Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW)
EVAW is one of UN Women’s core mandate areas. It funds, coordinates, and advocates for programmes that prevent and respond to violence against women and girls worldwide.
UN Women
Why This Work Sits With UN Women
Violence against women is both a human rights violation and a public health crisis. An estimated 840 million women have faced it at least once in their lives.
UN Women doesn’t work this issue alone. It coordinates with WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, and national governments, pooling expertise across health, justice, and social policy.
For the deeper terminology and policy debates behind this issue, see RYB’s Gender-Based Violence (GBV) page.
How UN Women Approaches EVAW
Three priorities anchor this work. Prevention addresses root causes, like harmful gender norms, before violence occurs. Response services support survivors directly, from emergency shelters to legal aid. Data and accountability track progress and expose where funding and political will still fall short.
Flagship Programme: Spotlight Initiative
UN Women’s largest EVAW programme by far is the Spotlight Initiative, a partnership with the European Union now active in more than 25 countries.
→ Explore the Spotlight Initiative
RYB’s Place in This Picture
RYB tracks EVAW because ending violence against women is inseparable from building lasting peace. This page bridges our institutional UN tree with our deeper conceptual work on GBV.
Looking Forward
Watch the 2027 funding cycle closely. EVAW programmes worldwide are competing for shrinking development aid, even as prevalence data shows little improvement.
Sources
- Facts and figures: Ending violence against women, UN Women — unwomen.org/facts-and-figures-ending-violence-against-women
- Ending violence against women, UN Women — unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women