The briefing on the work of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) was given by Ms Beatrice Frey on March 26th as part of our United Nations Study Tour Programme. She started her presentation by making an essential statement: ‘Progress for women, progress for all’; this could also be seen as the integral motto of UNIFEM. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies to promote women's empowerment and especially gender equality. The United Nations Development Fund for Women was established in 1976 and since then has been engaged with the advancement of women’s rights and to the promotion of gender equality.

As Ms Beatrice Frey stated, UNIFEM’s focus is mainly on developing countries such as African, Latin American, Asian and Eastern Europe countries, countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Pacific & Arab states having as biggest donor the Kingdom of Spain. In order to make noticeable progress, UNIFEM works together very closely with local governments and the private sector. For example, the fund runs regional offices in Jordan for the Arabic region. In addition, it also maintains strong relationships with Nongovernmental Organisations.

Concerning the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), UNIFEM is highly engaged in reaching the goals by 2015. Although its special focus lies on Goal 3, which is dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, UNIFEM’s involvement comes with four entry points: monitoring, analysis, advocacy and operational programmes. Kenya, for example, is one of five pilot projects to include women in national MDGs attempts, including implementing mechanisms to get women into national-policy-making. Especially for Goal 3 UNIFEM mobilised the Government of Morocco to abolish gender inequalities in primary and secondary schools. Not only is UNIFEM involved in projects in numerous countries but has also developed advocacy materials for women to be informed about the MDGs and be able to implement them.

Violence against women and girls is another big issue UNIFEM is concerned with, as Ms Frey told us. Violence against women can contain sexual, economic, psychological and physical abuse and occurs in schools, during conflicts, at workplaces and others. Female genital mutilation is one issue of violence against women. The fight against female genital mutilation is taken seriously, since about 100 to 140 million girls undergo such surgical procedures, while 3 other million girls are estimated to have their external or internal genitalia and organs removed or injured. In collaboration with other agencies such as the WHO, UNFPA, UNDP, UNESCO and UNICEF, UNIFEM strongly condemns such practices since seen from the perspective of human rights, female genital mutilation is deeply rooted in the discrimination of the sexes. Since it is mostly performed on minors, it also is a violation of the human rights of children. Although 186 countries are signatories of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, still many countries prove to be inefficient in combating social and sexual discrimination. Additionally, up to 70% of women experience violence Women in their lifetime. In order to call attention to this alarming figure, UNIFEM runs the ‘Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women’ campaign. In the year 2000, UNIFEM achieved that the issue of sexual violence was considered a topic of international security, resulting in Security Council Resolution 1325. In April 2010 UNIFEM lead the process to develop indicators to monitor the Security Council resolutions, which were presented to the Security Council in April. Ms Frey explained that the root of violence against women is gender inequality. UNIFEM’s strategic priorities to fight against this inequality are: the implementation of national commitments; national and international standards; and addressing and preventing rape as a tactic of war. UNIFEM came up with a ‘National Accountability Framework’, an initiative which aims to combat all types of violence against women and girls, focusing mainly on domestic violence, providing help for governments to end violence against women and girls.

Ms Frey continued her presentation with talking about the UN Trust Fund, which is managed by UNIFEM and supports organisations with concrete projects, such as in Rwanda, where a programme for ex-combats runs, or in Nepal, where a radio station is supported financially in order to promote democratic structures. Ms Frey also mentioned the Global Safe City Programme, which is scheduled to be launched in India in November 2010 (in 5 selected cities from 5 different regions) in order to reduce sexual violence in public spaces.

As Ms Frey told us, one of their big campaigns currently is the ‘Say NO - UNiTE to End Violence against Women’ – an advocacy campaign to end violence against women and girls which started in 2007 and is continued since then. Say NO is a contribution to the Secretary-General's campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women.

Ms Frey’s presentation was very informative and exciting, providing a good look behind the scenes of UNIFEM.

Anne Dribbisch and Maria Gordon