’s empowerment as one of the goals and also central to achieving all the others, increased focus on tracking and responding to the pandemic is crucial.

United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women

7. Since its inception, the United Nations Trust Fund has been a key global mechanism for catalysing change and supporting model strategies to end violence against women and girls. Grantees benefit from the technical assistance, synergies and opportunities available through the work of UNIFEM and the broader work of the United Nations to eliminate violence against women and girls. The United Nations Trust Fund is the only global grant-making mechanism to bring together so many United Nations agencies at the global and subregional levels to review strategies for addressing violence against women and girls.

8. The 2005-2008 Trust Fund strategy introduced measures to enhance the effectiveness of the Fund. It is in line with current national needs and with the recommendations contained in the in-depth study of the Secretary-General on all forms of violence against women (A/61/122/Add.1), which called for greater attention to implementing existing human rights standards, multisectoral approaches, strengthened monitoring and evaluation and effective institutional mechanisms at all levels to ensure coordination, action and accountability. The strategy also took into account the findings of a comprehensive assessment UNIFEM had carried out in 2002 and 2003, entitled “Not a minute more”, which reviewed the contributions of the United Nations Trust Fund and featured a scan of leading initiatives in different regions.

9. Paragraphs 10 to 22 below discuss progress in implementing the United Nations Trust Fund strategy in 2008, according to its five pillars: impact, involvement, efficiency, knowledge management and capacity development, and resource mobilization.

Enhancing impact

10. In order to address the serious gaps in the realization of national and international commitments to end violence against women and girls, United Nations Trust Fund grant-making has strategically focused on supporting the implementation of national laws, policies and action plans. Selected grantee initiatives in 2008 include increasing the capacity of the judiciary, law enforcement and health service providers, creating and strengthening data collection systems and indicators, building multisectoral partnerships and increasing attention to the links between violence against women and the spread of HIV and AIDS, as follows:

(a) Strengthening judicial systems is essential to ensuring the enforcement of laws that address violence against women and guaranteeing women’s human rights and access to justice, with a view to ending impunity. A United Nations Trust Fund grant in India supported a lawyers’ collective to develop a bench manual to assist

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the judiciary in uniformly interpreting and upholding the 2005 Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act. The National Judicial Academy, India’s premier judicial training institute, was closely involved in preparing the manual, along with high court judges with established track records in rendering judgments under the new law. In Bhutan, a United Nations Trust Fund-supported initiative followed up recommendations from the 2006 national consultations on women and child-friendly judicial procedures. The National Commission for Women and Children collaborated with the police and the Royal Court of Justice to institute in camera trials and investigations, in order to protect the privacy of survivors and encourage them to report crimes. Police and judges from 20 districts have undergone training on gender equality and ending violence against women. Central Government officials have now made ending violence against women a critical area for action in their tenth five-year plan;

(b) Holistic service models support the implementation of laws by responding to the multiple needs of women survivors of violence. In Albania, Refleksione Association, supported by the United Nations Trust Fund, has convened local authorities, the police and judicial officials in five municipalities to create local councils to address domestic violence. These are piloting a community-based integrated referral model, ensuring a multisectoral response in line with the national law against domestic violence. Local facilitators, supported by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, are engaged in public outreach, partnership-building, and the development of local capacities to monitor the issuance of protection orders and provide a spectrum of social, health and legal services. The Prime Minister has announced a comprehensive national public awareness-raising campaign that will further boost the project’s impact and visibility;

(c) Standardized data collection provides the basis for policy and programme development and enables monitoring of progress towards implementing national commitments to ending violence against women. A United Nations Trust Fund initiative in Algeria is supporting the Information and Documentation Centre on Women’s and Children’s Rights to bring together six institutions in different localities to establish a common information system on violence against women. The system is helping to shape a national initiative by the ministry in charge of the family and women’s condition. In the spirit of South-South cooperation, a United Nations Trust Fund-supported initiative in Southern Africa has drawn on Latin American experiences to develop indicators on violence against women. Gender Links is working with local partners in six countries and the Southern African Development Community to devise a composite index of targets and indicators for measuring violence against women in the region. The South African Police Service has agreed, as part of a pilot study on baseline data, to share statistics that were previously not available. In the Colombian municipality of Soacha, United Nations Trust Fund-assisted activities by Corporación Centro de Apoyo Popular have mapped high-risk areas for sexual and street violence against women. Advocates used this information to push successfully for changes in the new municipal development plan. These include the creation of a police station specifically for family issues and gender-sensitization training for public employees, particularly to increase police capacities to use a gender perspective in assessing the risks of violence. Women’s groups are now monitoring public planning and budgeting sessions to ensure these commitments are fulfilled;

