• The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) confirmed that the United States has cut $377 million worth of funding to the agency.

• The USAID grants were designated to provide critical maternal healthcare, protection from violence, rape treatment and other lifesaving care in humanitarian settings.

• This includes UNFPA’s work to end maternal death, safely deliver babies and address horrific violence faced by women and girls in places like Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine.

• Nearly all of its grants (48 as of now) with USAID and the US State Department have now been terminated.

• The UNFPA said this decision will have devastating impacts on women and girls and the health and aid workers who serve them in the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

• The grants funded programmes in countries including Afghanistan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Mali, Sudan, Syria and its neighbouring countries, as well as Ukraine.

• UNFPA has been defunded several times by previous US administrations under the accusation that it supports coercive abortion or forced sterilisation, claims that have been refuted by other US administrations, independent investigations, and leaders at UNFPA and the UN more broadly.

• The current cuts follow other US defunding measures against humanitarian aid organizations since late January, leaving millions in jeopardy, including those benefiting from critical services and supplies provided by UN agencies.

What is the purpose of UNFPA?

• UNFPA is formally named the United Nations Population Fund. The organisation was created in 1969, the same year the United Nations General Assembly declared “parents have the exclusive right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.”

• Guided by the 1994 Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), UNFPA partners with governments, civil society and other agencies to advance its mission.

• UNFPA works in more than 150 countries and territories.

• It is entirely supported by voluntary contributions of donor governments, inter-governmental organisations, the private sector and foundations and individuals, not by the United Nations regular budget. 

• UNFPA, a subsidiary organ of the UN General Assembly, reports to the UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board of 36 UN Member States and receives overall policy guidance from the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). 

• UNFPA is the United Nations’ sexual and reproductive health agency. Its mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

• UNFPA calls for the realisation of reproductive rights for all and supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services – including voluntary family planning, maternal health care and comprehensive sexuality education.

• The State of World Population report is UNFPA’s annual flagship publication. Published yearly since 1978, it shines a light on emerging issues in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights, bringing them into the mainstream and exploring the challenges and opportunities they present for international development.

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