The United Nations Development Fund For Women (UNIFEM)

UNIFEM’s Regional Office was established in Amman in 1994. UNIFEM’s work focuses on four main areas of immediate concern, addressed in relation to regional and national realities in the Arab Region, being: Women’s Economic Security and Rights, Governance, Leadership and Peace Building, Women’s Human Rights, HIV/AIDS and Women and ICTs.

Moreover UNIFEM’s strategy is guided by an empowerment framework that is based on promoting women’s rights, opportunities and capacities by focusing on three areas:

Strengthening women’s economic rights and empowering women to enjoy secure livelihoods as entrepreneurs, producers and home-based workers, especially in the context of new trade agendas and technologies.
Engendering governance and peace-building to increase women’s participation in decision-making processes that shape their lives
Promoting women’s human rights to eliminate all forms of violence against them and transform development into a more peaceful, equitable and sustainable process.

UNIFEM Programs

1. Women's Human Rights Program

UNIFEM Women’s Human Rights program includes activities and projects that focus on women’s empowerment through training, advocacy and the promotion of women’s human rights, institutional building and support to non-governmental organizations. The program aims to achieve its objectives through:

Eliminating violence against women and girls by investing in prevention, protection and advocacy strategies.

Assisting in the effective implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Enhancing the understanding of governments, advocates and UN partners of the intersection between human rights, gender and HIV/AIDS to strengthen responses to the epidemic.

Projects that fall under this program include:

Empowering Women Migrant Workers.
Regional Program to Promote Women's Human Rights in the Maghreb and Mashreq Areas.
Iraq National Constitution and Referendum Awareness Campaign (INCRAC).
Arab Regional Trust Fund for the Empowerment of Women.
IRAQIA Women's Solidarity toward Active Participation in Elections.
Breaking the Silence: Women and HIV/AIDS.
Supporting Palestinian Women’s Access to Counseling Services.
Awareness Raising Campaign against Sexual Assaults and Rape.
The Development of a Palestinian Women’s Bill of Rights.
Maria’s Grotto” Documentary project.
Awareness Raising Campaign on Women’s Human Rights and Violence against Women.
Knowledge of Palestinian Girls and Women about HIV/AIDS.
Shashat: Community Outreach through Women’s Film.

2. Governance, Peace and Security Program

UNIFEM’s work on women’s leadership in governance, peace and security focuses on the following priority areas:

Building capacities and developing skills to strengthen women's leadership in order to promote their access to and participation in decision-making structures, including participation in the electoral process

Supporting women's organizations and national machineries to engender national legislation, policies, plans and programs in selected countries as part of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.

Facilitating partnership between women's organizations and Governments to promote the implementation of the Platform for Action and increase the Governments' accountability to implement the Platform.

Working with local, national and regional medial to promote a more positive image of women and their role in society.

Strengthening the gender focus in prevention and early warning mechanisms, and improving protection and assistance for women affected by conflict.

Projects that fall under this program include:

Arab Women Media Watch Project (AWMW).
Arab Women Parliamentarians.

3. Economic Security and Rights Program

UNIFEM’s efforts to support women’s economic security and rights focus on:

Engendering macroeconomic frameworks and building capacities of countries to manage globalization and economic transition from the perspective of poor women.
Promoting the enablement of institutional, legal and regulatory environments for women's equal ownership and access to economic resources and assets such as land, finance and property.
Strengthening women's economic capacity and rights as entrepreneurs, producers and home-based workers.
Bringing gender analysis to economic policies and the distribution, use and generation of public resources by means of gender responsive budget analysis.

Volume of Assistance

The current Country Program for the years (2008 – 2011) has an estimated US$ 2140 in financial resources. UNIFEM’s delivery in the country has reached an estimated US$ 354 in 2009.