1. New Inter-Agency Case Management Resource Package, Meghan O Connor (IRC)

Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBV AoR)

Monthly Call - April

Chair:Jennifer Chase

Participants: Meghan O’Connor (IRC), Erin Kenny (UNFPA), Eliana Irato (ECHO), Jessica Gorham (REGA), Hanna Persson (ECHO), Danielle Spencer (ActionAid), Emily Krasnor (UNFPA), Micah Williams (IMC), Andrea Cullinan (REGA), Anna Stone (NRC), Vanessa Saraiva, Pablo Diaz (UNWomen), Eva Garcias (GPC), Erin Patrick (Guidelines roll-out coordinator/ IRC), Belen Americas (WFP) and Astrid Haaland (AoR)

Agenda:

1. New Inter-Agency Case Management Resource Package, Meghan O’Connor (IRC)

2. ECHO leadership role of the Call to Action, Hannah Persson (ECHO)

3. Update on REGA work in the Horn of Africa, Jessica Gorham (REGA)

4. Update by the Learning Task Team, Micah Williams (IMC)

5. Greece Guidelines Rollout, Erin Patrick (IRC)

Minutes of Meeting:

1. New case management tools from IRC by Meghan O’Connor

Link:

I am happy to present the new Inter-Agency GBV Case Management Resource Package.

This project spurred out from the GBV IMS Steering Committee, and the need to strengthen the link between GBV case management and information management (IM). Part of this project was piloted in six countries, to provide intensive capacity building around the GBV IMS but also to develop GBV interagency case management guidelines and training materials. The first year was dedicated to draft the content of the guidelines and the training materials which IRC led. We also had an inter-agency review group which included members of the GBV IMS Steering Committee and members of the AoR.Since then, the focus has been on standard processes to have the resources go live (editing, design etc.)

The aim of these Inter-Agency Guidelines is to set standards of care for GBV survivors, outlining the importance of adopting a survivor-centered approach. It also gives technical guidance for working on specific types of GBV and with specific populations (intimate partner violence, adolescent girls at risk of early marriage, male sexual violence survivors, LGBTI survivors, and survivors with disabilities.)

The Resource Package covers a lot on case supervision, strategies and tools. Also, the Guidelines provide programs with concrete and comprehensive strategies for staff care.

The training materials elaborate on the content of the Resource Pack and include 20 training modules: Each module contains a Power Point presentation with notes and handouts for the trainers. In addition, there is a facilitator’s guide for the training material meant to highlight the key messages for each of the sessions, as well as other technical pieces of knowledge that the trainer needs to know before delivering that session.

On dissemination of the new Resource Package, we will be doing two webinars on 3 and 17 May. I will be sending out invitations. We are trying to coordinate with the Learning Task Team and looking for rollout events in NY and potentially in Geneva.

Q & A:

All of the material is available on the GBV responder website (in the response section). The Guidelines will be translated into French and Arabic, hopefully by July. We are also planning to have printed versions of the Guidelines. We don’t have a budget to translate into Spanish, but we know that there is a need and this will be raised to the Steering Committee.

Jennifer: The GBV AoR Coordination Team can help with the advocacy. These Guidelines are meeting a need, and it is great that it brings such a comprehensive approach and so many topics. If you decide to do an event in Geneva we can support the initiative.

2- ECHO Leadership of the Call to Action, by Hannah Persson

ECHO will take over the lead for the Call to Action (C2A), the global initiative on protection against GBV.

ECHO is the humanitarian directorate of the European Commission and its Headquarters are in Brussels. We work together with colleagues from the development sector and the External Action Service on GBV in fragile countries. We also report to the EU member states through the Council and work with the Parliament who is very involved in GBV related initiatives. We have field offices in over forty different countries. Political leadership is with the Commissioner. ECHO is one of the biggest humanitarian donors after the US. We are operating with over 200 humanitarian partners and many different actors. Our budget is about 1 billion euros per year; last year was exceptional because we had over 2 billion euros.

We have very strong internal commitment to GBV and we addressGBV through both targeted action and mainstreaming. Last year, we spentaround 18 million euros on GBV response worldwide. Another added value is our size; we are a big donor with strong political presence not only in EU member states but also in international forums and at the field level.

The priority is to work towards a more detailed plan for the Call to Action Leadership, with more joint messaging and outreach, especially at the field level.

The second priority is to oversee the implementation of the Road Map, keep up all the commitments and follow up on the annual reporting. During the technical meetings, there was also a discussion about the monitoring framework and we will look further it too.