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(d) Partnerships and political will extend the reach and increase the sustainability of United Nations Trust Fund grants, offering critical support for immediate actions to end violence against women and girls, while fostering the longer-term transformation of discriminatory attitudes and practices. Since Rozrada and the Kiev School of Equality, United Nations Trust Fund grantees in Ukraine, successfully advocated for improvements in laws to eliminate intra-family violence, 2,000 central and local service providers have been trained on issues such as identifying women survivors of violence and providing psychological support. The initiative has helped broker collaboration among the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, service providers and non-governmental organizations to coordinate anti-violence efforts and build on the sharing of joint resources. In Cameroon, the United Nations Trust Fund has supported an initiative by the Centre for Human Rights and Peace Advocacy that reached an agreement with the General Delegation for National Security to create separate police units for investigating cases of violence against women. The initiative has also created three networks comprised of journalists, women leaders and traditional authorities to address and raise awareness on violence against women. The latter has already proved successful in reducing harmful practices such as widowhood rites, as reported by project beneficiaries;

(e) In Puntland State, Somalia, where sustained conflict has fanned violence against women and other human rights violations, public recognition of the severity of the problems has been low. With United Nations Trust Fund support, the Ministry of Women, Development and Family Affairs has been equipped with new capacities to collect data and monitor violence against women. It has produced information that prompted the President of the Puntland State to call explicitly for greater rigour from security forces in upholding existing laws, request parliamentarians to consider drafting stronger legislation and place ending violence against women on the Cabinet agenda. Through its network of sub-offices, the Ministry is also reaching out to religious and community leaders, police officers and community organizations to raise awareness and build consensus that all parts of society must assume responsibility for ending violence against women. Senior religious leaders are coming together to determine how customary laws can be aligned with international human rights norms. Clan elders have agreed to discuss their role in ending violence against women as part of national reconciliation talks. The Ministry has formulated a national plan of action to guide future steps, including the adoption of standard operating procedures to be applied by all individuals and groups involved in responding to and preventing violence against women.

11. Grantees under the special window to address the intersection of violence against women and HIV and AIDS are providing the following targeted services and empowerment to women who face those twin pandemics:

(a) In the Russian Federation, the United Nations Trust Fund has supported Doctors to Children to survey gaps in the system of assistance to HIV-positive women who are victims of violence, especially those who are pregnant or have young children. Representatives from the departments for social protection, health and internal affairs of the Kalininsky District of St. Petersburg subsequently convened to develop an intersectoral protocol for regulating services to women victims of violence and create an interdisciplinary training programme for staff. An intersectoral team is now piloting service provision under the protocol, from early identification procedures to referrals;

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(b) To ensure the effectiveness of its mass communication campaigns, Breakthrough, in India, is working in the States of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, where there is a high prevalence of HIV and AIDS, to survey public knowledge about the pandemic and its connections to violence against women. For example, it found that only 3.3 per cent of respondents knew about the Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act, and that a man’s unwillingness to use a condom was among the reasons least acceptable to men for women to refuse sex. The grantee recruited leading advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather to produce, pro bono, the Ring the Bell multimedia campaign, which urges men to take a stand against domestic violence. The campaign was launched during the XVII International AIDS Conference, in August 2008, and it is expected to reach over 50 million people in the three States. The central Ministry of Women and Child Development has picked up campaign materials for its national campaigns to end violence against women, and is disseminating them in the media in 23 languages;

(c) Many United Nations Trust Fund-supported initiatives focus their activities on the rights and needs of especially excluded groups, effectively building bridges to greater resources, opportunities and awareness. An initiative in Nepal to uphold the rights of migrant women workers facing the risk of violence and HIV infection established a partnership with the Skills for Employment Project, funded by the Government and the Asian Development Bank. SAMANATA Institute for Social and Gender Equality, drawing on its extensive experience with migrant women, held train-the-trainer sessions on links between violence against women and HIV and AIDS for staff of the Skills for Employment Project. They subsequently designed a module for their own curriculum, which offers technical and vocational training to 80,000 men and women. The United Nations Trust Fund grantee also conducted orientation trainings for 1,500 migrant workers in five cities in the first half of 2008 and has supported the formation of a national network for safe migration to continue work in that area. In Peru, the Minga Perú Association backs a group with extensive experience in intercultural communication in reaching poor, indigenous, rural communities, which are not only vulnerable to violence against women and HIV but also the most neglected by previous outreach efforts. Training for students and teachers in 24 rural schools in the department of Loreto has been coupled with new programming on a popular radio show. It invites community participation through letters that are read on the air or used to guide programme topics; nearly 5,000 letters arrived over the course of the project. The show now reaches 89 per cent of rural students in Loreto, helping to reduce wide information gaps. Students report that they are more aware of the quality of their relationships, the need to use condoms and the right to live free from violence.

Deepening involvement

12. Eliminating violence against women and girls rests on mobilizing broad-based partnerships and multi-stakeholder alliances and garnering the commitment of an ever-growing range of actors. As reported in paragraphs 10 and 11, above, grantees play central roles in mobilizing local and national stakeholders around the issue of ending violence against women and girls.

