The Resilience Fund was launched in Vienna, Austria at a high-level panel discussion in the margins of the 28th UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) on 21 May, 2019. The high-level panel discussion chaired by Siria Gastelum Felix, Resilience Director at the Global Initiative, focused on the role of civil society in building resilience against organized crime.

Panelists included Griselda Triana, a Mexican journalist, activist and wife of slain journalist, Javier Valdez; Rani Hong, the CEO of the Tronie Foundation and herself a former trafficking victim; and Miguel Syjuco, a Filipino journalist and writer.