A/HRC/44/3 E/CN.6/2020/8 sustainable financing for national and local work on preventing and ending violence against women and girls. 5. The trust fund is proud to report that it achieved the resource mobilization targets set out in its strategic plan 2015–2020 in 2019, one year ahead of schedule. As a result, the trust fund was able to invest almost $40 million in 79 civil society organization projects in 47 countries 6 to prevent and end violence against women and girls, thus nearly doubling its 2020 grant-giving target. 6. In the context of the growing momentum to address and end violence against women, the trust fund continued to support meaningful opportunities to advocate for change by seeking to leverage milestones relevant to its work, such as the twentyfifth anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the twentieth anniversary of the adoption by the Security Council of its resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security, in 2020. It is in that context that consultations have begun to develop the trust fund strategy for 2021–2025. In November, in Sarajevo, the trust fund held its first ever global grantee convention. At this unique gathering, more than 150 participants with e xpertise in different areas came together to reflect on and discuss their work to end violence against women and girls. Drawing on approximately 100 projects implemented around the world, the participants exchanged their knowledge, experiences, challenges and lessons learned on various topics such as current issues in ending violence against women programming, managing evidence and knowledge, building effective institutions, and ensuring that organizations working to create change and support survivors arou nd the world receive sustainable funding. The first substantive session of the convention was focused on highlighting priority issues and identifying challenges in implementing effective projects to prevent and end violence against women and girls, including issues such as insufficient data and research, barriers to progress in the legal and policy environment, impunity for perpetrators and emerging challenges such as new forms of violence against women and girls. During the panel discussions, the conversation focused on key challenges to creating change in various contexts around the world and the barriers that often exist to reaching women and girls using programming aimed at ending violence against women. 7. At the convention, the participants took stock of the work done by the trust fund over three generations of grantees, the projects implemented and results delivered as part of the fund’s current strategic priorities and focus areas. In their discussions, they also focused on practice-based learning, testing, implementing and adapting evidence-based methodologies to end violence against women and girls. Participants held working groups, which resulted in a consolidated set of recommendations presented to the Executive Director of UN-Women at the conclusion of the convention. The opportunities presented by the gathering of civil society activists and practitioners from around the world, representatives of Governments, the private sector and the United Nations system led to a rich exchange about knowledge a nd efforts, about what works and what does not, and about the opportunities for going forward. The recommendations will be taken forward into global consultations on the Beijing Plus 25 Conference. The convention was the first of a series of events aimed at collaboratively building the strategy of the trust fund for 2021–2025. A final consultation meeting on the strategy is planned for November 2020. __________________ 6 19-21597 Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iraq , Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines , Serbia, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the State of Palestine. 3/15