About UNFPA

New Directions: To Better Serve

The mission of UNFPA is to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.

The blueprint for achieving this is the ICPD Programme of Action. UNFPA encourages and supports countries around the world to implement this programme as part of a wider strategy to meet all of the MDG goals, in particular MDG 5 (improving maternal health) and MDG 3 (promoting gender equality and women's empowerment).

Changing in response to a changing world

A new aid environment, UN reform, and the urgency of the development challenges ahead are pushing UNFPA to realize the ICPD vision by working more closely with governments and better coordinating our efforts with our partners. These changes are being undertaken not for the sake of change but for the benefit of the people we serve.

We have to become more focused, strategic and systematic in order to achieve greater results across the board. At the same time, we have to be flexible and innovative enough to respond to national and regional priorities and emerging needs in three our focus areas: population and development, reproductive health and rights, and gender equality.

A new Strategic Plan

For these reasons, UNFPA has implemented a new Strategic Plan to guide UNFPA through 2011 in all aspects of work at all levels. The plan's title, "Accelerating Progress and National Ownership of the ICPD Programme of Action," describes its thrust. The plan has all the components to ensure effectiveness and efficiency, including development and management results frameworks, financial resources framework, national capacity development strategies, results-based budgeting, and an accountability framework.

Reorganization

To further strengthen its capacity to deliver quality and timely assistance to the field, UNFPA has also embarked on a major reorganization.  Key features of the reorganization include a significant shift of resources from headquarters to the country and regional levels, and the provision of integrated  programmatic and technical support. more

Interlinked programming at the global, regional and country levels

UNFPA global, regional and country programmes are the means to operationalize the Strategic Plan and support countries. The programmes also aim to mobilize resources and motivate partners to build national capacity in support of the ICPD agenda. The programmes are interlinked and complement each other. At the same time they operate in different environments and address the issues specific to those environments.

Through all its programmes and activities UNFPA aims to impact the national development outcomes and bring the positive change in lives of people to whom it serves.

Official Documentation
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DP/FPA/2007/17 Strategic plan, 2008-2011
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DP/FPA/2007/19 Global and regional programme, 2008-2011
DP/FPA/2007/16 Review of the organizational structure of UNFPA
DP/FPA/2007/16/Corr.1 Review of the organizational structure of UNFPA
DP/FPA/2007/18 Review of the system for the allocation of UNFPA resources to country programmes
DP/FPA/2007/20 UNFPA accountability framework
DP/FPA/2008/1 UNFPA Results-based Biennial Support Budget
A/56/30 United Nations Code of Conduct for International Civil Servants (2001)
Annex II of the General Assembly document (A/56/30)

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