One Year On: UN Women Widens Donor Base, Strengthens Partnerships

UN Women commemorates its first anniversary this month with some 114 governments contributing to core funds in 2011, resulting in a 73 percent increase in core funding compared to the combined budget of its former four predecessors the year prior. The entity’s total income target for 2012-13 is set for US$700 million.

“[The budget] pushes us to strengthen partnerships across the board — with governments, civil society and the private sector as we strive to do more with less,” said UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet at the latest Executive Board session in December. “Nonetheless, we have grounds to be optimistic on resource mobilization…today, our financial resources are greater than the four predecessor entities combined budgets.”

As of 13 December, UN Women received US$135 million for core and US$100 million for non-core funding in 2011.

With less than 2 percent of resources coming from the UN budget, UN Women relies heavily on voluntary contributions. While Spain and the United Kingdom remain the largest contributors, several donors — including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, India, Netherlands, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates — registered substantial increases in funding to UN Women.

In addition, an increasing number of non OEDC-DAC countries are coming forward. India, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates have pledged significant contributions to UN Women, with India contributing US$2 million, Nigeria US$500,000, and the United Arab Emirates pledging US$5 million to UN Women core funds.

UN Women is working on strengthening partnerships with the private sector and civil society. For instance, UN Women has entered into its first advocacy venture with Kraft through its regional office in Jordan.

Discussions are under way with technology companies to explore innovative avenues to empower women, particularly in rural communities. 250 companies have also signaled their commitment to implement measures to empower women by signing on to the Women’s Empowerment Principles, a set of seven principles developed more than a year ago by UN Women and UN Global Compact to support companies in reviewing existing policies and practices — or establishing new ones — to realize women’s empowerment.