International Organization

UNIFEM- United Nations Development Fund for Women
*Provides finances and technologies to advance womens empowerment and gender equality.

Overall mission:
- Strengthening womens economic security and rights
- Ending violence against women
- Reversing spread of HIV/AIDS amoung women and girls
- Achieving gender equality in times of peace and war

Strategies:
-Support innovative ways to achieve these goals
-Serve as a catylyst with goals that ensure involvement of women in development strategies
-Play a role in in relation to the UNs overall system of development cooperation

(Taken from UNIFEM 2007-2008 Annual Progress Report)

History and how it developed:
UNIFEM was created by an UN General Assembly resolution in 1976, following requests from womens organizations attending the 1975 UN First World Conference on Women in Mexico City.

Who is involved in working at the organization:
UNIFEM has partners worldwide, Executive directors, ministries of finance and government and non-governmental organizations of people. Civil society, multilateral and bilateral communities, private sector contribute as well. There are Regional Program directors from all over the world (S. E. SE ASia,Pacific, Arab states, All parts of Africa, Mexico, central America, Cuba and Dominican Republic, Andean Region, Caribbean, Southern corn, Central and Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent states. UNIFEM has liason offices, worldwide national committees (Australia,Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Phillipenes, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States) and NGOS from all around the world participating.

Resources:
58 different governments/ 9 UNIFEM national committees/Un agencies, Commonwealth Secretariat, Johnson and Johnson, Omega watches, world bank, Zonta International Organization etc. all contribute a significant amount of money to the fund.

Target:
Women in developing and developed countries who are marginalized, affected by violence and HIV, have ecomomic instability, and who overall need help to progress.

Accomplishments: (2007-2008)
· Built feul efficient stoves to minimize womens need to search for firewood outside of the home- in Rwanda
· Raising awareness in local communities
· Empowering women in politics in Mauritania- helping them gain 22% of parliamentary seats in 2007, expanding their influences on the countries decision making policies
· In India they helped initiate a national AIDs policy that calls for systematic protection of women, especially the groups that are more vunerable.
· Helping women in Morroco aquire new skills to give them an advantage in the information technology market.
· Providing jobs to women on Palestinian territories- establishing bakeries in UNIFEM supported centres- also goes to feeding children in local school
· Renewing communities through local involvement in Latin America
· Haiti implemented a successful ban on using sexual stereotypes in the media and music which lead to no cases of genderbased violence in 2008
· In Jamaica there are initiatives to changing abusive mens behavior (batterer intervention programs supported by UNIFEM)

Strategies used: In their 2007-2008 Annual report they stated a list of 29 grantees around the world. (I've chose 5 that I found the most interesting)

Africa: Raised awareness amoung sex workers on links between violence and HIV, to improve physical security and peer support groups for sex workers.

Asia: Study contemporary Khmer masculinity to inform more effective policy and programs, create community mens groups, improve access to legal aid and support

Pakistan: Helped the implementation of a new law treating honor killing as intentional murder

Russia: Responded to cases of violence against HIV-positive women and children with support groups.

Peru: UNIFEM provided training, conducted advocacy and developed health centre capacities to encourage safe behavior and reduce HIV related stigma.


Future goals:
By 2015, UNIFEM hopes to double their efforts to creating more equitable, prosperous socities by upholding gender equality.