Eliminating Violence Against Women In West Bank And Gaza Strip

- Based on the problem, the purpose of this joint programme is to reduce vulnerability of women and girls in West Bank Gaza to all forms of violence against women and from the threat of such violence.- Eliminating violence against women requires interventions on both the side of service providers as well as service users. This will be achieved through supporting reforms to the health and social service sectors' capacities to be effective and accountable for preventing, mitigating and responding to violence, but also very importantly through changes to the community's utilization of services and the behaviors and attitudes related to violence against women on the part of all concerned parties.- The program builds on ongoing work across the UN system in West Bank and Gaza Strip and forms a coordinated, multi-sector, long term strategy designed to produce results in preventing and combating violence against women and girls through experimentation and documentation of ‘what works' and lessons learnt. It also draws on the pending process of harmonizing legislation and regulations with international standards related to preventing and combating violence against women. - The programme focuses on comprehensive and integrated interventions that are designed from a proven evidence base. The interventions are targeted at different levels (the individual, the relationship between partners, the family, the community, including the physical environment (through providing safe and inclusive public spaces), the society, local government, national government, grassroots civil society); across the three pillars of prevention, response and policy development (the intermediate outcome areas as outlined above); and with a longer-term time-frame recognizing that preventing and responding to violence against women requires sustained commitment of financial and human resources. - This is a joint programme led by UN Women and including UNFPA, UN Habitat and UNODC. The joint programme will build coalitions, between and with civil society organizations and establish networks at the local and national levels. The programme will ensure complementarity and synergies with other relevant programmes and projects avoiding duplication and overlapping through coordinating with established networks and coalitions. The key partners for UN Habitat components are: The Ministry of Local Government, five selected municipalities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian Universities (Birzeit, Al Najah, and the Polytechnic).- UN Habitat will develop a methodology and training sessions for local authorities and municipalities on the provision of inclusive, safe and free of violence public spaces especially for women and girls, implement this capacity building and advocate with local authorities and the Ministry of Local Government for the development of a national gender responsive public space policy based on the lessons learned and results achieved during the programme.