United Nations Population Fund

Areas of Focus

It remains a strategic priority for UNFPA to prevent and respond to gender-based violence across humanitarian, peace and development settings, including eliminating harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, child marriage and gender-biased sex selection. UNFPA supports comprehensive, survivor-centred responses across the humanitarian, peace and development continuum. Under the period of the last UNFPA Strategic Plan (2022 and 2025) UNFPA invested $1,925.6 million in initiatives to eliminate GBV and harmful practices. 

UNFPA’s Work on GBV

Advocacy/Policy:

UNFPA collaborates with national and international stakeholders to address gaps in legislation and law enforcement related to GBV and harmful practices. It supports the development of culturally sensitive, rights-based policies and plans for GBV prevention and response, with a strong emphasis on integrating these efforts into the health sector. UNFPA also works to align national frameworks with international agreements such as the SDGs, CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action. 

Capacity Development: 

UNFPA partners with women’s and youth feminist organizations, civil society, governments, and other stakeholders to transform harmful gender and social norms  to promote gender equality in families, communities and institutions. It focuses on building the capacity of governments, civil society, and service providers to respond and prevent GBV, across the social services, health, legal and justice and education sectors. 

Data and Evidence Generation: 

UNFPA plays a critical role in collecting, analyzing, and utilizing data to understand the prevalence, incidence, and impact of GBV worldwide. It partners with national statistics offices and relevant ministries to strengthen national data systems and ensure the ethical collection of GBV-related data. Through initiatives like kNOwVAWdata UNFPA provides technical support and capacity building for evidence-based policymaking in several regions and languages. 

In humanitarian settings, UNFPA leads the Gender-Based Violence Information Management System (GBVIMS), which harmonizes data collection across 25 crisis contexts. An adapted version of GBVIMS is also used in development settings to safely collect, store, analyze, and share survivor-reported data. These efforts ensure that data informs decision-making, resource allocation, and the development of effective GBV prevention and response programmes. 

Service Delivery: 

UNFPA promotes a survivor-centred integrated approach to addressing GBV through dynamic systems of prevention, protection, and response, including through sexual and reproductive health services. It strengthens survivors’ access to quality health care, social services, and legal and justice support, guided by the Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence and the Interagency Minimum Standards on Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies Programming. UNFPA also leads the Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBV AoR) under the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, coordinating global and national efforts to address GBV interventions in humanitarian settings. 

From 2023 to 2026, with the support of Takeda, UNFPA is implementing the Women at the Center programme, which strengthens case management and professional social-service workforce capacities in Azerbaijan, El Salvador, Indonesia, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe. 

Preventing GBV:

UNFPA works to dismantle harmful social and gender norms that perpetuate inequality and violence. It implements prevention programming as  outlined in the RESPECT framework, partnering with UN Women, WHO, and UNDP. UNFPA also promotes comprehensive sexuality education as a primary prevention tool, fostering gender-equitable attitudes among adolescents to reduce violence and promote healthier relationships.UNFPA also engages communities, including men and boys in advancing gender equality and ending harmful practices, while remaining accountable to feminist movements.

Through the EmpowerED programme, UNFPA is harnessing the potential of CSE to contribute to the prevention of gender-based violence. Implemented in 10 countries across six global regions, EmpowerED is supporting the strengthening of CSE to be gender-transformative and trauma-informed and to include the key elements of GBV prevention programmes, as well as the establishment of referral pathways between CSE and GBV services. UNFPA is also building the evidence base on the impact of CSE in GBV prevention outcomes, including changes in attitudes towards violence and increased support seeking behaviours. 

Responding to GBV Across Contexts: 

UNFPA supports comprehensive, survivor-centred responses in both humanitarian and development settings, ensuring access to health care, social services, and legal support. Its initiatives are guided by the Flourish: UNFPA Gender-Based Violence Operational Plan and the UNFPA Strategy and Operational Plan to Scale Up and Strengthen Interventions on Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies 2023–2025. UNFPA also addresses the growing intersections between GBV, climate change, protracted crises, and population movements, working across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus to strengthen preparedness, resilience, and long-term development. 

At the regional level UNFPA/EECA, the major milestone in 2025 was the co-development of the eight Regional GBV Case Management systems (Regional tool) strengthening tools through ongoing engagement with seven country offices (COs) in the region (Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, North Macedonia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). The regional tool offers a practical and adaptable approach to apply intersectional systems thinking tools to strengthen GBV case management systems. It is conceived as a living resource, to be further developed through future applications, learning and country and sub-national experiences. The toolkit is intended to support peer learning and experience sharing across EECA country offices as they work with national partners to prevent and respond to GBV and harmful practices.   

Addressing Technology-Facilitated GBV (TFGBV): 

UNFPA has been leading work on addressing TFGBV since 2021 with publication of Making All Spaces Safe: Technology-facilitated GBV and launched the Making All Spaces Safe global programme (2024–2027), with the support of Global Affairs Canada,  to tackle this issue. This initiative focuses on addressing TFGBV through comprehensive, survivor-centred programming. It works to improve frontline, multi-sectoral response to TFGBV, integrates digital literacy into prevention programming, advocates for rights-based law reform, and promotes safety-by-design standards in technology design in order to mitigate harm. The programme is being implemented globally, with a focus on Kenya and Benin, to address the evolving nature of GBV in digital spaces. UNFPA are also leading the Safety Showcase: Re-imagining Gender in Technology with the support of the United Kingdom to highlight tech products, policies and features that prioritise safety, security and privacy at the heart of design and deployment. 