13. States Members of the United Nations are essential United Nations Trust Fund partners through their role as key stakeholders, providing high-level policy direction and support at the national and international levels. Representatives of Member States also participate in public information initiatives to raise awareness on the

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United Nations Trust Fund and on emerging issues and effective strategies to end violence against women and girls. For example, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, and Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal,1 were the first Heads of State to sign on to the UNIFEM Say NO to Violence against Women Campaign, part of the UNite to End Violence against Women Campaign, which appeals for public support and increased resources for the United Nations Trust Fund. An additional 28 presidents and prime ministers have also signed on to the campaigns.2 The Minister for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands publicly reiterated his pledge of support to the United Nations Trust Fund upon receiving the MDG3 Champion Torch, an initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark to galvanize commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment.3 Member States are also the main donors to the United Nations Trust Fund. In 2008, the Governments of Australia, Austria, Brazil, Finland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States of America made their contributions.

14. The private sector has an important role to play in ending violence against women and girls, not only in terms of philanthropy but also through employee policies, high-visibility marketing outlets for awareness-raising, or in-kind contributions of expertise. Since 2005, Johnson & Johnson has been supporting the special window on links between violence against women and HIV and AIDS with $700,000 a year. In 2008, Avon Products announced a public-private partnership to promote women’s empowerment and end violence against women, which committed $1 million to the United Nations Trust Fund, the largest single annual private sector contribution ever. Also Tag Heuer, non-profit organization Zonta International, UNIFEM National Committees,4 Cinema for Peace Foundation, and the United Nations Foundation made contributions in 2008.

15. The United Nations Trust Fund is built on the notion of United Nations partnerships, which are assured through the coordinating role of over 20 United Nations agency members of the global and subregional inter-agency programme appraisal committees. In 2008, in addition to UNIFEM, programme appraisal committee members at global and subregional levels included the Division for the Advancement of Women; the Economic Commission for Africa; the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific; the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; the International Labour Organization; the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR); the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification; the United Nations Development Programme; the United Nations

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1 Senegal’s Prime Minister Cheikh Hadjibou Soumare and 23 Government ministers signed as well.

2 Andorra, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Palestinian National Authority, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Solomon Islands, Spain, Timor-Leste and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of).

3 Recipients of the MDG3 Champion Torch are representatives of Governments, the private sector, civil society, the media and international organizations, from the North and South. At the United Nations high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals on 25 September 2008, all commitments were presented to the Secretary-General, who will be invited to light the last MDG3 Champion Torch. For more details, visit www.mdg3action.um.dk/en/menu/ MDG+3+Torch/Torch+Campaign/.

4 Austria, Iceland, Italy and the United States of America.

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Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; the United Nations Human Settlements Programme; the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); the World Food Programme; the World Health Organization; the World Bank; and United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict. Programme appraisal committee members also include leading non-governmental organization representatives and other experts.5

16. In recent years, the United Nations Trust Fund has worked to deepen the participation of United Nations agencies in decision-making processes, in order to foster increased ownership across the United Nations system. Previously, decisions were made only at the global level, through the inter-agency programme appraisal committees convened by UNIFEM headquarters. Beginning in 2005, the process was decentralized to actively engage subregional inter-agency programme appraisal committees convened by UNIFEM. In 2008, subregional inter-agency programme appraisal committees met in Barbados, Brazil, Ecuador, Fiji, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, South Africa and Thailand. Three United Nations resident coordinators6 also took part in the appraisal process. As the United Nations Trust Fund administrator, UNIFEM continues to explore further opportunities for expanded United Nations and United Nations country team roles in enhancing the effectiveness and impact of the United Nations Trust Fund, especially at the country level.

Ensuring efficiency

17. As a United Nations inter-agency mechanism, the United Nations Trust Fund fosters coherence in programme strategies to end violence against women and girls, helps to pool and track global resources and strengthens monitoring and accountability. All of these functions are in accordance with the principles of alignment, harmonization, managing for results and mutual accountability set out in the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

18. Across its operations, the United Nations Trust Fund relies on minimal infrastructure and lean staffing so that maximum resources are directed to country- level grant-making. In addition, resources are directly channelled to local government and civil society organization partners. The United Nations Trust Fund grant appraisal process, which actively engages United Nations agencies at subregional and global levels, also enables linkages to existing United Nations efforts and national priorities. This decentralized and broadly participatory structure helps ensure that funding allocation conforms closely to the capacities and needs of diverse countries and regions.

19. As United Nations Trust Fund resources continue to grow, a shift to larger and longer-term grants allows the more efficient use of resources in the administration of the fund. While in previous years the average grant was $50,000 for two years, grants starting in 2007 have been issued in the range of $100,000 to $300,000 for

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5 At the global level, these include representatives of MADRE, PATH, Amnesty International, the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership and Human Rights Watch; at the national level, they include representatives from Oxfam, the Open Society Institute, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Norwegian People’s Aid and the Urgent Action Fund.

