Measures

UNFPA cohosted the 2025 Global Symposium on Climate Justice and Impacted Populations, with the Government of Brazil. The symposium convened global policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to examine the intersections between climate change, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and gender-based violence (GBV). Held ahead of COP30, it positioned climate change as not only an environmental crisis but a human rights issue, disproportionately affecting women and girls. 

The symposium assessed critical gaps in research, policy, financing, and data systems linking climate and GBV, while emphasizing the need for integrated, gender-responsive climate action. It culminated in the Brasília Call to Action, which outlined concrete steps to embed SRHR and GBV into climate policies, national adaptation plans, and financing frameworks. The event strengthened UNFPA and UN agency capacity by establishing a shared evidence base that links GBV with climate vulnerability. It improved technical and institutional capacity by identifying integration pathways for GBV within climate frameworks like NDCs. Furthermore, it fostered cross-sectoral coordination among UN entities and governments for scalable responses while enhancing advocacy capacity with a unified narrative to influence COP30 and global climate governance.

UNFPA has been actively involved in advancing, implementing, and operationalizing the Belem do Para Convention’s agenda to prevent violence against women through the:

• General Recommendation 5 on GBV and afrodescendant women.
• IV Hemispheric report on the accomplishments of the Belem do Pará Convention 

UNFPA ASRO, in partnership with ESCWA, UNDP, and UN Women, strengthened the availability and use of evidence for gender equality advocacy through the Gender Justice and the Law Initiative (GJI)[1]. In 2025, the initiative delivered an updated, comprehensive legal mapping across 16 Arab States, reflecting recent legislative reforms and alignment with international human rights standards.

• The issuance of a Fatwa in Djibouti condemning FGM was a key outcome of UNFPA ASRO’s sustained technical and programmatic support, which strengthened religious engagement and created conditions for faith-based leadership to publicly reject the practice. Key efforts included operating the Shamekhat network, capacity-building for Al-Azhar students, and a South-South cooperation study tour. The tour brought senior religious leaders from Djibouti to Cairo to engage with scholars from Al-Azhar and Dar al-Ifta. This peer-to-peer dialogue and exposure built trust and religious ownership, leading to the national dialogue and the subsequent Fatwa.

[1] https://genderjustice.unescwa.org/2025/Index.aspx 

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. 

Since 2024, UNFPA has significantly strengthened its GBV prevention through a series of strategic and evidence-driven initiatives: 

• The organization undertook a comprehensive internal mapping of GBV prevention programmes across regions, which, combined with a global literature review on “what works”, has informed the development of new internal guidance on GBV prevention. This forthcoming guidance is designed to support country offices in planning, implementing, and scaling evidence-based interventions, while ensuring alignment with UNFPA’s Strategic Plan and its gender strategy Agency, Choice and Access and GBV Operational Plan, Flourish. It reinforces work across legal reform, social norms transformation, youth empowerment, and feminist movement strengthening.
• UNFPA has deepened the integration of GBV prevention into comprehensive sexuality education (CSE). This includes the development of a forthcoming  policy brief that leverages the potential of CSE for GBV prevention, alongside operational guidance that translates evidence into practical steps for integrating violence prevention intervention components,   gender-transformative approaches and trauma-informed approaches into CSE programming. UNFPA is also building the evidence base on how CSE contributes to preventing violence and the impact of CSE in improving access to GBV services.
• Through the Women at the Centre (WAC) programme, UNFPA community outreach efforts focused on adapting social and gender norms change theory into local contexts in five countries including Azerbaijan, El Salvador, Indonesia, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe.  Countries adapted UNFPA’s Global Social and Gender Norms Change Toolkit or other globally recognized prevention models like SASA! targeting women leaders, adolescents, caregivers/adults, and religious/community leaders. UNFPA additionally  implemented diverse TFGBV awareness initiatives through the WAC programme, such as media training and educational game kits in El Salvador and the development of public booklets in Indonesia. Madagascar and Zimbabwe utilized community outreach and radio campaigns during the 16 Days of Activism to address digital safety and online violence. These integrated efforts across the four countries focused on adapting social and gender norms change theory to local contexts to better protect women and youth in virtual environments.
• UNFPA, together with UNWOMEN, WHO and UNDP, has developed forthcoming guidance on the Dos and Don’ts of Engaging Men and Boys, emphasizing that such efforts must remain accountable to women’s rights movements, challenge harmful masculinities and power imbalances, adopt intersectional approaches, and avoid diverting resources from women- and girl-centred programming.
• UNFPA is piloting innovative approaches such as a digital redirection intervention to counter online sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) misinformation and gendered disinformation, linking young people to accurate information and services. Together, these efforts reflect a more integrated, systemic, and forward-looking prevention agenda.
• UNFPA ASRO technically supported the establishment of a regional digital hub on child marriage in the Arab region through the launch of the Regional Action Forum (RAF) website in 2025, which is hosted and coordinated by UNICEF. The digital hub hosts over 80 technical and advocacy resources, strengthening access to evidence, visibility, and cross-country learning among UN agencies, CSOs, iNGOs, academia, and women’s rights organisations.
• UNFPA Morocco supported the Aman Laki - an innovative digital solution for GBV prevention and response, providing women, especially survivors and those in vulnerable situations, with easy access to integrated support services. Through a user-friendly interface, the platform enables online requests, connects users to listening centers and specialized services, and facilitates referrals to multisectoral institutions, including pathways for support and economic empowerment.
• UNFPA Sudan strengthened the role of Women-Led Organizations (WLOs) as frontline GBV responders by supporting localization efforts through technical and financial assistance, coordination platforms, and increased visibility. This enhanced their capacity, representation, and influence, ensuring grassroots women’s leadership is better integrated into humanitarian, peacebuilding, and recovery processes.

