The Fund for Gender Equality aims to advance women’s economic and political empowerment through high-impact, multi-year grants of up to USD 1 million.

The money is awarded directly to women’s organizations and partnerships between governmental and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Spain’s donation of USD 65 million started the Fund in 2009, followed by Norway’s USD 3 million, Mexico’s USD 800,000 and the Netherland’s contribution of USD 1.2 million. The Fund totals USD 71 million and is one of the largest and most recent grantmaking funds dedicated to women’s rights and empowerment globally.

Since its launch in 2009, the Fund has invested USD 43 million in multi-year grants to 55 programmes in 40 countries. In El Salvador in March 2011, advocates helped pass a national gender equity law. In China, women of three rural provinces are demanding a place at the table and training female candidates to take a greater role in government decision-making. In Sri Lanka, a broad-based multimedia effort is training women of ethnic and religious minorities to run for office.

These projects meet the Fund’s aim of political empowerment that strengthens women’s leadership — particularly of young women, indigenous women, refugee women and HIV-positive women — increasing their participation and influence in decision-making in all areas of life. In Rwanda, 15,000 women are being helped to register to inherit and own land and property — rights only recently granted by law. In India, an effort to equip Dalit women to lobby and take advantage of new government programmes resulted in 7,200 women’s obtaining work. In Morocco, women living in 13 oasis communities are gaining both independence and income through vibrant cooperatives.

These projects meet the Fund’s goal of increasing women’s economic empowerment, increasing women’s access to and control over goods, income, and land. The Fund works on local, national and international levels.

It supports the gender equality laws and policies of individual nations. It also helps the world make progress in attaining gender equality goals enshrined in international agreements, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), among others. For instructions on how to apply, please consult the Application Guidelines.

Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) is government planning, programming and budgeting that contributes to the advancement of gender equality and the fulfillment of women's rights.

Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) is government planning, programming and budgeting that contributes to the advancement of gender equality and the fulfillment of women's rights. It entails identifying and reflecting needed interventions to address gender gaps in sector and local government policies, plans and budgets. GRB also aims to analyze the gender-differentiated impact of revenue-raising policies and the allocation of domestic resources and Official Development Assistance.

GRB initiatives seek to create enabling policy frameworks, build capacity and strengthen monitoring mechanisms to support accountability to women. This website provides governments, non-governmental organizations, parliaments and academics with resources for understanding and applying GRB.