Through the Years

1976

Voluntary Fund for the UN Decade for Women (VFDW, later known as UNIFEM) is established by the UN General Assembly.

1977

First Pledging Conference for the UN Decade for Women, in which 33 countries pledge a total of US$3.5 million for the VFDW.

1978

Appointment of Margaret Snyder, first Director of UNIFEM.

UNIFEM supports first revolving loan fund with US$5,000.

1979

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is adopted by the General Assembly. The Convention is to become the cornerstone for UNIFEM's rights-based approach to programming.

1980

Second World Conference on Women held in Copenhagen.

UNIFEM pioneers in making civil society groups executing agencies for projects, an alternative approach that was later followed by UNDP, the World Bank and others.

1981

First National Committee for UNIFEM is formed in Finland, with 400 individual and 30 organizational members. By 2006, UNIFEM counts on the support of 16 National Committees worldwide.

1984

Through General Assembly resolution 39/125, UNIFEM becomes a separate and identifiable entity in autonomous association with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

1985

UN Third World Conference on Women is held in Nairobi. Some 15,000 women from every region of the world celebrate the culmination of a decade of efforts towards the advancement of women.

1989

Appointment of Sharon Capeling-Alakija, second Director of UNIFEM.

1990

First UNIFEM Regional Office established in Harare, Zimbabwe. By 2006, UNIFEM operates through 15 sub-regional offices around the world.

1992

UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) recognizes key role of women in preservation and management of the environment.

UNIFEM holds a series of Peasant Women's Summits in Asia.

1993

Launch of UNIFEM's African Women in Crisis Programme (AFWIC), which supports women in conflict resolution and peacebuilding in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mozambique, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Supporting women in conflict and post-conflict countries is to become a major pillar of UNIFEM's work.

World Conference on Human Rights, in Vienna, integrates violence against women and other women's human rights issues into overall UN human rights agenda and activities.

1994

Appointment of Noeleen Heyzer, current Executive Director of UNIFEM.

International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), in Cairo, marks first time empowerment of women is seen as an integral part of development.

In war-torn Sudan, UNIFEM begins to support a dialogue between women from the North and the South — work that is to continue for more than the next decade. After signing of the peace accords in 2004, UNIFEM, together with the Government of Norway, co-organizes a symposium ahead of a major donor's conference in Oslo at which women from Northern and Southern Sudan jointly spell out their demands to ensure women's involvement in the reconstruction process. In 2005, UNIFEM also facilitates the participation of women in the ongoing peace talks on Darfur.

1995

Agenda of World Summit for Social Development reflects full range of women's issues; draft declaration contains commitment to ensuring full equality.

Fourth World Conference on Women, in Beijing, reviews and debates 12 critical areas of concern and adopts Platform for Action.

UNIFEM publishes Commitment to the World's Women, with an introduction by the Executive Director, Noeleen Heyzer, entitled "A Women's Development Agenda for the 21st Century."

1996

UN General Assembly establishes Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women at UNIFEM to identify and support innovative projects aimed specifically at preventing and eliminating violence against women. Since it was established, the Trust Fund has awarded almost $10 million in grants to 200 projects in some 100 countries.

Princess Basma bint Talal of Jordan is appointed UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador.

1997

UNIFEM organizes the first Mayan Women's Congress on women's crafts and access to markets in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

24 October, United Nations Day: UNIFEM sponsors a press event where a Women's Peace Petition with more than 99,000 signatures from over 100 countries is presented to the UN, calling for a transfer of funds from military budgets to sustainable development programmes.

1998

UNIFEM launches a region-wide campaign in Latin America to address violence against women. A range of partners comprising UN organizations and women's groups support the campaign, which attracts wide public interest and results in the introduction or amendment of 22 laws on domestic violence in the region.

UNIFEM expands its regional outreach to Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Working to ensure women's access to land ownership in the context of privatization in the CIS is to become a major focus of UNIFEM's work in the region.

1999

8 March, International Women's Day: UNIFEM organizes a Global Videoconference, "A World Free of Violence against Women," linking the UN General Assembly in New York with sites in Brussels, Delhi, Mexico City and Nairobi, to showcase success stories, innovative strategies and challenges in the work of preventing violence.

UN General Assembly adopts 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

2000

UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer is part of the UN Secretary-General's official delegation to meet ASEAN heads of state at the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) meeting in Bangkok, ensuring the integration of a gender perspective in trade discussions. Ensuring women's economic security and rights is also the focus of UNIFEM's programme in support of women migrant workers from Southeast Asia that advocates for the protection of women's rights when they seek employment abroad.

United Nations General Assembly Special Session, "Women 2000: Gender, Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century." More than 180 nations gather to assess how far the world has come in achieving the goals of gender equality agreed upon in the Beijing Platform for Action.

UNIFEM launches its flagship publication, Progress of the World's Women 2000, during the Special Session of the General Assembly for Beijing + 5.

UNIFEM's Executive Director leads an international delegation to support Palestinian and Israeli women in their work for a just and sustainable peace.

UNIFEM publishes With an End in Sight, a compilation of success stories to address gender-based violence. The initiatives featured have been supported by the UNIFEM-managed Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women.

UN Millennium Summit in New York is attended by over 150 world leaders who sign the Millennium Declaration and commit to adopting the Millennium Development Goals, including the goal to promote gender equality and empower women.

UNIFEM organizes the first conference on women and peace in Burundi and is invited by President Nelson Mandela, the lead facilitator of peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, to brief parties in the Burundi Peace Process on how to strengthen women's participation in the process.

