ObjectivesFund scope and theory of change
Fund scope
Sexual violence during and in the aftermath of conflict affects millions of people, primarily women and girls. It is frequently a conscious strategy employed on a large scale by armed groups to humiliate individuals, tear families apart and destroy communities. Wars in Bosnia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur have used mass rape as a military tactic.
Sexual violence during conflict remains vastly under-addressed due to weak national protection mechanisms, inadequate rule of law and judicial systems, and piecemeal services for survivors. While a range of governmental, nongovernmental and international initiatives to address sexual violence are being implemented, the scale and complexity of the problem, coupled with poor coordination has led to huge gaps in the response.
To address this, the UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action) was launched in March 2007 and represents a concerted effort by 14 UN entities to improve coordination and accountability, amplify advocacy, and support country efforts to prevent sexual violence and respond more effectively to the needs of survivors.
In December 2008, UN Action established a Multi-Partner Trust Fund to mobilize funds to support a range of joint catalytic activities as well as the UN Action Secretariat. The Multi-Partner Trust Fund aims to: streamline joint programming; strengthen governance and financial management systems; and standardize reporting to donors.
Theory of change
The goal of UN Action is to prevent conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), meet the needs of survivors and enhance accountability for CRSV. In order to achieve this, UN Action provides a coordination platform, regular meetings, support to the field, catalytic funding, knowledge and best practices products, training, human resources and technical and policy expertise on CRSV, working through country-level partners in the UN Country Teams and Peace Operations.
Activities are organized under the three pillars of the UN Action Strategic Framework:
- Country Level Action: strategic and technical support to assist joint strategic planning by the UN system at country level to prevent, respond to, and report on conflict-related sexual violence, including efforts to build capacity.
- Advocacy: action to raise public awareness and generate political will to address conflict-related sexual violence.
- Knowledge Building: creation of a knowledge hub on conflict-related sexual violence and effective programmatic responses.
Through these inputs, the following outputs are being achieved:
- Comprehensive and multi-sectoral assistance, including, medical, psychosocial, livelihoods and access to justice services are available for CRSV survivors;
- Strategies to address immediate risk and the root causes of CRSV and tackle harmful practices and stigma are designed and implemented for the benefit of survivors and persons at risk;
- Safe and ethical data collection, analysis and the implementation of prevention and response strategies to CRSV are enhanced through strengthening the Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Arrangements (MARA);
- Guidance exists and is used to consistently integrate CRSV in peacekeeping, peace-making, peacebuilding and development processes; and
- Collective and individual action by the network’s 14 member entities is catalyzed and coordinated to prevent and respond to CRSV at the global and national level.