Arab States

The UN Trust Fund team visits its grantee partner NAFE in Jordan, with NORAD (Norway)

Iraq

Asuda Organization for Combating Violence against Women (ASUDA) - Project Title: Supporting survivors of family-based violence in rural and refugee communities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Cycle 25

Women and girls from rural and refugee communities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq face heightened risks of violence and difficulties accessing support services. In rural areas, low education levels and the influence of traditions and customs contribute to family-based violence and harmful practices, which increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ASUDA is a women-led organization working to create a safe environment for women and promoting the rights of women and girl survivors of violence, including those in the most marginalized communities.

The project will address family-based violence against women and girls from rural and refugee communities by increasing their access to support services and building community capacity to respond to violence. The project is a scale-up of a 2016 UN Trust Fund-supported project with an increased focus on intersectional discrimination. It will more actively engage civil society organizations from rural areas and those that represent marginalized survivors and/or have long-term experience working with them. The project will focus on five locations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: the governorates of Sulaimaniyah, Halabja and Duhok; and the two administrations of Garmian (Ranya city) and Raparin (Kalar city).

Project strategies include: (1) increasing the quantity and quality of specialist support services; (2) addressing barriers in accessing these services by establishing listening centres and mobile teams in rural areas, and building the capacity of local organizations and government to deliver better services; (3) raising awareness and developing community tactics in rural areas and refugee camps to protect women and girls from violence and exclusion, and to integrate their needs into public policy; and (4) seeking changes in the implementation of legislation that supports survivors of family-based violence.

Awan Organization For Awareness and Capability Development (Awan Org) - Project Title: Standard procedures for responding to and preventing violence against women in the workplace – Cycle 25

Despite anti-harassment laws in Iraq, women working in the private sector in southern Iraq often face harassment, especially sexual harassment, from colleagues, managers or clients. The fear of losing their job, the lack of societal support and the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated this phenomenon and prevented women from reporting harassment in the workplace.

Awan Org is a non-profit women’s rights organization that aims to promote the rights of Iraqi women and girls through awareness raising, advocacy, training and capacity-building. It specializes in addressing gender-based violence and discrimination.

The project aims to reduce sexual harassment of women working in the private sector in three governorates of southern Iraq – Diwaniya, Muthanna and Najaf – especially those who head households or are on low incomes, displaced or living with disabilities, by improving policies and procedures through working with the private sector and labour unions.

Project strategies include: (1) developing a clear policy towards reducing sexual harassment at work; (2) raising awareness among employers and workers in the private sector on the negative effects of harassment; (3) ensuring that women working in the private sector can be peer educators, with improved knowledge of laws; (4) establishing a guide on combating sexual harassment in the workplace; and (5) establishing “safe units” in trade unions to provide legal advice to victims of harassment.

Baghdad Women Organization - Project Title: Strengthening the protective environment for women and girls at risk or impacted by GBV in the context of COVID-19 in Al-Anbar (Ramadi, Khalidiyah Jazerra Al-Khalidiyah) and Nineveh Plain (Qaraqosh, Bartela, Kremlesh) - Cycle 24

The situation of Iraqi women was already precarious before COVID-19 because of years of armed violence, socio-economic hardship and political instability. Movement restrictions and worsening socio-economic conditions during the pandemic have exacerbated the risks and incidence of violence against women and girls, particularly intimate partner violence, child marriage, and psychological and emotional violence. Safe spaces for women, already scarce, have been closed or offer limited services.

Baghdad Women Association is a women’s rights and women-led organization working to end all forms of violence against women and girls. Its project aims to improve the access of 3,600 internally displaced women and girls at risk of or impacted by gender-based violence to essential, safe and adequate multi-sectoral services in Al-Anbar and Nineveh Plain governorates. These services will include access to virtual and in-person psycho-social and legal services, and a livelihood programme. The Association will work in partnership with the Lutheran World Federation.

