S/2017/249 Camara. These efforts also led to the arrest of key suspects through enhanced judicial cooperation with neighbouring countries. During the reporting period, the Team continued to promote the sharing of experiences between countries facing similar challenges and to assist in developing policies and tools such as guidelines for armed forces in Africa. By virtue of its structure and composition, the Team has contributed to enhanced coherence among its constituent entities. To date, it has engaged in the Central African Republic, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democ ratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Iraq, Liberia, Mali, Somalia and South Sudan. 6. The United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict network, which consists of 13 entities and is chaired by my Special Representative, is aimed at strengthening sexual violence prevention and response through a coordinated, coherent and comprehensive approach. In 2016, through the United Nations Action multi-partner trust fund, catalytic funding was provided for the deployment of the first women’s protection adviser to Iraq. An international expert was deployed to Mali on secondment from the Government of Switzerland to support the development of a national strategy on gender-based violence/sexual violence in conflict. In 2016, the network also funded five projects in the Middle East and North Africa, which support primarily Syrian and Iraqi survivors, including refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. United Nations Action further conducted a workshop in Jordan to foster synergies between the different projects, and to su pport the development of results-based monitoring and evaluation frameworks. Joint technical support missions were conducted to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Côte d’Ivoire, Jordan and Mali in 2016. A number of tools and knowledge products were produced to improve practice in the field, including a mapping of the global policy landscape on conflict-related sexual violence, in which gaps and opportunities linked to the implementation of the mandate on conflict-related sexual violence are assessed. 7. Recognizing that the United Nations has individuals among its ranks who engage in egregious acts of sexual exploitation and abuse, I have pledged to dramatically improve the way the United Nations prevents and responds to sexual exploitation and abuse by our own personnel and those deployed under the auspices of the United Nations. In my recent report on special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse: a new approach (A/71/818), I have undertaken measures within my own authority. I have set out a strat egic framework to prioritize the rights and dignity of victims and to end impunity. I have also called on Member States to join me in a unified effort to detect, control and prevent incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse in order to make zero tolerance a reality. II. Sexual violence in conflict as a tactic of war and terrorism: Overview of current trends and emerging concerns 8. In 2016, sexual violence continued to be employed as a tactic of war, with widespread and strategic rapes, including mass rapes, allegedly committed by several parties to armed conflict, mostly in conjunction with other crimes such as killing, looting, pillage, forced displacement and arbitrary detention. The strategic nature of the violence was evident in the selective targeting of victims from opposing ethnic, religious or political groups, mirroring the fault lines of the wider conflict or crisis. Patterns of sexual violence have also been seen in the context of 17-05090 3/33