UN Women Efforts

Programs

Expanding Access to Services Safety in public spaces: In Haiti, UN Women has assisted a network of safe houses to offer counseling, medical services, and legal assistance. Our support has helped train counselors and aided the Ministry for Women’s Condition and Rights in establishing standard operating procedures to ensure services are consistent and high in quality. The program is now being expanded to 20 cities, including Cairo, Egypt; Quito, Ecuador; Delhi, India.
 
Improving knowledge and evidence: In the Amhara region of Ethiopia, training of over 300 religious leaders to help bring an end to gender-based violence led these leaders to work with their communities to prevent nearly 500 child marriages. A partnership with the Central Statistics Agency produced the first commitment to registering data on violence every five years, a contribution to a better measurement called for in the global goals. It will provide much-needed evidence to build more programs and, as importantly, mobilize action to prevent violence altogether. 
 
US Trust Fund: UN Women manages the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women on behalf of the UN System to provide support to innovative approaches to stem and prevent the pandemic of violence. Since its inception, the fund has provided grants to 426 initiatives in 136 countries, amounting to a total of USD 116 million.

Advocacy

16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign started at Rutgers University. It takes place each year and runs from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day. It was originated by activists at the first Women's Global Leadership Institute in 1991 and is coordinated each year by the Center for Women's Global Leadership. It is used as an organizing strategy by individuals and organizations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.
 
In support of this civil society initiative, each year, the United Nations Secretary-General’s campaign Unite to End Violence against Women (UNiTE) calls for global action to increase worldwide awareness and create opportunities for discussion about challenges and solutions. In recent years, the UNiTE campaign has utilized the color orange as a unifying theme running through all of its global activities. 
 
Orange is one of the official colors of the Unite campaign and in the context of its global advocacy, is used as a symbol of a brighter future, free from violence against women and girls.

Education for Prevention Initiative

Putting young people at the heart of prevention efforts, UN Women and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts have also developed a non-formal curriculum to end violence against women and girls, designed for various age groups ranging from 5 to 25 years.