To provide women and girls everywhere with lifesaving sexual and reproductive health care and empower them to decide what is best for their bodies, families, and futures.
To provide women and girls everywhere with lifesaving sexual and reproductive health care and empower them to decide what is best for their bodies, families, and futures.
2023 was a challenging year for the health and safety of millions as climate change, natural disasters, and violence led to numerous humanitarian crises. In all of these heartbreaking situations, women and girls were among the most vulnerable as they lost access to critical care and the ability to maintain their dignity — but because of you, we were able to scale up and be there for them.
Thank you for being a lifeline to women and girls in 2023. Your generous support deployed critical sexual and reproductive health supplies and services, ensuring that we were able to be there and reach women and girls with lifesaving care. In 2023, your support helped us:
Behind these numbers are millions of stories of women you have supported, and we saw first-hand the difference you made in Jordan. In September 2023, we traveled to the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, where 80,000 Syrians have found a home for more than a decade while their country has been embroiled in civil war. Pregnant women attended prenatal appointments and marked their progress on a tracker. Girls played ping pong and created art; teenagers taught kindergarteners how to read. New moms at the maternity clinic were smiling as they rested with their newborns while other women received information on birth spacing and contraception.
What impressed us most was how the clinics anticipated and addressed every need so women and girls could access the care they deserved. This holistic approach to reproductive health care is paying off: After more than 13 years and 20,000 births, not a single woman has died from pregnancy or childbirth complications in Zaatari.
But your support stretches far beyond the borders of Zaatari. Thanks to you, we are reaching women and girls in every corner of the world to achieve three transformative results: zero unmet need for family planning, zero preventable maternal deaths, and zero gender-based violence and harmful practices. To help reach these results, we launched our Her. Now! campaign which aims to raise $100 million for sexual and reproductive healthcare by 2030. We have already made incredible progress in this campaign, and we are hopeful that this will be the decade to transform reproductive health worldwide.
In 2024, we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the first International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) — a landmark moment where global leaders agreed that we all have a right to access sexual and reproductive health care and to make decisions for our bodies and futures. In just 30 years, we have transformed the lives of millions of women and girls, and in a span of one generation, UNFPA has reduced unintended pregnancy by nearly 20%, lowered maternal death by more than 30%, and secured laws against domestic violence in more than 160 countries.
However, while we have made significant progress, we have also witnessed widening inequalities within our society and the health care system. Our work for sexual and reproductive health is not complete, and we must continue to reach the millions of women and girls who remain far behind. On this 30th anniversary, we are determined more than ever to be there for every woman and girl, no matter what.
Thank you for your commitment to women and girls, and your tireless resolve to help us realize our shared vision of a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every person can reach their fullest potential.
In 2023, we raised just shy of $6 million for women and girls – and it’s all thanks to supporters like you. 2023 was our highest revenue year yet, bringing us even closer to our goal to raise $100 million by 2030 and emphasizing the incredible momentum that you have helped us build for our lifesaving work . Now 13,199 supporters (and counting!) strong, we are making incredible progress toward our transformative goals of zero unmet demands for family planning, zero preventable maternal deaths, and zero incidents of violence against women.
We were also awarded a 4-star perfect score by Charity Navigator, so each member of our community can give with confidence when they make a gift to support women and girls.
* These numbers are unaudited. To review our audited financials, including from past years, please click here for more information.
Right now, 257 million women and girls who wish to avoid pregnancy are not using safe or effective contraceptives. And right now, half of all pregnancies around the world are unintended. By the end of this year, 121 million women and girls will find themselves unintentionally pregnant and 260,000 women will die from preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications.
But we can get these numbers down to zero. We’re working in communities across the globe to provide women and girls with the full range of family planning options such as IUDs and contraceptive pills and the comprehensive sex education they need to make informed decisions about their health. We’re working with communities to respect the decisions women and girls make for their bodies and we’re strengthening supply chains so that, even during an emergency, women and girls don’t lose access to the care they need.
In the next two minutes, a woman will needlessly die from preventable pregnancy or childbirth complications. By the end of the day, this number will climb to a staggering 800 women. Among those most at risk are women living in humanitarian crises and girls. Pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading cause of death for teenage girls globally.
UNFPA is working around the world to ensure that giving life does not become a death sentence. We deploy midwives who provide essential prenatal, safe delivery, and postpartum care. We operate mobile health clinics to reach women and girls cut off from the health system. Our teams provide emergency obstetric care to manage life-threatening complications. And, we distribute UNFPA Emergency Birth Kits and UNFPA Mama Kits to pregnant women and new mothers in crisis zones.