Three main strategies will be adopted: (1) strengthening the referral pathways for reporting and responding to protection incidents; (2) working with local state and non-state agencies to refer gender-based violence cases to competent service providers, and providing legal assistance, counselling and psycho-social peer group therapy in safe centres and through mobile teams; and (3) increasing the financial security of women whose livelihoods have been affected by COVID-19.

The Lotus Flower - Project Title: Covid-19 Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls – Cycle 24

In Kurdistan, northern Iraq, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted female refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) communities, with substantial increases in gender-based violence towards women and girls – particularly intimate partner and family member violence and child marriage – because of movement restrictions, loss of income and rising tensions in households in the cramped camps. This has led to a rapid demand and need for extra psycho-social and psychological support for women.

The Lotus Flower, an international non-governmental organization that supports women and girls impacted by conflict and displacement, runs three women’s centres for IDPs and refugee communities in Kurdistan. Its project aims to tackle violence against women through psychological therapy and legal aid, livelihood support and raising awareness about gender-based violence in the community, particularly among men. The project will reach female Syrian refugees in Domiz 2 camp and displaced women and girls living outside the Duhok and Zakho camps.

Among other things, the project intends to: (1) scale-up remote and in-person psychological therapy and legal consultations for survivors of gender-based violence; (2) provide seed grants and business skills training to improve women’s economic prospects; and (3) implement a “positive masculinity” campaign using social and traditional media, including Rudaw TV and Dohuk Radio.

Jordan

National Association for Family Empowerment - Project title: Improving access to gender-sensitive prevention and protection services for vulnerable communities in Jordan – Cycle 26

Violence against women and girls (VAW/G) is widespread in Jordan. A recent UN Women reportfound that just over a quarter of ever-married women aged 15-49 had experienced physical and/or sexual and/or emotional violence from their spouses, and of these just over two-thirds did not seek help or tell anyone about their experience.

National Association for Family Empowerment is a constituent-led civil society organization that promotes gender equality and the prevention of VAW/G in Jordan. The project aims to strengthen the prevention of VAW/G and enhance access to specialist services for women and girls at risk or survivors of violence and to ensure the implementation of the existing protection legal framework and policies in the South, North and Mid regions of Jordan.

Project activities include: (1) providing psychosocial support to women and girls at risk or survivors of violence, and establishing mobile clinics to provide legal assistance to women and girls living in detention centres and shelters; (2) training local civil society and community-based organizations, social workers, government officials and media representatives on VAW/G prevention and response mechanisms; (3) organizing multi-stakeholder consultations, roundtables and conferences to develop legal and policy recommendations, and establishing communication platforms for civil society and community-based organizations to foster peer-to-peer learning and collective action; (4) awareness-raising on VAW/G, including advocacy campaigns addressed to community members and frontline service providers; and (5) producing policy briefs based on the project’s findings and lessons learned.

Jordanian Women's Union Association (JWU) - Project Title: Combating violence and discrimination against women in Jordan - Cycle 25

In Jordan, the Population and Family Health Survey of 2017-18 found that just over a quarter of women aged 15-49 who had ever been married had experienced physical and/or sexual or emotional violence by their husbands. In addition, the rate of child marriage remains high.

JWU is a women’s rights organizations working to address all forms of discrimination and violence against women.

The project will employ awareness raising and social dialogue to address traditional attitudes that enable violence against women and girls. JWU will work with two partners, Isnad Center and Al Beereh Association, both of which work in areas where child and early marriages are widespread and have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project aims to: (1) improve protection of women and girls at risk or survivors of violence with hotlines that provide legal, social and psychological consultations; (2) raise women’s awareness of discriminatory laws; (3) establish a strong civil coalition to amend the Family Protection Law and advocate for change; (4) encourage women to speak up, advocate for equal rights and protection, and explore their potential with the help of facilitators; and (5) ensure that community-based organizations use a feminist and human rights-based approach to ending violence against women and girls.

JWU received support from the UN Trust Fund in 2011 as part of a three-year anti-trafficking programme to boost legal enforcement against the crime in Egypt, Jordan and Morocco.