The final priority is to lead the work of the Steering Committee by increasingcross- fertilization and discussion among the different actors and groups.

We are currently in a transition period; we will take over the leadership from Sweden at the ECOSOC in Geneva. A high-level event is being planned in Geneva in order to announce this. The Road Map says that each leading organization should be in charge for two years, but that is challenging for most actors. Sweden had the leadership for one year, and it looks like we will take over the C2A for one year before Canada takes over.

We will have a team working on the resources and hopefully one Communication Officer. We will also have a service contract with a consulting firm who can help with the reporting process and the writing of the annual report. A more detailed work plan is now being developed and will be circulated for inputs. It is good, to know from the beginning what is expected from the lead, also to avoid creating false expectations.

We think that the GBV AoR will be instrumental to rolling out the Call to Action in the field.

Jennifer: I agree and I this was a critical point raised at the annual meeting; the GBV AoR, with its strong field presence through the sub-cluster members, is ready to look at all avenues with its partners to make sure the Call to Action is taken up at the field level.

Pablo: UN Women is co-leading the International Organizations Stakeholders Group. They are also working on a work plan to define what the group can do to advance our commitments to the 2020 vision.

Hanna: The Call to Action’s different activities and objectives are inter-agency. The donors want to have more flexible reporting mechanisms on the collective attempts to improve overall reporting on the Call to Action. We need to reflect upon how we should do it.

3. Update on REGA work in the Horn of Africa by Jessica Gorham

Kenya: We have been successful in receiving CERF funding for GBV programing. It was approximately 200,000 USD through UNFPA and the activities will be implemented by Kenya Red Cross. They are now finalizing the agreement and I will be helping with the facilitation of training so that they can implement those activities. They are focusing on setting up women mobile protection centers near sites where women and girls are very vulnerable.

Unfortunately, OCHA cut us off from coordination specific funds, the mainstreaming and coordination specific activities were also taken out.

Somalia: We are having difficult times getting funding in Somalia. I am working with the GBV sub-cluster there to develop a briefing note. The Swiss government has agreed to host a donor roundtable on our behalf. We will soon receive a TOR from the sub-cluster to formalize REGA technical support to the Somalia sub-cluster.

Somalia has a lot of protection challenges, including for women and girls trying to get water, since it is becoming more scarce. They travel hours to reach water and there are different points of vulnerabilities along the way. In addition, we must urgently reinforce action to ensure more protection in the camps, especially against sexual violence.

Ethiopia: We have already received the TOR from the GBV Sub-Cluster for technical support for the GBV AoR. Their main point of concern was how to bridge the gap between development and emergency programming. The TOR emanated from Sub-cluster discussions with the HCT, as they wanted more information and strategies built around it, so they can better scale-up the GBV response. They were verymuch focused on the refugee response in Ethiopia, but now several partners have to shift their mindset on how to respond as more people are leaving their villages and we are moving into an IDP emergency situation. The REGA request also included support for PSEA.The GBV AoR Coordination Team was able to link up with the Global PSEA Task Team, and they are ready to provide a consultant to develop the PSEA strategy, on behalf of IOM.

Out of the three contexts, Somalia is struggling the most because of the overwhelming needs, the geography that makes access very difficult, and the funding situation. All this creates a huge challenge for all the sub-cluster members. The governments in Ethiopia and Kenya are also providing more support than the government in Somalia.

In regards toSouth Sudan, I was on mission recently to build local capacity on contingency planning and support practical steps on GBV mitigation with the CCCM actors. We have a new UNFPA GBV Coordinator there replacing Leigh Ashly while the IMC coordinator is phasing out due to funding challenges.

Q & A

Jessica: OCHA wanted to take us out of the CERF proposal all together not recognizing that GBV was lifesaving. We had to justify our existence in the humanitarian setting. We had a great humanitarian specialist at UNFPA who worked internationally and had good advice for OCHA, and that helped us. It also helped that the RC was a previous representative for UNFPA so he could advocate on our behalf.

Eva (GPC): The Kenya request is to support the government, because we don’t have any cluster in Kenya. During the CERF proposal, the question of who to take lead was discussed a few weeks ago. We do not have a formal protection cluster system. In this region, OCHA is looking at the response from a three-country perspective (Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia). We are looking at how we can mainstream GBV protection across clusters, in Somalia, but also in Kenya and Ethiopia.

GPC suggested a separate call with Jessica Gorham to consolidate the work on protection concerns in the drought response.

