Women want a world free from hatred, violence and poverty, a world of equal opportunities and rights

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The United Nations Development Fund for Women

• Women want a world free from hatred, violence
  and poverty, a world of equal opportunities and
  rights, a world that is prosperous and secure for
  all.
• Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM

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A Mandate from UN Member States to Support the
Worlds Women

• UNIFEM is the UN Womens Fund. It provides
  technical and financial assistance to
• Support innovative activities empowering women
  in developing countries.
• Serve as a catalyst to ensure womens
  participation in all aspects of development.
• Promote womens empowerment through the United
  Nations overall system of development
  cooperation.

GA Resolution 13/125
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What Does UNIFEM Do?
Four Focus Areas

• Reducing feminized poverty.
• Ending violence against women.
• Halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS
  among women and girls.
• Achieving gender equality in democratic
  governance in times of peace as well as war.

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A Vital Part of the United Nations
UNIFEM works to

• Bring diverse partners together at the country
  level to support national priorities for
  achieving gender equality and womens rights.
• Facilitate dialogue at the regional level to
  translate global agreements into action oriented
  strategies (e.g. Security Council Resolution 1325
  on women, peace and security).
• Ensure that gender is an integral part of
  allMillennium Development Goals aimed
  atachieving gender equality and
  combatingpoverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy
  andenvironmental degradation by 2015.

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How Does It Work?
Five Strategies

• Advocacy to secure political and financial
  support for gender equality and womens rights.
• Brokering partnerships among womens
  organizations, governments, the UN system and
  the private sector to build common agendas and
  strategies.
• Building capacity of womens organizations.
• Undertaking pilot projects to test innovative
  approaches that empower women.
• Building a knowledge base on effective strategies
  to promote gender equality in mainstream
  development.

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Where Does UNIFEM Work?
Projects and programmes
Trust Fund inSupport of Actions to Eliminate
ViolenceAgainst Women
UNIFEM RegionalProgramme Directors
UNIFEM Gender Advisers

• Through innovative partnerships, UNIFEM supports
  initiatives in over 100 countries. The
  organization works through its 15 sub-regional
  offices and partners in Africa, Asia-Pacific,
  Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and
  Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of
  Independent States.

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The National Committees
Strong Constituencies of Support

• UNIFEM has 15 active National Committees that
  build constituencies of support through outreach
  activities. Through their dynamic volunteer
  members, the National Committees educate policy
  makers and the public about UNIFEM and encourage
  greater support for UNIFEMs global programmes.
• National Committees exist in Australia, Austria,
  Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland,
  Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines,
  Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom,
  and USA.

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Implementing Commitments to Womens Rights

• In Kenya, UNIFEM advocated forthe use of CEDAW
  as a critical reference for the revision of
  theconstitution. The new draft constitution
  clearly articulates womens rights inrelation to
  affirmative action, citizenship and marriage.
• In Syria, a study concluded that CEDAW can
  address the needs of Syrian women in their
  owncultural context. The government started the
  process of ratification in 2002.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) isknown
as the international bill of womens human rights
and has been ratified by 177 countries
worldwide. It is the cornerstone of UNIFEMs
rights-based approach.
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Reducing Feminized Poverty

• In Jordan, UNIFEM secured the governments
  agreement on a minimum standard contract that
  stipulates the rights of migrant women workers.
  In Nepal, women migrant workers receive
  information about their rights before they leave
  the country.
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
  help businesses succeed. Gender-sensitive
  training courses on ICT, designed in partnership
  with CISCO systems and the Jordanian Government
  have achieved close to 65 female enrollment. The
  initiative is now being replicated in Lebanon.

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Reducing Feminized Poverty

• Gender-sensitive data is crucial to design
  policies and examine the allocation of public
  resources among women and men.
• UNIFEM supports the efforts toward
  gender-sensitive budgeting in 20 countries. In
  the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, as a result, the
  resources allocated to gender equality in 2003
  were 15 times higher than in 2001.

Knowledge Product Parliament, the Budget and
Gender The handbook for Parliamentarians was
published in collaboration with UNDP, IPU and the
World Bank Institute in 2004.
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Ending Violence Against Women

Available data suggest that nearly one in four
women may experience sexual violence by an
intimate partner in their lifetime.1 UNIFEMs
Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate
Violence against Women has supported 157
initiatives in more than 80 countries through
grants amounting to 7.4 million since its
inception in 1996.