6 Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

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two to three years. In 2008, some grants were as high as $1 million for two to three years. The time and labour required to review, approve, monitor and support grantees is therefore more cost-effective in relation to the results and impacts expected of larger-scale initiatives.

Generating knowledge and developing capacities

20. Though replicable strategies to end violence against women and girls have begun to emerge, a major challenge has been the lack of systematic and accessible evidence of what works. The United Nations Trust Fund has therefore concentrated on its role in expanding the global knowledge base of effective approaches to ending violence against women and girls. In 2008, the United Nations Trust Fund adopted a monitoring, evaluation and knowledge management framework to enhance its systems to generate, capture and disseminate knowledge through increased investments in monitoring and evaluation.

21. The United Nations Trust Fund has been investing in generating new knowledge and capturing lessons that can promote replication and upscaling of successful models of intervention. For example, under the HIV and AIDS window, particular emphasis has been placed on ensuring a rigorous monitoring and evaluation plan. The United Nations Trust Fund will support the process for three years and ensure that lessons learned are widely available and shared. At the end of the pilot experience, the United Nations Trust Fund aims to have produced a tool for cross-country evidence-based learning and programming to effectively deploy strategies to respond to the linkages between violence against women and HIV and AIDS.

Mobilizing resources

22. Overall funding for initiatives to address violence against women is on the rise, evidenced by the rapid growth of the United Nations Trust Fund resource base over the past few years. Between 1996 and 2004, the United Nations Trust Fund received just under $10 million in total contributions. For the period 2005-2008, total contributions, including pledges, have amounted to a total of $40 million. In 2008, the United Nations Trust Fund had $22 million to offer for grant-making. The increase in annual contributions, however, still lags behind the vast needs and demands at country levels. In 2008, the United Nations Trust Fund was still only able to meet four per cent of the $525 million in requests received. In order to meet the increasing demand, the United Nations Trust Fund seeks broad-based support in order to achieve its annual target of a minimum of $100 million by 2015, in the framework of the UNite to End Violence against Women Campaign.

2008 United Nations Trust Fund grant-making cycle

23. Calls for proposals for United Nations Trust Fund grants are issued annually through an open and competitive selection process. Initiatives should be grounded in human rights and responsive to gender equality goals, including by addressing inequitable gender norms that cause violence against women and girls. They should be holistic and focus on reaching particularly excluded or disadvantaged groups through approaches tailored to diverse needs. They should pursue multisectoral partnerships, and generate and share knowledge. To optimize the use of resources, they should apply evidence of what works and invest in systematic and

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comprehensive documentation and evaluation. The United Nations Trust Fund emphasizes innovation and investment at the local level, where they are needed most. It also underscores the potential for scaling up and replicating successful and sustainable initiatives and the need to link community initiatives with national priorities.

24. In 2008, the United Nations Trust Fund issued its thirteenth call for proposals to support the implementation of laws, policies and action plans on ending violence against women. Proposals were received under two categories: “Meeting the implementation and upscaling challenge” and “Catalytic, innovative and learning initiatives”. For the first time, United Nations country teams working in close coordination with national stakeholders7 have been invited to apply for United Nations Trust Fund grants, a further expression of the commitment to strengthen United Nations collaboration to end violence against women and girls.

25. A total of 1,068 concept notes were received. Programme appraisal committees awarded an historic $22 million to 28 initiatives in 38 countries and territories. Grantees included Governments (8 per cent), non-governmental organizations (65 per cent) and United Nations country teams working in partnership with Governments and non-governmental organizations (27 per cent).

26. Under the “Meeting the implementation and upscaling challenge” category, the United Nations Trust Fund awarded $14 million in grants to 16 initiatives in 26 countries and territories;8 and $8 million to 12 initiatives spanning 14 countries9 under the “catalytic, innovative and learning initiatives” category. The following examples highlight select grantee initiatives:

(a) In Serbia, the Provincial secretariat for labour, employment and gender equality will work towards improving prevention, protection and support services by scaling up successful cooperation initiatives that knit together the efforts of social service providers, the police, legal professionals, local authorities and non-governmental organizations. Through action-oriented research, capacity development and coalition-building, the secretariat will enhance capacities and strengthen intersectoral and multidisciplinary links to ensure that assistance is effective and readily available. It will also cover women at risk of violence as well as women already experiencing violence and will include specific actions to reach women and girls in poor and marginalized communities, such as rural, refugee, Roma and disabled women;

(b) In China, the United Nations country team will build upon previous pilots to scale up responses to domestic violence in the Hunan, Gansu and Sichuan provinces, with a special focus on ethnic minorities and persons displaced by the recent earthquake. A joint programme will support the development of a multisectoral model to respond systematically to domestic violence and ensure increased access to support services, such as legal aid and enhanced referral

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7 This decision was recommended by the United Nations Trust Fund inter-agency programme appraisal committees and endorsed by the UNIFEM Consultative Committee as a pilot.