ElianaIrato: A quick update from the Emergency Directors Mission to Somalia is that "It was also noted that the GBV rates are appalling, and protection services must be more integrated into the overall response activities (food, shelter, dignity kits). It was noted in the meeting that the HCT should focus more on the GBV-related protection concerns, and request a follow up brief with the GBV working group. It was agreed that relevant cluster leads need to immediately ensure an integrated approach and coordinate a package for the survivors. "

Jennifer: Alice, the sub-cluster coordinator for IMC in South Sudan is finalizing her assignment, due to US defunding. I urge all of you to support us in seeking funding for this position. IMC is interested in keeping the coordination position, but there is a lack of funds. Different Agencies and INGOS are looking at how to best respond so that there is not a gap in GBV Coordination at this critical time. The REGA has also been supporting remotely with 10% of her time.

GBV AORTASK TEAM UPDATES

4. Learning Task Team (LTT),by Micah Williams.

The Learning Task Team met at the end of March. The Task Team is co- chaired by IMC and UNFPA and our efforts are dedicated to increase capacity for GBV specialists. This involves coordination around learning opportunities for basic knowledge management purposes and to avoid duplicating. The LTT provides space for consultation and review in the development of new resources and learning opportunities. We lead the development of a core competency framework and a five-year capacity building strategy from 2015.

Our TOR ended in 2016 and we have been continuing to operate within the same areas of work, but we need to update the TOR for the group to continue. There is also a need for opening up membership to additional people from the AoR, as well as creating opportunities for new leadership. Once that is in place, the new scope of work can be established.

Within the last TOR there are still some pieces of work that we don’t want to drop. One of them consists on putting together a brief document or a Road Map for people wanting to enter the field of GBV. The aim is to guide them about what steps they should take, including courses of study, opportunities for certification and training programs, self- learning guidance and ideas for seeking out volunteering opportunities or organizations. We are calling for volunteers to develop that.

The other piece, which can help with advocacy, is a summary of the capacity building strategy. There is a volunteer to provide a draft for that resource that is very useful for internal advocacy within member organizations but also for donor meetings.

There is the Case Management Tool kit that has been a standing agenda item. There is also the Managing GBV multi-phase learning program. It is a three- phases learning program that UNFPA and IMC have been managing for a few years. Within that, there is the updated UNFPA e- learning (phase one). With regard to Phase two, we have 500 applicants for the latest in-person GBV training coming up in Jordan. Members were invited to review the curriculum for that course. The third phase of the program is continued learning through mentorship and through a Community of Practice (CoP). We are organizing a mentorship initiative for candidates who have completed the first two phases, between UNFPA and IMC and partnered with experienced GBV practitioners. These mentors are meeting the new mentees this month. The GBV CoPwill be launched through the GPC CoPand there is a TOR for a five month facilitator position (now advertised).

Another major learning initiative is the new IRC Initiative “Remote and Mobile Approaches for Case Management” and they also asked people to contribute for the development of the resource.

Finally, we discussed how the CP sub-cluster is doing more work related to improving the GBV response for Child survivors, and we would like to find out how to work together.

Anyone interested in joining or leading the LTT, please contact us or Jennifer.

Jennifer: The Roadmap to guide new candidates on how they may enter the GBV field, is an excellent way to go. We do get a lot of questions from people who would like to build their capacity on GBViE. The two AoRs, CP and GBV, have been discussing for one year how to work more closely together, and we can have a separate call on that soon.

5. Greece IASC Guidelines Rollout, by Erin Patrick

We are rolling the guidelines out in Greece over the course of the next 3 weeks. This week the team is in Thessaloniki, next week they are in Lesbos, and the last week they will be in Athens. The focus sectors are Health, Education, Shelter and Wash, Protection and Child Protection, and Camp Management.

You are welcome to nominate people you feel should be part of this training. I also sent a brief overview to Jennifer on the Rollout in Greece with the targeted clusters and dates, and this can be shared with everyone.

Jennifer: We are sending the Community of Practice Facilitator’s TOR and the brief on the Greece Rollout.

6. GBV AoR Coordinator Update on new Task Teams and Working Groups, by Jennifer

We are happy to announce that both IFRC and ActionAid are becoming new GBV AoR core members. ActionAid will Co-chair of the Advocacy and Policy Task Team and IFRC is interested in joining the Global Minimum Standards Working Group. Let us know if you are interested in becoming a Co-Chair for the Task Team on Advocacy and Policy.

We have sent out information via Emily Krasner for the Minimum Standards Group that IRC has agreed to be one of co-chairs on together with UNICEF and UNFPA.

Plan International has asked how to become more closely engaged with the AoR. They are interested in speaking on one of our future calls about adolescents and GBV.

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