Inter-Agency Mechanisms and Activities

UNFPA continues to play a strategic and/or leading role in several inter-agency mechanisms and activities: 

UNFPA leads the inter-agency coordination mechanism for the GBV Information Management System programme (GBVIMS Steering Committee) supporting strengthened case management through safe and ethical data collection.

UNFPA is a member of the global Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Emergencies, and also supports its adhoc secretarial together with NORCAP[1].

UNFPA is an active member of the UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict supporting application of survivor-centered approaches in CRSV related work.

UNFPA plays a central role in the Spotlight Initiative, supporting integrated, multi-sectoral approaches to eliminate violence against women and girls, including through prevention, response services, and strengthening of enabling environments and data systems.

UNFPA contributes to the implementation and global promotion of the RESPECT framework, supporting evidence-based prevention of violence against women through coordinated, multi-sectoral interventions and partnerships.

UNFPA is a key partner in the Essential Services Package (ESP) for Women and Girls Subject to Violence, supporting the development and implementation of quality, coordinated, and survivor-centered services across health, justice, social services, and policing sectors.

The REGA and Information Management team in ASRO successfully provided sustained strategic and technical support to GBV Areas of Responsibility (AoRs) in Yemen, Syria, Sudan, the occupied Palestinian territory, and the GBV Working Group in Lebanon. As a result, GBV Case Management Task Forces were strengthened, enabling the continued delivery of quality, ethical, and coordinated survivor support even in highly constrained and rapidly evolving operational contexts. Across all contexts, advocacy and practical support led to increased meaningful inclusion, leadership, and resourcing of women-led and women-focused organizations within GBV coordination and response mechanisms. These efforts were underpinned by a regional report highlighting the specific barriers WLOs face in accessing Country-Based Pooled Funds, informing more strategic and inclusive funding approaches.

The Regional Emergency GBV Advisor (REGA) for East and Southern Africa (ESA) significantly advanced the leadership and coordination capacities   of GBV service providers across the region on behalf of UNFPA’s mandate to coordinate GBViE: the REGA founded in 2017 and continuously chairs the Regional GBV Working Group for ESA, comprising 35 active member organizations that meet on a monthly basis, ensuring consistent inter-agency GBV coordination and situational awareness across the region.

[1] The Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies is a global initiative, currently led by Norway, that brings together States and donors, international organisations and non-governmental organisations with the aim to drive change and foster accountability from the humanitarian system to address GBV from the earliest phases of a crisis. 

UN Women continued to administer the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and Girls (UN Trust Fund), the UN system’s only General Assembly-mandated, inter-agency pooled funding mechanism dedicated exclusively to ending violence against women and girls. Through its inter-agency Programme Advisory Committee (GPAC), comprising representatives from 14 UN entities, civil society and global experts, the UN Trust Fund strengthened system-wide collaboration, strategic alignment and coordinated grant-making approaches across humanitarian, development and peace contexts. In 2025, UN Trust Fund managed an active portfolio totalling USD 74.5 million, supporting 159 civil society and women’s rights organizations across 71 countries and territories, including organizations operating in crisis, displacement and humanitarian settings.

The UN Trust Fund and the Spotlight Initiative also co-led the development of the UN-wide Funding Framework for Women’s Organizations and Civil Society Organizations — a system-wide roadmap to strengthen how the UN funds women’s rights organizations and feminist civil society actors. Guided by an inter-agency task force comprising UN entities, pooled funds and humanitarian actors, the Framework advances six principles to make UN funding more accessible, flexible, predictable and transformative, including through reduced administrative burdens, increased core and flexible funding, strengthened feminist accountability and improved risk-sharing approaches. The Framework builds on the UN Trust Fund’s feminist-informed, demand-driven grant-making model, including multi-year flexible funding, accompaniment and risk-sharing approaches designed to strengthen the resilience and sustainability of women’s rights organizations operating in crisis and backlash contexts.

In 2025, UN Women strengthened UN system-wide coordination on EVAWG through its leadership of inter-agency mechanisms and global partnerships. As Secretariat of the UN Inter-agency Working Group on EVAWG, it sustained collaboration across UN entities to advance coherent policy and programmatic approaches, including through engagement in UN Action to promote survivor-centred responses and address emerging risks such as technology-facilitated and conflict-related sexual violence. 

Whole-of-system efforts to EVAWG were captured through the update of the UN Inventory of Activities to EVAWG and analyzed through joint assessment with the Spotlight initiative which resulted in the first brief on progress to EVAWG by the UN System.

Coordination efforts contributed to results across 135 countries supported under the Strategic Plan, alongside strengthened UN system accountability reflected in a 105% increase in UNCT-SWAP reporting (125 countries). UN Women also played a leading role in global partnerships, including co-leadership of the Generation Equality Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence and engagement in the Global Partnership for Action on Online Gender-Based Harassment and Abuse.

At regional and country levels, UN Women supported the operationalization of inter-agency coordination platforms, including task forces and structures, aligning prevention, response and advocacy efforts. Joint programmes and partnerships demonstrated continued multi-agency delivery, including follow-up to the Spotlight Initiative and migration-focused initiatives. 

UN Women continued to coordinate the Secretary-General campaign UNiTE to end violence against women on behalf of the UN System. In 2025, the Campaign delivered its largest global activation during the 16 Days of Activism, focusing on digital violence through the #NoExcuse for Online Abuse theme. Marking Beijing+30, it positioned online abuse as a systemic human rights issue requiring prevention, accountability and survivor-centred responses. The campaign achieved exceptional reach, with web audiences growing sixfold to 3.5 million users, 424 million media reach, and 7.9 million social media impression

Through coordinated programming, the EU-funded ACT programme strengthened 757 women’s rights organizations and supported 179 organizations to influence 20 global and regional policy processes, including CSW69, the Beijing+30 Action Agenda and HLPF outcomes. Coordination was further reinforced through Spotlight Initiative Phase 2, where UN Women co-chaired the global Advisory Body and supported implementation of USD 19.3 million (25% of total programme funding) across multiple country and regional programmes.

These efforts strengthened system-wide coherence, accountability and collective impact in advancing EVAWG commitments across the UN system.

Spotlight Initiative operationalizes a "One UN" approach under the leadership of Resident Coordinators at country level, coordinating 13 UN agencies across the Initiative to deliver coherent, multi-sectoral responses to ending violence against women and girls. This model of UN inter-agency collaboration is central to how the Initiative drives efficiency, reduces duplication, and strengthens collective accountability.

In 2025, regular inter-agency engagement was maintained through quarterly Director-level meetings and monthly technical-level meetings with UN Agency Focal Points, enabling joint planning and harmonized approaches to programme design, implementation, and reporting. At the programme level, RC-led coordination produced concrete results: in Liberia, harmonized planning and joint technical reviews strengthened inter-agency accountability and reduced duplication  across agency efforts , while in Zambia, unified UN leadership under the Resident Coordinator deepened mutual accountability and donor engagement for programme delivery. In Sierra Leone and Ecuador, cost-sharing arrangements, joint procurement and shared operational tools improved inter-agency coherence and reduced administrative delays. At the global level, Spotlight Initiative and the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women jointly led the development of a draft UN-wide funding framework to support more predictable financing for civil society organizations working to end violence against women and girls. This will be launched in mid-2026. Additionally, in 2025, Spotlight Initiative convened stakeholders from across UN agencies to deliver public webinars on ending GBV, to act as reference group members in various technical and research processes, and to participate at global events and convenings.

Sustained inter-agency coordination strengthens the coherence, efficiency, and collective accountability of UN action to end violence against women and girls, ensuring the system's diverse expertise is mobilized in service of shared results.

As the IASC-mandated agency for coordinating GBV prevention and response in emergencies, UNFPA leads the GBV AoR and coordinates GBV sub-clusters in 32 humanitarian contexts.  UNFPA is also a core member of the IASC GBV Guidelines Reference Group strengthening the integration of measures to mitigate risks of GBV across all sectors in humanitarian action. 

UNFPA leads the GBV Information Management System (GBVIMS) at global level as well as national coordination mechanisms to strengthen case management and protect confidential and ethical management of GBV incident data. 

UNFPA is a partner in the UN Action Network Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action), strengthening system-wide responses to conflict-related sexual violence.  

It also collaborates in the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women and the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE) Task Force on VAW. 

Through the Spotlight Initiative, UNFPA works to eliminate VAW globally by addressing structural barriers, strengthening institutions, and promoting survivor-centred responses.  

UNFPA is also a key player in the RESPECT framework, a comprehensive approach to prevent GBV, and in the Essential Services Package (ESP), ensuring accessible, quality services for survivors of GBV. 

Additionally, UNFPA is at the forefront of addressing TFGBV, including its role in co-leading a coalition to integrate gender in the Global Digital Compact.  

UNFPA actively engages with the 16 Days of Activism with concerted efforts to move from activism to accountability.  

Since 2008 UNFPA, jointly with UNICEF, leads the largest Global Programme to Accelerate the Elimination of FGM in 18 countries. 

Since 2016 UNFPA, jointly with UNICEF, has been implementing the Global Programme to End Child Marriage in 12 of the highest-prevalence and/or high-burden countries. 

At the regional and national levels, UNFPA participates in UN country teams and humanitarian clusters to integrate GBV prevention, response, and risk mitigation across sectors, ensuring a survivor-centred and rights-based approach. 

