Sana’a, 14 January 2020 – UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund welcomed the generous contribution of US$25 million from the United Arab Emirates to scale up assistance to the most vulnerable women and girls with lifesaving reproductive health and protection services in Yemen.

The funding comes at a critical time as Yemen’s conflict has left the health, in particular reproductive health and protection systems on the verge of collapse with far reaching consequences on women and girls. Only one-third of the functioning health facilities provide reproductive health services; while the breakdown of protection systems has made women and girls more vulnerable to violence and abuse.

The funding enables UNFPA to improve access to reproductive health and protection services in the most vulnerable communities, helping to reach more than 2.5 million people within six months. It will help pregnant women or women with complicated pregnancies to deliver safely in the most hard-to-reach parts of Yemen, while protection services will be scaled up through the establishment of more safe spaces and specialized psychological care centres.

“In addition to the conflict-related hardships women and girls endure, their unique needs often go overlooked in times of crisis. We are extremely grateful to the United Arab Emirates for helping to ensure that hundreds of thousands of women will now have access to the reproductive healthcare and the protection services they urgently require,” stated Nestor Owomuhangi, UNFPA’s Acting Representative to Yemen.

UNFPA is the sole provider of lifesaving reproductive health medicines in Yemen and leads coordination and provision of protection services across the country. To keep reaching the most vulnerable women and girls, UNFPA is appealing for US$100.5 million in 2020.

***

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

For more information, please contact

Fahmia Al-Fotih: Tel: +967 712224016; al-fotih@unfpa.org        

Lankani Sikurajapathy: Tel. +94773411614; sikurajapathy@unfpa.org