UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programs and strategies that promote women’s human rights and political participation. UNIFEM was created in 1976, in response to a call from women’s organizations attending the First World Conference on Women in Mexico, City. UNIFEM fosters strategic partnerships with regional and intergovernmental bodies, and brings its operational experience into mainstreaming gender in peace support efforts by involving women in their design and implementation. Today, UNIFEM works in over 100 countries with 14 Regional Program Directors, and a growing network of affiliated gender advisors and specialists in Africa, Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.