Snapshot 2021: Investment in organizational resilience during crises

Date: Wednesday, 25 May 2022

group of women standing and holding signs in protest — Group protest rallies regarding safe drinking water supply where climate induce saline intrusion is high. Credit: Laila Khatoon/Badabon Sangho.

In 2021, with continued support from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund), half of the grantees maintained the same level of service delivery, despite the severe challenges caused by COVID-19 and other crises. Modified UN Trust Fund training activities contributed to the quick development of 23,332 communications tools to highlight the link between COVID-19 and increased violence against women and girls. As a result, nearly 2 million women and girls had access to information, goods and resources or services that helped prevent or respond to gender-based violence.

Quote card that reads "It is imperative that donors be deliberate about dedicating a percentage of their grants to small women’s organizations through core, flexible and multi-year funding." from Chinyere Eyoh, Founder and Executive Director Sexual Offences Awareness & Victims Rehabilitation (SOAR) Initiative in Nigeria

Under the UN Trust Fund’s Strategic Plan 2021-2025, which was the product of a participatory process of government and civil society partners, grantees benefited from activities that, among other things, built and nurtured feminist and women’s movements by empowering local women’s rights organizations. Chinyere Eyoh, Founder and Executive Director of the Sexual Offences Awareness & Victims Rehabilitation (SOAR) Initiative in Nigeria, a twice-funded UN Trust Fund grantee, said:

“It is imperative that donors be deliberate about dedicating a percentage of their grants to small women’s organizations through core, flexible and multi-year funding… Without this deliberateness, small organizations will simply fall between the cracks and not have the much-needed support required to remain afloat and thrive.” 

Under the Strategic Plan, the UN Trust Fund also strengthened its commitment to providing grantees with long-term and more flexible funding, alongside programmatic and operational support.

The UN Trust Fund’s 25th annual grant cycle (opened from 25 November 2021 to 20 January 2022) prioritized proposals that gave special attention to organizational resilience and sustainability to ensure sustained transformational change and facilitate quick adaptation and recovery from challenging situations.

Throughout 2021, it became clear that civil society and women’s rights organizations were key first responders to the most marginalized women and girls in every crisis, and therefore need to be properly resourced.

You can read the UN Trust Fund's Annual Report 2021 here.