Outcome LAC_O_2

Advancing partnerships & resourcing; Effectively influencing for impact & scale

In 2025, UN Women ACRO significantly advanced partnerships, resource mobilization and influence for impact and scale by leveraging strategic communications, diversified funding mechanisms and strengthened institutional capacities across the region. Communications functioned as a core enabler for partnerships, advocacy and resource mobilization, underpinning UN Women’s credibility, visibility and value proposition with donors and partners. Close collaboration between the Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Unit and the Communications Unit ensured effective implementation of the Regional Resource Mobilization, Communications and Partner Visibility Plan 2024–2025. Targeted communication products—including high-impact videos documenting results of the Trayectos project in Costa Rica, Honduras and Panama—strengthened donor visibility, generated positive feedback from partners and beneficiaries, and contributed to positioning the initiative as a priority for the Government of Japan, supporting ongoing efforts to expand its regional contribution. Similarly, knowledge products developed under the regional care economy programme funded by AECID reinforced UN Women’s technical leadership and provided a strategic platform to engage the Spanish Development Cooperation during the XVI Regional Conference on Women, amplifying results of this multi-country programme. Advocacy and fundraising efforts were further strengthened through the strategic packaging and dissemination of UN Women ACRO’s Strategic Note (SN 2022–2025), with tailored long and short external versions proving instrumental in advancing direct SN funding. In parallel, 21 concept notes and proposals were developed and shared with donors, expanding opportunities for collaboration aligned with shared priorities on gender equality and women’s empowerment. UN Women ACRO consolidated its leadership in private sector engagement through the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). In 2025, six regional webinars reached more than 5,400 participants, reinforcing private sector commitment to WEPs implementation and fostering dialogue on priority themes such as gender stereotypes, prevention of violence against women, climate change and gender equality. The regional office led and coordinated WEPs implementation across LAC, closing the year with nearly 3,000 signatory companies and strengthened regional coherence through tailored communications products, capacity-building and knowledge management. Beyond awareness-raising, these efforts have helped translate commitment into action, advancing gender equality across the private sector in LAC. Through sustained regional coordination, practical guidance and peer exchange, the WEPs platform continues to embed gender equality into corporate policies, leadership practices and business strategies — keeping the WEPs community active, connected and accountable. These positive shifts are reflected in the global WEPs Survey , completed by 800 signatory companies worldwide. Notably, three of the top five countries with the highest response rates are from Latin America and the Caribbean, demonstrating strong regional ownership. Findings point to concrete progress in leadership commitment, gender-responsive workplace policies, prevention of violence and harassment, and improved data collection — underscoring that sustained engagement through WEPs is driving measurable contributions to women’s empowerment. Efforts to diversify and innovate financing mechanisms advanced despite structural limitations. While no advisory services agreements were signed in 2025, concrete progress was made in developing innovative financing approaches, including engagement with multilateral development banks, pooled funding mechanisms, and strategic note direct funding. These efforts resulted in joint workplans, targeted negotiations, internal capacity strengthening and the development of advisory service proposals with public and private sector partners across multiple countries. Partnership coordination and resource mobilization performance were reinforced through strengthened regional and HQ collaboration. Strategic engagement with HQ and Liaison Offices contributed to successful high-level missions that mobilized significant resources for the LAC region. Many agreements signed by the LAC Regional Office in 2025 were first-time donors for the region and, to note, were signed in a record time, despite their non-standard agreement nature. These achievements were possible thanks to the solid partnership’s knowledge and capacity existing at the RO, as well as to the fluid collaboration with HQ departments, namely strategic partnerships, legal and finance. Every new non-standard agreement successfully completed opens new funding opportunities for HQ, ROS and COs because it paves the way for future negotiations for all. In 2025, ACRO signed seven new MOUs, concluded 45 new funding agreements and amendments, and secured seven in-kind contribution agreements. Institutional capacities for partnerships and resource mobilization in Country Offices were enhanced through systematic coordination mechanisms, learning spaces and targeted technical support, strengthening readiness to seize emerging opportunities. In parallel, UN Women ACRO deepened its engagement with the financial sector, advancing innovative financing solutions and positioning itself as a trusted partner on sustainable finance, gender bonds and impact measurement. This included concrete partnership proposals with institutions such as Banco Pichincha in Ecuador; technical support to Promujer IFD in Bolivia on gender bond impact evaluation; collaboration with regional banking actors including Banco Sol ; and strategic engagement under existing MOUs with financial institutions and development banks. Through initiatives such as Ring the Bell for Gender Equality across 8 countries in the region, ACRO further elevated corporate and investor awareness on gender-lens investing and sustainable finance. UN Women’s credibility and brand recognition continued to grow, reinforcing its leadership on gender equality and women’s empowerment. High-performing advocacy and communications efforts generated significant regional and global reach, with over 1.4 million video views, strong website traffic, extensive media coverage, and UN Women leading the most engaging UN System campaigns in the region. These combined efforts enhanced UN Women ACRO’s influence, expanded its partnerships ecosystem, and laid a strong foundation for scaled impact and diversified resourcing in 2026.

