Planned Budget (Total)
Other resources (non-core)
Country Indexes
outcome XM-DAC-41146-APA_D_6.6
Women are empowered to build resilient, cohesive and peaceful communities to prevent radicalisation and violent extremism
Under the regional Prevention of Violent Extremism (PVE) programme since April 2017, more than 2 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 5,700 women from over 200 communities in Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines are also economically empowered to generate income as a result of the project’s economic empowerment initiatives. They are also empowered to be agents of change in their communities and promote peace and social cohesion, thereby preventing radicalization and violent extremism. In 2021, in Bangladesh, the initiatives undertaken by the Women Peace Cafés (WPC) are a testament to the capacity of its members in promoting social cohesion and building the resilience of communities to prevent extremism. By the end of the fourth phase of the programme (March 2021), the WPC reached 395 women through entrepreneurship activities in communities at risk of radicalization. This included an online social entrepreneurship training that enabled 186 female students as agents of peace and engagement of 209 female volunteers in the Women Peace Ambassadors (WPA) initiatives. Under WPA, 40 female students and 16 male volunteers were selected to implement small projects that support vulnerable women affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and promote social cohesion in their communities. Moreover, approximately 1.2 million people were reached through a social media campaign on project activities, including 12,604 combined new followers on social media pages of WPCs and WPA initiatives. At the regional level, the project facilitated the participation of 70 individuals in regional dialogues to strengthen their understanding of the gender dynamics of violent extremism through an online event. In the fourth phase (April – December), the WPC continued to showcase good results. The WPC model from the prior phase was scaled up with the addition of two more universities resulting in its expansion into four WPCs. The WPC members continued to engage with peers through virtual events and social media despite the ongoing closures of all educational institutions. As a result of WPC activities, the project reached 241,180 individuals in Bangladesh to contribute to improving their understanding of women’s role in PVE and the gender dynamics of the threat of terrorism and hate speech. Furthermore, an animation “ The Impact of Gender Identities, Norms and Relations on Violent Extremism ” has been developed to summarize the key findings of the research entitled Building a Stronger Evidence Base: The Impact of Gender Identities, Norms and Relations on Violent Extremism, which was previously produced under the PVE programme in collaboration with Monash University GPS Centre. The animation has been subtitled in four different languages: English , Bahasa , Bangla , and Tagalog , corresponding to the languages spoken in the focus countries of the study. Ground-breaking UN Women research advances the conversation on gender in violent extremism. UN Women continues to advance the research agenda in gender and violent extremism in Asia – an area that remains without much international attention. (See UN Women Asia Pacific PVE webpage to access the researches.) The advocacy led by UN Women, as well as the technical support provided to strategic partners to shape policies related to violent extremism, resulted in four policy documents at the national and regional level ( National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security (Bangladesh); National Action Plan on Preventing Violent Extremism (Indonesia and the Philippines); and Plan of Action to Prevent and Counter the Rise of Radicalization and Violent Extremism (ASEAN)) that now integrate gender issues and the important role that women play in preventing violent extremism.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-APA_D_6.7
At-risk border communities are more resilient to human trafficking and related escalation, focusing especially on women
In 2021, UN Women has made significant progress to strengthen the resilience of at-risk border communities to human trafficking and related escalation. The dynamics of human trafficking is highly gendered and border locations are particularly vulnerable to these types of crimes. When there is little understanding of how gender affects the dynamics of trafficking, women and girls risk not receiving the assistance and services that they need. This risk is compounded by the low level of women’s leadership, representation and retention in law enforcement and border security functions. In order to build resilience and to mitigate these risks, an in-depth understanding of the gendered dynamics of trafficking as well as recruitment and retention policies for women officers is important, and integrating this awareness into the daily operations and strategies of law enforcement agencies is key. Research has shown that increasing the number of women in law enforcement results in law enforcement that is more responsive to women’s needs and more operationally effective. However, across the ASEAN region, the share of women law enforcement officers ranges from 6-20%. It was therefore deemed necessary to couple this initiative with championing women in the field and to gain a greater understanding of the drivers and hinders for women to join law enforcement and other security institutions. UN Women and UNODC identified the need to build a broader understanding of recruitment and retention practices of women in these agencies in upcoming programming. Hence, UN Women and UNODC join forces to promote the increase of women’s participation