Arab Women Organization of Jordan - Project Title: Feminist Response in Action Through Community Mobilization for Access to SGBV Services Engaging Intersecting Vulnerabilities – Cycle 24

Domestic violence has increased in Jordan during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for marginalized women. The Arab Women Organization of Jordan (AWO) aims to improve social protection and prevention mechanisms in response to increased physical and psychological violence against women and girls. Its project will be implemented in Irbid and Mafraq northern governorates, which border Syria and host Syrian refugees. Using a survivor-based approach, the project aims to reach 10,600 women, mainly women Syrian refugees but also vulnerable Jordanians from Mafraq and Irbid hosting communities and survivors of sexual gender-based violence and domestic violence. The beneficiaries will range from adolescents to elderly women, including rural women. The project will also work with men and boys.

The project will: (1) provide safe spaces and services in two AWO women safe centres, assisting beneficiaries with online and direct legal and psycho-social support, and offering case management as well as lifesaving skills training and counselling to help them cope with the crisis; (2) advocate with key State actors for effective implementation of national legislation addressing violence against women and girls; (3) provide legal counselling services to men and boys to ensure they understand and support women; and (4) run digital literacy courses for AWO staff in the field, the project’s beneficiaries and community members.

Jordan Collateral Repair Project - Project Title: Women Empowerment & Gender Based Violence Prevention in Urban Amman – Cycle 24

During the COVID-19 pandemic, already high levels of gender-based violence and domestic abuse in Jordan have increased while access to essential services has decreased. Women and girl refugees living in the host community in the capital Amman are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence in their homes, and face discrimination and harassment based on their gender, ethnicity and non-citizen status.

The Collateral Repair Project, an international non-governmental organization, works to prevent domestic violence and raise awareness of the consequences of violence against women and girls, including intimate partner violence, harmful practices, early/child and forced marriage, and so-called “honour” crimes. The project will primarily work with women and girls who are asylum seekers/refugees or internally displaced, female survivors of gender-based violence, and women and girls in general.

The project will: (1) expand the capacity of its current programmes to help women and girls, including by introducing a help desk at its community centres; (2) scale up tested approaches and introduce innovations to enable the organization to work more efficiently; and (3) increase provision of online services while maintaining in-person support where possible during the pandemic.

Solidarity Is Global Institute – Jordan - Project Title: United for the Prevention of VAWG in Jordan during and in the Aftermath of COVID-19 Pandemic – Cycle 24

Women survivors of violence have faced serious challenges accessing essential services in Jordan during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Solidarity is Global Institute (SIGI) is a women’s rights and women-led organization that works to eliminate discrimination and violence against women and girls. Its project aims to better protect women and girls living in particular areas in Amman, Balqa’a, Ajloun, Ramtha and Madaba governorates who are at risk of increased intimate partner violence and harmful practices in the context of the pandemic. It aims to reach 1,000 women survivors of family violence – 150 Syrian refugees and 850 Jordanian women. SIGI will work with three co-implementing partners.

The project aims to: (1) strengthen the capacity of women-led, community-based organizations; (2) strengthen the capacity of service providers; (3) increase survivors’ access to effective and comprehensive multi-sectoral services; (4) set up an economic empowerment programme; (5) empower communities and engage men and boys in efforts to change attitudes; (6) build the capacity of the media; and (7) launch a media and advocacy campaign based on accurate data collection.

Lebanon

Karama - Project Title: Removing barriers to justice for marginalized survivors of violence against women and girls in Lebanon – Cycle 25

Women and girls living in marginalized communities in Lebanon, including Syrian refugee women and low-income Lebanese women, experience high rates of violence due to difficult living conditions, socio-economic deprivation and limited access to social services. The COVID-19 crisis and the 2020 Beirut disaster, in addition to lingering political strife and fall out from the civil war, further increased risk of violence against women and girls.

