The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM; ; ) was established in December 1976 originally as the Voluntary Fund for the United Nations Decade for Women in the International Women's Year. Its first director was Margaret C. Snyder. UNIFEM provided financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies that promoted women's human rights, political participation and economic security. Since 1976 it supported women's empowerment and gender equality through its programme offices and links with women's organizations in the major regions of the world. Its work on gender responsive budgets began in 1996 in Southern Africa and expanded to include East Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central America and the Andean region. It worked to increase awareness throughout the UN system of gender-responsive budgets as a tool to strengthen economic governance in all countries. In 2011, UNIFEM merged with some other smaller entities to become UN Women.

About

thumb|2010 meeting in [[Ecuador]]

UNIFEM was an autonomous organization working closely with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), although the resolution also specified that the fund's resources should supplement, not substitute for, the responsibilities of other United Nations development cooperation agencies. UNIFEM helped fund projects that aided women and their families. UNIFEM developed a strategy of aiding women to become their "own agents for change rather than recipients of charity." UNIFEM also helped to ensure that UN programmes followed guidelines developed by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). UNIFEM was also involved in recognizing women's rights as human rights. It advocated gender equality around the world. The organization was based in New York City. Different countries and regions had their own committees within UNIFEM. UNIFEM was one of the smaller agencies at the UN and was situated lower in the UN hierarchy, according to Canadian politician Stephen Lewis.

History

The First World Conference on Women in 1975 influenced the creation of UNIFEM. The fund began funding projects in 1997.

2000s

UNIFEM was granted "executing agency status" by UNDP in 2000. The report outlined what UNIFEM had achieved in previous decades.

Noeleen Heyzer, head of UNIFEM, asked for the creation of an international commission on violence against women.

On January 26, 2006, UNIFEM nominated Nicole Kidman as its goodwill ambassador.

The last executive director of UNIFEM was Inés Alberdi.

2010s

In January 2011, UNIFEM was merged into UN Women, a composite entity of the UN, with International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues (OSAGI), and Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW).

Executive directors

Executive directors of the organization have been:

{| class="wikitable"

! Nr !! Director !! From country !! Term

|-

| 4. || Inés Alberdi || || 2007–2014

|-

| 3. || Noeleen Heyzer || || 1994–2007

|-

| 2. || Sharon Capeling-Alakija || || 1989–1994

|-

| 1. || Margaret C. Snyder || || 1978–1989

|}

See also

  • United Nations Decade for Women
  • UN Women

References

Sources

  • UNIFEM website (now redirects to the UN Women website)