Investing in progress to ending violence against women
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In 2019, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) surpassed its Strategic Plan fundraising target of USD 20 million by nearly double and awarded almost USD 35 million in grants. This exceptional achievement has enabled the UN Trust Fund to support 79 organizations to continue reaching more women and girl survivors and at risk of violence.
Under its 2015-2020 Strategic Plan, the UN Trust Fund has prioritized funding to projects that tackle three crucial strategies to end violence against women:
- preventing violence against women and girls;
- expanding access to multi-sectoral services for survivors of violence and those at risk; and
- strengthening the implementation of laws, policies and national action plans to end violence.
Since 2015, the UN Trust Fund has invested USD 47 million in projects that are solely or partly focused on preventing violence against women and girls. These projects, many led by women’s organizations, mobilized communities to sustainably change social norms, attitudes and behaviors in relation to violence against women and girls.
In 2019 alone, thanks to the restless work of the 37 UN Trust Fund grantees, over 27,000 women and girls benefitted from specialized support services for survivors of violence against women, including medical services, shelters and legal aid.
In the past four years, the UN Trust Fund-supported projects have assisted over 1,000 government institutions to develop or improve around 100 policies or protocols, strengthening institutional effectiveness in addressing violence against women and girls.
In addition, the UN Trust Fund’s special funding windows focusing on ending violence against women and girls in humanitarian crises (2017) and reaching women living with disabilities (2018) ensured access to services to 14,000 women and girl survivors that would have otherwise run the risk of being left behind.
The UN Trust Fund also ensured innovative and evidence-based solutions are resourced through its “by invitation only” funding modality.[i] Al Shehab, one of nine organizations under this modality, used the second grant to scale up the provision of essential services and community engagement to address the intersection between HIV/AIDS and violence against women.
“Over the past decades, the UN Trust Fund’s results have provided a consistent evidence that resourcing women’s rights, women-led, and community-based organizations equals to reaching and elevating the voices of women and girls left furthest behind. COVID-19 has made this even more evident as women’s organizations have stepped in as first responders to the increased levels of violence against women during this crisis.”, said Vesna Jaric, Resource Mobilization and Advocacy Manager at the UN Trust Fund.
These results reflect the UN Trust Fund’s grant-giving capacity that enables it to continue investing in strengthening grantees' capacity, and empowering civil society and women’s rights organizations to end violence against women and girls.
[i] Under the “by invitation only” modality, projects whose results in the first round of funding show potential for being scaled up or replicated, or demonstrate a significant impact that can be built on with a second grant, are invited to apply for a further grant.