UN Trust Fund

The UN Trust Fund is finalizing its Strategy for 2010-2015, entitled “Vision 2015”. Consultations have involved sister agencies and UNIFEM staff at global and field levels; the UN Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE); and representatives of Member States. Furthermore, over 20 UN agencies and funds have to date participated in the UN Trust Fund’s governance through regional and global Programme Appraisal Committees.Since 2008, the UN Trust Fund has funded UN Country Team programming to end violence against women and girls.

In March 2009, the UN Trust Fund issued its fourteenth Call for Proposals to support the implementation of laws, policies and action plans on ending violence against women and girls.While the UN Trust Fund has been able to rely on the support of its leading donors in 2009, the global financial crisis has reduced the resources available for grant-making to less than half of the US$22 million granted last year.

In November 2007, the UN Trust Fund awarded nearly $5 million in support of effective implementation of national laws, policies and plans of action on ending violence against women, as well as to initiatives addressing the inter-linkages between violence against women and HIV/AIDS.In 2007, Member States, private-sector and other donors raised their contributions to the UN Trust Fund, resulting in more than a tenfold increase over the past four years.

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, in collaboration with Avon Products, Inc. convened a global summit in March 2008 wherein Avon Products, Inc. committed $1 million to the UN Trust Fund – the Fund’s largest single, annual, private sector contribution ever.

Grant applications for the 2008 Call for Proposals were invited from governments, civil society organizations, and, for the first time, for UN Country Teams (UNCTs).