The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, and Minister for the Status of Women, Tanya Plibersek, have announced that Australia will provide more than $17 million to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) as part of our international commitment to advancing greater equality between men and women.

This funding over four years will support UNIFEM’s work in over 100 countries to reduce women’s poverty and exclusion; end violence against women; reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls; and support women’s leadership in governance and post-conflict reconstruction.

Australia has a strong reputation internationally for the work we do to advance gender equality and empower women. The OECD recently commended Australia’s work in this area through our international development assistance program.

With Australia’s support:

1. more women across Asia and the Pacific have access to maternal and child health services
2. girls in impoverished parts of Pakistan are receiving an education for the first time
3. women have been trained to take on leadership and governance roles in the Pacific, and
4. victims of domestic violence in PNG have better access to justice and support services.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is ‘Unite to end violence against women’.