• In nine countries in the CIS, a three-year
  campaign on violence against women led to an
  impressive rise in public awareness on the issue
  In Russia, surveys showed increases between 14-24
  per cent.
• In East and Southern Africa, a Trust Fund grant
  supports the International Association of Women
  Judges to conduct training for judges on
  resolving cases that include violence or
  discrimination against women.

1 World Report on Violence and Health, WHO 2002
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Ending Violence Against WomenKnowledge Products

• To involve men as partners in combating violence
  against women, UNIFEM in partnership with Zonta
  International developed a research project
  titled From violence to supportive practices
  family, gender and masculinities in India. The
  research was conducted together with universities
  in India. The knowledge generated has been fed
  into a new course Theorizing Masculinity at
  Delhi University.

Not a Minute More Ending Violence Against Women
The publication, launched in 2003, is based on a
series of regional reviews conducted by UNIFEM
that provide an overview of the achievements made
in mobilizing attention to the issue as a clear
violation of human rights, a public health
problem and a crime against women and society.
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Halting the Spread of HIV/AIDS

In 2004, women constitute 48 of those living
with HIV/AIDS, up from 35 in 1985. In
sub-Saharan Africa, where women make up 57 of
those infected, young women aged 15-24 are three
times more likely to be infected than their male
counterparts.

• In Enugu State in Nigeria, UNIFEM supported the
  development of a gender-responsive HIV/AIDS
  policy for all health-care facilities.
• In countries like India, Zimbabwe and Senegal
  UNIFEM supported groups of positive women in
  making their needs and demands heard.
• In Honduras and Brazil, UNIFEM supported
  assessments of the countries HIV/AIDS
  legislation.

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Halting the Spread of HIV/AIDSKnowledge
Products

• UNIFEM and UNAIDS launched a web portal on Gender
  HIV/AIDS as a one-stop-resource on all aspects
  of the epidemics gender dimensions.
• Women and HIV/AIDS Confronting the Crisis The
  publication, jointly launched in 2004 by UNAIDS,
  UNFPA and UNIFEM, focuses on key areas critical
  to an effective AIDS response prevention,
  treatment, care-giving, education, gender-based
  violence and womens rights.

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Achieving Gender Equality in Democratic
Governance
Women remain vastly under-represented in national
or local assemblies, accounting for a worldwide
average of only 15.4 percent of seats in national
parliaments.

• In Rwanda, UNIFEM rendered assistance to the
  Legal and Constitutional Commission and supported
  women delegates to travel the country and collect
  feedback on the draft constitution.
• In Morocco, UNIFEM supported womens networks in
  advocating for a quota, thefirst in the Arab
  World. 35 women were elected to Parliament,
  compared to only two women in the previous
  legislature.
• UNIFEM supported the launch of a Regional
  Womens Parliamentary Caucus in Southern Africa
  aimed at dismantling barriers hindering the work
  of women parliamentarians.

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Achieving Gender Equality in Democratic
GovernanceKnowledge Products
GOVERNANCE, PEACE and SECURITY
By 2002, 40 million people had fled their homes
as a result of war 80 were women and children.
In October 2000, the UN Security Council passed
Resolution 1325, calling for the protection of
women in conflict zones and their participation
in peace-building. UNIFEM collaborates closely in
the resolutions implementation.

• In 2002, UNIFEM published Women, War, Peace, The
  Independent Experts Assessment on the situation
  of women in armed conflicts to advocate for
  increased protection and womens inclusion in
  peace negotiations.
• WomenWarPeace.org, UNIFEMs new web portal, is
  provides gender profiles of countries in conflict
  or post-conflict situations and resources on
  pertinent themes such as displacement,
  reconstruction, health and violence.

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Financial Support for UNIFEM

• To pursue its work for women worldwide, UNIFEM
  relies on resources from UN Member States,
  foundations, NGOs and National Committees.
• In 2003, UNIFEMs budget amounted to US 34.025
  million.
• Governments 32.060 million
• UN Agencies, foundations, NGOs and National
  Committees 4.020 million

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Getting In Touch with UNIFEM

• 304 East 45th StreetNew York, NY 10017 USA
• Tel [phone]
• www.unifem.org