ENDVAW - September 2007

Contents

• Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) web portal
• White Ribbon Campaign Pakistan: Beginning of a New Era, Men for Ending Violence Against Women
• UN's Solution Exchange initiative builds Communities of Practice
• Solution Exchange for Gender Community E-Discussion Summary: Implementing the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act
• Solution Exchange for Gender Community Consolidated Reply Query: Engendering 11th Plan, from UNDP, New Delhi (Experiences)
• Award for anti-mutilation charity
• SAVE THE DATE: Best Practices in Monitoring and Evaluation of Gender-Based Violence, Nov. 8, 2007

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UNIFEM is pleased to announce the launch of a new version of the Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) web portal: http://www.gender-budgets.org/

The website has been upgraded to respond to feedback received by UNIFEM from users and partners over the past few years, with the hope that it continues to be a comprehensive and useful resource centre on gender-responsive budgeting.

Adjustments to the website include:

• Provision of easily accessible, searchable and up-to-date resources on GRB.
• Reorganization of the website into categories and sections that are more user-friendly.
• Creation of a section entitled "Issues" (http://www.gender-budgets.org/content/view/208/190/) that provides resources on GRB in relation to specific issues, such as rights-based budgeting, aid effectiveness, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, among others.
• Creation of sections for resources in Arabic (http://www.gender-budgets.org/content/blogcategory/80/171/), French (http://www.gender-budgets.org/content/blogcategory/81/172/), and Spanish (http://www.gender-budgets.org/content/blogcategory/82/170/).
• Migration of the site from its previous location under the website of the International Development and Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada to this current independent location: http://www.gender-budgets.org/

UNIFEM would like to invite all interested organizations and individuals to contribute to the contents of this website by sending us resources for posting. We also welcome your feedback and welcome any interest in building partnerships with national, regional and international organizations to strengthen this website and the work on gender-responsive budgeting at large. Please contact us at gender.budgets@unifem.org

—UNIFEM Gender-Responsive Budgets Programme Team

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White Ribbon Campaign Pakistan: Beginning of a New Era

Men for Ending Violence Against Women July 2006-June 2007

The White Ribbon Campaign Pakistan was launched with a vision to create awareness specifically amongst men and boys and in the public at large regarding injustice towards women and violation of women's rights. First year report of introducing this intervention in Pakistan attached.

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Solution Exchange: An Initiative of the United Nations in India

In a country as large and vibrant as India, development workers operate in knowledgerich environments where continuous experimentation and implementation of innovative ideas goes on. While some of this knowledge has been codified and shared, much of the larger pool knowledge gained through these experiences remain undocumented, out of the reach of practitioners, and in danger of being forgotten.

Attempting to harness this knowledge, the United Nations agencies in India support this knowledge-sharing initiative to help improve development effectiveness in support of achieving the objectives of India's Five-Year Plans and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The UN's Solution Exchange initiative builds Communities of Practice (CoPs), by connecting people with similar concerns and interests through email groups and face-to-face interactions. The objective is to leverage India’s knowledge pool to help ensure that no one “reinvents the wheel.”

So far, Solution Exchange in India has established eleven Communities of Practice:

AIDS
Gender
Decentralization Health
Maternal and Child Health
Disaster Management ICT for Development
Education Poverty
Microfinance
Environment
Water Poverty
Work and Employment
Food and Nutrition Security

Two new Environment Communities on “Clean Technologies” and “Sustainable Environment” will be launched in the near future.

To read more, visit: http://www.unifem.org.in/Solution%20Exchange%20Introduction.pdf

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Solution Exchange for Gender Community E-Discussion Summary: Implementing the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act

http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/gender/e-discuss/disc01-t01-fullsumm-public.pdf

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Solution Exchange for Gender Community Consolidated Reply
Query: Engendering 11th Plan, from UNDP, New Delhi (Experiences)

From Meenakshi Kathel, UNDP, New Delhi
Posted 10 October 2006

As you may be aware, UNIFEM supported an innovative pilot for engendering the Ninth Five Year Plan, where it facilitated a unique partnership between the Governments, in particular with then the Department of Women and Child Development and the Planning Commission, distinguished leaders of the women’s movement and grassroots women’s group through the creation of a Think Tank. The creation of the think tank ensured that woman’s voices from different walks of life and different regions were fed into the planning process at different stages. The above process continued for the Tenth Plan supported by the UN Inter Agency Group. For the forthcoming Eleventh Five Year, UNDP as per its mandate has attempted to upscale this innovative pilot by UNIFEM with support from the Ministry of Women and Child Development. This time, the scale of the exercise has increased manifold both in terms of geographical and numerical coverage. The entire process was led by National Alliance of Women's Organisation (NAWO).

Please see the link for more information: http://www.undp.org.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=249&Itemid=0

The Planning Commission stressed the need for taking this process further to the States from the advocacy point of view with the State Governments as there is a continuation of ‘welfarist’ approach towards women at the State level whereas at the national level the discourse has shifted from welfare (Fifth Five Year Plans) to empowerment of women (Ninth Five Year Plan). Further, the responsibility for social sectors lies with the State governments as per the Constitution of India. This has resulted in varied progress across States, especially with regard to women. It would be also important to focus upon the inter-State disparities with regard to situation of women.

In the above context, UNDP is attempting to deepen the process by supporting the similar process at the state level to render planning more responsive to women’s needs and priorities. UNDP is looking for experiences of civil society, and development practitioners in engendering the planning process at the State level. I would like to request the members to offer strategies and experiences for engendering planning process at the state level.

Members may please share their experiences and send in their recommendations in:

• Engendering the state plan, considering each state has its own vision and mandate for gender justice and empowerment
• Strategies adopted so far
• Some of the successful lessons learnt
• Innovative ideas and suggestions which can be incorporated

To read more, visit: http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/gender/cr-public/cr-se-gen-20120601-public.pdf

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Award for anti-mutilation charity

By David Bamford
BBC News Africa analyst

A West African aid group campaigning to abolish female genital mutilation has been awarded the world's biggest prize for humanitarian work.

• The Tostan organisation, based in Senegal, has been chosen for the Hilton Prize, worth $1.5m (£740,000)
• The organisation uses traditional song, poetry, theatre and dance to educate people in West African villages about the dangers of genital mutilation.
• Prize judges said Tostan had nurtured new ways of dealing with the issue.
• Tostan's 400 staff are mostly African workers.
• Their grassroots approach has been key to dealing sensitively with an issue that involves convincing traditional communities they should move away from a long-maintained yet cruel cultural practice.
• The Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, one of the Hilton prize jurors, said that Tostan's founder in Senegal, American-born Molly Melching, had nurtured a fresh approach by persuading a critical proportion of the population to agree with you and then act in unison.
• The name Tostan is from the local Wolof language, meaning "breakthrough".
• The prize is awarded annually by a foundation set up by the hotel entrepreneur Conrad Hilton.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6943113.stm
Published: 2007/08/12 14:38:14 GMT

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SAVE THE DATE

 Best Practices in Monitoring and Evaluation of Gender-Based Violence
Presented by the Gender-Based Violence Task Force of the Interagency Gender Working Group (IGWG)

Thursday, November 8, 2007
8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
At the
National Press Club
Washington, DC