United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
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The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is the world’s largest internationally funded source of population assistance to developing countries. Since it began operations in 1969, the Fund has provided more than $4.5 billion in assistance to virtually all developing countries. One fourth of the world’s population assistance from donor nations to developing countries is channeled through UNFPA.

UNFPA’s mandate is to:

• assist developing countries in providing quality reproductive health and family planning services on the basis of individual choice, and in formulating population policies that support sustainable development.
• advance the strategy endorsed by the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) to meet the needs of individual women and men rather than achieving demographic targets. The key to this approach is to empower women and provide them with more choices through expanded access to education, health services and employment opportunities.
• promote cooperation and coordination among United Nation organizations, bilateral agencies, governments, non governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector in addressing issues of population and development, reproductive health gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Reproductive Health including Family Planning and Sexual Health

UNFPA supports the provision of reproductive health care including wider choice of family planning methods and information. Reproductive health care includes: family planning; safe motherhood; counseling and prevention of infertility; preventing and treating reproductive tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDs; and dealing with the health consequences of unsafe abortion.

Population and Development Strategy

UNFPA helps countries formulate implement and evaluate comprehensive population policies as a central part of sustainable development strategies. This includes support of data collection, and analysis, and research.

Advice

UNFPA is an advocate for the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and ICPD+5, including: reproductive health and rights; improvement of the status of women; longer life expectancy; lower infant and maternal mortality; closing the gender gap in education; strengthen the national capacity to formulate and implement population and development strategies; and increasing awareness and resources for population and development.

UNFPA in Somalia

UNFPA supports projects and programmes that help meet the need for family planning, safer and healthier pregnancy and childbirth (including the provision of emergency obstetric care) and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS. UNFPA also supports the collection and analysis of socio-demographic data.

Ms. Thoraya A. Obaid is the Executive Director of UNFPA.

Contact:
Dr. Jeylani Dini
Tel: + 254 20 4448434-6
Fax: +254 20 4448439
Email: jeylani.dini@undp.org