8 Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Cook Islands, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Jordan, Kiribati, Lebanon, Nepal, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Russian Federation, Serbia, Solomon Islands, Syrian Arab Republic, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Tonga, Tuvalu, United Republic of Tanzania, Vanuatu, Yemen and Zambia.

9 Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, Ethiopia, India, Jamaica, Jordan, Liberia, Morocco, Republic of Moldova, Rwanda, Suriname and Tajikistan.

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systems. By working in close partnership with the All-China Women’s Federation, the Public Security Bureau and the Ministries of Health, Justice and Civil Affairs, the United Nations country team will encourage high-level political commitment to adopting national policy and legislation on domestic violence. The country team will also monitor and document the process as a basis for China’s further rollout of, and advocacy for, policy and legal reforms;

(c) In Brazil, Chile, India and Rwanda, Instituto Promundo and partner organizations will embark on an innovative cross-regional initiative that will use rigorous evaluation to identify effective strategies for engaging men in stopping violence against women. Educational workshops and campaign activities tailored to requirements in each country will centre on deconstructing traditional notions of masculinity and manhood, promoting gender-equitable and non-violent alternatives and encouraging positive changes in attitudes and behaviours. By focusing on evaluation methods to assess actual changes in attitudes and behaviour, as reported by men and their partners, Promundo will compile valuable lessons and make a much needed contribution to the global knowledge base in this critical area. Evaluation results will be widely disseminated through the MenEngage Alliance, a network of more than 400 organizations. Instituto Promundo’s partners in the four regions include the International Center for Research on Women (India), Men’s Resources International (United States of America), Cultura Salud/EME (Chile), Sahayog (India), the Rwanda’s Men’s Resource Centre, Men Engage Network (Rwanda) and Men’s Resources International (Rwanda);

(d) In Morocco, the National Institute for Solidarity with Women will expand its pioneering work in defending the rights and promoting the social reintegration of single mothers and young girls exploited as domestic labourers, in a context where both groups suffer exclusion and face multiple forms of violence. The organization will seek to improve legal protections for those two groups and reduce social stigma through advocacy campaigns. It will also work directly with single mothers and girls engaged in domestic work to support their social reintegration, through employment and training for the first group, and the return to school and family for the second. A model unit for the orientation and professional reinsertion of single mothers will be piloted at the organization and replicated in five other organizations working to end violence against women. Partnerships with private sector associations will help determine training needs and foster the notion of corporate social responsibility within the business community;

(e) In Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania, Delhi, India; Rosario, Argentina, and Petrozavodsk, Russian Federation, Women in Cities International will respond to the challenges posed by the rapid pace and nature of urbanization taking place throughout the world. With crime and violence on the rise, women increasingly face the fear of sexual violence as a constant threat to their mobility and well-being. Building on existing knowledge and using a variety of tools, Women in Cities International will map the geography of public gender inequality and exclusion and its intersection with race, caste, religion and migrant status in four cities on four continents. It will also identify effective policies and programmes that work for greater equality. These will contribute to pilot interventions in partnership with Governments and non-governmental organizations, which seek to create cities that are inclusive and respect the right of all people to live, work and move around without fear and barriers;

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(f) Common strategies across countries in which partners received grants are emerging. In Cambodia, Cameroon, Ecuador, Jordan, the Republic of Moldova and Tajikistan, grantees will scale up model centres for survivors of gender-based violence. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, India, Nepal and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, grantees will scale up models of multisectoral responses for survivors of gender-based violence. In the Pacific region (Cook Islands, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and others), and in Panama and Peru, grantees will create and strengthen government and civil society partnerships to address violence against women. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, grantees will address impunity through raising awareness and developing the capacities of the judiciary. In Ecuador, Lebanon and Liberia, grantees will address prevention either by working with men and boys or promoting women’s economic empowerment. In Jamaica and Nicaragua, grantees will harness the power of the mass media and the arts to promote equitable and non-violent behaviours and attitudes. In Cameroon, a grantee will address violence against girls in schools. In Ethiopia, a grantee will mobilize communities against harmful practices. In Suriname, a grantee will develop a model to address sexual harassment in the workplace.

The way forward

27. As the United Nations Trust Fund approaches the end of its 2005-2008 strategy, an external evaluation is under way to assess its implementation at global and country levels. The evaluation will identify strengths, weaknesses, challenges and current trends and provide forward-looking recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness of the role of the United Nations Trust Fund in ending violence against women and girls. A new strategy for the United Nations Trust Fund will be developed in 2009, based in part on the findings of the external evaluation.

