UNFPA

Overview

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.

In 2010, in the area of reproductive health, UNFPA:

• supported maternal heath projects in more than 90 countries
• through the Campaign to End Fistula and many partners, worked in 49 countries in Africa, Asia and the Arab region to prevent this injury of childbearing and to treat and rehabilitate survivors of it
• provided male and female condoms and reproductive health commodities valued at $63 million were in 74 countries. Addressed the needs of  pregnant women and newborns following the earthquake in Haiti, the cylone in Myanmar and the flooding in Pakistan
• served as an advisory committee member of the Women Deliver II conference (attended by 3200 people from 146 countries), and made sure that the voices of women affected by poor reproductive health were represented
• contributed to the development of the global Every Woman Every Child initiative and supported communications and advocacy its launch (which garnered $40 billion in pledged resources).

In 2011, UNFPA spearheaded the 7 Billion Actions campaign to engage people in what it means to live in, and contribute to, a world of seven billion people.  Support for midwifery was another main focus of 2011, as UNFPA and partners, launched the first-ever State of World’s Midwifery Report.

How UNFPA partners with Marie Stopes International

UNFPA and Marie Stopes International have a longstanding partnership working together to support health programming, to impact on international policy and to ensure reproductive health commodities.

Since 2009 UNFPA  has provided vital family planning commodity support to Marie Stopes International country programmes in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. These supplies provided poor women and men in underserved communities with access to essential high quality family planning services. UNFPA’s donation has enabled these local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to prevent shortages, enhance service delivery and provide supplies to clients who could otherwise not afford them.

UNFPA’s priorities

UNFPA work focuses on three main areas: reproductive health, gender equality and population and development strategies. Within those broad areas, key areas of work include:

• reproductive health
• population & development
• data collection and use
• gender equality
• human rights
• adolescents & youth
• safe motherhood
• HIV & AIDS
• emergencies
• essential supplies.

UNFPA in action - Pakistan prevents gender-based violence among survivors of floods 

Pakistan: One Year Later

As part of its humanitarian response to Pakistan’s worst natural disaster in living memory, UNFPA coordinated interventions to prevent and respond to gender-based violence among the affected population.

Crises like the floods that inundated much of the country in August break down social networks and systems that normally protect women and girls, such as cohesive families, livelihoods, and safe shelter. Displacement creates a host of risk factors that increase the vulnerability of women and girls to many forms of violence.

The rights, needs and vulnerabilities of women and girls are sometimes overlooked in emergencies, when many humanitarian actors are focused on reaching a large number of people in the shortest period of time. There is a great need to recognise that gender-based violence can, and very often does, occur in these situations and to build survivor-centred response services.

UNFPA undertook capacity-building initiatives in Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa, Punjab and Sindh, introducing participants and future trainers from government and humanitarian agencies to basic principles of gender-based violence programming and case management, using a confidential, survivor-centred, and comprehensive approach.

Learn more about UNFPA's response to the Pakistan flooding

Read a news report on how our UNFPA partnership is helping to reduce the maternal mortality rate in Sierra Leone

Read a case study from Marie Stopes International Mali

Marie Stopes International is proud to partner with UNFPA and would like to thank them for their continuing support and assistance.