United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

UNIFEM was created in 1976 by General Assembly Resolution A/RES/39/125 and given a mandate

-to support innovative and experimental activities benefiting women in line with national and regional priorities;
-to serve as a catalyst, with the goal of ensuring the appropriate involvement of women in mainstream development activities, as often as possible at the pre-investment stage; and
-to play an innovative and catalytic role in relation to the United Nations overall system of development cooperation;

UNIFEM provides funding to work that promotes the political and economic empowerment of women in developing countries.
The regions in which UNIFEM works are:

Asia and the Pacific
Africa
Latin America and the Caribbean

UNIFEM focuses its work at the country level within the context of the United Nations Resident Coordinator System. The Fund concentrates on fostering a multilateral policy dialogue on women's empowerment.

Since 1976, UNIFEM has provided financial support for projects and initiatives throughout the developing world that promote the political, economic, and social empowerment of women. These have ranged from small grassroots enterprises that improved working conditions for women to public education campaigns and the design of new gender-sensitive laws and marketing systems.

UNIFEM is represented at the regional and country level by its 12 Regional Programme Advisors (RPAs). They are the primary means of contact between UNIFEM and its partners and clients. The RPAs develop and oversee UNIFEM's projects in their regions and identify trends and issues affecting women in the region as a basis for new programming directions.

Information on applying for funding from UNIFEM

Contact information:

UNIFEM's Program Directors,
Gender Advisors,
UN Volunteers' Gender Specialists,
the 18 National Committees of UNIFEM and
the NGO committee on UNIFEM