Karama is a women’s rights organization focused on ending violence against women and promoting the full and equal participation of women in the Middle East and North Africa. Karama will collaborate with a local implementing partner based in Lebanon, Justice Without Frontiers, who supports survivors of gender-based violence who have no access to justice.

The project will contribute to removing legislative, policy, procedural and structural barriers to justice for women and girl survivors of violence, with a focus on low-income and refugee communities.

Project strategies include: (1) adapting and reforming laws, policies and court procedures related to violence against women and girls; (2) strengthening implementation of existing laws and policies through building the capacity of duty bearers; (3) improving accountability mechanisms to build political will and promote the human rights of women and girls; (4) supporting civil society and community leaders focusing on marginalized women and girls; and (5) providing legal services to those in need.

Morocco

Association Initiatives pour la Protection des Droits des Femmes - Project title: Lutte pour l’égalité des sexes et l’autonomisation des femmes dans les quartiers précaires de la ville de Fès | Fighting for gender equality and women's empowerment in precarious neighbourhoods in the city of Fes – Cycle 26

Despite a 2018 law criminalizing physical, psychological, sexual and economic violence against women and girls (VAW/G) in the private and public spheres in Morocco, a recent UN Women-supported national survey revealed that 82.6% of women aged 15-74 years old have experienced at least one act of violence during their lifetime, and more than one in two within the past year.

Association Initiatives pour la Protection des Droits des Femmes (Women's Rights Protection Initiatives Association) is a women-led women’s rights organization dedicated to promoting women’s rights and ending all forms of gender discriminations in Morocco. The project aims to foster gender equality and reduce violence against women and girls (VAW/G), including women and girls in the lowest income group, in three disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Fes.

Project activities include: (1) providing psychological and legal support, running empowerment workshops and self-help groups, and making referrals to local service providers for women and girl survivors of violence; (2) vocational workshops, mentorship, research clubs, and recruitment and networking events to empower women and girl survivors of violence to start an income-generating activity; (3) training service providers on VAW/G prevention and response mechanisms; (4) organizing seminars for private sector representatives on women’s rights and economic empowerment and VAW/G prevention and response mechanisms; (5) organizing multi-stakeholder discussions and co-production of protocols on VAW/G prevention and response mechanisms to foster peer-to-peer learning and collective action; and (6) awareness-raising on VAW/G prevention and referral mechanisms, including organizing community workshops and disseminating advocacy campaigns.

In 2012, Association Initiatives pour la Protection des Droits des Femmes received a grant from the UN Trust Fund to implement a project focusing on enhancing women’s access to protection and justice.

State of Palestine

Stars of Hope Society for the Empowerment of Women with Disabilities (Stars of Hope) - Project Title: Hemaya II – Cycle 25

In the State of Palestine, patriarchal structures and inequitable gender attitudes foster a culture of gender-based violence and impunity, according to a 2017 UN Women report. Women and girls living with disabilities, including those also living with HIV/AIDS, continue to face many forms of discrimination and violence in all areas of life while lacking access to specialist services.

Stars of Hope is a women-led organization of people living with disabilities that works to abolish discrimination based on disability and gender, and to empower women living with disabilities to achieve equality.

The project will scale-up a project funded by the UN Trust Fund in 2018-21 that addressed violence against women and girls living with disabilities in the West Bank and Gaza. The project, using an intersectional approach, will continue to empower women and girls living with disabilities, including those also living with HIV/AIDS, and work to ensure their equal access to specialist support services and sustainable intervention mechanisms. It will expand and strengthen government partnerships already established, as these offered many opportunities to work collaboratively to improve access to survivor support services for women and girls living with disabilities.

Project strategies include: (1) establishing a technical support team to provide immediate services, including psychosocial and legal support, to women living with disabilities who are at risk or have survived violence; (2) creating three self-help groups formed by women living with HIV, their families and partners, to acquire knowledge on various topics related to violence against women; (3) conducting outreach sessions, recreational and life skills activities, and group-to-group initiatives to build the emotional resilience and self-confidence of women living with disabilities and their relatives; (4) conducting non-curricular play activities in school settings for adolescent girls living with disabilities, able-bodied students, and their relatives to increase their understanding and support for disability/rights issues; and (5) leading advocacy actions to raise public awareness on violence against women living with disabilities.

Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) - Project Title: Towards increased social responsibility of the Palestinian community and higher accountability of duty bearers: consolidating efforts to combat gender-based violence and discrimination of marginalized Palestinian women – Cycle 25

A 2019 survey by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics found that 29% of women had experienced violence by their husbands in the previous year. Survivors of such violence, especially those living in Area C of the West Bank, have limited access to specialist services and shelters, a problem exacerbated by, among others, decades of Israeli occupation. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on women, compounded by the prevalent culture that permits and excuses violence against women and discourages survivors from reporting.

WCLAC seeks to contribute to building a Palestinian democratic society.

The project aims to protect and empower women who live in remote and underserved communities (especially in Area C and East Jerusalem). It also intends to work with women at risk of violence due to extramarital relations, extramarital pregnancies, victims of blackmail or those who have fled an abusive relationship.

Project strategies include: (1) improving access to social and legal services and to WCLAC’s emergency shelter for women survivors of violence; (2) mobilizing community members and building their capacities so they become agents of change; (3) engaging men from different backgrounds in community and advocacy initiatives; (4) developing the skills of Sharia lawyer trainees on court procedures and gender-sensitive representation; (5) raising awareness using mainstream and social media; (6) developing the capacity of women activists; (6) influencing policies and decision-making for increased accountability of duty bearers; and (7) carrying out advocacy campaigns to influence the adoption of laws preventing violence against women and girls.

The WCLAC also received funding from the UN Trust Fund in 2016 for a project to promote women’s access to social and legal services in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

AISHA Association for Woman and Child Protection (AISHA) - Project Title: Prevention and Response to Violence Against Women and Girls in Gaza in the context of COVID-19 Crisis – Cycle 24

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs identified a surge in cases of domestic violence in the State of Palestine caused by movement restrictions and socio-economic hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Association for Woman and Child Protection (AISHA) aims to ensure that the most vulnerable women and girls in the Gaza Strip who are subjected to violence, discrimination and harmful practices exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic enjoy improved safety and security, well-being, legal protection, quality of life, agency, resilience and empowerment. The project intends to reach 4,500 marginalized women and girls in four governorates (North-Gaza, Gaza, Deir-Balah and Khan-Younis) in the Gaza Strip. Activities will be carried out jointly by AISHA, the Women's Affairs Center and the Union of Health Working Committees.

The project will: (1) provide multi-sectoral prevention and response services to deal with violence against women and girls, including prevention of COVID-19 transmission; (2) build the capacity of health, social, legal and police institutions to identify and refer women and girl survivors of violence, and identify best practices relating to remote counselling and case management; and (3) run communication and community engagement activities to strengthen accountability and advocate for ending violence against women and girls in the context of the pandemic.

Tunisia

Centre of Arab Women for Training and Research - Project Title: Pour que l'invisible soit VISIBLE (To render the invisible visible) - Cycle 24

The Centre of Arab Women for Training and Research is a women’s rights and women-led regional civil society organization. Its project intends to work with 500 women with disabilities, particularly women with visual, hearing and/or speech impairments, and 200 survivors of violence against women and girls across Tunisia. The project aims to improve women’s access to available services, offer them more effective protection against violence, and increase their opportunities for social and professional integration.

Project strategies include: (1) using research on women with disabilities to inform public policies and provision of services; (2) offering training on disabilities for centres for survivors of gender-based violence and on gender for disabilities centres, associations and service providers; (3) making shelters for women survivors of violence more accessible for those with visual and/or hearing impairments; (4) advocacy with local and national government to improve the autonomy of people with hearing and visual impairments; (5) developing a mobile Safety App (“SafeNess”) adapted to the needs of women with visual, hearing and/or speech impairments; and (6) raising public awareness about disabilities and the vulnerabilities these might entail, including violence.

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