28. The United Nations Trust Fund will continue to invest in strengthening its systems for capacity development, monitoring and evaluation, and knowledge management. United Nations Trust Fund grantees will be provided guidance and skills-building to develop their capacities in evidence-based programme design, monitoring and evaluation. Further, the United Nations Trust Fund will provide adequate technical and financial support to grantees to systematically monitor and evaluate initiatives, also fostering targeted learning and multi-country learning initiatives.

29. The United Nations Trust Fund is investing in a robust online database system that will serve both to collect and systematize findings, facilitating results-based reporting and analysis across grants. By capturing, disseminating and making learning from grantee reports and evaluations widely available, the United Nations Trust Fund contributes to the global knowledge base on effective programme approaches to ending violence against women and girls, generating and nurturing new theories and practices, as well as lessons learned and models for scaling up. In this way, the United Nations Trust Fund is uniquely placed to function as a global observatory of emerging good practices, contributing to programming excellence, maximization of results and efficient use of resources.

30. With a strong and bold strategy, greater political commitment and increased resources, the United Nations Trust Fund will continue to work to make the vision

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of ending violence against women and girls, and achieving the Millennium Development Goals, a reality.

Programming of UNIFEM from the multi-year funding framework, 2004-2007, to the strategic plan, 2008-2011

31. In addition to administering the Trust Fund on behalf of the United Nations system, UNIFEM continues to invest in advocacy efforts, brokering partnerships, inter-agency collaboration and pioneering approaches to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. These efforts are supported through core and cost-sharing funds secured by UNIFEM. Building on its partnerships and programming experience under the multi-year funding framework 2004-2007 and seizing on the unprecedented historic momentum exemplified at international and national levels to end violence against women and girls, UNIFEM has developed a strategy on the theme “A life free of violence: unleashing the power of women’s empowerment and gender equality,” in line with its strategic plan 2008-2011, which elaborates the institutional direction and priority areas to accelerate progress towards the implementation and upscaling challenge.

32. The strategy outlines a deepening of the ongoing work of UNIFEM in advocacy and awareness-raising; policy and legal reform; addressing the linkages between violence against women and HIV and AIDS; and developing capacities to increase access to services and justice for survivors. UNIFEM has also identified emerging areas for intensified future programming, such as incorporating the issue of violence against women and girls into leading policy and funding frameworks; aligning informal and formal justice systems with international human rights standards; addressing sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations; and developing targeted prevention approaches, especially with key groups, such as men and adolescents.

Programming for effective laws and policies on violence against women and girls, including adequate budget allocations for implementation

33. UNIFEM has continued to support the development, reform, adoption and implementation of legislation and policies to address domestic violence, sexual assault and rape, and harmful practices, among other forms of violence against women at global, regional and national levels. For example, in Fiji and Vanuatu, UNIFEM supported the regional rights training team and the United Nations Development Programme in advocating for the passage of sexual and gender-based violence bills. In Thailand, UNIFEM provided technical inputs to the amended Penal Code, which now criminalizes marital rape, and has given legislative reform support to the Alliance on the Elimination of Violence against Women in Pakistan. At the regional level, the sustained collaboration of UNIFEM with the Southern African Development Community Gender Unit and with the NGO Alliance contributed to the adoption of the Southern African Development Community Protocol on Gender and Development. In South-East Asia, UNIFEM, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of Viet Nam and the National Committee for the Advancement of Vietnamese Women convened a workshop funded by the Canadian International Development Agency and the secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for representatives of 10 member States, Japan and Timor-Leste on domestic violence legislation reform and implementation. In the Great Lakes region, UNIFEM supported the Protocol on

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the Prevention and Suppression of Sexual Violence Against Women and Children and, at the global level engaged in avid advocacy efforts that contributed to the adoption of Security Council resolution 1820 (2008), which recognizes sexual violence in conflict as a security issue.

34. Developing workable policies and programmes depends on reliable data, information and knowledge. UNIFEM, in cooperation with Governments, civil society and other partners, works to strengthen qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. In Rwanda, UNIFEM, along with the National University, developed baseline data on sexual and gender-based violence, and in Timor-Leste, mapped sexual and gender-based violence incidences, services and access to justice in two districts with the National Statistics Office. In Burundi, UNIFEM collaborated with UNDP, UNESCO and UNICEF to conduct training for civil society organizations and police on statistics and data collection. UNIFEM supported the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Information in Mexico to produce a full classification and analysis by State of crimes against women. In collaboration with the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), UNIFEM conducted a gender analysis of the studies on sexual violence against the girl child, undertaken by UNICEF, ESCAP and End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, in seven Pacific countries and commissioned baseline surveys of cross-border traders in different African subregions to obtain initial data on violence experienced by women traders.

