Impact by Regions, Countries & Territories

UNDP’s Global Programme supports crisis-affected contexts across all regions to strengthen the rule of law and human rights. In this section, we present five regional overviews, detailing our priorities and approach depending on the context, as well as feature select country and territory results from 2021.

Five contexts from the list (Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Mali and Yemen) illustrate the achievements of the Global Focal Point for the Rule of Law (GFP). In peacekeeping missions and transition settings, UNDP’s Global Programme works through the GFP to deliver integrated assistance with our UN partners.

GFP Global Focal Point Highlights

Pakistan

In Pakistan, through the Global Programme, UNDP scaled up a programme on women’s access to protection and justice initiated in 2018 and originally focusing on establishing mobile Gender Desks in the Newly Merged Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, a post-conflict area where stabilization and human rights assistance is not accessible to other development partners. In 2020, the Global Programme’s support allowed the Country Office to expand the programme to the rest of Pakistan, establishing five new Gender Desks covering all four provinces to reach out to vulnerable women and girls.

UNDP’s network of 12 desks, comprised of women lawyers and civil society activists, provided referral services and ensured that the needs and the rights of women were considered in decision-making at the local level. The Gender Desks created a much-needed link between the existing protection services, human rights institutions and the communities.

The Gender Desks officers provided referral, legal awareness, counselling and aid services to 2,350 community members, including 1,953 women, 275 men and 122 transgender persons.

To sustain the positive impact that the Gender Desks have on women’s lives, UNDP is working to institutionalize these mechanisms within various governmental setups, ensuring their local ownership.

The mobile desks also became a model for UNDP to access marginalized communities. For example, UNDP is currently establishing new Gender Desks in the provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to reach out to vulnerable populations, including Afghan refugees and their host communities, and provide them with legal aid and psycho-social support.

Rickshaw drivers
UNDP encouraged rickshaw drivers to spread information about Gender Desks within their communities and distribute materials to passengers. This strategy allowed UNDP to reach vulnerable and marginalized communities that do not have access to internet or traditional media sources.Photo: UNDP Pakistan