The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/all/20040131051439/http://www.unfpa.org:80/about/index.htm
EspanolEspanolFrancaisFrancaisArabicArabic
Search
HomeHow You Can HelpUNFPA Site MapRegister/LoginHelp
About UNFPAPopulation IssuesUNFPA WorldwideLatest NewsState of World PopulationICPD and MDG FollowupPublications
HOME: ABOUT UNFPA: Overview
Overview
Mission Statement
Executive Director
UNFPA in the UN System
Executive Board
Annual Report
Funding
Knowledge Sharing
Monitoring & Evaluation
Employment
Procurement
Results-Based Management
Partners and Links
UNFPA Goodwill Ambassadors
Frequently Asked Questions
HIGHLIGHTS
UNFPA Annual Report 2002
Kashmir. Srinagar. 1999 --  Steve McCurry / Magnum Photos

UNFPA:
United Nations Population Fund

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is the world's largest international source of funding for population and reproductive health programmes. Since we began operations in 1969, the Fund has provided nearly $6 billion in assistance to developing countries.

UNFPA works with governments and non-governmental organizations in over 140 countries, at their request, and with the support of the international community. We support programmes that help women, men and young people:

  • plan their families and avoid unwanted pregnancies
  • undergo pregnancy and childbirth safely
  • avoid sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) - including HIV/AIDS
  • combat violence against women.

Together, these elements promote reproductive health-a state of complete physical, mental and social well being in all matters related to the reproductive system. Reproductive health is recognized as a human right, part of the right to health.

UNFPA also helps governments in the world's poorest countries, and in other countries in need, to formulate population policies and strategies in support of sustainable development. All UNFPA-funded programmes promote women's equality.

UNFPA works to raise awareness of these needs among people everywhere. We advocate for close attention to population problems and help to mobilize resources to solve them.

UNFPA assistance works. Since 1969, access to voluntary family planning programmes in developing countries has increased and fertility has fallen by half, from six children per woman to three. Nearly 60 per cent of married women in developing countries have chosen to practise contraception, compared with 10-15 per cent when we started our work.

Meeting Development Goals
UNFPA's work is guided by the Programme of Action adopted by 179 governments at the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994. The conference agreed that meeting people's needs for education and health, including reproductive health, is a prerequisite of sustainable development.

The main goals of the Programme of Action are:

  • Universal access to reproductive health services by 2015
  • Universal primary education and closing the gender gap in education by 2015
  • Reducing maternal mortality by 75 per cent by 2015
  • Reducing infant mortality
  • Increasing life expectancy

These goals were refined and amplified in 1999. One of the most important additions concerned HIV/AIDS:

  • HIV infection rates in persons 15-24 years of age should be reduced by 25 per cent in the most-affected countries by 2005 and by 25 per cent globally by 2010.

Reaching the goals of the Programme of Action will be critical for reaching the Millennium Development Goals-global targets set by world leaders in 2000 to halve extreme poverty by 2015.

Improving Reproductive Health
Reproductive health is a means to sustainable development as well as a human right. Some 350 million couples lack adequate means to plan their families or space their children. Each year, half a million women in developing countries die during pregnancy or in childbirth. Investments in reproductive health save and improve lives, slow the spread of HIV/AIDS and encourage gender equality. These in turn help to stabilize population growth and reduce poverty. Investments in reproductive health extend from the individual to the family, and from the family to the world.

UNFPA promotes a holistic approach to reproductive health care that includes: access to a range of safe and affordable contraceptive methods and to sensitive counselling; prenatal care, attended deliveries, emergency obstetric care and post-natal care; and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS.

Supporting Adolescents and Youth
Today the world has the largest youth generation ever - the first generation of young people to grow up with HIV/AIDS. There are more than a billion people between 15 and 24.

UNFPA works to ensure that adolescents and young people have accurate information as well as non-judgmental counselling, and comprehensive and affordable services to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually-transmitted infections including the HIV infection that leads to AIDS.

Preventing HIV/AIDS
Each day 14,000 people-half of them aged 15 to 24-are newly infected, and add to the epidemic's staggering impact on health and on the social and economic stability of nations. In some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, young women are now up to six times more likely than young men to be infected with HIV.

Prevention, the centrepiece of UNFPA's fight against the disease, is being integrated into reproductive health programming around the world. Prevention includes promoting safer sexual behaviour among young people, making sure condoms are readily available and widely and correctly used, empowering women to protect themselves and their children, and encouraging men to make a difference.

Promoting Gender Equality
Women can and must play a powerful role in sustainable development and poverty eradication. When women are educated and healthy, their families, communities and nations benefit. Yet gender-based discrimination and violence pervade almost every aspect of life, undermining women's opportunities and denying them the ability to fully exercise their basic human rights.

For more than 30 years, UNFPA has been in the forefront of bringing gender issues to wider attention, promoting legal and policy reforms and gender-sensitive data collection, and supporting projects that empower women economically. The Fund aims to improve the status of women at every stage of their lives.

Securing Reproductive Health Supplies
Without the essential commodities-from contraceptives to testing kits to equipment for emergency obstetric care-the right to reproductive health cannot be fully exercised. In many places, condoms are urgently needed to prevent the further spread of the deadly HIV virus.

The mandate of UNFPA in this area is to provide the right quantities of the right products in the right condition in the right place at the right time for the right price. This complex logistical process involves many actors, including the public and private sectors. UNFPA takes a lead role in reproductive health commodity security, coordinating the process, forecasting needs, mobilizing support and building logistical capacity at the country level.

Assisting in Emergencies
Humanitarian crises are reproductive health disasters. Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death for displaced women of childbearing age. In conflicts, the risk of sexual violence and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, increases dramatically.

Within the framework of coordinated, interagency responses to disasters, UNFPA takes the lead in providing supplies and services to protect reproductive health. Priority areas for emergency response include safe motherhood, prevention of sexually transmitted infections including HIV, adolescent health, and sexual and gender-based violence.

Advancing Sustainable Development
Changes in the structure, distribution, and size of populations are interlinked with all facets of sustainable development. Tracking these changes and analysing population trends helps governments and international agencies generate the political will to appropriately address current and future needs.

UNFPA helps developing countries collect and analyse population data and to integrate population and development strategies into national, regional and global planning.

Building Support
UNFPA is the world's leading advocate for reproductive health and rights, including the right to choose the number and spacing of one's children. The Fund also promotes the inclusion of population issues in national planning processes. Advocacy-at the individual, community, national, regional and global levels-is a powerful tool by which UNFPA is able to increase its impact.

Alliances-with other United Nations agencies, governments, NGOs, foundations and the private sector-enable the Fund to raise awareness of and mobilize support for the goals set forth in the International Conference on Population and Development and the UN Millennium Summit.

UNFPA Global Reach
UNFPA supports programmes in four developing regions: Arab States and Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa. We work in 142 countries, areas and territories through nine Country Technical Services Teams and 112 country offices.


Back to top

| Contact Us | Help/FAQs | Site Index | Other UN Sites | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy |