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UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund,
began operations in 1969 as the United Nations Fund for Population
Activities. UNFPA was originally administered by the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In 1971, the United
Nations General Assembly designated UNFPA to play a leading
role in the UN system in promoting population programmes.
A year later, in recognition of the growth in its resources
and scope of its operations, UNFPA was placed under the UN
General Assembly's direct authority, raising it to the same
status as UNDP and UNICEF.
The UNDP Governing Council was named as its governing body,
subject to overall policy guidance of the Economic
and Social Council (ECOSOC), which provides policy guidance
and ensures that the policies of the General Assembly are
implemented.
In 1979, the General Assembly affirmed that
UNFPA was a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly. In 1980,
UNFPA became a full member of the Administrative Committee
on Coordination (ACC), which brings together the executive
heads of all UN organizations to coordinate the work of the
UN system.
In 1987, the name of UNFPA was changed to
the United Nations Population Fund, but the acronym, UNFPA,
remained the same.
In 1993, the General Assembly transformed
the governing bodies of UNICEF and UNDP/UNFPA into executive
boards, subject to the authority of ECOSOC. The Executive
Board is composed of 36 members: eight from states in
Africa, seven from Asia and the Pacific, four from Eastern
European States, five from Latin America
and the Caribbean, and twelve from Western Europe and other
states.
After the International
Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in
Cairo in 1994, UNFPA was designated the lead United Nations
organization for the follow-up and implementation of the conference's
Programme of Action.
In 1995, the General Assembly endorsed an
agreement between UNDP and UNFPA to designate UNFPA resident
country directors as UNFPA representatives.
UNFPA is a founding member of the United
Nations Development Group (UNDG) created in 1996 to oversee
the Reform Programme of the UN Secretary-General.
As part of the comprehensive reform package
approved by the UN General Assembly in late 1997, UNFPA and
its sister agencies have been working together to achieve
full collaborative programming in programme countries around
the world through the preparation of Common Country Assessments
(CCAs), designed to pinpoint critical concerns and challenges
facing individual programme countries. The CCA serves as a
stepping stone for the preparation of a common United Nations
Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), which seeks to harmonize
the programme cycles and activities of different UN agencies
to promote synergies and maximize impact.
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