UN Trust Fund grantees – 17th cycle (2012–2013)
The grants announced in 2013 stem from the Trust Fund’s 17th call for proposals for initiatives that respond to the three priority areas identified by the UN Trust Fund as strategic in addressing violence against women and girls: prevention, expanding access of survivors to support services and strengthening the implementation of laws, policies and action plans aimed at eliminating violence. Funds awarded to grantees in five countries will be used to support the 2013 Special Window on Preventing and Addressing Violence against Adolescent Girls, with a special emphasis on reaching the most vulnerable and high-risk girls.
Africa (2) | Americas and the Caribbean (2) | Arab States (1)
Asia and the Pacific (7) | Europe and Central Asia (4) | Cross-Regional (1)
Africa
SOS-Esclaves
Mauritania
Project Title: “Justice for Survivors of Slavery”
Focus Area: Strengthening the implementation of laws, policies and action plans
Description: An estimated 500,000 people continue to be subjected to slavery in Mauritania. In 2007, the Government adopted landmark anti-slavery legislation which for the first time criminalized slavery and slavery-like practices. However, only one slave-owner has been prosecuted to date due to a lack of effective implementation and important weaknesses in the existing legal framework. Women in Mauritania are particularly affected by slavery while their social, economic and legal marginalization further complicates their access to justice. Over 75 per cent of survivors of slavery assisted by SOS-Esclaves are women, many of whom have also experienced sexual violence including forced marriage. Through this initiative, SOS-Esclaves will address the gendered dimensions of slavery as a specific manifestation of violence against women. They will advocate for legal reforms that will allow civil society organizations to sue on behalf of female slaves, remove the burden of proof from victims and enhance the responsibility of the State in providing protection and reparations. Women who are victims of slavery in the high-prevalence Hodh Echarqi and Adrar regions will receive ongoing support and the tools to rebuild their lives. The project will also provide legal assistance to women survivors to empower them take legal action against the perpetrators of these crimes.
Grassroot Soccer
South Africa
Project Title: “Skillz Street Plus: Empowering Girls to Take Action to End Violence against Women”
Focus Area: Preventing and addressing violence against adolescent girls
Description: South Africa has one of the highest rates of violence against girls aged 12 to 17 in the world. While the country has adopted policies and legislative frameworks to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls, including the establishment of a National Council against Gender-Based Violence, efforts to address violence against adolescent girls remain insufficient.
Grassroot Soccer, a youth organization, will implement a girl-centred project in five South African sub-districts. In coordination with the Thuthuzela one-stop Care Centers and civil society partners, Grassroot Soccer will up-scale and expand their innovative SKILLZ Plus sports-based intervention to foster girls’ empowerment, expand girls’ awareness of sexual and reproductive rights and increase girls’ access to medical, legal and psychosocial services. Along with athletic training, girls will be mentored by peer coaches on the prevention of HIV and gender-based violence. Girl-only soccer leagues and tournaments will be organized to mobilize community support and mixed team tournaments to engage boys as allies in ending violence against women and girls.
Americas and the Caribbean
Directorate of Gender Affairs
Antigua and Barbuda
Project Title:“Implementation of the National Strategic Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence”
Focus Area: Strengthening the implementation of laws, policies and action plans
Description: In Antigua and Barbuda, insufficient coordination between government and civil-society organizations responding to sexual and gender-based violence has resulted in weaknesses in addressing these crimes holistically and in widespread impunity. In response to these challenges, the country recently launched the 2013-2017 National Strategic Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence. Building on the current political momentum, this initiative will strengthen the implementation of the new National Strategic Action Plan. The project will apply a multi-sectoral approach to improve the access of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence to services, strengthen prosecutions and reduce harmful attitudes and behaviours which foster violence against women. Key activities include the establishment of a 24-hour gender-based violence assistance centre that will address survivors interrelated needs, an effective referral network, and a national electronic database of gender-based violence cases. The initiative will also build capacity across all sectors, increase public awareness and generate community-wide mobilization.
