Last month, UNFPA and UNICEF in Afghanistan jointly hosted a four-day workshop in Kabul to help improve services and coordination for gender-based violence (GBV) in humanitarian settings.

The workshop discussed cases of violence against women, girls and boys from the respective work of the participants, mapped the available services for survivors of exploitation and abuse, and identified best practices in the coordination between GBV and child protection.

Twenty-seven participants, from organizations offering services to survivors of GBV as well as from Child Protection Action Networks in seven Afghanistan provinces, attended the 13 May workshop on GBV and Child protection in humanitarian settings, which was facilitated by the GBV Regional Advisor for Asia Pacific.

Participants spoke about the challenges in prevention and response to GBV survivors: a lack of knowledge about women's rights and services provided; traditional limitations to the roles of girls and women in the society, such as restriction of movement, child marriages and forced marriages; increase insecurity and limited access to remote areas, and a lack of resources for long-term projects. Several stressed the need for streamlined data collection mechanisms and information sharing.

“Protecting women and children against violence and providing assistance to survivors are crucial for the development of Afghanistan”, stressed Nigina Abaszade, gender specialist in UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. “This week participants established important contacts among themselves. We will work to strengthen these relations,” she said.

UNFPA, working closely with the International Medical Corps and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, established a coordinating regional working group for GBV actors and fabricated a “One-stop Assistance Centre” for GBV survivors in Nangarhar last year. Similar plans will be implemented in several other regions in collaboration with the national GBV actors and the participants of the training to strengthen and/or established GBV provincial working groups to support this work forward.