UN Security Council convenes an unprecedented Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security and passes resolution 1325, the first landmark resolution to provide a political framework within which women's protection and their role in peacebuilding can be addressed. In the process, UNIFEM is invited to act as a Technical Advisor to the President of the Security Council. Addressing the Security Council for the first time, UNIFEM's Executive Director pledges full support in implementing the resolution.

2001

The Millennium Peace Prize for Women is launched on International Women's Day by UNIFEM and International Alert, to specifically honour the indispensable contributions women have made to resolving and preventing conflicts.

UNIFEM co-organizes a high-level roundtable on HIV/AIDS and human rights at the UN Economic and Social Council.

Twenty-sixth special session of the UN General Assembly convenes in accordance with resolution 55/13 to review and address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In the final Declaration, world leaders unconditionally acknowledge that gender equality and the empowerment of women are fundamental elements in the reduction of the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV/AIDS.

UNIFEM signs cooperation agreement with the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to halt spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls, which has become a focus area of UNIFEM's work. A web portal, GenderAndAIDS.org, providing extensive resources on gender and HIV/AIDS, is launched in the following year.

Together with the Government of Belgium, UNIFEM convenes an international roundtable on "Building Women's Leadership in the Reconstruction of Afghanistan," bringing together over 40 Afghan women in Brussels. In the years to come, UNIFEM is to provide major support to the women in Afghanistan throughout the country's legal reform and reconstruction process, resulting in the stipulation of gender equality in the country's new constitution and a provision ensuring that 25 per cent of seats are reserved for women.

UNIFEM launches its programme on gender-responsive budget initiatives, an accountability mechanism that analyzes the impact of government expenditure and revenue on women and men. Support to gender-responsive budget analyses is to become a major activity of UNIFEM: by 2006, assistance has been rendered to 30 countries.

2002

UNIFEM publishes Women, War, Peace, an assessment of the impact of armed conflict on women and women's role in peacebuilding. The assessment is undertaken by two independent experts appointed by UNIFEM, Elisabeth Rehn (Finland) and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Liberia).

UNIFEM's work to stimulate and support peacebuilding and reconstruction initiatives of women in conflict and post-conflict zones extends into 25 countries. The governments of Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and the UN Foundation are major supporters of this work.

Realizing the potential of new technologies to empower women, UNIFEM enlists the support of successful African IT entrepreneurs living abroad. Through the Digital Diaspora initiative they are lending their expertise to help bridge the digital divide that particularly affects African women.

2003

Rwanda tops the world ranking of female parliamentarians after women gain 49 per cent of the seats in the lower house and 30 per cent in the upper house during general elections. UNIFEM has actively supported women throughout the country's constitutional reform and electoral processes.

UNIFEM launches a new web portal, WomenWarPeace.org, in response to Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security to provide timely and relevant information, such as gender profiles of countries in conflict.

2004

UNIFEM's Executive Director is invited to deliver the Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture on Mobilizing for Security and Justice in the 21st Century, and is awarded the Dag Hammarskjöld medal.

Together with the International Legal Assistance Consortium, UNIFEM organizes the Conference on Gender Justice in Post-Conflict Situations, bringing together women in key legal and judicial positions in 12 conflict-affected areas as well as senior representatives of members states, UN bodies, civil society and academia. The conference recommendations are later discussed by the Security Council.

During general elections in Iraq, women gain 31 per cent of the popular vote and secure 83 seats in Parliament. Leading up to the elections, UNIFEM has provided support and extensive training to ensure women's participation.

A tsunami hits Asia. Within days of the disaster, UNIFEM's Executive Director visits the particularly hard-hit Indonesian province of Aceh and develops an approach that puts women at the heart of the relief and reconstruction efforts. The governments of Japan, New Zealand and Norway support the programme.

Together with Calvert, the largest family of socially responsible mutual funds in the United States, UNIFEM launches the Calvert Women's Principles, a comprehensive code of corporate conduct focusing on gender equality and women's empowerment.

UNIFEM organizes the first women's conference in Liberia to develop a women's agenda and strengthen work on women's political participation. UNIFEM supports extensive outreach to women ahead of the general elections in 2005, during which Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is elected as the first female Head of State in Africa.

Heads of State and Government of the African Union commit to gender equality in their Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa.

2005

The ten-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action shows that progress in securing policy changes to promote and protect women's human rights has been positive. There is less evidence, however, of these policy advancements translating into concrete changes for greater gender equality.

Heads of State and Government assembled at the September World Summit in New York reaffirm major international commitments to advance women's rights. The outcome document reflects the recommendations of the Millennium Project's Task Force on Gender Equality and Education. UNIFEM has been an active member of this Task Force.

During the World Summit, UNIFEM launches its flagship publication, Progress of the World's Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty, that argues that women's work in informal employment must be taken into account if poverty reduction strategies are to be effective. UNIFEM actively supports women in informal work, for example, through assistance to home-based workers' networks in South and Southeast Asia.

In partnership with the European Commission, UNIFEM convenes the conference Owning Development: Promoting Gender Equality in New Aid Modalities and Partnerships that looks into mechanisms necessary to ensure that commitments to gender equality remain central as development cooperation responds to shifting international priorities.

Heads of State and Government of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) call for the early implementation of the SAARC Conventions relating to Trafficking in Women and Children, which have been ratified by all member states.

UNIFEM helps establish the Arab Women Parliamentary Network. One aim of the network is to review discriminatory laws.

2006

Nicole Kidman is appointed UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador.