Australia joins with Geena Davis and UNIFEM to promote gender equality and to reduce violence against women in the Pacific

In a meeting today with UNIFEM and its partner, American actress Geena Davis, the Australian Government announced an additional $300,000 to UNIFEM’s Pacific Fund to End Violence Against Women.

This brings the Australian Government’s total funding to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Pacific Fund to $1.1 million since it was established in 2009.

“Violence against women is a global problem. It’s wonderful that the Australian Government is providing more funding for UNIFEM to combat this issue in the Pacific,” Ms Davis said.

“The Australian Government is working with UNIFEM to reduce the impact and incidence of violence against women in the Pacific,” Ms Plibersek said.

“The Pacific Fund supports community organisations working with women who have experienced violence,” Ms Plibersek said.

“Services such as counselling, legal support and safe havens will become more readily available to survivors of violence because of the Pacific Fund,” Mr McMullan said.

The Pacific Fund also provides small grants to organisations to help raise awareness of violence against women and to implement a range of programs to end violence against women.

Support for UNIFEM’s Pacific Fund to End Violence Against Women is a major initiative of the framework outlined in the Stop Violence: Responding to Violence against Women in Melanesia and East Timor report, which was released by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for the Status of Women in August 2009.

Australia’s partnership with UNIFEM helps achieve equality between men and women and reduce violence towards women in the developing world.