UNFPA programmes address discrimination and harmful social and gender norms and empower women and girls to exercise their rights to bodily integrity, fostering zero-tolerance for any form of gender-based violence and harmful practices, with a focus on addressing forms of discrimination and gender-based inequalities.
 
In partnership with local service providers and civil society organizations, UNFPA supports safe houses and shelter homes, one-stop crisis management centres and community-based psychosocial workers that provide gender-based violence survivors with crucial access to psychosocial counselling and referrals to appropriate services in line with the United Nations essential service package. We also strengthen the capacities of communities to actively engage in gender-transformative dialogue to challenge discriminatory gender and social norms to reduce acceptance of gender-based violence and harmful practices, promote gender equality and the rights of women and girls, and increase demand for sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services.
 

Empowering adolescent girls and boys the Rupantaran programme also provides young people with life skills and enhanced capabilities to make informed choices regarding marriage, education, and their sexual and reproductive health. These safe spaces, each of which is headed by a mentor, develop the individual and collective agency of adolescent girls to target and respond to gender-based violence and harmful practices, as well as increase their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.