A/HRC/38/3 E/CN.6/2018/9 entertainment industry and swiftly encompassing a host of diverse sectors. The initial focus on people in the public eye became a truly global phenomenon as people drew courage from each other and spoke out about their experiences. The debate increasingly focused on the all-pervading, constant, everyday reality of a continuum of violence faced by so many women and girls around the world. More than 1 million people tweeted using the hashtag #MeToo, sharing personal stories of sexual harassment or assault in an act of virtual solidarity. This online outcry gave voice to acts that are traditionally shrouded in silence and neutralized by convention, exposing the web of intimidation that protects abusers and the cruel privilege of impunity. It was one of many expressions of women’s activism in 2017 that, in different contexts and languages, sent the message: sexual harassment and gender-based violence, whether at work, in the home or in public spaces, are not acceptable and must not be ignored, and that each individual must take action in t his regard, without delay. It is in this context that trust fund grantees around the world continue to work on a daily basis to challenge impunity, to empower survivors and to further attitudinal change in order to prevent all forms of violence against women and girls. 9. In 2016, the total funding requested in response to the trust fund ’s Call for Proposals was more than $677 million, a testament to the existence of a wealth of innovative and transformational civil society projects that could make a real impact on gender-based violence in many different settings around the world. A key challenge for the trust fund, therefore, is to find ways to enable this momentum to translate into projects fostering sustainable change. A. Building sustainability 10. Of 21 small grants assigned in the eighteenth and nineteenth cycles (2014 and 2015, respectively), 14 (two thirds) were assigned to organizations that identified themselves as women’s non-governmental organizations. This represents a significant increase in comparison to earlier cycles and shows that opening the small grants modality has improved the trust fund’s outreach to women’s rights organizations. As of the twentieth call for proposals (2016), the trust fund has refined its outreach approach by stating explicitly what type of organizations are prioritized and what criteria would be applied; these include the size of organizations, whether they are women-led, their level of expertise as regards gender-based violence and their track record of implementing projects in the field on ending violence against women. 11. One of the consequences of the historically low level of funding allocated to initiatives to end and address violence against women, representing just 2 per cent of the total donations allocated to human rights funding, 6 has been the relative underdevelopment of the administrative and governance capacities of organizations, particularly smaller organizations, working on these issues. The trust fund is, therefore, prioritizing capacity-building for small organizations, with a particular focus on small women’s organizations. 12. The trust fund recognizes the need for small women’s organizations to ensure the sustainability of their core organizational functions so that they can define their own priorities in accomplishing their mission. The trust fund is responding to this __________________ 6 4/16 A report by the Foundation Center on global human rights -related giving by private foundations found 23 per cent of donations being allocated to organizations that work to advance women ’s rights, of which 9 per cent is assigned to initiatives to end violence against women. The Foundation Center, “Accelerating change for women and girls: the role of women’s funds” (New York, 2009). 17-22602