Erbil, Iraq, 11 February 2018 – On 31st of January, the Humanitarian Community in Iraq launched the Real-Time Accountability Partnership (RTAP), a multi-agency initiative for addressing gender-based violence (GBV) in emergencies. The RTAP aims at institutionalizing actions to address and prioritize GBV across the humanitarian response.
RTAP is a joint collaboration between six key humanitarian agencies that all aim at harnessing the collective power of the humanitarian community to ensure the protection of women and girls from GBV-related threats across the country. These agencies are the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), and International Rescue Committee (IRC). In Iraq, the initiative will target different humanitarian Clusters, donors, and GBV-focused local and international organizations.
Ms. Lise Grande, Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq said: “As humanitarians, we need to hold ourselves accountable for responding to the unique needs of women and girls in conflict. RTAP will help us to do this.”
Addressing the audience, Mr. Ramanathan Balakrishnan, the UNFPA Representative in Iraq, on behalf of the organisations working together on Sexual and Gender Based Violence prevention and response, reiterated: ‘We are all committed to address GBV within the context in Iraq (…) RTAP will help accelerate effective action across the humanitarian community to prevent GBV and mitigate its risks.’
The attendees were then introduced to the RTAP implementation tool, the Action Framework, and how the initiative will be monitored throughout the implementation period.
In the closing remarks, Wendy Taueber, IRC Iraq Country Director, applauded the life-saving work of the humanitarian community in Iraq, calling the Agencies to build on the past successes and enhance the support to the coordinated and effective GBV response across the country. “‘As a community, we have had our hands full over the past 18 months with waves of conflict, displacement, and response to severe trauma and need. (…) The positive developments of the past year are encouraging, but they will only be sustained if we capitalize on this momentum.”
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For more information about RTAP, please contact Ms. Awatef Rasheed arasheed@unfpa.org
For media inquiries, please contact Ms. Salwa Moussa smoussa@unfpa.org
