UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women

The UN Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) was established by UN General Assembly resolution 50/166 in 1996 and is managed by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) on behalf of the UN system. The UN Trust Fund is the only multilateral grant-making mechanism exclusively devoted to supporting local and national efforts to end violence against women and girls.

• UN Trust Fund Grantees
• Application Guidelines
• Global Contributors to the UN Trust Fund
• Please donate to the UN Trust Fund

Since it began operations 1997, the UN Trust Fund has distributed more than US$50 million to 304 initiatives in 121 countries and territories. Grant-making focuses on supporting the implementation of existing laws, policies and action plans that address violence against women and girls. Grants support:

• primary prevention strategies to stop violence from occurring altogether in the first place;
• legal enforcement and rule of law to ensure survivors’ access to justice;
• survivor’s access to quality health and other services and supports;
• policy-oriented data collection/analysis and advocacy to promote accountability;
• empowerment of women to claim their rights and community mobilization for “zero tolerance”;
• response to the needs and rights of excluded groups of women and girls, and attention to neglected forms of violence; and
• engagement of “new” actors and strategic groups.

Grantees, consisting of government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN Country Teams (UNCTs), engage diverse actors, such as women’s, men’s and youth groups and networks; indigenous communities; religious and traditional leaders; human rights organizations; academic and research organizations; and the media. Priority is placed on initiatives that:

• highlight multi-sectoral approaches and collaboration between various stakeholders;
• develop national capacities of relevant stakeholders to foster sustainability;
• invest in systematic and comprehensive documentation and evaluation aimed at generating and sharing knowledge;
• provide evidence of what works to end violence against women and girls.

The UN Trust Fund supports the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign. UNiTE brings together a host of UN agencies and organizations and galvanizes action across the UN system to prevent and eliminate violence against women in all its forms. Specifically, the UN Trust Fund contributes to implementation of the five key outcomes declared in the campaign’s Framework for Action: the enforcement of national laws, the implementation of multi-sectoral action plans, support to data collection systems, the creation of social mobilization and prevention strategies, and addressing sexual violence in conflict situations.

UN Trust Fund grants are decided collectively in an open and competitive selection process by a consultative committee consisting of representatives of UN agencies, NGOs and other experts.