Women are empowered to build resilient, cohesive and peaceful communities to prevent radicalisation and violent extremism
Women are empowered to build resilient, cohesive and peaceful communities to prevent radicalisation and violent extremism
Data reported for 2022 results against this indicator was obtained as part of a learning process on social norms and therefore may not accurately reflect the results obtained. Internal reviews of data collected on social norms across relevant indicators, coupled with external reviews, are informing the design of UN Women’s principled approach to social & gender norms change. This will be reflected in changes to the indicators to be introduced in the Mid-Term Review of the Strategic Plan.
Complementary indicators are identified as those in the results framework that are not repeated verbatim in the results framework of another United Nations entity, but are related or provide different but complementary lenses or insights into the same issue, high-level result and/or area of complementary work, such as a Sustainable Development Goal target.
ComplementaryCapacity development and technical assistance (DPMC and SC)
Women have increased resources and capacity to lead efforts that build resilience and social cohesion in their communities
In addition to results reported by UN Women field offices (shown here), results achieved in countries and territories through the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UNTF) are included in a non-duplicative manner in the global reporting on this indicator (see the Our Global Results page).
Governments have increased access to the necessary gender expertise and women’s groups have increased capacities to influence the development and implementation of gender-sensitive policies to prevent and counter terrorism, violent extremism and hate speech
Regional multi-stakeholder platform of cooperation among South and Southeast Asia countries is strengthened to promote good practices and evidence on the use of gender and social media to promote peace and counter violent extremism, hate speech and misogyny is generated
Women are empowered to build resilient, cohesive and peaceful communities to prevent radicalisation and violent extremism
UN Women has made significant progress on the outcome 6.6 in 2022. In total, over 2.5 million individuals strengthened their understanding of the role women play in preventing terrorism, violent extremism and hate speech through the regional Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) programme called "Empowered Women, Peaceful Communities" - Phase V (April 2021-March 2022). UN Women continued to support the implementation and localization of National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security (NAP WPS) in Bangladesh and also has successfully advocated retaining a national policy framework for the government's commitment to advancing the Women Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in Thailand. In Bangladesh , UN Women has consolidated the experience and networks of prior phases to create a strong basis to scale up impact on preventing violent extremism and advancing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. UN Women has enhanced partnerships with the government, civil society, academic institutions, and development partners that can be leveraged for further engagement. The Women Peace Café (WPC), co-created by UN Women and the Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ), is a key product of the overall regional PVE programme, which is the foundation of this project. Within the context of COVID-19 in this project, the WPC model expanded and proved to be a replicable and sustainable model for engaging youth to promote peace and social cohesion. Two new WPCs have been established in the two leading universities of Bangladesh; Brac University and Dhaka University. In this model, a total of 244 women enhanced their skills of entrepreneurship, including 154 female students trained in online Women Entrepreneurship Training for Promoting Peace and Social Cohesion; another 90 female students engaged as volunteers in the six Women Peace Ambassador initiative groups, to benefit directly from the innovative social entrepreneurship activities of the initiative. With a reach across four universities in total, the WPC platform is expanding the constituency for peace and resilience by reaching young future women leaders and better equipping them to prevent terrorism, violent extremism and hate speech. In addition, with the technical support of UN Women, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs formalized the Inter-Ministerial Coordination Group for implementation of the National Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security in 2021 through its first formal meeting, which included representatives from all relevant ministries/divisions/departments. Throughout 2022, UN Women contributed to the NAP implementation by undertaking a mapping exercise to determine the status of activities undertaken by Coordination Group members under the NAP WPS, as well as refining tools and templates for monitoring and reporting against the NAP. In Thailand , UN Women contributed to strengthening the cooperation and multi-stakeholder partnership between the government and civil society organizations (CSOs) at the local level to respond to online threats and localize the WPS agenda. Both relevant local government agencies, CSOs and women’s groups have enhanced their knowledge to sufficiently understand digital space and the WPS agenda. Approximately 141,000 people were reached by online digital literacy trainings to prevent hate speech and promote resilience. Women leaders, women, and youth in communities in the southern border provinces (SBPs) who were trained as digital literacy trainers conducted and facilitated the training to raise awareness and advance cybersecurity in communities and attend to the issue of hate speech. Furthermore, a total of 110 women have increased their skills in the online marketing courses for women entrepreneurs and cooperatives in SBPs. The entrepreneurship activities have been critical connecting measures in SBPs to gather the beneficiary women’s groups and to engage local authorities in building trust with the Buddhist and Muslim communities. At the national level, UN Women has successfully advocated retaining a national policy framework for the government’s commitment to advancing the WPS agenda. The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS) has agreed that UN Women will work closely with the Department of Women’s Affairs and Family Development at the national level and with Coordination Centre for Children and Women in the Southern Border Provinces (CCCW-SBP) at the local level to support the review and extension of the Measures and Guidelines on Women, Peace and Security. According to the review of the Phase V conduced in 2022, overall, the project was highly relevant in addressing key gendered challenges relating to violent extremism, particularly relating to vulnerabilities of women in the COVID context. It also appropriately supported women’s empowerment in ways that enable them to contribute to PVE more broadly. The project made less progress on policy implementation, in part due to government resources being diverted to tackling the pandemic. The project adapted its policy approach, working with civil society actors to localise policy implementation and awareness whilst adapting plans to work with government longer term. Therefore, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome is applicable. During the five phases of "Empowered Women, Peaceful Communities" (April 2017 - March 2022), approximately 5 million individuals have strengthened their understanding of the role of women can play to prevent violent extremism and gender dynamics of this threat, particularly in Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and regionally and globally including through innovative communication tools as well as capacity development, awareness raising and knowledge sharing efforts. More than 6,000 women from over 200 communities in the four countries have strengthened their capacity to generate income as a result of the project’s economic empowerment initiatives. They have become to be agents of change in their communities and promote peace and social cohesion, thereby preventing radicalization and violent extremism. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital platforms and online spaces are being increasingly used to spread sexist, inaccurate, and dangerous rhetoric about women, inciting hatred and potentially provoking violence – online and offline. Through digital literacy training, 420 young leaders (408 women and 12 men, including indigenous peoples, transgender individuals, the urban poor and rural communities) in Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Thailand have strengthened capacity to identify, protect against and report online hate speech, misinformation and disinformation, especially in the context of COVID-19. They also learned how to create and disseminate edutainment videos to promote gender equality and social cohesion through social media. The key lessons learned and good practices emerging from the programme include the following: collective space for women's engagement in peacebuilding; national consultations and coalition building; digital literacy and social media skills were highly valued; engagement with new stakeholders (including youth and religious leaders) by incorporating a more comprehensive approach to community-level preventing violent extremism trainings; partnership formation; use of creative communication materials; development of a body of research and evidence that supports the implementation of a gender-sensitive approach to PVE; awareness of the subject matter's sensitivity and the need to ensure the safety of all participants and implementers. (Please refer to the attached programme brief for more details)Disclaimer and notes
References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).