The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a spike in violence against women. In response, activities created by the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, which will run from 25 November to 10 December, will take place under the 2020 global theme: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect. All over the world different activities are planned, including the following:

16 DAYS 16 FILMS – Online

Inspired by the UN Women campaign 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the Kering Foundation has launched the short film festival, 16 DAYS 16 FILMS. The festival is an initiative that highlights filmed content addressing violence against women. Each year the jury selects 16 films by female filmmakers from hundreds of submissions that explore, emote or educate on a form of violence against women. The short films will be shown on the Kering Foundation and Modern Films websites.

Motherhood and violence – Switzerland

This year, the 16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women event in Switzerland will focus on motherhood and violence. Various events in different locations are planned, including flash mobs, exhibitions, city tours and discussion meetings.

SDC’s different actions for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence

25.11.2020: To open the 16 days, Patricia Danzi launches a video tool to support sensitization and training of SDC staff about how can we make ourselves fit for PSEAH? Prevention and Protection from sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (PSEAH) is one important measure to contribute to the reduction of violence against women and to act against abuse of power and gender inequality in international cooperation. SDC firmly promotes zero tolerance of inaction against SEAH and has set clear signs by introducing guidelines and instruments for addressing and responding to SEAH. On the occasion of the International Campaign against Violence against Women, SDC director Patricia Danzi will launch the Kick Off for the next level of implementation of PSEAH sensitization and capacity building in Swiss representations abroad with the support of a new interactive video tool “Fit for PSEAH?”. The tool consists of situations of sexual misconduct in daily work situations in the field and supports staff to reflect on appropriate ways of response by the affected persons, bystanders and management.

25.11-10.12.2020: SDC will also host a social media campaign (and an in-house poster campaign) during the 16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, starting the November 25th with the International Day Against Violence Against Women until December 10th with the International Human Rights Day.

During 16 days, SDC will show different types of Gender-Based Violence to raise awareness about this issue and its multiples faces, and how does Switzerland engage against GBV.

>>> Follow us and share the posts from 25.11 until 10.12 @SwissDevCoop on Twitter

10.12.2020: 10th of December, the last day of the 16 days campaign, and the international human rights day, the SDC Gender Unit and the Gender Focal point of the Humanitarian Aid Department will conduct a virtual workshop and peer learning event on experiences with applying a community-based psychosocial approach in SGBV work. The focus here is not on individual support to survivors of SGBV, but on psychosocial support and trauma healing for the community as a whole. Community members and groups support SGBV survivors and address the effects of the violence on relationships in the community, thus strengthening collective coping capacities, resilience and solidarity. Participants will gain insights from SDC experience in the Great Lakes region, learn from an expert view, listen to peers experiences from other regions and engage in joint discussion about proven practice and challenges, minimal requirements and joint ambitions to promote such approach in the SDC.

You are kindly invited to register for the workshop until 20. November 2020 to nadia.amri@eda.admin.ch.

Cette formation s’adresse aux responsables et praticien·
ne·s des secteurs public, privé et non gouvernemental ainsi qu’aux chercheur·e·s qui souhaitent s’approprier des méthodes et outils pour intégrer le genre dans la gestion des pandémies.

Plus d'information dans la description de la formation, ici. 

eave no one behind (LNOB) is the underlying principle of the 2030 Agenda. The online training will shed some light on how to target the most vulnerable in our work by applying LNOB in practice. The training was developed by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Academy for International Cooperation of GIZ (AIZ).

An interactive and lively learning experience awaits you and your involvement is therefore crucial. Exchange with fellow practitioners, a moderated online forum and assignments will help you to applying LNOB directly in your working environment. International experts will provide input through weekly webinars, answer your questions and share relevant material. The training consists of six modules in form of webinars, which will cover a variety of topics: the concept of LNOB, LNOB lobbying & advocacy, current challenges and entry points, LNOB project planning/ implementation/ monitoring & evaluation, as well as LNOB action planning. Useful tools and instruments will complement the training resources.

You will have the opportunity to work in small groups according to your interests and thematic areas. You are invited to bring in your individual expertise. An online facilitator will accompany you throughout the whole learning experience.

The course is designed and open for international and national GIZ and SDC staff as well as for development practitioners representing bilateral and multilateral donor institutions as well as NGOs or national and local partner institutions.

The total course duration is 8 weeks and the online training takes place from 21 September to 13 November 2020.

   Costs: The online training is offered for 650,00 Euro for GIZ employees and 760,00 Euro for external participants. For participants from SDC, special conditions apply.

          Registration deadline is extended until the 21st of August 2020! The registration form is available for download on the right hand side.

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal UN body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. All member states meet yearly for a 2-week session in March in New York to discuss issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Each year a selected topic is discussed in-depth, while all five years – as in 2020 – a general review on progress in implementing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BDPfA) is held. This year is special as it marks the 25th anniversary of the BDPfA, the most comprehensive global agenda for women and girl’s rights in all areas of life.

However, to curb the spread of COVID-19, the 64th session of CSW has been reduced to a procedural meeting on 9 March to adopt the Political Declaration, with all other events cancelled. Negotiations for a Joint Declaration have been difficult in the context of increasing conservative trends. Switzerland was actively engaged to maintain a strong language in our priority themes – violence against women, women’s economic empowerment, women’s participation, data and statistic, equal pay und unpaid care and domestic work –  as well as to mainstream references to human rights throughout the text. We believe the text shows clear improvements compared to the Declaration from 2015 in regard to our priority themes and human rights references.

