Outcome APA_D_3.2

Favorable social norms, attitudes and behaviors are promoted at national, community and individual levels to prevent VAW

he APA Outcome 3.2 made progress during the reporting period. Following years of advocacy and strengthening evidence, understanding and practice on prevention of VAWG and social norms change, Australia DFAT has partnered with UN Women and UNFPA ROAP offices to develop a regional center on prevention of VAW in Southeast Asia. This center is expected to strengthen prevention expertise and capacity, build evidence on effective programmatic interventions, and support regional advocacy collectives, and will focus on transformational, evidence-based advocacy, dialogue, policies and programming. UN Women is heavily involved in the design process. During the reporting period, youth equipped themselves on favourable social norms, attitudes and behaviours to end violence against women and girls. For this, they designed and led initiatives on ending violence against women and girls, drawing upon regional evidence and calling for action to support survivors of violence. The regional youth leadership network “ 30 for 2030 ” created the “ Youth Guide to End Online Gender-Based Violence (OGBV) ” to call for action from youth to address OGBV, in response to the high prevalence of online violence in the Asia-Pacific region, especially among young women and girls. The Guide is a significant outcome of the youth network as the entire process was led by the members of ‘30 for 2030’, from selecting OGBV as the topic to drawing actionable recommendations. The youth network utilized the UN Women’s study “Online Opposition to Gender Equality” to develop the Guide, where they extracted content related to narratives and tactics of online opposition to develop recommendations about how to counter the opposition narratives and engage men and boys in promoting gender equality. The 30 for 2030 is a youth leadership network that brings together young leaders with various backgrounds--eminent civic and business innovators, feminists, entrepreneurs, technology pioneers, educators, activists, artists, journalists, and more--launched by ROAP in March 2023. The 30 for 2030 thought leaders and experts are determined change-makers to accelerate progress toward the 2030 Agenda from a feminist perspective, break down gender barriers and make gender equality a working reality in their spheres of influence. ROAP provided capacity building opportunities and mentorships to strengthen their understanding of gender equality, ending violence against women and their advocacy skills. Voices against Violence Curriculum In Thailand, students have more opportunities to learn positive gender norms and relationships to prevent violence against women and girls. 1 school in Thailand developed its own resource package on Gender and Ending Violence to integrate the “ Voices against Violence (VaV)” curriculum into the regular school curriculum. This was initiated from the implementation of the VaV curriculum in 14 schools in Thailand, through the partnership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and their Thailand member organization “Girl Guides Association of Thailand – GGAT”. The VaV is a non-formal education programme for children and youth to help stop violence against girls and young women, developed by UN Women and WAGGGS. ROAP provided technical and financial support for the rollout of the curriculum. In 2022, WAGGGS continued the rollout of the curriculum and used a cascading model of capacity building whereby they trained the GGAT leadership and project team on Safeguarding and Child Protection , Power Dynamics and Rape Culture in School, as well as the Voices against Violence curriculum in general, the project team, in turn, strengthened the capacities of girl guides, girl guide leaders and volunteers on these topics who then engaged the schools. The project included a diverse age range of participants who reported becoming more conscious of their actions and more mindful of how they treat others. Next to their trainings and engagement with schools and the GGAT, the girl guides also advocated for stopping violence against girls during the International Women’s Day activities. After participating in the project, they felt confident that they have the knowledge and skills to educate their families, communities, and society at large on the issue of violence against girls, and they were very motivated to carry this work forward. Addressing gender-based violence on campus In Viet Nam, university campuses have become safer for their students with codes of conduct to prevent and respond to campus-related gender-based violence. During the reporting period, 3 universities in Viet Nam developed codes of conduct, based on the Guidance Note on Campus Violence Prevention and Response , with support from the regional office. Advocating for the adoption of a dedicated policy on preventing and responding to sexual harassment and sexual violence on campus has been one of the focus areas throughout the current SN period. Following this, a network of safe campuses was created with these universities as core members. Furthermore, a student-led online safe campus communication campaign was organized which reached 71,721 people, and the counselling rooms of these universities were improved to provide better quality support for students and staff in cases of violence.

Favorable social norms, attitudes and behaviors are promoted at national, community and individual levels to prevent VAW

The outcome was not achieved during the course of 2021, but progress was made. On 16 June 2021, the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in collaboration with Breakthrough organized a Regional Dialogue on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in the context of the Generation Equality Forum (GEF), featuring speakers from government, donors, activists, civil society and youth across the region. GEF also has a strong regional footprint – through the Regional Journey. By strengthening and deepening the mobilization of broad, diverse, civil society and stakeholders in countries and regions to inform the Forum, the Regional Journey helped the GEF effort toward fostering an inclusive, vibrant, and strengthened movement for gender equality that is responsive to building back better and differently from the COVID-19 crisis. Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is the focus of one of six Generation Equality Action Coalitions that are mobilizing governments, women’s, feminist and youth-led organizations, international organizations, and the private sector. The Regional Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on the Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence brought together change makers from across the Asia Pacific region to accelerate action on gender equality, inspire action and bold commitments from all stakeholders and discuss the priority Action Areas. The Regional Dialogue featured a diversity of speakers and activists. It kicked off with the powerful poem ‘Fortified Fortress’ by a young Thai artist, which spoke to the experiences of abuse, harassment and violence that many survivors of violence against women share. The event featured speakers from different sections at UN Women who spoke about the Transformative Agenda of the Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence, and the Commitment Makers Model. The four Actions of the GBV Action Coalition were unpacked, featuring a diverse range of speakers from different stakeholders. Action 1 focused on laws, policies and financing of efforts to eliminate gender-based violence, featuring speakers from Breakthrough about the importance of investing in and prioritizing services for survivors of gender-based violence even in challenging times and the EU Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand, who highlighted during his speech the remarkable outcomes of the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative. Remarks were also made by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Kingdom of Cambodia about the Cambodian National Action Plan to Prevent Violence against Women. Action 2 highlighted pioneering frameworks and approaches, and focused on the prevention of violence against women and girls in the region, featuring an introduction to the UN RESPECT framework and remarks from Our Watch in Australia about game-changing approaches that have been undertaken in Australia. Action 3 of the Regional GBV Dialogue highlighted responses to violence and services for survivors after violence has already occurred, featuring speakers from the World Health organization and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Viet Nam. The final part of the session focused on girl-led and women’s rights organizations, featuring feminist activists and youth speakers. As the key organizer of this 2.5 hour session, UN Women’s contributions were key to organizing and shaping the event. The EVAW unit liaised with colleagues at HQ leading efforts on the GEF, consulted with Breakthrough about the design of the event, and reached out to and prepared a wide range of diverse speakers to ensure a diversity of perspective represented and a magnitude of topics covered throughout the dialogue in an accessible and action-oriented way. The EVAW unit further played a significant role in promoting the Dialogue through its networks to ensure a wide participation from across the region. Efforts to promote and shape the event were further supported by Breakthrough as the co-organizing entity. Based on the progress made to date, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome is largely applicable and ROAP has not amended its strategy and ToC. The impact of the event includes bringing together a wide range of stakeholders from government, civil society, activists, academia and UN agencies to discuss next steps and identify entry points to advance EVAW efforts across the region. The attention on the issues received through this Regional Dialgoue are informing the EVAW teams and conversations and engagement with donors, governments and other stakeholders going forward.