Violence against women and girls takes a wide range of forms, including physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, and economic abuse, along with harmful practices like child marriage and female genital mutilation.
Violence against women and girls is as pervasive as it is damaging. Every year, 4 million girls are at risk for female genital mutilation. Every day, more than 30,000 girls become child brides. And every 11 minutes, a woman or girl is killed by a loved one. Regardless of the type of harm that occurs, each experience of violence strips away a woman or girl’s right to safety, dignity, autonomy, and respect.
That’s why we’re working to end violence against women and girls — for good. We support survivors of violence with clinical treatment for rape, legal aid, mental health counseling, and access to safe spaces. We’re working with communities to raise awareness about women’s rights, including by engaging men, boys, religious leaders, and community elders. We also advocate for governments to adopt policies that protect women’s health and rights and advance gender equality.
From violent conflicts to natural disasters, one fact underpins all crises – women and girls are the most vulnerable when disaster strikes. They eat last and least. They are more likely to lose education and employment opportunities. Their risk of experiencing violence skyrockets. And on top of all of this, women and girls do not stop getting their periods or becoming pregnant during emergencies.
Women and girls continue to need access to sexual and reproductive healthcare in emergency settings — but too often, these services and essential supplies vanish. We are on the ground before, during, and after crises to ensure that the unique needs of women and girls are met, even in the most remote or conflict-stricken locations. We distribute hundreds of thousands of UNFPA Dignity Kits, Emergency Birth Kits, and Mama Kits every year, along with offering safe spaces for survivors of violence, operating mobile health clinics for women and girls who have been cut off from care by conflict or natural disasters, and providing mental health counseling to women and girls who have faced traumatic violence and loss.
FOR EVERY WOMAN AND GIRL, EVERYWHERE.
At age 18, Fátima received her first contraceptive implant. Mother to a 5-month-old boy, Fátima had been living in a displacement camp for three years when she first learned about family planning from UNFPA staff. After the conversation, Fátima made the decision to receive a contraceptive implant so she could go back to school and build the life that she wanted for herself and her child. Visibly nervous and apprehensive the day of, the anxiety melted from Fátima the moment the short procedure was finished and she realized she would be protected against pregnancy for the next two years. Afterward, Fátima became more confident in her decision and promised to raise awareness about family planning with her peers.
Nan and Aorn were among the 47,400 teenagers who became pregnant in Thailand in 2023. Though Thailand has made significant strides in making contraceptives widely available, social stigma still keeps many women and girls from taking charge of their own sexual and reproductive health — including Nan and Aorn. But UNFPA, with the help from young mothers like Nan and Aorn, are helping to change this stigma and prove that sexual and reproductive health services are for people of every age.
UNFPA empowers young mothers through life skills sessions so they can earn incomes to support their families and also delivers culturally-sensitive comprehensive sexuality education.. Together, UNFPA and activists like Nan and Aorn are shifting the culture of their communities to make family planning a priority.
In northern Peru, access to sexual and reproductive health services for women became a matter of life or death following deadly Cyclone Yaku. The storm destroyed health care centers and family planning became a vital way to combat maternal mortality. UNFPA provided this lifesaving service by sending emergency reproductive health supplies to 33 care facilities in affected areas, launching mobile teams to reach women and girls cut off from services by the cyclone, and even having obstetricians go door to door to provide information about sexual and reproductive health services. In all, these efforts reached 16,400 teenage girls and women with family planning services, empowering them to take charge of their own futures and bodies.
When Monica was 6 months pregnant, Cyclone Ana hit her district, destroying her home and livelihood. Her family stayed at a crowded temporary camp for three months before they made the difficult decision to abandon the land that they had owned for generations — they knew that next time a cyclone came, they may not be lucky enough to escape with their lives.
Unintended pregnancy was the last thing Monica wanted to think about. So, after delivering her baby at a UNFPA-supported clinic, Monica made the decision to use contraceptives to prevent an accidental pregnancy. The contraceptives, supplied by UNFPA, have given Monica and her family a chance to create stability and build a new life for themselves.
At 16 years old, Sia experienced a severe birth complication after being in painful labor for five days straight. On the fifth day, she was taken to a hospital and given an emergency cesarean section, but it was too late — Sia had lost her baby and she developed an obstetric fistula.