Jamaica AIDS Support for Life
Jamaica
Project Title: “Expanding Gains to Decrease and Prevent Violence against Women in the Context of HIV and AIDS”
Focus Area: Strengthening the implementation of laws, policies and action plans
Description: Jamaica’s HIV/AIDS National Strategic Plan 2013-2017 recognizes gender-based violence as a human rights violation that increases vulnerability to HIV. Nevertheless HIV/AIDS prevalence among women and girls continues to be an issue of growing concern. Jamaican girls between the ages of 10 and 19 for example are two- to three-times more likely than boys the same age to be HIV-positive due to coerced and intergenerational sex as well as inadequate access to sexual and reproductive health services. As a means to address violence against women and girls as a driver of the HIV epidemic, Jamaica AIDS Support for Life will strengthen efforts to prevent and respond to violence against key populations of women and girls. The organization will mobilize community-based and faith-based organizations in an effort to bring new stakeholders to the table. Recognizing the importance of working with key populations to put an end to the dual plight of HIV and violence against women, the initiative will also empower women living with HIV/AIDS, LGBTI persons, women living with disabilities and sex workers through the provision of training in life skills and legal literacy. Dedicated clinical sessions will also be established to increase access to sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls who experience barriers in accessing public health services.
Arab States and North Africa
Initiatives pour la Protection des Droits des Femmes (IPDF)
Morocco
Project Title: “Facilitating Survivor’s Access to Justice and Social and Economic Protection through a Chain of Integrated Services”
Focus Area: Expanding survivors’ access to support services
Description: In Morocco, 63 per cent of women aged 18 to 64 have experienced at least one incidence of violence in the past 12 months. The Government is striving to increase efforts to address violence against women and end widespread impunity for these crimes. One of the key axes of Morocco’s Plan for Equality 2012-2016 is ensuring access to justice for survivors of gender-based violence. Initiatives pour la Protection des Droits des Femmes (IPDF) will implement a comprehensive intervention model that will contribute to the implementation of Morocco’s policy and legislative framework by enhancing women’s access to protection and justice. Through its Batha multifunctional centre located in the city of Fez, the project will provide a chain of services from psychosocial counselling to legal assistance to 600 survivors of violence to support their efforts to rebuild their lives. Recognizing these women as not only survivors but crucial agents of change, all services will be geared towards their individual empowerment, ensuring that they are able to set their own psychosocial and socioeconomic goals supported by a qualified team of service-providers. The initiative interweaves activities to economically empower survivors, ensure their legal protection and redress and increase awareness of their rights.
Asia and the Pacific
CARE Cambodia
Cambodia
Project Title: “Safe Workplaces, Safe Communities”
Focus Area: Strengthening the implementation of laws, policies and action plans
Description: Women represent 51 per cent of the formal labour force in Cambodia and work predominantly in settings perceived of as “low status”, including the garment industry and the tourism and hospitality sectors. These work environments are often characterized by late working hours, inadequate transport facilities and few protections from sexual harassment. With fewer networks and resources from which to seek help, women migrant workers are at a particularly high risk of violence. Building on a successful initiative previously supported by the UN Trust Fund in Cambodia, the project will scale-up effective participatory community and workplace interventions in the garment, tourism and hospitality industries to promote safer workplaces for 60,000 women workers. CARE’s multi-pronged strategy includes working with community and workplace groups of female employees to provide peer education, mutual support and cross-learning; involving employers to take concrete measures to prevent sexual harassment in their industries; and engaging men, including customers, university and high school students, to promote long-term behaviour and attitudinal changes. Municipal and commune authorities, law enforcement agents, and a range of service-providers will also be engaged to ensure effective linkages between violence prevention and response efforts.
Medical Services in the Pacific
Fiji
Project Title:“Women and Youth Empowered through Access to Information to Protect their Rights and Access to Services to Protect their Health”
Focus area: Expanding survivors’ access to support services
Description: Fiji is facing an increase in violence against women and girls. Of particular concern is the high incidence of sexual assault and high rates of teenage pregnancy. Figures from the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre reveal that 80 per cent of women on the Island have witnessed some form of violence in the home, with over 25 per cent reporting having been beaten while pregnant. Medical Services in the Pacific will implement a successful clinical outreach model designed to bring integrated services and information to women in their workplaces. By operating mobile clinics staffed with skilled practitioners in seven rural market locations, the project will provide over 20,000 women with improved access to sexual and reproductive healthcare, sexual assault counselling and referral services. This initiative will have a considerable impact on preventing recurrence of violence by empowering young women through the provision of accurate information and timely interventions post-abuse, improving and expanding service-delivery and strengthening institutional responses to violence through better service integration and coordination.