Advancing partnerships & resourcing; Effectively influencing for impact & scale

During the reporting year, the Americas and Caribbean region made a rigorous effort to build across the board capacities of the Country, Programme presence and Multi-Country Offices to effectively adapt to a challenging context, evolving needs for resourcing, refine the business model and approach to resource mobilization and partnerships. The Representatives and the key programme staff were equipped with the innovative knowledge and tools to scale up UN Women’s strategic engagements with the private and public sectors, optimize the benefits of the engagement in the areas of resource mobilization, technical collaboration and innovation in the region. In 2023, the RO facilitated established of the 49 regional partnerships, including with UN AFPs, public and private partners, CSOs, thinktanks and IFIs, which resulted in both increased revenue and influencing for the gender equality and women’s empowerment impacts.

Advancing partnerships & resourcing; Effectively influencing for impact & scale

In 2024 AC RO developed and submitted 16 knowledge products, including project concept notes, proposals, and presentations for private sector pitches. These outputs facilitated negotiations with potential and existing partners, leveraging high-level meetings and participation in initiatives like Generation Equality and the Feminist Action for Climate Justice Action Coalition. This collaboration set the groundwork for an official UN Women side event at COP16 on Biodiversity, to amplify women's voices and position UN Women as a strategic partner. Significant efforts in resource mobilization and fundraising for the LAC region resulted in the signature of Memorandums of Understanding and Contribution Agreements with various entities, strengthening the resource base and expanding networks. Outputs included sustained conversations with public and private sector focal points to identify donor priorities, participation in key UN Interagency taskforces, and the development of donor intelligence materials. The Unit produced 333 Talking Points documents and 236 Briefing Notes to support high-level meetings and presentations. New conversations with potential donors, including traditional and non-traditional entities, led to the signing of 6 Collaboration Agreements and 7 Memorandums of Understanding in 2024. In other hand several outputs were achieved to enhance the knowledge and capacities of colleagues across the LAC region in developing and seizing partnerships and resource mobilization opportunities. These outputs included the organization of five LAC Learning Cafes, benefiting 63 participants and improving their capacities to establish partnerships and mobilize resources; the enhancement of the P&RM LAC Teams Community of Practice channel, which distributed 33 posts and 23 updates to over 80 members, providing crucial information on resource mobilization opportunities and internal processes; and the development and release of two Standard Operating Procedures for the fundraising cycle and due diligence, along with extensive support for their adoption through capacity-building sessions, video tutorials, and pre-clearance reviews of due diligence requests. Also AC RO achieved two key results at the output level: the signing of an MOU between the UN Women Executive Director and the President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in September, formalizing collaboration on comprehensive care systems, initiatives to eliminate gender-based violence, and expanding women's economic autonomy and financial inclusion, with a joint action plan to be developed in 2025; and the development of a proposal with inputs from LAC region offices to the multilateral development bank CAF, focusing on women's entrepreneurship and access to finance in the Caribbean, strengthening women's political participation and leadership, and promoting a life free of violence in politics in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Guatemala, as well as empowering women and girls through sports in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and the Caribbean. Although CAF has not yet agreed to fund the proposal, exchanges have led to the planning of a joint workshop with CAF gender leadership in Panama to establish a joint action plan in Q1 2025. By fostering strong, long-term relationships with key media outlets, the organization successfully positioned its priorities and advocacy efforts on gender equality and women's rights. In 2024, this strategy resulted in the coordination of 21 opinion articles and interviews with the Regional Director and Deputy Regional Director, featured in prominent global and regional newspapers and news outlets, including BBC Mundo, EFE, EFEminista, El País, DW, Planeta Futuro, France 24, Forbes, and Infobae. Regionally, country and multi-country offices reported 1,453 media mentions through HQ media coverage. Meltwater registered 963 mentions in leading regional media. The peak potential media reach of ONU Mujeres in the press was on November 25th, with 2.1B,