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 the UNFPA’s work ensured that:

• 1,000 health-care providers received training in reproductive health disciplines in Bangladesh
• a surgery campaign supported by UNFPA in the Central African Republic enabled 150 women living with obstetric fistula to recover and regain their health and dignity
• 242 women in in Côte d’Ivoire, received fistula treatment and 130 health workers received training in treating this condition
• 105 women received treatment in the United Republic of Tanzania
• the Dominican Republic established a Unit for Continuous Training in Emergency Obstetric Care
• the Maternal and Child Health Department of Egypt’s Ministry of Health launched a programme to train nurses in midwifery so they may attend normal deliveries.

UNFPA also helped the Ministry of Health in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to document for the first time all cases of maternal mortality. Kyrgyzstan, with support from UNFPA, renovated the maternity wards and neonatal intensive care rooms of two hospitals.
In Uganda, a UNFPA-supported programme trained 49 midwives in 2010.

Priorities

The work of UNFPA encompasses a wide range of issues, including:

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

However, its three main areas of focus are reproductive health, women's empowerment, and population and development strategies.

Locations

UNFPA worked in 155 countries, areas and territories in 2010 through its headquarters in
New York and five regional, six subregional and 119 country offices worldwide. UNFPA also
has liaison offices in Brussels, Copenhagen, Geneva, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. Eightytwo per cent of UNFPA’s 1,125 staff work in regional, subregional or country offices.

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.

Visit the UNFPA website