Obstetric fistula occurs when prolonged labor results in a tear or hole and leaves women leaking urine or feces. This birth injury has been eliminated in most of the world thanks to timely health interventions. But those who continue to experience obstetric fistula are among the most vulnerable women and girls in the world. 90% of obstetric fistula cases, including Sia’s, result in a stillbirth. Sia recounts being mocked by society — even the students she taught had complained of the urine that the condition had caused her to leak. She was ashamed and embarrassed.
But that all changed on September 14, 2023, when she and 31 other survivors of obstetric fistula received free surgeries to repair their injuries at a UNFPA women’s center. Sia has now made a full recovery.
When Cyclone Mocha made landfall in Myanmar in May 2023, an estimated 3.4 million people were impacted. The vicious storm tore homes to pieces, flooded villages, and destroyed many roads and bridges. Pregnant women like 26-year-old Nway Nway were stranded without access to vital reproductive health services.
Fortunately, UNFPA sprang into action. In the areas that had become inaccessible, UNFPA mobile clinics were able to provide critical prenatal and postpartum care to Nway Nway and the 20,700 other pregnant women who were affected by the cyclone.
Faili knew that her fourth birth would not be typical. Early in her pregnancy, she had attended a UNFPA health facility at Nyarugusu refugee camp in Tanzania. There, UNFPA staff recommended that she deliver her baby via cesarean section due to the baby’s large size. When it was time to deliver, a worker trained in emergency obstetric care and infection prevention delivered the baby. The fear that Faili had felt before giving birth dissipated as soon as she saw that her baby was okay. Faili was one of the 6,235 women and girls to give birth at Nyarugusu during the year – and incredibly, not a single woman died in the refugee camp.
After eight years of conflict in Yemen, mothers like Zahra are still going without food so their children can eat. When Zahra became pregnant with her fourth child she was acutely malnourished, underweight, and prone to illness. One morning, she collapsed with abdominal pain and bleeding. Her husband rushed her to a nearby clinic, but they were poorly equipped to handle Zahra’s emergency. The nurse advised Zahra to go to UNFPA Al Ahad Hospital, which offers free reproductive health services.
With no other options, Zahra and her husband walked seven hours to reach the facility. Upon arriving, the staff rushed to treat Zahra’s malnutrition and safely delivered her baby.
In the face of Somalia’s prolonged drought and conflict, women and girls remain among the most vulnerable. Istahil was forced to undergo female genital mutilation at age 9 and then forced into child marriage at 14. She became pregnant when she was still a teenager. During the pregnancy, she didn’t receive adequate prenatal care, leading to a labor that lasted 3 days straight. At the end of her ordeal, Istahil delivered a stillborn baby and developed a fistula, which caused a constant leak of urine and feces that she could not control.
Obstetric fistula, which up to 13,337 women in Somalia suffer from, severed Istahil’s ties to her support system. Her husband left her and, with nowhere else to go, she moved to live with her sisters. Istahil was devastated – until a UNFPA mobile outreach team told her that her condition was treatable. UNFPA provided her with a life-changing fistula repair surgery, putting Istahil on the path to healing both physically and emotionally from her traumatic birth.
When Mumina underwent female genital mutilation (FGM) at seven years old, it was so engrained in her culture that she saw it as something that needed to be done to be like other girls. Tragically, the procedure left Mumina with life-long pain and caused her to endure prolonged labor and hemorrhaging during childbirth. Twice she lost babies due to complications associated with FGM — and she recounts the emotional pain from those losses to be worse than any physical pain that she has experienced.
Now, at age 34, Mumina is working with UNFPA to change the culture in her community and eradicate the harmful practice. Despite FGM being outlawed in Kenya for over a decade, 75% of girls continue to undergo the procedure by age 14. Mumina encourages community abandonment of the practice — the most effective way to keep girls safe. Collective abandonment prevents any single girl or family from facing alienation by going against tradition. Part of Mumina’s work to end FGM includes facilitating a forum for mothers who have endured FGM and their daughters — who, as a result of community engagement and changing attitudes — have been spared
Lutana is the only female chief of Parque das Tribos in Brazil — and when she became a leader, she knew that one of the things she needed to address was the epidemic of violence against women in her tribe. From 2016-2021, the rate of femicide — the intentional killing of women — increased by over 44% in Brazil. That’s one woman being killed every seven hours.
