reproductive health

A midwife performs house calls in a conflict-affected village in Yemen. Maternal health services are being rolled back amid funding shortages.
© UNFPA Yemen

Life and death for Yemen’s women and girls, as funding evaporates

30 May 2020
Health

In mid-May, just as the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Yemen, funding for UNFPA’s life-saving reproductive health services dried up. The agency has been forced to suspend the provision of reproductive healthcare in 140 out of the 180 health facilities, it supports, meaning only 40 now remain.

 

The Human Rights Council, Geneva (file photo, May 2018)
UN Photo/Elma Okic

US states ‘manipulating’ COVID-19 pandemic to restrict abortion access, rights experts charge

27 May 2020
Human Rights

Independent UN human rights experts fear that some authorities in the United States are using the COVID-19 pandemic to restrict access to abortion, with at least eight states suspending procedures deemed medically unnecessary.

Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), attends a focus group discussion with women in Bangladesh.
© UNFPA/Lauren Anders Brown

$683 million appeal to deliver reproductive health services, where they’re most needed

11 February 2020
Women

With more than half of all maternal deaths occurring in countries affected by humanitarian crises and fragility, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is calling for greater international support to provide life-saving reproductive health and protection services in these locations. 

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is providing services to displaced women and girls across northeast Syria.
UNFPA Syria/2019

Health services for Syrian women caught up in war, foster safety and hope: UNFPA

23 January 2020
Women

Continued displacement from conflict-affected areas in northeast Syria leaves women and girls in urgent need of safe spaces, shelter and reproductive health services, according to a Flash Update this week from UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, addresses the 25th Anniversary of the ICPD in Nairobi, Kenya.
UNFPA

Nairobi summit: Women’s empowerment a ‘game changer’ for sustainable development

12 November 2019
Women

The global goal of a sustainable future for all cannot be achieved until women, girls and young people gain control over their own bodies and lives, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told world leaders meeting in Nairobi on Tuesday.

Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Youth at the Opening Ceremony of the 8th Africa Conference on Sexual And Reproductive Health and Rights, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Lindsay Barnes/UNFPA

In Johannesburg, UN youth envoy spotlights need to boost support for reproductive health

14 February 2018

In this century, child marriage cannot be allowed to happen, and similarly, children should not give birth to children, the United Nations youth envoy told an African forum on reproductive health and rights on Wednesday.

UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin (left) and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the launch of ICPD Beyond 2014 Global Report.
UN Photo/Mark Garten

Ignoring equality, rights and women’s health risks derailing development – UN officials

12 February 2014
While nearly 1 billion people have escaped extreme poverty in the past 20 years and child and maternal mortality have been cut by almost one half, much more work remains to be done to address inequalities and ensure the rights and dignity of all, especially women and children, top United Nations officials stressed today.
UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin.
UNFPA

UN partners with African nations to boost girls’ access to reproductive health services

5 August 2013
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has announced it will support programmes in eight African countries over the next three years to boost access to reproductive health services for millions of adolescent girls.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon inspects a mosquito net at Mwandama Millennium Village, Malawi in May 2010

New UN partnership seeks to promote reproductive health in Africa

13 December 2010
The United Nations has teamed up with the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) to promote universal access to reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing mainly on young mothers.
A young mother breastfeeds her baby

World must recommit to slash maternal mortality as goal lags far behind – UN

27 October 2009
The target of slashing maternal mortality and ensuring universal access to reproductive health is the furthest from success of all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) the world set itself in 2000, a senior United Nations official has warned, calling for renewed political will, funding and international solidarity.