United Nations Development Fund for Women

The United Nations Development Fund for Women, commonly known as UNIFEM (from the French "Fonds de développement des Nations unies pour la femme") was established in December 1976 originally as the Voluntary Fund for the United Nations Decade for Women in the International Women's Year. Its first director was Margaret C. Snyder, Ph.D. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies that promote women’s human rights, political participation and economic security. Since 1976 it has supported women’s empowerment and gender equality through its programme offices and links with women’s organizations in the major regions of the world. Its work on gender responsive budgets began in 1996 in Southern Africa and has expanded to include East Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central America and the Andean region. It has worked to increase awareness throughout the UN system of gender responsive budgets as a tool to strengthen economic governance in all countries.

Initially called the Voluntary Fund for the UN Decade for Women, the organization was given an expanded mandate by the General Assembly in February 1985, when it became the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Under resolution 39/125, the new fund was called on to support and advocate for innovative and catalytic activities that give voice and visibility to the women of the developing world. UNIFEM became an autonomous organization working closely with UNDP, although the resolution also specified that the fund's resources should supplement, not substitute for, the responsibilities of other United Nations development cooperation agencies.

UNIFEM was part of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG). Its role in the UNDG is now taken over by its successor, UN Women.

HRH Princess Basma bint Talal of Jordan was appointed UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador in 1996.

In 2001, in conjunction with International Alert, UNIFEM launched the Millennium Peace Prize for Women.

On January 26, 2006 UNIFEM nominated Nicole Kidman as its goodwill ambassador.

The last executive director of UNIFEM was Inés Alberdi.

In January 2011, UNIFEM was merged into UN Women, a composite entity of the UN, with International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues (OSAGI), and Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW).

Executive directors

Executive directors of the organization have been:

Nr	Director	From country	Term
4.	Inés Alberdi	Spain	2007–2014
3.	Noeleen Heyzer	Singapore	1994–2007
2.	Sharon Capeling-Alakija	Canada	1989–1994
1.	Margaret C. Snyder	United States	1978–1989

