Outcome LBY_O_2

UN Women effectively leverages and expands its partnerships, communications and advocacy capabilities to increase support for and financing of the gender equality agenda, while securing sustainable resourcing for the delivery of its own mandate.

During the reporting year, UN Women Libya leveraged and expanded its partnerships, communication and advocacy capacities for financing for gender equality, as part of the process of developing its new Strategic Note (2023-2025) and Biannual Work Plan (2023-2024). Libya CO analyzed new opportunities for partnerships and resources, and focused on forging new alliances with new government stakeholders and media stakeholders through the supporting stakeholder consultations that were attended by 110 men & women including women with disabilities and youth participants from civil society, UN agencies, bilateral partners, national institutions and ministries. Through its work to end online violence against women in Libya (OVAW), UN Women leveraged its diverse partnership network from the UN, national institutions, the private sector, the media, and civil society to increase awareness of and develop strategies for a way forward to address OVAW. UN Women organized a Training of Trainers (ToT) for 14 women who went on to increase knowledge about OVAW and how to combat ICT-facilitated violence for 410 Libyans (373 women; 37 men) including persons with disabilities, staff from the High National Elections Commission (HNEC), and media personnel, from 9 cities (Tripoli, Benghazi, Sabha, Misrata, Sirt, Marej, Tubruk, Kufra and Zintan). After UN Women’s advocacy, the Ministry of Interior requested UN Women to conduct training sessions for the Office of Family and Child Protection personnel on how to prevent and combat OVAW. Moreover, the General Authority for Monitoring Media Content raised recommendations of key actions to eliminate OVAW in Libya. In March, UN Women organized a listening session between women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in Libya and Facebook/Meta. The sessions provided a unique opportunity for duty-bearers to listen to women’s first-hand challenges when reporting cases of OVAW due to gender-blind reporting mechanisms, and the continuum of violence that often starts online and continues offline. This led to Women partnering with HNEC, to develop a mapping of the social media platforms women activists use that demonstrated that women in public office receive significantly more attacks/negative comments than men and 35% of comments are considered “offensive” and caused negative reactions. UN Women leveraged its coordination mandate to support the inclusion of women’s issues in Libya’s 2023-2025 UNSDCF. UN Women co-drafted Pillar 1 (Peace and Governance) and contributed to Pillar 3 (Social and Human Capital Development), as well as provided suggestions for the remaining Pillars to improve the UNSDCF’s responsiveness to the specific needs of women. In October, UN Women Libya organized a training workshop in collaboration with the UN Women Lebanon country office, who delivered the training sessions on ensuring humanitarian response efforts adequately address the needs and rights of crisis affected women and girls during a 3-day in-person Training of Trainers (ToT), for 16 focal points from 9 UN agencies, 1 international NGO and 1 Libyan NGO. In 2022, UN Women as co-chair of the GTG organized and hosted two (2) meetings with 39 members from 20 UN agencies and produced a joint statement on International Women’s Day. The CO also developed and shared an online survey that was completed by 10 UN agencies on their priorities for reform of the GTG, that included increased inter-agency collaboration, capacity building, and dialogue with external stakeholders. Based on these suggestions, as well as new guidance issued by the UN Development Cooperation Office, UN Women as the chair of this coordination group, and UNFPA and UNSMIL as co-chairs have begun the group’s reform process to align with the new GTG Standards and Procedures.