UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, is the women's fund at the United Nations. Established in 1976, it provides financial and technical assistance to innovative approaches aimed at fostering women's empowerment and gender equality. Today the organization's work touches the lives of women and girls in more than 100 countries. UNIFEM also helps make the voices of women heard at the United Nations - to highlight critical issues and advocate for the implementation of existing commitments made to women. Placing the realization of women's human rights and security at the centre of all of its efforts, UNIFEM focuses its activities on four strategic goals:

• Reducing women's poverty and exclusion;
• Ending violence against women;
• Reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls; and
• Supporting women's leadership in governance and post-conflict reconstruction.

Noeleen Heyzer, the former Executive Director of UNIFEM, stated that "Women want a world free from hatred, violence and poverty, a world of equal opportunities and rights, a world that is prosperous and secure for all." To pursue these goals, UNIFEM is active in all regions and at different levels. It works with countries to formulate and implement laws and policies to eliminate gender discrimination and promote gender equality in such areas as land and inheritance rights, decent work for women and ending violence against women. UNIFEM also aims to transform institutions to make them more accountable to gender equality and women's rights, to strengthen the capacity and voice of women's rights advocates, and to change harmful and discriminatory practices in society.

Please click here for UNIFEM National Committee and Country Program and Project Office Links

Participation in CSW

Each year UNIFEM Australia sends delegates to the Commission on the Status of Women. The Commission on the Status of Women is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. It is the principal global policy-making body. Every year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide.

For more information about CSW click here.