35. Integrating the issue of violence against women into national development and funding frameworks and strengthening national action plans on violence against women and girls, in particular, can serve as valuable ways of setting in place the institutional, technical and financial resources required for effective coordinated responses. UNIFEM has supported those processes in a number of countries, for example, with its contribution to the development of a national strategy and plan on gender-based violence in Afghanistan. In Georgia, UNIFEM supported national partners to mainstream gender in an economic recovery and poverty reduction paper, which, as adopted in the political statement of the Parliament, contains a commitment to reduce harmful practices against women, including family violence. UNIFEM regional efforts have included the convening of a high-level regional consultation towards the creation of the first regional action plan to eradicate sexual violence and end impunity in the Great Lakes region in cooperation with UNICEF, OHCHR, UNFPA and the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In West Africa, a UNIFEM-supported workshop with Christian and Muslim religious leaders resulted in the adoption of an action plan that includes tackling violence against women.

36. Implementation of laws and policies requires adequate resource allocation by Government. Through gender-responsive budgeting programme efforts of UNIFEM in South-Eastern Europe, increases to the 2008 regional and municipal budgets of Bosnia and Herzegovina were made for civil society-run domestic violence shelters with ensured and sustained co-financing of shelter operations by amendments to the domestic violence law. In Bolivia, UNIFEM-supported advocacy by the Instituto de Formación Femenina Integral led to municipal budget guidelines that mandate resource allocations to programmes that promote gender equality and provide services for women survivors of violence.

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Programming to develop the capacity of key policy, service delivery and media institutions to address violence against women and girls

37. UNIFEM has a long-standing history of support to and partnership with Governments to enhance capacities in prevention and response to violence against women. In Rwanda, the UNIFEM-led, UNDP-supported programme on enhancing protection from gender-based violence expanded its work with the Rwanda Defence Forces to train military officers and established a gender coordinating desk within the Defence Forces, with focal points attached at brigade and battalion levels, an intervention replicated by Burundi and the Sudan. In Liberia, UNIFEM worked within the security sector to obtain commitments towards ensuring integration of women-friendly practices into their operations with respect to the prevention and response to sex and gender-based violence cases. In Burundi, UNIFEM worked with the police and judiciary to improve protection mechanisms for survivors, and in Uganda, supported the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development to institutionalize training on sex and gender-based violence for all police recruits in the northern region.

38. In the justice sector, UNIFEM, in collaboration with the non-governmental organization Pro-Femmes, trained Gacaca judges in Rwanda in dealing with sex and gender-based violence cases, which led to the transfer of such cases to the formal justice system. UNIFEM also established a partnership with the Supreme Court of Rwanda, training judges and prosecutors and highlighting the need to review court procedures in order to facilitate access to justice for sex and gender-based violence survivors. In Liberia, UNIFEM worked with the police, prison authorities, judges and law court officials to apply gender justice principles to sex and gender-based violence cases. In Haiti, UNIFEM supported the Ministère à la condition féminine et aux droits des femmes to develop training modules and train justices of the peace on gender-based violence, including methods of prosecuting sex and gender-based violence cases in select communities across two provinces. In Viet Nam, UNIFEM provided assistance for a two-day training course for 100 National Assembly deputies on the supervision of the implementation of gender equality laws, including the Family Violence Prevention Law.

39. UNIFEM has also supported the efforts of its partners in the media, such as the Association of Women Journalists in Burundi, which conducted training sessions, held events and disseminated information on the Penal Code and rape. Partners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda were also given support to implement radio programmes on care for sex and gender-based violence survivors, with awareness-raising radio messages informing communities of available services.

40. UNIFEM continues to develop critical global partnerships with groups and networks that are vital allies in expanding the reach of violence prevention efforts. At the institutional level, UNIFEM has joined forces with the MenEngage Alliance, which represents over 450 organizations working with men and boys to promote gender equality and end violence against women and girls. In November, UNIFEM solidified collaboration with Religions for Peace, the world’s largest and most representative multireligious coalition, to harness the power of communities of faith around the world to help end violence against women and girls.

41. UNIFEM also continues to play a key role in large-scale inter-agency initiatives on violence against women, including as a founding and active member of United Nations Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Inter-Agency

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Standing Committee Sub-Working Group on Gender and Humanitarian Action, the Task Force on Violence against Women established within the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Adolescent Girls, and as a member of the six United Nations entities on the high- level steering committee of the UNite to End Violence Against Women campaign. UNIFEM serves as a lead or partner agency on several joint United Nations initiatives on violence against women, including programmes sponsored by the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund of the Government of Spain in Bangladesh, Colombia and Morocco; the Asia Pacific regional joint programme entitled “Partners for prevention: working with boys and men to prevent gender- based violence”; and the One United Nations pilots in Albania, Rwanda and Uruguay.