 The United Nations Statistics Division continues to serve as the Secretariat of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics (IAEG-GS). Since 2006, the group has met annually to assess progress and explore strategies to enhance gender statistics, including data on violence against women, at national and global levels. Each meeting reviews achievements, identifies challenges and gaps, and provides guidance on future efforts to advance gender statistics. For more information on past meetings, please see: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic-social/meetings/?Topic=gender 

UNSD also is part of the WHO technical group for new estimates on partner and non-partner VAW 

On 28 November 2024, FAO hosted a session under the UNiTE Campaign during the 16 Days of Activism against GBV, organized in collaboration with UN Women and local feminist organizations in crisis-affected countries, titled "Global Crises and Gender-Based Violence". The event focused on how global crises, including conflicts, economic hardship and climate change, disproportionately affect women and girls, increasing their vulnerability to GBV and food insecurity. This session called for urgent humanitarian action to address gender inequalities and the root causes of GBV, highlighting the importance of rapid gender assessments (RGAs) in guiding interventions and empowering women in crisis settings.  

OHCHR contributed to the elaboration of a global support system for the monitoring and reporting arrangements on sexual violence in conflict (MARA) with UN ACTION. 

UN Action is an inter-agency mechanism that brings together 26 UN entities across the humanitarian-development-peacebuilding spectrum to coordinate a one-UN response to conflict-related sexual violence. UN Action’s activities on political advocacy, operational impact through catalytic projects, and knowledge building are implemented jointly by at least two, though often more, member entities.  

Under the leadership of the Resident Coordinator (RC) and in line with the UN Reform, Spotlight Initiative leveraged UN agencies’ complementary expertise and streamlined backend processes to drive progress in efforts to end violence against women and girls. 

Across Spotlight programmes, UN Country Teams enhanced alignment, improved cost-effectiveness, and streamlined coordination by institutionalizing standing meetings, engaging in joint procurement, adopting the UN-wide Business Operations Strategy, and co-locating operations. These measures fostered more integrated programming and implementation, minimized duplication, and increased efficiency. 

The following examples highlight strengthened inter-agency collaboration across Spotlight programmes:

• In Samoa, the Resident Coordinator’s leadership fostered improved coordination among UN agencies, leveraging the agencies’ comparative advantages for strengthened programming to end violence against women and girls. As a result, the Initiative expanded its scope to better reach vulnerable populations, including the LGBTIQ+ community and persons living with disabilities. 
• Similarly, in Mozambique, under the leadership of the Resident Coordinator, the Initiative was able to successfully advocate for expanded reach to the conflict-affected province of Cabo Delgado. With improved coordination, Spotlight Initiative provided joint support to local government in Gaza and Manica. 
• In Mexico, the Resident Coordinator’s Office and Spotlight Initiative’s technical team streamlined inter-agency collaboration (to ensure more efficient delivery) and fostered constructive collaboration with key counterparts at the highest level of the Government, the EU Delegation, and the Civil Society Reference Group. Efficient inter-agency collaboration allowed the programme to more quickly identify risks, respond to challenges and deepen joint planning and joint interventions, improving coherence in programming. Through the complementary work of UN agencies under the Initiative, the programme was able to produce the “Statistical Framework for Measuring the Gender-Related Killing of Women and Girls (also referred to as ‘femicide/ feminicide’)”, which was approved in 2022 by the United Nations Statistical Commission. 
• In Haiti, challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, an earthquake in August 2021, and a deteriorating security situation required multiple changes to the programme’s work plan and budget. With robust coordination among UN agencies, the Spotlight programme in Haiti effectively adjusted its risk management arrangements to ensure the continuity of interventions. Leveraging partnerships allowed for swift collective action by the UN, government, and civil society partners, helping to prevent (and better respond to) a potential increase in cases of violence against women and girls in the context of multiple crises.
• In Trinidad and Tobago, the Initiative promoted strong collaboration between the programme management unit and UN Women (the technical coherence lead of the programme). A Technical Coherence Matrix was collectively developed to support all UN agencies implementing the programme in performing a pre-evaluation of nearly 60 deliverables to ensure alignment with Spotlight Initiative objectives and guidelines, and UN Principles, standards, and global human rights conventions. This included establishing criteria for joint assessments of Terms of Reference, consultancies, and procurement, enhancing coordination among agencies. As a result, the initiative improved programme coherence, streamlined delivery, and accelerated the ability of the UN agencies implementing the Spotlight programme in Trinidad and Tobago to collectively deliver in a more coordinated, efficient, and effective manner.
• In El Salvador, by capitalizing on various RUNO’s existing operational tools and mechanisms (including the Harmonized Approach to Cash Transfers (HACT)), the Initiative was better able to streamline operational and backend processes, including fund transfers to the Government and other partners (by using tools like the business operations strategy, long-term agreements and requests for quotation). This fostered stronger coordination with national counterparts, and as such, the Initiative was better positioned to ensure a whole-of-society approach across diverse implementing partners in El Salvador, better preventing and responding to violence against women and girls. Implementing Spotlight Initiative’s comprehensive model, and “Working as One UN” was particularly helpful in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Initiative was able to more seamlessly collaborate across stakeholders to revise acceleration plans and ensure targeted support to women and girls in a rapidly changing context.