Preliminary Analysis of United Nations System Approaches to Resourcing Women’s Organizations and Civil Society Organizations

This discussion paper, commissioned by the Inter-agency Task Force for Advancing a United Nations-wide Funding Framework for Women’s Organizations and Civil Society Organizations, provides a preliminary analysis of UN funding strategies for women’s and civil society organizations (WOs/CSOs) working on gender equality.

The Task Force, co-chaired by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and the UN Spotlight Initiative, shares a common goal to transform how the UN System as a whole resources women’s and civil society organizations more effectively. This paper, based on a rapid review of UN funding practices, highlights systemic barriers and identifies several examples of different ways UN entities are getting better quality resources to organizations, especially small, grassroots groups. However, the examples are isolated and tend to be exceptions rather than the norm. It underscores the need for the UN to have a unified framework that guides intentional, intersectional, and accessible funding to help WOs/CSOs advance gender equality, human rights, and sustainable development.