Director of UNIFEM's Brussels Liaison Office speaks in London

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Osnat Lubrani (on the left) meets London members

Osnat Lubrani is Director of UNIFEM’s Brussels office and was previously Regional Programme Director for Central and Eastern Europe. She has worked for UNIFEM since 1997and helped to set up the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women which UNIFEM manages.

She spoke first about tackling violence against women (VAW) in the context of the Millennium Development Goals and suggested that it could be seen as the ‘missing’ goal. It is recognised as one of the main drivers in addressing MDG 3 on gender equality but is actually a significant factor in making progress on most of the others. Osnat reviewed the advances that UNIFEM has made in raising awareness of VAW by working at the global, regional, national and local level. She talked about the role of Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820 in removing any doubt that gender-based violence is a critical peace and security issue.

Outlining the challenges ahead, Osnat suggested that a fundamental problem was the complexity of VAW issues and the fact that it inevitably takes years to achieve a long-lasting change in relationships within communities. It is far easier to raise funds for humanitarian crises, or in a post-conflict situation to focus on getting a country ‘back on its feet’, because of the pressure to produce quick results. VAW remains a low priority on national and international agendas, but in the end postponing action to deal with it slows down the process of recovery.

Osnat went on to talk about the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, a unique global mechanism through which UNIFEM has pioneered innovative approaches. It has become a barometer of intergovernmental commitment and promotes good practice across the UN system. The current focus is on projects to secure implementation of laws and policies to tackle gender-based violence which have been adopted in many countries, and a strategy of preventing rather than just responding. Osnat suggested that in moving forward there was a need for better coordination between health, judicial and security agencies, more data collection to raise public awarneness and a greater engagement with men and boys.

The Trust Fund has so far supported 291 initiatives in 109 countries. Grants of $22 million were made in the current year but bids for funding amounted to $525 million. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called on all member states to pledge more support for the Trust Fund and he has set a target of $100 million to be available annually by 2015.