Meet Tanya Ghani, the new Deputy Chief of the UN Trust Fund
Tanya Ghani brings over 18 years of experience working across the UN system, with deep roots in grant-making, movement-building, and intersectional programming. Prior to her appointment as Deputy Chief, she served as the Global Grants and Programme Manager at the UN Trust Fund, where she oversaw the Fund’s largest-ever grant cycles and steered its programmatic and operational evolution. Tanya’s previous roles include serving as UN Women’s Senior Advisor and acting Deputy Country Representative in Afghanistan, where she oversaw a US$ 40 million portfolio and supported program delivery under highly restrictive operating conditions. She also briefly led UN Women’s sub-office in Rakhine State, Myanmar, contributing to inter-agency humanitarian coordination and gender-responsive programming in fragile settings. Before joining the UN, Tanya worked with Aahung, a Pakistani NGO focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Congratulations on your new appointment, Tanya! You come to this role with a wealth of knowledge of the UN Trust Fund and UN Women, and on the issue of ending violence against women and girls. How will this institutional knowledge support your work in this new role, and what do you hope to achieve in this position?
Thank you. It’s a privilege to step into this role at such a meaningful inflection point for the Fund. For well over the past decade, I’ve had the unique opportunity to shape the Fund’s strategic direction from within. From leading the design and implementation of our funding cycles to cultivating partnerships with governments and civil society organizations, my work has always been grounded in the belief that local actors are at the heart of sustainable change.
In 2025, as we lay the foundation for our next Strategic Plan (2026–2030), my priority is to help ensure that the Fund’s pivot to a globally embedded Secretariat delivers on its promise: to bring us closer to our partners, amplify the voices of those most marginalized, and operate with greater flexibility and care. With the rise of anti-rights movements and shrinking civic space, we must be even more intentional about how we show up — as a funder, as an ally, and as part of a broader ecosystem working on the issue of ending violence against women and girls.
This role allows me to help bridge policy commitments with grounded, context-specific action. I see myself as a connector — between the local and the global, between lived experience and institutional response. My goal is to ensure that the Fund not only meets the moment but helps shape it.
Your appointment comes at a pivotal moment for the UN Trust Fund, as you mentioned, with the launch of a new five-year Strategic Plan and our 30th anniversary in 2026. What are your hopes for the future of the UN Trust Fund and, more broadly, for women and girls around the world?
At this juncture, I hope the UN Trust Fund continues to be a bold and unwavering champion for civil society — particularly the small, underfunded, and community-rooted women’s organizations that are often first responders in crises and lifelines in recovery. These are the organizations that know best how to protect and promote women’s rights — and by extension, human rights — in the places where it matters most.
We all know that we’re living in an era of profound backlash. The anti-rights and anti-gender movements are not abstract concepts — they are real forces that are shrinking civic space and putting feminist organizers at risk. But alongside this, we are also witnessing extraordinary courage, innovation, and solidarity from women’s rights organizations around the world. My hope is that the Fund continues to evolve alongside them — with flexible, long-term resources; with tools that center care, safety, and sustainability; and with an ever-deepening commitment to intersectionality and equity.
As we approach our 30th anniversary and begin implementing our next 5-year strategy, I don’t just want us to celebrate our longevity — I want us to celebrate our adaptability. To look back and see how we’ve grown with and learned from our partners. And to look forward with the same resolve — to be responsive, rigorous, and rooted in rooted in principles of equity, care, and inclusion as we navigate this increasingly complex global landscape.
As a mother of two daughters, my hopes are also deeply personal. I want my girls to grow up in a world where safety isn’t a privilege. Where their worth isn’t questioned. And where their rights aren’t something to be fought for anew with each generation. I hope that by the time they are adults, we’ve helped build a world where women’s rights are no longer up for debate — but simply, universally, upheld.
As someone who has worked across various contexts, what do you believe is most urgently needed to support civil society and women’s rights organizations working to end violence against women and girls, especially in the face of shrinking civic spaces, backlash, and protracted crises?
First and foremost, we need to address the chronic underfunding of women’s rights organizations. They are doing some of the most impactful and courageous work in the world — often in hostile environments and with limited resources. What they need is sustained, flexible, and core funding — not just to deliver services, but to build movements, plan long-term, and care for their teams.
But funding is only part of the equation.
We also need to reimagine what meaningful support looks like. That means investing in the long-term health of organizations: supporting leadership transitions, enabling learning and rest, and creating protective mechanisms in environments where speaking out puts them at risk.
And critically, we also have to confront the imbalance of power that still shapes much of our sector. Support must not be conditional or extractive — it must be co-designed, rights-based, and led by the people most affected. Anything less falls short of justice.
