Understanding impact and reflecting on success: "Not all that counts can be counted"

 UN Trust Fund meta-analysis report 2025: Insights from civil society organizations funded by the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and Girls

The UN Trust Fund commissioned a meta-analysis of 36 high-quality evaluations conducted under its 2021–2025 Strategic Plan. The study explores what works to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls—focusing on the pivotal role of civil society organizations (CSOs), especially women’s rights organizations (WROs), and groups representing intersectionally marginalized women and girls.

Key lessons from the meta-analysis include:

• CSOs bridge systems and communities – translating laws into practice, strengthening institutions, and delivering survivor-centred services that make formal systems accessible
• CSOs drive sustainable change – building local ownership, shifting norms, and embedding practices that outlast project funding cycles
• CSOs bring credibility and evidence – frontline experience gives unique legitimacy in policy spaces, shaping inclusive laws and accountability mechanisms
• Multisectoral partnerships amplify impact – CSO collaboration across sectors bridges systemic gaps and strengthens protection systems
• Impact goes beyond numbers – shifts in norms, trust-building, and empowerment require qualitative feminist evaluation frameworks

The findings reaffirm the central contribution of CSOs and WROs to ending violence against women and girls. Initiatives that integrate prevention, services, and legal and policy reform—and that are grounded in local contexts—achieve the most enduring outcomes. However, the full scope of transformation cannot be understood through quantitative measures alone. Capturing changes in power dynamics, trust, and empowerment requires feminist, participatory evaluation frameworks that recognize diverse voices and lived experiences.

Strengthening the use of feminist evaluation approaches is essential to better capture the depth and complexity of results, ensure accountability to those most affected, and understand how locally grounded action contributes to systemic and sustainable change.