About UNFPA

UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health and rights agency. UNFPA provides lifesaving care in over 150 countries and works to realize a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every woman and girl can reach her fullest potential. To achieve this goal, UNFPA works toward three zeros: zero unmet need for family planning; zero preventable maternal deaths; and zero incidents of violence against women and girls, including harmful practices like child marriage and female genital mutilation. UNFPA is there for women and girls, no matter what, including in humanitarian settings like those in Ukraine, Haiti, Yemen, Ethiopia, Syria, and Afghanistan. 

Friends of UNFPA is the U.S. national committee for UNFPA and works to engage Americans on global sexual and reproductive health and rights and to mobilize funds for UNFPA’s lifesaving work.

UNFPA WORKS

• Providing lifesaving sexual and reproductive health care to women and girls in more than 150 countries – which are home to more than 80 percent of the world’s population.

• Delivering prenatal and safe delivery care to pregnant women, especially those facing life-threatening complications. Last year, UNFPA supported 1.5 million safe births in humanitarian settings. 

• Maintaining and increasing access to modern contraceptives. Thanks to UNFPA-supplied contraceptives, 12.7 million unintended pregnancies were prevented in 2021. 

• Training thousands of health workers to provide skilled, sensitive care to women and girls, including those who belong identify as LGBTQI+, living with disabilities, and refugees or migrants. 

• Caring for survivors of violence, including providing clinical treatment for rape, legal counseling, safe spaces, and mental health care. Globally, 1 in 3 women will experience physical or sexual violence in her lifetime. 

• Educating communities on the harms of female genital mutilation and encouraging community abandonment of this debilitating human rights abuse. Last year, UNFPA reached 1.9 million survivors of female genital mutilation with essential services. 

• Preventing teen pregnancies through sexuality education, access to family planning, and combating violence against girls like child marriage. Globally, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death for girls 15 – 19 years old.

• Working to end child marriage, which puts girls at risk of early pregnancy and motherhood, domestic violence, and losing access to education and employment opportunities. Today, 1 in 5 women alive was married as a child. 

• Delivering lifesaving supplies in humanitarian settings, like emergency birth kits, which enable pregnant women to give birth safely, and dignity kits, which provide women and girls with the supplies they need to manage their periods

• Empowering women and girls with education and employment opportunities and working with communities to ensure women and girls’ voices are heard and their experiences considered when new policies are formed or developments are planned.