Global Initiatives and Partnerships: 

UNFPA is a key partner in the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, supporting civil society initiatives worldwide. It also actively participates in the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, advocating for increased activism to ensure women and girls can live free from violence and coercion. Through its global programmes and partnerships, UNFPA continues to set standards for survivor-centred care and drive transformative change to end GBV in all its forms. 

Women at the Centre is UNFPA's first global programme focused on increasing and sustaining quality GBV case management services for survivors, with a particular focus on women and girls from marginalized communities, including those with disabilities, Indigenous and rural women, and LGBTIQ+ people. Supported by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, the programme invests in workforce professionalization, accreditation pathways for the social service workforce, and the first UNFPA global curriculum on GBV case management, strengthening survivor-centred systems aligned with international standards. Women at the Centre is being implemented in El Salvador, Indonesia, Madagascar and Zimbabwe, and previously in Azerbaijan.

The kNOwVAWdata initiative supports countries to conduct safe and ethical research on the prevalence of violence against women, and to translate this evidence into policy and programming. Originally focused on Asia and the Pacific, the initiative has expanded to Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East. A core feature is the kNOwVAWdata course, developed with the University of Melbourne and adapted regionally in partnership with institutions including the American University of Central Asia and the American University in Cairo, which builds the capacity of national statistical systems, civil society and researchers to generate, analyze and use data in line with SDG indicators 5.2.1 and 5.2.2.

Launched in 2024 with the support of Global Affairs Canada, Making All Spaces Safe (MASS) is UNFPA's global programme addressing technology-facilitated GBV (TFGBV). The programme strengthens global, national and community-level capacity to prevent, mitigate and respond to TFGBV through five pillars: response, prevention, law and policy, research and evaluation, and convening efforts. MASS comprises global interventions alongside country programmes in Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and, soon Tunisia, and promotes rights-based law reform and safety-by-design standards in technology development. Tools developed under the programme include the TFGBV SHIELD tech-safety checklist for front-line service providers and a Global Response Hub that connects GBV service providers with technologists and cybersecurity experts to support on complex cases.

Supported by Global Affairs Canada, EmpowerED is UNFPA's global initiative to increase access to gender-transformative comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) for adolescents and young people, both in and out of school, enhance young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, and help them achieve full bodily autonomy and a life free from violence. EmpowerED has a particular focus on addressing gender inequality and preventing GBV, and is currently being rolled out in 10 countries across all six UNFPA regions. The programme seeks to iIncrease the availability, accessibility and quality of comprehensive sexuality education content and delivery through traditional and digital channels; accelerate the scale-up of programmes in the 10 focus countries and foster links to sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence protection services; and leverage civil society networks and partnerships for advocacy, knowledge generation and technical collaboration on comprehensive sexuality education.

UNFPA is one of three core implementing UN agencies for the Spotlight Initiative, alongside UN Women and UNDP, under a joint partnership with the European Union launched in 2017 to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030. During its first phase (2017-2023), close to 3 million women and girls accessed GBV services, and prevention campaigns reached audiences of nearly 384 million. UNFPA continues to draw on the lessons and partnerships of the Initiative to inform its programming and advocacy at global, regional and country levels.

UNFPA serves on the Global Steering Committee of the WPHF alongside sister UN entities, CSO partners, and Member States. Through the WPHF, UNFPA advances our support and engagement with women-led organizations working on women, peace, and security and humanitarian action around the world. As a member of the board, we: i) support partnerships, coordination, advocacy and resource mobilization at global level; ii) support the establishment, validation, and adjustment of the Fund’s strategic direction as well as the management of the Fund’s operations; iii) decide on the allocation of funds to eligible countries and the transfer of funds to participating organizations for global projects and sudden onset emergencies; iv) provide quality assurance of the Fund’s knowledge products; v) approve the Fund’s risk management strategy and reviewed risk regularly; and vi) monitor progress against the results framework, provided general oversight and exercised overall accountability of the WPHF.

At the country level, UNFPA serves as the PUNO in Libya, Chad, Syria, Iran, and Sudan where WPHF funds have been used for humanitarian crisis and response, conflict resolution, the protection of women and girls, peacebuilding and recovery and towards fostering an enabling environment for WPS. More specifically, WPHF has been used to: i) enhance the safety, security, and mental health of women and girls and ensure the respect of their human rights; ii) provide women and adolescent girls with accessible and high-quality GBV prevention and response services; iii) avail capacity-building support to women-led CSOs in view of empowering women and youth for sustainable peacebuilding; iv) address priorities and close gaps in funding women's rights/led organizations that promote the participation, decision-making, leadership, and protection of adult and young women in response to humanitarian crises, among other areas.