Breakthrough
India
Project Title:“Preventing Violence: Change Starts Now”
Focus area: Strengthening the implementation of laws, policies and action plans
Description: While violence against women is a global pandemic, the brutal gang-rape and murder in 2012 of a young medical student in Delhi led to unprecedented attention on the treatment of women and girls and the normalization of violence across India. A 2011 study conducted by the International Centre for Research on Women found that 65 per cent of Indian men believe there are times when women “deserve to be beaten”. To eliminate and prevent violence against women and girls, attitudes like this must change. Breakthrough will implement an initiative bolstered by the arts and technology to empower young people to understand their stake in ending violence against women while inspiring them to act. Operating in six Hindi-speaking states across India, the project will employ Breakthrough’s proven five-pronged methodology that includes: (i) multimedia outreach incorporating popular culture, arts and technology (ii) community mobilization; (iii) leadership training and education of young people; (iv) the establishment of a deep network of partners across the Hindi belt; and (v) intensive monitoring and evaluation to inform future anti-violence work. The project will place a special emphasis on engaging men and boys between the ages of 15 and 30. By transforming the notion of masculinity, it will inspire and mobilize men, boys and young people to become leaders in saying “no” to violence against women, thereby making homes, communities, and public and private spaces safer for everyone.
Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha
Bangladesh
Project Title: “Safe School, Safe Community”
Focus area: Preventing and addressing violence against adolescent girls
Description: Bangladesh is one of seven countries in the world where the number of men exceeds that of women. While supportive national initiatives, policies and laws to advance gender equality and prevent gender-based violence exist, the mobilization of informed citizens and their collective actions is needed to challenge norms that foster gender discrimination and violence against women and girls in Bangladeshi society.
Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha, a local women’s organization, will work with schools as a platform to build students’ notions and awareness of gender equality and challenge harmful norms and attitudes that condone and promote the acceptability of violence against women. One hundred schools across five districts will be prompted to institute tangible measures to declare themselves “safe” learning environments by adopting sexual harassment and child rights policies; teaching negotiation skills; setting behavioural standards for students, teachers and administrators; and establishing professional counselling services and grievance mechanisms with a specific focus on gender-based violence.
Ikatan Perempuan Positif Indonesia (IPPI)
Indonesia
Project Title: “One-Stop Service: Integrated Services for Survivors of Violence and Women Living with HIV”
Focus area: Expanding survivors’ access to support services
Description: The number of women affected by HIV/AIDS in Indonesia has steadily increased as a result of heterosexual transmission becoming the main mode of transmission. While statistics on violence against women are less reliable, data collected from institutions offering services to survivors showed that in 2010 alone over 105,000 women sought support. Given strong interlinkages between violence against women and HIV/AIDS, the need to address the twin pandemics holistically and comprehensively in Indonesia has become an urgent priority. The Association of Positive Women Indonesia will address the absence of integrated services for HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence survivors within the current service-provider structures in Jakarta and Medan. The initiative will break silos, strengthen referral systems and bolster support networks through the establishment of multisectoral collaborations within the health sector. At the individual and institutional levels, the project will focus on building the capacity of HIV/AIDS actors to incorporate violence against women prevention and services into their work. Through a series of advocacy campaigns, the project will raise awareness on the links between HIV/AIDS and violence against women and the availability of integrated services. If successful, the project will provide a strategic entry point towards making ending violence against women an integral component of existing HIV/AIDS interventions in Indonesia.
Action Aid Myanmar
Myanmar
Project Title: “Promoting Access to Justice: Towards a Violence-Free Environment for Women and Girls”
Focus area: Strengthening the implementation of laws, policies and action plans
Description: Little is known of the prevalence and types of violence encountered by women in Myanmar. The lack of available data, compounded by the absence of institutional mechanisms to prevent and respond to these abuses, makes addressing gender-based violence in the country particularly challenging. Against this backdrop, ActionAid Myanmar will implement a comprehensive initiative that intends to build on a successful pilot project conducted in 2012 in urban periphery areas of Yangon. The initiative will improve service-delivery, with a special emphasis on promoting access to justice through the provision of legal aid services for rural women. Prevention will also be a key focus through the capacity-development of youth leaders and young people at the community level and the establishment of creative strategies around partnerships, including with the private sector and the media, at national and community levels. The initiative will also conduct a participatory community‐based research study as a means to feed into the ongoing consultation process for the development of the national anti‐Violence against Women legislation and draft disability law.
Plan Viet Nam
Viet Nam
Project Title: “Gender-Responsive Schools Pilot Model”
Focus area: Preventing and addressing violence against adolescent girls
Description: Gender-based violence in and around schools is highly prevalent in Viet Nam and is one of the main barriers to girls’ empowerment and gender equality. A recent study carried out in high schools across three provinces revealed that 20 per cent of girls experienced unwanted sexual touching. Plan Viet Nam will pilot a research-based model of gender-responsive schools in 20 schools across Hanoi, reaching approximately 30,000 adolescent girls and boys aged 11 to 18. The model promotes safe, accountable and child-friendly spaces where adolescent girls and boys receive a quality education in an environment free of violence. This includes establishing safe and effective reporting and response channels, employing well-trained staff, and encouraging inclusiveness, participation and partnerships. The project will also empower adolescents, engage teachers and parents as change agents and establish strong collaborations with the Government to institutionalize strategies that have proven to be effective. Based on the model’s success, the Hanoi Department of Education intends to replicate the initiative across 766 schools in the city, potentially reaching over 500,000 adolescents, thus presenting a unique opportunity for promoting alternative gender norms and relations in urban Viet Nam.
Europe and Central Asia
Society Without Violence
Armenia
Project Title: “Integration of Gender and Gender-based Violence into Educational Curriculums in the Framework of the National 2011-2015 Strategic Plan”
Focus area: Strengthening the implementation of laws, policies and action plans
Description: In June 2010, the Government of Armenia adopted its first National Action Plan to Combat Gender-Based Violence. Although a significant achievement, important gaps remain particularly with respect to education. Gender education is still largely undertaken by grassroots organizations will little integration in the national curriculum or textbooks. Teachers also often lack the skills to teach gender equality and gender-based violence at school. In response to these challenges, Society Without Violence will implement an initiative to promote the integration of gender and gender-based violence into the State education policy. The project will guide the Ministry of Education and Science as well as the National Institute of Education on the issue of gender-based violence and effective teaching methodologies. Social science teachers at secondary schools will be trained and, in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Science and Yerevan City Hall, gender-based violence will be integrated into professional development courses. In collaboration with the Open Society Institute, the initiative will also monitor the extent to which gender-based violence is integrated into school curricula in line with the National Action Plan.
European Centre for Minority Issues Kosovo
Kosovo under UNSCR 1244 (1999)
Project Title: “Empowering Minority Communities in Kosovo against Gender-Based Violence”
Focus area: Preventing and addressing violence against adolescent girls
Description: In Kosovo, women and girls belonging to minority groups, particularly Roma, Ashkali, Egyptian and Serb minorities, face persistent and pervasive gender inequality compounded by socioeconomic, political and cultural marginalization. While the high prevalence of violence affecting these communities highlights their particularly vulnerable condition, few interventions exist to address violence against women in these communities. This project will address the high risk of adolescent and young girls in minority communities of Kosovo to gender-based violence. It will improve their access to prevention and protection, reduce their socioeconomic vulnerability, and raise awareness on women’s rights, gender equality and existing mechanisms to address gender-based violence. To this end, female paralegals from minority areas will be trained and supported to establish a network to provide a more coordinated response to violence within the target communities. Operating from “safe spaces” that will be established in communities, paralegals will provide immediate assistance to (potential) victims of violence and their families in accessing justice and health services, while raising awareness through school-based and other interventions targeting young people. At the “safe spaces”, skills trainings (e.g., literacy, language and information technology skills) will also be provided to local minority women and girls.
