A/HRC/10/43 E/CN.6/2009/10 Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; the United Nations Human Settlements Programme; the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); the World Food Programme; the World Health Organization; the World Bank; and United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict. Programme appraisal committee members also include leading non-governmental organization representatives and other experts. 5 16. In recent years, the United Nations Trust Fund has worked to deepen the participation of United Nations agencies in decision-making processes, in order to foster increased ownership across the United Nations system. Previously, decisions were made only at the global level, through the inter-agency programme appraisal committees convened by UNIFEM headquarters. Beginning in 2005, the process was decentralized to actively engage subregional inter-agency programme appraisal committees convened by UNIFEM. In 2008, subregional inter-agency programme appraisal committees met in Barbados, Brazil, Ecuador, Fiji, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, South Africa and Thailand. Three United Nations resident coordinators 6 also took part in the appraisal process. As the United Nations Trust Fund administrator, UNIFEM continues to explore further opportunities for expanded United Nations and United Nations country team roles in enhancing the effectiveness and impact of the United Nations Trust Fund, especially at the country level. Ensuring efficiency 17. As a United Nations inter-agency mechanism, the United Nations Trust Fund fosters coherence in programme strategies to end violence against women and girls, helps to pool and track global resources and strengthens monitoring and accountability. All of these functions are in accordance with the principles of alignment, harmonization, managing for results and mutual accountability set out in the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. 18. Across its operations, the United Nations Trust Fund relies on minimal infrastructure and lean staffing so that maximum resources are directed to countrylevel grant-making. In addition, resources are directly channelled to local government and civil society organization partners. The United Nations Trust Fund grant appraisal process, which actively engages United Nations agencies at subregional and global levels, also enables linkages to existing United Nations efforts and national priorities. This decentralized and broadly participatory structure helps ensure that funding allocation conforms closely to the capacities and needs of diverse countries and regions. 19. As United Nations Trust Fund resources continue to grow, a shift to larger and longer-term grants allows the more efficient use of resources in the administration of the fund. While in previous years the average grant was $50,000 for two years, grants starting in 2007 have been issued in the range of $100,000 to $300,000 for __________________ 5 6 8 At the global level, these include representatives of MADRE, PATH, Amnesty International, the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership and Human Rights Watch; at the national level, they include representatives from Oxfam, the Open Society Institute, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Norwegian People’s Aid and the Urgent Action Fund. Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. 08-66140