UNFPA provided substantial support for legislative development in the following areas: 

• UNFPA supported the process of developing the Inter-American Model Law on digital violence against women of MESECVI.
• In Colombia, Perú, Bolivia UNFPA supported the development of the Child Marriage and Early Union Prohibition.
• In Colombia, UNFPA supported  the adoption of the law to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation.
• UNFPA Djibouti has taken landmark steps toward eliminating FGM through the adoption of a constitutional amendment to Article 16, explicitly prohibiting FGM under the ban on torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. This historic legal reform is reinforced by a national fatwa issued by religious leaders explicitly calling for the abandonment of FGM, marking a critical shift in both the legal and normative environment.
• UNFPA Somalia supported a major milestone in December 2025, when the President of the South West State enacted a law prohibiting FGM. The law criminalizes the practice and reflects a strong political commitment to protecting the rights of women and girls and advancing gender equality.
• UNFPA promoted rights-based law and policy frameworks that are survivor-centred and prioritise platform accountability.In partnership with Derechos Digitales, UNFPA released Guiding principles for law and policy reform to address Technology-facilitated Gender-based Violence: Towards a system of accountability at the end of 2025. These principles are based on a comparative analysis of eight global jurisdictions, predominantly from the Global South. UNFPA and UN Women, facilitated by Equality Now, are consolidating two similar documents set to be released in 2026, as well as exploring CSW opportunities.

UNFPA Algeria has made significant progress in strengthening its national response to GBV by developing and finalising Intersectoral Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). These SOPs establish a formal bridge between the Ministry of Justice, the National Gendarmerie (DGSN), and the Ministry of Health, creating a unified framework for prevention and response.

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.

The UN Trust Fund has played a key role in elevating women's rights organizations (WRO) leadership in key international human rights and public advocacy spaces throughout 2025. For instance, at the fifty-ninth session of the Human Rights Council, it co-hosted the side event “Voices of Resilience from the Frontlines: Advancing Efforts to End Violence against Women and Girls in the Context of Backlash” with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Women Geneva Office. This event brought together more than 90 feminist leaders, United Nations officials and Member State representatives. It amplified grantee partners’ experiences of adapting and sustaining their work amid escalating backlash and provided a platform to launch the 2025 Call for Proposals, a CFP that generated an unprecedented demand of 2.1 billion USD in funding from civil society partners. 

UN Trust Fund’s SHINE hub, a multilingual (100+ languages) virtual exchange and convening platform, was leveraged to host a global consultation with civil society partners on technology-facilitated gender-based violence, and practitioners shared their prevention and response strategies and their experiences in tackling this specific form of violence. 

UN Trust Fund-supported initiatives enabled 74,300 women and girls to access specialist support services; supported 581,198 women and girls to access information, goods and services to prevent or respond to violence; strengthened 738 institutions to improve survivor-centred service provision; and facilitated access to justice for 7,960 women and girls in cases of violence. The portfolio also prioritized women and girls facing intersecting forms of discrimination and exclusion. In 2025, funded initiatives directly reached over 39,000 women survivors of violence, 12,727 refugee and internally displaced women and girls, 7,444 women and girls with disabilities, 8,828 Indigenous women and girls, and 2,736 lesbian, bisexual and transgender women and girls, and in 2025 alone nearly 100,000 cases of sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls were reported or referred to local state service providers through support provided by the UN Trust Fund grantee partners. Through support from Wellspring Philanthropic, the UN Trust Fund also initiated a series of briefs on practice-based knowledge on essential services for women and girls, highlighting the key role of civil society organizations as service providers across the humanitarian development peace nexus. 

Overall, these efforts improved access to justice, protection and support for survivors, strengthened system-wide coordination, and reinforced survivor-centred approaches at scale across diverse contexts.