United Nations

United Nations Development Fund for Women

UNIFEM 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.

Placing the advancement of women's human rights at the centre of all of its efforts, UNIFEM focuses its activities on four strategic areas: (1) reducing feminised poverty, (2) ending violence against women, (3) reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls, and (4) achieving gender equality in democratic governance in times of peace as well as conflict.

UNIFEM is operating in the oPt under the Arab States Regional Office (ASRO, www.unifem.org.jo) umbrella since 1997. Its first focus (1997-2001) was on governance programmes in order to support national women’s institutions and facilitate the exchange of information among development stakeholders and in particular women’s organisations. Following a reassessment of its role and work (2001-2003), UNIFEM oPt re-launched its activities in 2004 using a community-based approach. This bottom-up perspective is the cornerstone of UNIFEM’s work in the oPt.  

Committed to the advancement of Palestinian women’s human rights and the promotion of gender equality throughout the oPt (including East-Jerusalem),  UNIFEM oPt particularly aims at:

Engendering Governance, Peace and Security

UNIFEM oPt provides technical support to national women’s machinery, gender advocate and experts and their networks to enhance their capacity and increase their participation in the formulation and implementation of national development strategies. In this regard, UNIFEM oPt is building the capacity of the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) to act as the lead ministry for gender mainstreaming in the formulation and implementation of the Palestinian Reform and Development Plan (PRDP 2008-2010). This support will also enable MOWA to develop, implement and monitor the first national strategy on combating “Violence Against Women” (VAW) as well as to design context specific gender indicators relevant for reducing the gender gap in the oPt.

Supporting Women’s Economic Security & Rights

Since 2004, UNIFEM strives for women’s community-based empowerment with the Sabaya programme, implemented in more than 50 locations, and targeting Palestinian women in marginalised rural communities that suffer from limited access to resources and services. The Sabaya programme has been instrumental for women’s mobilisation and networking, provision of basic services, including educational opportunities and creating employment opportunities. Focused on a human security approach, the programme has been proven able to ensure the linkages between critical needs and women’s human rights; meeting immediate needs while setting the ground for longer term development objectives. In the coming years, Sabaya will be focused on economic security through generating income activities. Nowadays the Sabaya centres are acting as channels for implementation of other projects’ activities. For more information visit Sabaya’s webpage: www.sabaya.org

In partnership with the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education, UNIFEM has developed a women-run school canteens programme. The latter adopts a twin-track approach in order to provide healthy snacks to 61 schools in the West-Bank, the food being prepared, produced and retailed thanks to the work of rural women (Sabaya Centres). This programme participates at the same time in the well-being of the school children and in the economic security of the rural women who make benefits out of their wholesome food retailing activity. UNIFEM and its partners will expand in the future the programme’s scope all over the oPt.

Promoting Women’s Rights and Protection against Violence

UNIFEM is on the one hand committed to the fight to end violence against women through the execution of the Mehwar Centre's programme which hosts women survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) and families in distress. On the other hand UNIFEM works jointly with the Ministry of Social Affairs and MOWA on polices and services; proving trainings to police forces and Ministry of Interior staff on how to deal with GBV cases, and also supporting the toll free ”Help Line” for women and children, reaching out to Gaza and the West Bank. 

As well UNIFEM, as a women human’s rights advocate, provides support to Palestinian Female Prisoners in Israeli prisons. The project includes three main components:  legal and health aid to female prisoners; psychosocial support to female prisoners family members; advocacy and documentation. While the first and second component provide direct assistance to female prisoners and their families, the third component aims at assisting institutions in protecting the rights of female prisoners in accordance with International Humanitarian Law. 

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

In the oPt UNIFEM is involved in two joint MDG programmes (with 6 other UN agencies) to improve the situation of women and develop cultural resources in the oPt through the promotion of inclusive socio-economic development. The first programme, “Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment” focuses on three Outcomes: a) gender-based violence b) political representation c) economic participation. The second one, “Culture and Development”, promotes cultural diversity, so as to foster social cohesion and economic growth in the oPt and bears a strong gender component. Both programmes were launched in May 2009 and will run until February 2011 all over the oPt.