Programming to strengthen community-level initiatives that address violence against women and girls

42. Community-level initiatives to end violence against women and girls are fundamental to effecting sustained change. UNIFEM is strengthening promising initiatives while supporting innovative and emerging areas of programming. For example, in Afghanistan, UNIFEM launched a special fund for the elimination of violence against women and the girl child, providing 10 initial grants to community- led initiatives that are addressing violence against women. Other local initiatives have been supported through the two-year UNIFEM programme funded by the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which focuses on community-led responses to peacebuilding and preventing sexual violence in conflict in Afghanistan, Haiti, Liberia, Rwanda, Timor-Leste and Uganda. Building on the promising Safe Cities programme carried out in Latin America in partnership with sister agencies and with the support of the Government of Spain, UNIFEM is launching a pilot Global Safe Cities initiative spanning 8 to 10 geographically representative sites, which will participate in developing a rigorously evaluated global model.

Programming to support excluded women, gender equality experts, advocates and their organizations or networks working to end violence against women and girls

43. UNIFEM has consistently maintained strong ties to women’s groups, gender equality experts, human rights organizations and women’s ministries, leveraging their capacities and political influence to sustain public and policy attention on violence against women and to promote implementation and accountability among Government counterparts, civil society organizations and United Nations partners. In Burkina Faso, UNIFEM partnered with the Minister of Women’s Affairs on the conference of First Ladies on cross-border aspects of female genital mutilation, which shared the results of a UNIFEM-sponsored study on the cross-border nature of the practice in six West African countries. UNIFEM has supported a number of initiatives surrounding the post-election violence in Kenya, including collaboration with other United Nations and non-governmental organization partners to produce a rapid assessment of gender-based violence; enhance the ability of the Kenyan Women Lawyers group to respond to rape cases and to develop guidelines for women’s testimony. In select areas of India, UNIFEM has supported the formation of adolescent groups to empower survivors and vulnerable persons to protect themselves against trafficking and violence. In Rwanda, UNIFEM supported the

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establishment of a gender-based violence committee that has trained and sensitized residents in the Rutsiro District on the prevention of sexual violence against women and children.

44. UNIFEM facilitates a number of opportunities for information-sharing, exchange of knowledge and learning to bolster the advocacy and implementation efforts of partners. A UNIFEM-supported regional workshop convened by the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation brought together United Nations Trust Fund grantees, local authorities and service delivery organizations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Montenegro, Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan to impart their experiences and knowledge in implementing coordinated community responses to domestic violence. At the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, UNIFEM organized, in collaboration with UNFPA and UNDP, a satellite session on the intersections between violence against women and HIV and AIDS, which highlighted programmatic learning for evidence-based advocacy and strategic policy interventions towards improved implementation and scale-up. In the Caribbean, UNIFEM supported the development of a violence against women and HIV training course addressing prevention, treatment and care, as well as responses to emerging policy issues. As part of the UNIFEM and Red Mŭjer y Hábitat Safe Cities Programme, supported by the Government of Spain, an online learning course was created on urban violence, insecurity and discrimination. At the global level, UNIFEM is developing an online site that will provide country-level implementers with step-by-step programming guidance, promising practices and lead tools on ending violence against women and girls.

45. UNIFEM plays a key role in promoting the implementation of Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008) in partnership with various stakeholders. These efforts include the UNIFEM-facilitated Wilton Park conference, undertaken in collaboration with United Nations Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and troop-contributing Governments, including Canada and the United Kingdom, on the role of military peacekeepers in addressing sexual violence during armed conflict; the Arria Formula, hosted by the United Kingdom, which fed into background discussion material for the Security Council debate on the theme “Women, peace and security: sexual violence in situations of armed conflict”; and the UNIFEM and Joan B. Kroc Center for Peace and Justice co-sponsored conference on crafting human security in an insecure world, where the policy and operational aspects of implementing Security Council resolution 1820 (2008) were addressed. UNIFEM also collaborated with the French Presidency of the European Union to hold a conference on the implementation of Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008), aiming to ensure that European Union security, police and justice missions are equipped to respond to women’s security and justice needs.

46. UNIFEM sustains awareness-raising initiatives and campaigns of its own and through support to its partners to build public consciousness on violence against women and girls. Every year across the globe, UNIFEM avidly participates in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. In collaboration with UNFPA and other partners, UNIFEM supported a BBC seven-part series entitled Women on the Frontline, which profiled issues of rape, femicide and trafficking in various countries. In one of the largest and most renowned campaigns of UNIFEM, Say NO to Violence against Women, over 5 million signatures, including from

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Heads of State and ministers representing 60 Governments and from more than 600 parliamentarians from over 70 countries were gathered and delivered to the Secretary-General on 25 November 2008 in support of the campaign.

Conclusions

47. UNIFEM will continue its efforts to bridge the implementation and accountability gap by supporting intensified country-level action, as called for by the campaign of the Secretary-General, through ongoing lead technical assistance; intensified capacity development; broadened advocacy and awareness-raising endeavours; strengthened partnerships within and outside of the United Nations system, including through key inputs to inter-agency initiatives; improved monitoring and evaluation of programming interventions; intensified mobilization of resources for this immensely underfunded human rights and development priority; and provision of new and innovative learning and knowledge-sharing opportunities and products.