Lutana reached out to UNFPA to facilitate workshops for survivors of violence and create a safe space to have an open dialogue about the different forms of violence that women had experienced and how they were coping. The workshops then explored how to access local social support networks and legal protection mechanisms. Throughout the workshops, the change in the women who attended was evident. They regained their confidence and realized that enough was enough. Upon reflecting on the workshops, Lutana said: “We, as Indigenous people, are not afraid.”
Even from a young age, Alemtsehay always prioritized her education. But when she was 14, she and her family were forced to leave their home in Ethiopia due to violence. The family, struggling with displacement, saw no other option than to accept an offer of marriage from an older, wealthy man for Alemtsehay’s hand. Horrified, Alemtsehay refused the marriage proposal and insisted on staying in school. Her parents relented, but the older man refused to accept no for an answer.
The man moved closer to Alemtsehay and followed her to school. Fearing that she would be abducted, Alemtsehay ran away to stay with her older sister and enrolled in a new school. The man followed her to the new city. It was at the new school that Alemtsehay learned of a shelter run by UNFPA and was offered a space. She was terrified at first, but after realizing that she was safe from the man at the shelter, Alemtsehay finally relaxed and then, after receiving counseling and other reproductive health services, began to thrive. Alemtsehay stayed in the shelter for 4 years, remained at the top of her class, and now wants to attend university.
Like many rural villages in Sudan, Haleema’s was not well connected to basic public services, such as flour mills or water pumps. She and the other women and children of the village used to have to walk for miles to distant villages to reach flour mills – each long walk exposing them to immense danger. As the conflict in Sudan rages on, women like Haleema are at increased threat for sexual and physical violence. One neighbor of Haleema’s recounted being stopped by six men who demanded payment in exchange for passage. Still other women faced dangers so great that they had to run while carrying their heavy containers of flour. It was clear: the women of Sudan needed necessities that were closer to their homes. So that’s what UNFPA provided.
In 2023 UNFPA built a flour mill in Sudan near Haleema’s home, so the women and children of her community would no longer need to put themselves at risk of violence to eat. Currently, the mill is serving 30,000 people.
Heavily pregnant with twins, Fatima was jolted awake in the early hours of the morning to the sounds of gunfire and screams as violence escalated in her country of Syria. She and her youngest children fled for the river through a constant string of bullets. Once Fatima and her youngest children were safely across the river and living with a host family, she began to suffer from anxiety due to being separated from her husband, oldest son, parents, and doctor. Noticing her stress levels, the family hosting Fatima contacted a UNFPA mobile health team for assistance.
The UNFPA team conducted 3 visits to check on how Fatima was coping with her anxiety and how her pregnancy was progressing. On September 14, UNFPA’s mobile team transferred Fatima to a hospital where she delivered her twins via c-section. In 2023, over 850 pregnant women like Fatima in eastern Syria received safe birth services from UNFPA midwives.
When the first earthquake rocked through the Herat Province of Afghanistan on October 7, 20-year-old Hanifa’s house collapsed on her. Heavily pregnant and now displaced, Hanifa felt lost and hopeless. Then, just a week later, her contractions began. Hanifa was petrified until Rahna, a UNFPA midwife, appeared. Rahna guided Hanifa through the next six hours of intense labor, in which Hanifa’s blood pressure spiked dangerously high. Despite the complications and dangerous conditions, Rahna was able to deliver Hanifa’s baby safely. Recalling the moment the baby was born, Rahna said: “In the midst of disaster, we brought a glimmer of hope, and that’s a feeling I’ll carry with me forever.”
In the aftermath of the earthquakes, 1.6 million people were affected, including 7,000 pregnant women like Hanifa. Thanks to our supporters, we were able to jump into action immediately, reaching nearly 20,000 people with lifesaving care within just 10 days of the earthquakes. Today, we are operating 117 mobile health teams across Afghanistan.
Sondos, a 26-year-old heavily pregnant woman, was with a group of women and girls when she suddenly heard an explosion. Seconds later, she was buried under rubble. Her young daughter, Habiba, did not survive the blast. Sondos was rushed to a UNFPA hospital and underwent surgery for her severely injured legs and hands as well as an emergency cesarean section. Her newborn daughter, who she named Habiba after the child that she lost the same day, was rushed into intensive care.
In the latter half of 2023, there were more than 235 attacks on healthcare infrastructure in Gaza. The health care system is on its knees and the 73,000 pregnant women in the region are struggling to obtain care. UNFPA has been in Gaza since before the conflict began and has delivered more than half of the births in Gaza since the conflict began on October 7, 2023.