To celebrate the BDPfA’s 25th anniversary, UN Women – together with the two host countries Mexico and France – will convene a civil society-led global gathering for gender equality (the so-called Generation Equality Forum) in July in Paris. The Forum will bring multi-stakeholder actors together, especially young people, to chart forward a fresh and bold feminist agenda. Similarly, the Forum seeks to bring together a group of allied countries to create a multilateral gender-progressive partnership around a set of prioritised actions (so-called "Action Coalitions"). Discussions are in progress.

Female empowerment and financial inclusion in rural Rwanda: A story about bridging theory and practice.

The ongoing project on Economic Empowerment of Rural Women and Youth in through Access to Finance  demonstrates the steps from research to practice.The project targets agricultural casual workers who belong to the poorest population in Rwanda. Agricultural casual work is a poverty trap, as workers need to save money to open up new income-generating possibilities. The project paves the way to formal financial institutions and to skill acquisition. Moreover, it provides agricultural casual workers a pathway out of poverty.

The atelier genre facilitates a dialogue on gendered financial inclusion, new income-generating possibilities, and the implementation of research results into practice. 

The event is co-organized with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies (ICFG) / University of Bern.

The event will take place on Thursday 30 January 2020

From: 16.15 to 17.45 h.

At Effingerstrasse 27-29, 3003 Bern, 1. UG, 27.E31 «Europa»

For interested cooperation offices we offer a live connection. Please registherefore until the 28 January.

The SDC e+i and gender networks launch the learning journey “WEE Learn”. In the next few weeks we would like to deepen our exchanges on WEE. Please join us for the Webinar on the Business Case for WEE

Date: Thursday 12 December 2019 at 14:00-15:00 Swiss time (convert to your time zone).

To the SDC, Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) is beyond ticking of a box. Plenty of studies and annual financial reports of gender diverse companies give proof that it is also a business case. Women can be economically empowered as entrepreneurs, as clients, as managers and as employees. Would you like to better understand the business case for strengthening women as entrepreneurs or for improving their working conditions as employees?

Then please join us for this webinar to learn about SDC’s existing guidance on WEE and to hear about concrete experiences showcasing the business case for WEE in Guatemala and Uganda, both benefiting from support by SDC’s Social Entrepreneurship Programme:

Joseph Nkandu, Executive Director of the National Union of Coffee Agribusiness and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE) in Uganda, will share how women’s empowerment alongside men’s has contributed to increase productivity and income in the Ugandan coffee sector as well as profitability of his company NUCAFE.

Rachel Murphy, Strategy and Innovation Coordinator at ALTERNA, a Social Entrepreneur Accelerator, will provide insight how a targeted programme helped female entrepreneurs in Guatemala overcoming biases when pitching their business idea and thereby ensuring more funding for their enterprises

The topic of this year's international 16 Days campaign is #ILOendGBV. The campaign draws attention to the new ILO Convention "Ending Violence and Harassment in the World of Work". The SDC is committed to zero tolerance of sexual assault. Protection against Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (PSEAH) is therefore an important concern of the SDC. From the beginning of next year, PSEAH will also become a mandatory part of the Partner Risk Assessment. Two Swiss NGOs will present their mechanisms in order to prepare their colleagues and to demonstrate what a good PSEAH policy of an organisation is. 

When: December 5th, 10:00-11:15

Where: Effingerstrasse 27, Bern, Krisenraum

18,500 people in Switzerland were affected by domestic violence last year. The exhibition presents the topic with creative means and shows how the cycle of violence can be broken. The exhibition will be guided by representatives of counselling centers and the cantonal police (KAPO Bern).

When: 10h-13.30h

Where: Bern GIBB Lorrainestrasse 1

Limited number of participants. Kindly register by email: martina.waldis@eda.admin.ch. 

Since 2017, sexual and gender-based violence has been a priority of the SDC, especially for the humanitarian aid. The vast majority of victims of this violence are women and girls. However, research in the Syrian crisis, Afghanistan, Cox Bazaar (Rohingya refugees) and among refugees from Libya has shown that sexual violence is also used against men and boys. At this event, researchers and activists will discuss the effects of violence on the victims and their families, as well as previous advocacy successes and the challenges of working with this taboo. 

When: November 28th, 10:15h-11:45h

Where: Freiburgstrasse 130 / A2023

18,500 people in Switzerland were affected by domestic violence last year. The exhibition presents the topic with creative means and shows how the cycle of violence can be broken. The exhibition will be guided by representatives of counselling centers and the cantonal police (KAPO Bern).

When: 17.15h-18.45h 

Where: Bern GIBB Lorrainestrasse 1

Limited number of participants. Kindly register by email: martina.waldis@eda.admin.ch. 

Another guided tour will take place on 2.12.19 / 12.10h-13.30h    

This year, the Gender Learning Day 2019 was held as a conference, organized by cfd – the feminist peace organization, PeaceWomen Across the Globe (PWAG) and the Swiss Platform for Peacebuilding KOFF in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) on the topic Women, Peace and Security: Reclaim Prevention!

The second regional online exchange on what is going on in SASIA on gender equality is taking place through lync on February 12th, from 9.30-11.30 am (Swiss time). You can find the presentation on Gendermainstreaming in the PCM here. 

Find also other mentioned links: 

• Reference Indicators, compiled list
• Gender and Fragility