10/3/2026
UN Women is funded primarily through voluntary contributions from governments and other partners, including Member States, multilateral organizations, foundations, private-sector organizations and other donors. Unlike organizations that rely mainly on mandatory membership payments, UN Women depends heavily on voluntary funding to implement its programmes and support its mandate for gender equality and women's empowerment.
UN Women describes its funding through several categories, including regular resources (core funding), other resources (non-core funding), and assessed contributions. Regular resources are flexible funds that allow UN Women to support its overall strategic priorities, while non-core resources are generally earmarked for particular programmes, themes or projects.
Governments are an important source of funding for UN Women. Countries provide voluntary contributions that can either be unrestricted or directed toward particular activities.
Other funding partners can include:
UN Women's official Transparency Portal categorizes its funding partners by these different types.
Core funding, also called regular resources, is particularly important because it is flexible.
UN Women explains that regular resources are voluntary "core" contributions that are not earmarked for a specific project. This gives the organization greater flexibility to implement its strategic plan, support global advocacy, coordinate UN-system action and advance international standards relating to gender equality.
For example, UN Women reported that 82 funding partners contributed approximately $153.2 million in regular resources in 2024.
Non-core funding is generally provided for a specific purpose. A donor may decide that its contribution should support a particular country programme, humanitarian response, thematic area or project.
This type of funding allows UN Women to undertake targeted initiatives while core funding provides greater organizational flexibility.
UN Women's Transparency Portal reported approximately $530.41 million in total contributions in 2025, including $141.1 million in regular resources and $382.09 million in other resources.
UN Women can receive resources from other parts of the UN system. For example, the organization's 2025 funding data lists the United Nations and the United Nations Development Programme among its funding partners.
However, describing UN Women as being simply "funded by the UN" would be incomplete. Its funding comes from a broad network of governments and other partners.
UN Women's mandate covers a broad range of activities, including supporting governments with gender-equality policies, coordinating work across the UN system, promoting women's political participation, addressing violence against women and girls, and supporting women in peace and security processes.
Flexible funding allows the organization to allocate resources according to its strategic priorities, while earmarked contributions can support specific programmes.
UN Women is primarily funded through voluntary contributions from governments and a wide range of other partners. Its funding consists mainly of flexible regular resources and earmarked non-core resources, supplemented by other contributions. The organization publishes detailed funding information through its Transparency Portal.
UN Women Transparency Portal – Funding Partners
UN Women – Regular Resources Report
UN Women – About UN Women
Unchannel - 10/3/2026