When Umm was 5 months pregnant, she and her family were forced to seek refuge in a remote displacement camp in southwest Yemen. After nearly a decade of brutal civil war in Yemen, as well as a drought exacerbated by climate change, millions of people like Umm have had to make the same choice. She had expected to find safety and peace when she entered the camp, but instead she found herself fighting for every drop of water and every morsel of food. It was while she was walking for hours to fetch water that Umma, malnourished, exhausted, and pregnant, suddenly collapsed.
She was taken to UNFPA’s Al-Sadaqa Hospital where the staff confirmed what she already knew: she had lost the baby. UNFPA treated Umm free of charge, but the loss continues to stay with her to this day. We’re working to urgently scale up our support in Yemen and continue treating women like Umm when the worst occurs – but also so we can treat pregnancy complications earlier.
When armed groups attacked Tantine’s village in the Democratic Republic of Congo, she and her family sought shelter in Rusayo’s displacement camp. She was one of an estimated 4,500 pregnant women in the camp at the time, all of whom lived in cramped, unsanitary conditions. Soon after arriving in the camp, Tantine traveled to a local health center for a prenatal check-up – but after waiting for several hours she was sent back without being seen because the clinic was so overwhelmed. Discouraged, Tantine returned back to the camp, but her luck soon changed when she heard of a UNFPA mobile clinic operating in the camp. Tantine was able to receive prenatal care and, when it came time to deliver, she returned to the mobile clinic.
Recalling the dangerous delivery, Marie, a midwife who assisted Tantine, said: “She arrived with heavy bleeding and the child’s heartbeat wasn’t perceptible. The signs of danger were obvious.” Acting fast, the medical team stabilized Tantine and put her in a UNFPA ambulance to Rusayo’s health center. There, she was treated by midwives and, after a long day of delivery, finally gave birth to a healthy baby.
In November, the USA for UNFPA community gathered at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to officially launch our Her. Now! campaign. We have set an goal to raise $100 million by 2030 to accelerate global reproductive health care and achieve UNFPA’s transformative results: ending the unmet need for family planning, ending preventable maternal deaths, and ending all forms of violence against women and girls.
At the core of our Her. Now! campaign is a commitment to uplift the voices, choices, and rights of women around the world. UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem, and USA for UNFPA Leadership Council member and advocate for change Luvvie Ajayi Jones both delivered powerful calls to action, underscoring the urgent need to step up for women and girls’ health and rights and be there for her, now, and achieve a safer, healthier, more equal future for us all.
Organon and UNFPA share a vision of a world where the health of women and girls is prioritized across their lifetime. Together, we are partnering to accelerate progress toward our goals and reduce unplanned pregnancies globally, with a particular focus on young people. The global collaboration includes programs in three key areas: innovation, access and education, and sustainability and financing.
Together, we are helping women realize that their autonomy, power and choice is crucial to addressing the 121 million unplanned pregnancies that occur worldwide each year. Doing so is not only foundational to building a healthier and more equitable world, but will help secure a more prosperous future for the next generation.
In September 2023, USA for UNFPA visited Jordan to see the impact of our support on the ground in one of the world’s top refugee host countries. We visited women, girls, and UNFPA staff at three sites: an urban clinic in Amman, the Zaatari Refugee Camp, and the Azraq Refugee Camp. Scroll to see some photos from the delegation as well as what our attendees had to say about the experience:
Thank you so much for standing with women and girls in 2023. Your support is a lifeline and provides critically needed sexual and reproductive health care in more than 150 countries around the world, including those facing dire humanitarian emergencies. You can continue providing lifesaving support in 2024 by renewing your gift today. Here are just some examples of what your gift could provide:
Deliver even more lifesaving care to those most in need in 2024 by becoming a monthly donor. Your monthly gift goes to women and girls wherever and whenever sexual and reproductive health care is needed most. Monthly gifts also decrease our administrative costs, meaning more of your gift is going directly to women and girls.
Monthly donors receive exclusive impact reports, event invites, opportunities to connect with global experts and women and girls, and get to see behind the scenes of the work they make possible.
When you include a gift for USA for UNFPA in your legacy plans, you lead the way for the health, dignity, and care for all women and girls worldwide for generations to come.
To learn more about including USA for UNFPA in your plans and joining our Mary D. Lindsay Legacy Society, click below or reach out to Sarah Weatherley, Major and Planned Giving Manager, at (646) 649-9108.
One of the best ways to support women and girls is to share your passion for lifesaving sexual and reproductive health care with your community. You can easily host your own fundraiser for women and girls with just the click of a button.