and leadership in law enforcement and border management in ASEAN in order to contribute to the improvement of the resilience of survivors of Trafficking in Persons in at-risk border communities. The programme was made possible with the generous support from the Government of Canada. On 26 August 2020, UN Women together with UNODC and INTERPOL published the milestone report Women in Law Enforcement in the ASEAN Region . UN Women has throughout the production of this study provided inputs and advice on gender sensitivity and responsiveness. The study covered the situation for women law enforcement officers in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam and many efforts have been made to disseminate the findings, including photo exhibitions, videos and other communication material for dissemination online and though social media platforms, participating in numerous events/dialogues/trainings. The milestone report provided valuable insights on recruitment and retention practices within law enforcement agencies from a gender-lens across the ASEAN region, looking both at regional trends but also deep-diving into challenges and opportunities on a national level in the aforementioned countries. To leverage these results, UN Women and UNODC capitalized on the organisation of a five-week training for law enforcement officers across Thailand, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Viet Nam and Cambodia, to disseminate the results of the study to collate inputs from participants on the findings and recommendations. In a first pilot to implement some of the recommendations from the report, UN Women also supported the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security’s partner the Peace House Shelters to improve their facilities and shelters for survivors of human trafficking and violence against women, for them to be more sensitive to the needs of women and girls. The recommendations highlight the importance of gender-sensitive facilities that accommodate the specific needs of women and children. This includes ensuring access to separate facilities for women for changing, sleeping and sanitation, but also for breastfeeding and other childcare needs. The donations also aim to improve the compatibility of equipment of the Call Center Services which is exceptionally important to address cross border human trafficking, and is therefore also deemed to be an important contribution in strengthening resilience towards trafficking of women and girls. In addition, UNODC together with UN Women set out to develop training curricula to strengthen law enforcement’s capacity to investigate trafficking in person from a gender and victim centered perspective. These are currently in process of editorial review. S trengthening capacities on gender awareness and survivor-centered approaches to investigate and respond to cases of Trafficking in Persons was central in the trainings. Throughout the design and execution of the trainings, UN Women has been active in providing expertise on gender concerns, such as identifying national gender experts to strengthen the capacities of national trainers to adequately integrate and reflect an inclusive gender-sensitive approach to the trainings and in implementing the curricula. In conclusion, UN Women’s contributions throughout this Programme have provided significant knowledge gains on opportunities and obstacles for women’s leadership and participation in law enforcement across the ASEAN region. Considering more long-term results, the inclusion of priorities on strengthening gender-informed responses to trafficking and strengthening the role of women in law enforcement in the ASEAN Border Management Cooperation Roadmap mentioned above is seen as a great gain in terms of recognising the importance of the issue. This also provides an excellent strategic entry point to continue the engagement with ASEAN member states in operationalising the report further and expanding and deepening national-level implementation. Hence, much groundwork has been laid out to continue working towards the overall impact goal, to ensure that an enabling environment is in place to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment, in line with international norms and stand
outcome XM-DAC-41146-APA_D_6.8
Timely gender-sensitive data on the impact and responses to crisis, including COVID-19, are produced and their use is promoted to inform policies, programmes, advocacy and research
Since the onset of COVID-19, UN Women has supported the production of evidence to inform crisis responses and related decision-making. For instance, two rounds of Rapid Assessment Surveys have been conducted, the first of which covered 11 countries and the second 7 countries. Related nationally representative estimates have been produced and included in publications, which helped shed light on the gender-differentiated impacts of the crisis. Analysis of big data has been conducted as well across 8 Asian countries and 4 Pacific countries, and publications and events were organized to promote these findings, including uptake for policy making. Finally, analysis of existing policies in place to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, is currently on going and expected to generate important findings on the effectiveness of the response and how to improve it.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-APA_O_1
Enhanced coordination, coherence and accountability of the UN system for commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment
In 2021, ROAP achieved OEE 1 in leveraging coordination and coherence in UN System for gender equality. Through inter-agency Issue-based Coalitions (IBCs) [NT1] on Human Rights (HR) and Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (GEWE), which ROAP co-chair, carried out HR/GEWE trainings [NT2] to mainstream GEWE into UNSDCF processes and UNCT-GEM to UNCTs across Asia-Pacific region and to systematically mainstream gender issues at all stages of the UNSDCF process, from Common Country Analysis to the ToC and Results Framework and in resourcing GEWE results. When UNCTs develop new UNSDCF-related documents including roadmap, CCA and UNSDCF, ROAP also provided technical inputs and reviews through regional Peer Support Groups to mainstream GEWE to the documents. IBC HR/GEWE meeting was held in Q4 of 2021 to discuss the 16 days campaign and to discuss operationalizing the UN Secretary General’s Call to Action on Human Rights . A survey was held to take stock of the IBC's work and functioning in 2021. ROAP also works under IBC on Climate Change Mitigation and Air Pollution together with ESCAP and UNEP. This IBC convened a joint side event at UNFCCC/COP26 on assessment of climate change commitments by Asia-Pacific countries to support the negotiations process on gender and climate change. ROAP and UNFCCC presented information on assessment of climate change commitments by countries in Asia-Pacific at the Virtual Market Place on Gender , where the challenges of gender mainstreaming in climate change have been discussed to inform negotiating parties. ROAP and UNITAR also organised the two Climate Classroom events on gender equality, human rights, climate change and renewable energy . UNCTs in Asia-Pacific benefits from UN Women’s UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard Toolkit which was launched in 2021. It features efforts from UNCTs who meet or exceed minimum requirements, by providing a repository of 79 global tools and good practice models which align with requirements of the 15 Performance Indicators. The Toolkit’s available resources on ROAP Website include quality assurance checklists, training materials, examples of ToRs, guidance notes, and case studies which can be adapted to suit different UNCTs’ needs. ROAP and UN Women Regional Office for West and Central Africa, who developed a “How-to-Do" toolkit, organised a cross-regional virtual session to help UN Women offices and UNCTs from both regions to familiarize with two complementary toolkits to support their implementation of the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard in the context of the UNSDCF and repositioning of the UNDS. [NT1] The first sentence should start whether this output cluster has been achieved in 2021. For the second part, suggest to provide introduction/key areas of IBCs like the Output Cluster 1 report in 2020. How IBC’s work facilitated partnership building and stakeholder engagement? Please also include co-leads of IBCs. [NT2] Suggest to provide # of participants in HR/GEWE trainings and if possible, please provide # of UNCTs that attended trainings
outcome XM-DAC-41146-APA_O_2
Increased engagement of partners in support of UN-Women’s mandate
In 2021, ROAP continued to build upon and strengthen its partnerships with development partners and the private sector. In spite of the continuing challenges of the COVID-19 context, the team worked on forging new alliances, cultivating relationships with existing partners, and further refining UN Women’s engagement with partners and its approach towards building strategic partnerships. To maintain and strengthen partnerships with regional stakeholders, the regional partnerships team organized and supported high-level ministerial roundtable discussions, virtual meetings with key partners, and quarterly Gender Equality Partners Coordination Group (GEPCG) meetings. GEPCG meetings in 2021 focused on UN Women SP development, the Generation Equality Forum, 16 Days Campaign and gender dimensions of crises in Afghanistan and Myanmar. The GEPCG was co-chaired by the Canadian Ambassador, transitioning to the Norwegian Ambassador for 2022. The ROAP team also provided input to HQ for multiple high-level consultations with important partners and continued to produce donor intelligence documents to inform and guide regional programme teams and country offices in their resource mobilization efforts. Negotiations continued for the Government of the Republic of Korea’s multi-year commitment for the establishment of a UN Women Knowledge Centre in Seoul. Initial seed funding was received in late 2021, following the approval by the BRC of the setting up of the centre and recruitment of the Director and staff are already in process with the centre’s formal launch event expected to take place in April 2022. The team continued to diversify UN Women’s funding by building partnerships with the private sector (companies, foundations, HNWIs). Prospecting lists have been created and regularly updated, industry and company specific pitches and other outreach materials have been drafted and meetings have taken place with key private sector actors and philanthropists. A key highlight in 2021 was the signing of a regional partnership with AliPay. During this period ROAP also continued its partnership with the World Design Organisation, working with multi-sectoral teams to use design thinking to develop innovations to address social norm change in the context of preventing GBV. ROAP continued to work closely with Thai celebrity Cindy Bishop as UN Women Regional Goodwill Ambassador, who has supported our work throughout 2021. Throughout the year, ROAP also provided both Country Offices and regional programme teams capacity building and strategic fundraising support. During the 16 Days we also entered a partnership with Thai media company Scenario, inaugurating relationships with four Thai women entertainers/influencers with an interest in speaking out on women’s rights issues: Kirana Jasmine Chewter (Jazzy), Amita Marie Young (Tata), Christina Aguilar (Tina), Metinee Washington Kingpayome (Lukkade).Showing 11 - 15 of 17