Inter-Agency Mechanisms and Activities

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.

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.