The United States has cut $377 million in funding to the UN reproductive and sexual health agency, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), potentially leading to “devastating impacts” on women and girls.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) stated on Friday that the cuts would end lifesaving support for women and girls.
Nearly all of UNFPA’s grants (48 as of now) with USAID and the U.S. State Department have been terminated, the organization was informed on Wednesday.
The USAID grants were designated to provide critical maternal healthcare, protection from violence, rape treatment, and other lifesaving care in humanitarian settings.
This included UNFPA’s efforts to prevent maternal deaths, ensure safe childbirth, and address the horrific violence faced by women and girls in crisis zones such as Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine.
“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,” UNFPA stated.
UNFPA’s global impact
The UN agency partnered with 150 countries to provide access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services.
- Its goal is ending unmet needs for family planning, preventable maternal death, gender-based violence and harmful practices, including child marriage and female genital mutilation, by 2030.
“These termination notices include grants for which we had previously received humanitarian waivers, as they were considered lifesaving interventions for the world’s most vulnerable women and girls,” UNFPA stated.
- 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.
The current cuts follow other U.S. 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 like UNAIDS and UNFPA.
UNFPA defunding
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) had been defunded several times by previous U.S. administrations under the accusation that it supported coercive abortion or forced sterilization, claims that had been refuted by other US administrations, independent investigations, and leaders at UNFPA and the UN more broadly.
“The mandate of UNFPA is in fact the opposite of this allegation – to secure rights and choices for all,” according to the UN agency.
UNFPA relies entirely on the voluntary donations of governments, intergovernmental organizations, foundations, the private sector and individuals.