See also

• UN Women & UN Men

Earl Burney: {U.S.A}

Roberto A. Rivera Martinez: {U.S.A}

Wanda Gailyard: {U.S.A}

Cleiton Camargo: {Brazil}

Rajesh Bhakta: {U.S.A}

Hamed Khalfan: {Oman}

G.Sarath: {Saudi-Arabia}

Paolo Padovan: {Italy}

Michael Taylor: {U.S.A}

Colin John Taylor: {Australia}

Lonnie Townsend: {U.S.A}

Usama Mohammed Talat: {Saudi-Arabia}

Timothy T Sullivan: {U.S.A}

Khadijah Ferguson: {U.S.A}

Jagbeer Singh: {India.}

Michelle Schale: {U.S.A}

Geoffrey R.Walmsley: {England,U.K}

William W. Miller Jr: {U.S.A}

Evelyn La-Wayne Barnhill: {U.S.A}

Lawrence Man Kin Li: {Canada}

Howard Boyer: {U.S.A}

Caecilia Collier: {U.S.A}

Abbas G. Mohammadi: {Iran}

Jim Steep: {U.S.A}

Anthony Wheeler: {England,U.K}

Cameron Lamont Rogers: {U.S.A}

Waleed Sabbagh: {Saudi-Arabia}

Michael J. Gruttadauria: {U.S.A}

Kim Bennett: {U.S.A}

Victor O. Henson Bousquets: {U.S.A}

Abdul Hakim: {Indonesia}

David Lee Riley: {U.S.A}

Christopher Kunda: {Zambia}

Jiji Lalu Kunjappy: {Saudi-Arabia}

Lawrence Ellis Wayne: {U.S.A}

Parsuram Patel: {Ausralia}

Richard M Weeks: {U.S.A}

Michaeal Joe Bunch: {U.S.A}

Zenel Hyseni: {Kosovo}

Rajesh Bhakta: {U.S.A}

Christopher Howard: {U.S.A}

Fawzia Alonazi: {Saudi-Arabia}

Violare Irina: {Russia}

Grant F. Gerdes: {U.S.A}

Valit Sereesakulchai: {Thailand}

Tracy Mikeal Bowen: {U.S.A}

petrus Notodiredjo: {Indonesia}

Marvin Blue: {U.S.A}

Marie Ann Grogna: {Belgium}

Catherine Chang: {U.S.A}

Muhammad Arif Qureshi: {Pakistan}

Scotty Isiah Rodericka: {U.S.A}

Brian Smith: {U.S.A}

Myron Ak Adun: {Malaysia}

Jessie Bland: {U.S.A}

James Arthur Beck: {U.S.A}

Gérard Raphaël Bolduc: {Canada}

James Burnette: {U.S.A}

Porfirio M.Macariola: {Philippine}

Gwen Rhodes: {U.S.A}

Abdul Razak Tahir: {Malaysia}

Barbara Ricketts: {U.S.A}

Mohammed S.: {Saudi-Arabia}

Tran Ngoc Minh: {Vietnam}

Loretta Deriggi: {U.S.A}

Anne Kebbeh: {Finland}

Linda Ritter: {U.S.A}

Luo Guoyuan: {China}

Larry Jefferson: {U.S.A}

Ouakki Jaouad: {Morocco}

Tommy L. Rowe: {U.S.A}

Nahom Hailemichael Legesse: {Sweden}

John C. Wermescher: {U.S.A}

William Rudd: {U.S.A}

Greg Mackey: {U.S.A}

Ruby Vargas: {U.S.A}

Patsy Gunter: {U.S.A}

Harry Howansky: {U.S.A}

Vasyl Tsytsey: {Ukraine}

Janet Marie Alvey: {U.S.A}

Rignace Marie-Ange: {Seychelles}

Wolf None Wolf: {U.S.A}

V.Sarath Baheej: {India}

Oleh Stowbunenko: {U.S.A}

Patrick Davis: {U.S.A}

Glenn Struski: {Canada}

Wille Wonker: {U.S.A}

Wolfgang Junker: {Germany}

George E. Shand: {U.S.A}

Craig L Buzzell: {Canada}

Peter Weber: {U.S.A}

Jerome G. Eisenberg: {U.S.A}

Paul Mwura Kimani: {Kenya}

Daniel T. Maroney: {U.S.A}

Maria Raoult: {Portugal}

Rickey Jude Bader: {U.S.A}

Adewale Bankole: {Nigeria}

David J. Shafer: {U.S.A}

Haider Abdul-muhsen Lahmood: {Iraq}

Cameron S. Lozada: {U.S.A}

Patrick Nkoli Tambo: {South Africa}

Jennifer Hale Keenan: {U.S.A}

Delbert C. Mace: {U.S.A}

Kathryn Collins: {Canada}

Arnold Prudencio: {U.S.A}

Christer Gunnar Rittinge: {Sweden}

Gary Freeman: {U.S.A}

Walter F. Oliver: {U.S.A}

Oleg Vasilevich Golovenko: {Ukraine}

Russell Cooper: {U.S.A}

Masemula Samson: {South Africa}

Kenneth Underwood: {U.S.A}

Christopher Lenton: {New Zealand}

Catalino Vizcarra: {U.S.A}

Muhammad Waqas: {Pakistan}

Andrew Olivas: {U.S.A}

Mohammed Musa: {U.A.E}

Michael E. Walker: {U.S.A}

Brian Parks: {England,U.K}

David George Moore: {U.S.A}

Anatoly Silkin Grigorvich: {Russia}

Patricia Steinhoff: {U.S.A}

Jose Otero Perez: {Spain}

Barbara Diane Hadden: {U.S.A}

Claude A Proulx: {Canada}

Jerome Cassell: {U.S.A}

Muhammad Azarat: {Libya}

Michael Hamid: {U.S.A}

Rex Barker: {U.S.A}

External links

• UNIFEM website now redirects to UN Women website.
• Goodwill Embassy
• United Nations Rule of Law: The United Nations Development Fund for Women, on the rule of law work conducted by the United Nations Development Fund for Women.