B92 Foundation
Serbia
Project Title: “Safe House Economic Empowerment”
Focus Area: Strengthening the implementation of laws, policies and action plans
Description: In Serbia, the National Strategy for the Prevention and Elimination of Violence against Women in the Family and in Intimate Partner Relationships (2011) establishes measures to promote the employment and economic independence of women survivors of violence. To date, implementation of the strategy’s economic empowerment component has been a challenge due to a host of structural, social and economic reasons. Economic dependence often keeps women trapped in abusive relationships and dependent on abusive partners for food, shelter and basic necessities for themselves and their children. After leaving shelters, women in Serbia often end up with labour- intensive and low-paid work and more than 35 per cent return to their abusive partner. In order to reduce the chances of women reuniting with violent partners, the pilot project will upgrade a Safe House in the Municipality of Sombor into a business incubator where survivors of violence will be empowered with education, training and support to start their own business, seek employment and advance their careers. A social purpose organization will be established within the Safe House that will design and brand a “Secret Location Product” (referring to the hidden locations of Safe Houses in Serbia) which will be promoted and sold nationwide as a means to raise awareness. The profits will be invested in the Safe House to support current and future residents. If successful, the model will serve to advocate for the replication of the initiative in safe houses across Serbia.
Ukrainian Women's Fund
Ukraine
Project Title: “Programme for the Implementation of the Special Law on Gender-Based Violence”
Focus Area: Preventing and addressing violence against adolescent girls
Description: Violence against women is widespread in the Ukraine with nearly 45 per cent of women experiencing violence at least once in their lifetime. Research shows that 56 per cent of Ukrainian women who survived violence in their childhood experience violence again after the age of 18. The project implemented by the Ukrainian Women’s Fund will mobilize youth to take a stand against violence by developing capacity and building commitment among young women and girl-leaders. In the first phase of the project, 25 girl leaders will be selected from nine regions to take part in a training-of-trainers on leadership and violence against women and girls. As a result of this training, girls will create a strategy of joint actions which will be implemented during the second stage of the project, in which awareness-raising and outreach activities will be coordinated and peer-to-peer support groups established to provide girls at high risk with referrals to services. In the third stage, a unified model of work will be developed with contributions from young girl leaders and young girl survivors of violence which will be presented to the Ministry of Social Policy for endorsement as a means to strengthen referral systems and improve the quality of available support services.
Cross-regional
Danish Refugee Council
Afghanistan and Tajikistan
Project Title: “Empowering Displaced Women through Legal Aid and Training to Combat Violence against Women”
Focus Area: Expanding survivors’ access to support services
Description: Both Afghanistan and Tajikistan host large numbers of forcibly displaced populations. Since 2002, more than 5.6 million Afghan refugees have returned from neighbouring States. The Danish Refugee Council also estimates that there are at least 550,000 internally displaced persons currently in Afghanistan. Across the border in Tajikistan, the population of displaced persons has exponentially increased in recent years, with the number of asylum-seekers expected to grow further as the presence of international military forces in Afghanistan decreases through 2013/2014. Within this context, violence against displaced women has reached endemic levels in both countries. Often perpetrated by those closest to them, violence experienced by displaced women affects their physical and emotional health and safety and imperils their attempts to find durable solutions to their displacement. In spite of a series of laws enacted to protect them, displaced women have little access to justice and social services. This initiative will reduce impunity for sexual and gender-based violence through the provision of legal aid to displaced women who are at risk and who are survivors of violence. Mobile legal aid clinics will be established to serve communities hosting a high concentration of displaced persons in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Outreach will also be conducted to increase awareness of women’s rights and available services in the selected communities and the capacity of legal professionals in the provision of effective legal assistance to displaced victims of sexual and gender-based violence will be strengthened. In partnership with the Centre for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California, the initiative will also produce research and evidence-based policy recommendations to strengthen displaced women’s access to justice.