Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM: (The United Nations Development Fund for Women) supporting our conference in 2001
....In the context of our efforts to advance the full realisation of women's human rights and the elimination of all forms of violence against women, the special concerns of widows are of paramount concern to UNIFEM.
FUNDERS FOR GENDER ISSUES The Urgent Action Fund (UAF)
As the only international women’s fund in the world designed to respond on short notice, UAF collaborates with women activists in three primary contexts: peace building in situations of armed conflict, escalating violence, or politically volatile environments; potentially precedent-setting legal and legislative actions; and protection of women human rights defenders.
UAF joins with local women to build civil societies that honor their experiences and include women at every juncture, especially in areas of armed conflict and war, where they are most at risk.
While UAF focuses on broad societal issues, we recognize that women’s human rights go beyond the civic and political arenas and encompass women’s everyday life in the personal realm—in the home, the neighborhood, the village, and the workplace. UAF advocates for women’s equality, not only as a matter of human rights, but also as a fundamental prerequisite for social justice, global security, and sustainable peace.
Overview of the Fund
Rapid Response Grantmaking
When urgent unanticipated situations arise that provide an opportunity either to advance an ongoing strategy for strengthening women’s human rights or to prevent backsliding in that struggle, women activists look for effective, innovative ways to respond. In these situations, waiting for financial support from funders unable to act quickly can be detrimental.
UAF exists to enable women to mobilize and act within these brief windows of opportunity by approving emergency funding of up to $5,000 USD within 72 hours of a request. Whether grant recipients use the funds to fly in an expert witness for a groundbreaking women’s legal rights case, to evacuate an activist whose life is threatened as a result of her work, or to mobilize women to vote in an unexpected election, UAFs rapid response grants support women activists’ efforts to create sustainable structural change
Collaborative Regional Initiatives
UAF expanded its initial role of rapid response grantmaking in 2000 to include planning and implementing collaborative initiatives to support women in armed conflict regions. These projects, which have become another fundamental aspect of UAF’s work, aim to: deepen women’s understanding of particular conflicts; provide women with the tools needed to initiate strategic actions in their situation; build advocacy skills through training; and encourage ongoing information-sharing and networking.
UAF’s first collaboration, partnering with local women’s groups and the US-based Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, resulted in a gender audit of reconstruction policies and programs of the major international bodies involved in post-conflict work in Kosova. Activists still use this report, Gender Audit of Reconstruction Programmes in Southeastern Europe, to lobby for women’s participation in the reconstruction.
More recent initiatives include several consultations initiated by UAF-Africa: Kenyan Women Speak on the Proposed Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission; Regional Consultation on UN Security Council Resolution 1325; and Engendering Regional Instruments and Mechanisms of Peace Building. Full reports of these consultations are available upon request.
Synergy: Program Components
Working Together
Rapid response grantmaking and collaborative regional initiatives inform and strengthen each other, resulting in the creative synergy that builds an effective and strategic support mechanism for women’s human rights efforts. Grant requests from a particular conflict region increase UAF’s awareness of the need for more in-depth work in that area and enhance understanding of women’s activism in armed conflict situations in general. These grant requests ultimately may lead to a consultation or training. UAF’s participation in collaborative regional initiatives strengthens partnerships, networks, and trust between the UAF team and local women. Likewise, UAF-sponsored initiatives inform program participants and partners about potential funding and how to make appropriate grant requests. Engaging in both grantmaking and programmatic work maximizes UAF’s ability to evaluate effectively and respond quickly to these requests.
UAF’s Vision of the Future
As UAF looks to the future, two realities stand out clearly: the need to delve more deeply into existing situations and initiatives, and the wisdom of continuing to expand outward into additional regions of the world where emerging conflicts threaten to undermine the peace, security, and human rights of women and girls.
Going deeper will mean gaining further understanding of the nuances and complexities of situations, which will allow UAF to refine programs to maximize their effectiveness and strategic impact. It also will mean expanding the role of UAF-Africa. Current plans are now underway to move UAF’s rapid response grantmaking for the Africa region to UAF-Africa by the end of 2004.
UAF will continue to explore the appropriateness of developing formal presences in other world regions. In our ongoing efforts to support women in situations of armed conflict and its aftermath, we believe our work can be achieved best by establishing other regional groups, such as UAF-Africa, which will be led by women from the area. This decentralized growth will facilitate direct working relationships with local women’s groups, which have been essential to fulfilling our mission.
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From WRI Newsletter 7