A/HRC/38/3 E/CN.6/2018/9 I. Overview 1. The United Nations trust fund in support of actions to eliminate violence against women is a global, multilateral grant-making mechanism that supports efforts to prevent and end violence against women and girls. It was established in 1996 by the General Assembly, in its resolution 50/166, and is administered by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN -Women) on behalf of the United Nations system. With the strong institutional support of UN -Women and its regional, multi-country and country offices, and working closely with the rest of the United Nations system through its inter-agency Programme Advisory Committee, 1 the trust fund plays a vital role in driving forward collective efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls. 2. The present report, prepared for the sixty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women and the thirty-eighth session of the Human Rights Council, describes the impact and achievements of the trust fund in 2017 . 3. The trust fund raises and distributes funds to support multi -year programmes to address, prevent and ultimately end violence against women and girls in three priority areas: improving access for women and girls to essential, safe and adequate multisectoral services; furthering implementation of legislation, policies, national action plans and accountability systems; and promoting the prevention of violence against women and girls. It does so through its three strategic directions: supporting results-oriented approaches to prevent and end violence against women and girls; catalysing learning from global evidence collected from grantees; and leveraging its unique mandate and convening power to advocate for and foster sustainable financing. 4. Raising the profile of effective measures to prevent and end violence against women and girls in order to secure continued and increased funding remains at the core of the trust fund’s efforts. The list of trust fund donors has grown and diversified over the years and, while countering the causes and addressing the consequences of violence against women remains seriously underfunded, the trust fund has brought increasing attention to the need for resources and the enormous and sustained impact that grantees can and do have on the lives of women and girls, often with relatively modest investment. 5. As of December 2017, the Governments of Australia, Austria, Ireland, Israel, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America had contributed to the trust fund’s twenty-first grant-making cycle. Support was also received from the UN-Women National Committees of Japan, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America. __________________ 1 2/16 In 2017, Programme Advisory Committee members at the global level included: the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Developm ent Programme, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children ’s Fund, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and the World Health Organization. Other experts at the global level, including representatives fro m the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership, Equality Now and the Sexual Violence Research Initiative, were also actively involved in the grant-making process. 17-22602