2023 was a year marked by increasingly grave and complex challenges across the globe. From Afghanistan to Haiti, Palestine, Sudan and beyond, intractable conflict and multi-dimensional crises continued to drive instability, displacement, famine and grave threats to the fundamental rights of women and girls. Against this backdrop, the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) continued to adapt to these challenges and deliver on its critical mandate as an impactful and responsive financing tool serving local women’s civil society organizations and women human rights defenders (WHRDs) working in conflict and crisis settings worldwide.
As you read through the pages of the WPHF 2023 Annual Report, we invite you to celebrate the transformational impact of our civil society partners and their unique added value to prevent conflict and radicalization, expand the reach of humanitarian aid, protect the fundamental rights of the most marginalized groups, tackle sexual and gender-based violence, provide access to lifesaving services, improve women’s economic resilience, lift communities out of poverty, and forge inclusive and sustainable peace for all.
In 2023 alone, WPHF launched 21 new Calls for Proposals and approved 188 new grants in support of 293 civil society organizations (CSO), bringing the total number of CSOs supported by WPHF since 2016 to 1,207, almost half of which received funding from the UN for the first time. WPHF also continued to serve as a powerful localization tool, with 89% of its partners operating at local and subnational levels.
As global crises and emergencies increase in number and complexity, the crucial work of local women’s civil society groups is threatened at every turn and financing for their work is scarcer than ever before. Together with its generous donors and expert partners, WPHF will continue to deliver on its mandate to enhance the quality, flexibility and timeliness of funding to support the work, foster the capacity and amplify the voices of local women civil society leaders and activists on the front lines.
We must work together to turn our shared values into action, forging new and innovative partnerships to accelerate support, amplify the voices, unlock the power, and scale up the impact of frontline women’s civil society organizations working at the forefront of the world’s toughest crises to build sustainable peace for all.
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