Fund for Gender Equality
The Fund for Gender Equality is the only global fund that is exclusively dedicated to women’s economic and political empowerment. This partnership between UN Women, and regional, national and local women’s organizations and governments is an innovative approach to advancing women’s empowerment as an essential part of realizing rights, accelerating poverty alleviation and advancing sustainable development.
The Fund is based on a model in which women implement their own programmes in their own countries based on their priorities with direct multi-year grants of up to USD 1 million and technical support.
The Fund provides two types of grants to women’s organizations and governmental agencies that contribute to two of UN Women’s critical strategic and thematic priorities.
- Women’s economic empowerment – The objective is to increase women’s access to and control over decision-making, land, technology, credit, livelihoods and other means of production and social protection.
- Women’s political empowerment – The objective is for women to take on leadership roles and participate more fully in political processes and in all spheres on public life, particularly formal institutions. Young women leaders are a particular focus.
Since 2009, The Fund has provided targeted high-impact grants totaling USD 43 million in support of 55 grantee partners in 47 countries. From Mexico to the Pacific Islands, with the support of the Fund, grantees are working with over 13.6 million women to strengthen their leadership skills. From Ghana to Afghanistan, thousands of rural and indigenous women are implementing engendered sustainable development initiatives.
From Egypt to the Philippines, grantees are helping over 4 million women getting financial skills, securing decent jobs, and gaining social protections for themselves and their families. Together grantees are advancing gender equality goals enshrined in national laws and policies as well as regional and international agreements (Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform of Action, and the Belem do Pará, among others).
The Fund is a proven efficient and effective mechanism to align global and regional commitments with tangible real-world results. Recognizing the need for evidence, the Fund aims to expand the evidence base on innovative and high impact strategies for women’s empowerment.