United Nations Development Fund for Women

The United Nations Development Fund for Women, or UNIFEM (abbreviation for Fonds de développement des Nations unies pour la femme), is the women's fund at the United Nations (UN) that directs resources to women's human rights, gender equality, and empowerment issues. UNIFEM is important to women's status in the 21st century because of its past, current, and future efforts to expand opportunities and resources for women around the world.

The fund was established in December 1976 as the UN Voluntary Fund for the Decade for Women (UNVFDW), directly following the First World Conference on Women held in Mexico City in 1975. Although initially created in 1984 only for the UN Decade for Women, the UNGA reestablished UNIFEM as a separate entity in autonomous association with the ...