Gender equality and the empowerment of women are key to development, peacebuilding and humanitarian relief and recovery, as well as one of UNOPS cross-cutting concerns and part of its contribution goals.

Education

Funded by the United States Agency for International Development and Afghanistan Office of Social Sector Development, UNOPS rehabilitated the University of Kabul’s 19,000 square metre women’s dormitory, providing accommodation for up to 1,100 female university students pursuing their education at Kabul University and the Kabul University Medical School.

In 2005 UNOPS worked with the UNICEF in Liberia to rehabilitate high priority schools in areas receiving displaced persons along the borders of Lofa and Nimba counties. The project restored 13 schools and, among other achievements, improved and increased local primary education by 20 per cent, particularly for girls and children associated with fighting forces.

Elections

The United Nations Development Group Iraq Trust Fund asked UNOPS to implement the electoral education campaign for the 2009 Iraqi Elections with support from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq. The Campaign gave financial and technical support to 75 Iraqi Civil Society Organizations and grass-roots electoral education activities that reached more than 200,000 citizens across the country, with a special focus on women, minorities, disabled people, first-time voters and internally displaced people. Youth and women associations were also a key part of the “opinion leaders sessions” organized across the country in the run-up to Election Day.

Capacity development

In Central America, the Empowerment of Women and Adolescents at Risk project benefited over 1,900 women in 78 communities in Central America with funding of the Government of Japan. In 2007 the project helped civil organizations assist vulnerable women and young people at risk, protecting against sexual exploitation and violence and improving living conditions in the shared border region of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. UNOPS contracted governmental and non-governmental organizations and universities to implement activities, including providing training and microcredit for business development.

In 2006 the Italian Foreign Ministry and Senegal’s Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Water and Food Security (MAHRSA) joined forces to create the Sédhiou Local Development Fund (FDLDS). UNOPS was asked to administer the fund and provide quality control. A primary FDLDS goal has been to address the needs of women in particular. In several communities the fund has built and equipped multipurpose centres to train local women as artisans and promote their social awareness. Since spring of 2008 micro-grants have been used to fence off and irrigate communal gardens for the cultivation of cash crops exclusively by village women.

The Afghanistan Conservation Corps program is a multi-donor, multi-agency effort managed by UNOPS and mandated to conserve natural resources and create work for returnees, internally displaced persons, women and ex-combatants through labour-intensive activities. Apart from the environmental and capacity enhancement achievements the program has created over 100,000 labour days of employment for women. The program involves the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Women’s Affairs among its several partners and is funded by USAID and the United States Department of Agriculture.