Outcome LAC_D_1.2

More women lead and benefit from national and local initiatives in political dialogue, peacebuilding, conflict prevention, human mobility, humanitarian action and climate resilience

In 2024, significant progress was achieved in advancing the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region through the adoption and development of National Action Plans (NAPs). Notably, Ecuador and Colombia successfully launched their respective NAPs in December 2024. These plans were tailored to address the unique national contexts, integrating gender-sensitive approaches and inclusive monitoring indicators to ensure effective implementation and accountability. Additionally, the WPSHA team played a crucial role in facilitating the development of Trinidad and Tobago’s first WPS NAP. While its publication is scheduled for March 2025, ongoing technical assistance has ensured the inclusion of robust monitoring frameworks. Regional efforts also included the conceptualization of a Caribbean Regional Action Plan on WPS, supported by a £50,000 initiative aimed at addressing gender-based violence, organized crime, and climate-related challenges. Thanks to the work of UN Women with financing from the Government of Japan through its program “Leadership, empowerment, access and protection of women in the human mobility crisis in Central America” (LEAP/Trayectos) women, girls and LGBTIQ+ people affected by the human mobility crisis have greater leadership, participation on equal terms, and benefit from gender-sensitive protection services and social cohesion initiatives in host communities on the northern and southern borders of Costa Rica. Humanitarian actors have improved their capacity to plan and deliver protection services, including attention to gender-based violence, that respond to the needs of women on the move in Costa Rica. In 2024, UN Women provided training to 23 humanitarian actors from organizations such as IOM, UNHCR, HIAS and Casa Esperanza, 10 women from the Humanitarian Network of the Corredores canton in Paso Canoas, as well as 13 officials from the National Institute for Women (INAMU) of the Brunca Region that provides care services to the population in transit, which provides new tools to the people participating in the care and response to revealed cases of JBV and the incorporation of the gender perspective in the humanitarian response. A total of 84 members of organizations, leaders, activists and feminists from Costa Rica improved their capacities to incorporate the gender perspective in humanitarian action, through a course developed by UN Women and FLACSO called “Gender equality and participation of women in humanitarian action”. These results have been thanks to the role that UN Women has played in advocacy spaces such as protection tables and interagency spaces where it has positioned a gender agenda in the humanitarian and institutional sector. Through a partnership agreement with HIAS Costa Rica, UN Women has been able to implement the provision of psychosocial and GBV protection services to 1,152 women, girls and LGBTIQ+ people who have entered through the southern and northern borders of Costa Rica through mobile brigades. Through this joint agreement, leaders of host communities who are part of community organizations have increased their capacities through 3 social cohesion initiatives developed in host communities at each of the borders. In addition, 188 women and girls have received hygiene and protection kits that are sensitive and adapted for human mobility based on the needs reported by them and humanitarian actors in Costa Rica. Coalición Nacional contra la Trata de Personas y el Tráfico Ilícito de Migrantes (CONATT) has boosted its work towards the prevention and attention of human trafficking and smuggling of migrants from a gender-based approach through the collection, exchange and analysis of data on trafficking in persons and smuggling with new protocols implemented and the enhancement of capacities for public officials, thanks to actions implemented under the Migration MMPTF Joint Fund on “Strengthening Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Agencies' Capacity to Coordinate and Exchange Information to Investigate and Prosecute Human Trafficking and the Smuggling of Migrants”, implemented by IOM, UN Women and UNODC. Additionally, the Costa Rican judiciary has improved access to justice for victims of trafficking and smuggled migrants through specialised capacity-building programmes, the assessment of services and attention, the preparation of tailor-made consultation materials and manuals for internal coordination, and the improvement of the actual temporary Sub-Commission for Combating Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants, which was inactive before the implementation of this programme and became active with the work plan developed through this intervention. Progress has also been made towards the establishment of a permanent Commission to Combat Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants. In addition, the protocols and mechanisms for data and information exchange have been improved through reforms to ensure better coordination between institutions, as well as training on the reforms and the application of a gender and human rights approach to procedures. Regional health services are more respectful of the needs and identities of migrants from a human rights and gender-based approach through capacity strengthening for health care personnel in communities with the highest human mobility rates. Financial service providers are making progress on the financial inclusion of vulnerable migrants through training and awareness of migrant women’s needs promoted by UN Women.

More women lead and benefit from national and local initiatives in political dialogue, peacebuilding, conflict prevention, human mobility, humanitarian action and climate resilience

The implementation of the Migration MPTF Joint Programme (IOM, UNODC, UN Women) in Costa Rica is allowing UN Women to strengthen the capacity of Costa Rican authorities to identify, investigate and prosecute organized crime affecting migrants in transit, and reduce the vulnerability of migrants to human trafficking and smuggling through a gender and human rights perspective. UN Women has been developing initial diagnosis in alliance with IOM to guide project implementation and capacity building processes are under implementation. UN Women has been advocating for the inclusion of a gender perspective in the implementation of all efforts of the Joint Programme. An important achievement has been in the inclusion of sex-disaggregated variables and specific questions for the analysis of the information with a gender perspective the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) to produce gender-sensitive reports. This will facilitate analysis and decision making on human mobility to include a gender perspective by OIM , other agencies and possibly government counterparts.