The United States has cut 377 million dollars worth of funding to the UN reproductive and sexual health agency, UNFPA, leading to potentially “devasting impacts”, on women and girls.
UNFPA stated on Friday that the cuts would end lifesaving support for women and girls.
“UNFPA was informed on Wednesday that nearly all of our grants (48 as of now) with USAID and the U.S. State Department have been terminated.
“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.”
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 work to end maternal death, safely deliver babies and address horrific violence faced by women and girls in places like Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine.
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 organisations since late January, leaving millions in jeopardy, including those benefiting from critical services and supplies provided by UN agencies like UNAIDS and UNFPA.
UNFPA had been defunded several times by previous U.S. administrations under the accusation that it supported coercive abortion or forced sterilisation, 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 organisations, foundations, the private sector and individuals.
