A/HRC/13/71 E/CN.6/2010/8 Report of the United Nations Development Fund for Women on the activities of the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women I. Introduction 1. The United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women is a leading multilateral grant-making mechanism supporting national and local efforts of Governments and non-governmental organizations to end violence against women and girls. Established in 1996 by the General Assembly in its resolution 50/166, the United Nations Trust Fund is administered by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) on behalf of the United Nations system. By the end of 2009, it had supported 304 initiatives in 121 countries and territories with more than $50 million. 2. The present report to the fifty-fourth session of the Commission on the Status of Women and the thirteenth session of the Human Rights Council describes the progress and the achievements of the Fund in 2009, as well as highlights of UNIFEM programming with regard to ending violence against women and girls. II. Background and context 3. The international community is witnessing a historic opportunity to intensify progress towards ending violence against women and girls. The issue is now prominent on international agendas promoting peace and security, poverty reduction and development and human rights. An increasing number of Governments have adopted relevant laws, policies and action plans, which have been reinforced at the international level by General Assembly and Security Council resolutions 1 calling for intensified action and recommending multisectoral and sustained approaches to ending violence against women and girls. These General Assembly resolutions explicitly refer to the importance of continuing to enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations Trust Fund as a system-wide funding mechanism and of mobilizing greater resources to address the global pandemic of violence against women and girls. United Nations reform and the emphasis on “delivering as one” are galvanizing an increasing number of agencies, funds and programmes to intensify their contributions to eliminating violence against women and girls, further bolstered by the launch of the Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign. 2 4. In this context, the United Nations Trust Fund is uniquely positioned to make a significant contribution to supporting countries in translating commitments into real change in the lives of women and girls on the ground, in line with the SecretaryGeneral’s campaign call for action with regard to five national-level outcomes: the enforcement of national laws, the implementation of multisectoral action plans, __________________ 1 2 2 General Assembly resolutions 61/143, 62/133, 63/155 and 64/137, on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women, and Security Council resolutions 1820 (2008) and 1888 (2009). See http://endviolence.un.org. 09-65802