UN Trust Fund launches its Annual Report 2023
Foreword by Abigail Erikson, Chief of the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women
I joined the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) in January 2023. I have been deeply moved by the lifesaving and transformative efforts of our women’s rights and civil society grantee partners working in communities worldwide. It has been a privilege to engage with our partners, both through personal encounters and during key events such as the Commission on the Status of Women, the Women Deliver 2023 Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, and the We Rise 2023 convening in Nairobi, Kenya.
In my first year as chief, I have been struck by the remarkable strength of our collaborative partnerships, a cornerstone of the UN Trust Fund. We have brought together government donors, UN agencies, our civil society organization partners and the private sector, including at the We Rise 2023 convening. This conference convened more than 100 partners across Latin America and Africa to reflect on their experiences of programming through numerous global challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic to natural and human-made disasters, and the valuable lessons learned on adaptation and resilience to deliver systemic solutions to prevent violence against women and girls. Our commitment has been to listen, learn and strengthen these partnerships, recognizing that our efforts to end all forms of violence against women and girls requires collective action and solidarity. I have deepened my understanding of the most effective ways to support our civil society and women’s rights grantee partners, including those on the forefront of overlapping crises, from armed conflicts to climate emergencies to food insecurity, alongside the broader anti women’s rights backlash. Indeed, we are witnessing an unprecedented regression in women and girls’ fundamental human rights globally, most visibly through the rollbacks on women’s rights to bodily autonomy. We are also seeing emerging forms of violence that are increasingly threatening women and girls. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence or digital/online violence has real-life consequences, and women and girls are bearing the brunt of these new forms of violence.
In a world marked by increasing and enduring conflicts, escalating climate impacts and persistent violence against women and girls, our commitment to collaboration, partnership and solidarity with civil society and women’s rights organizations worldwide is more critical than ever.
Our partners, active across 68 countries and territories, demonstrate the power of grass-roots action every day. In 2023 alone, they reached more than 15 million people, including more than 7.7 million women and girls in all their diversity. This includes women and girls living with disabilities, LBTQ+ women and girls, internally displaced and refugee women and girls, and those in the lowest income-group. Our grantee partners’ accomplishments and impact are the essence of this report. With each initiative reaching women and girls, we are making progress towards the better future we strive for.
In 2023, the UN Trust Fund continued to listen and learn from our partners, resulting in concrete changes in how we resource. We are extending our grant cycle from three to four years, with the intention of providing grantee partners with longer-term funding to promote lasting change and sustainability. We are changing the minimum grant amount from $50,000 to $150,000 to ensure that organizations have sufficient annual funding. And we are increasing core funding for small organizations requesting a small grant, as well as increasing the self- and collective-care budget for all our new grantee partners. In the coming year, we aim to continue creating space for global and regional feminist movement-building and enhancing our wraparound service model to meet the evolving needs of our grantee partners.
As Chief of the UN Trust Fund, I want to reaffirm that we remain grounded in — and guided by — feminist principles, including deep recognition that inclusive women’s rights movements and coalitions, are the driving force for transformative social and economic change, peace and security. Supporting and funding women’s rights and civil society organization partners remain central to our mission, and we remain persistent in our advocacy for increased and continued investment in women’s rights and civil society organizations globally. Together, with our partners, we will continue to advance the ultimate goal and vision of the UN Trust Fund: a world of global solidarity where all women and girls live free from all forms of violence and enjoy and exercise their human rights.
To our women’s rights and civil society partners, our government donors and UN collaborators, our allies and partners in the ending violence against women and feminist ecosystems, and to my own team at the Trust Fund: thank you for all you do, every day, for women and girls.
In solidarity,
Abby Erikson
Check out the UN Trust Fund Annual Report 2023 here.
