UN POPULATION FUND WELCOMES RESTORATION OF UNITED STATES FUNDING IN 2000

Press Release
POP/748

UN POPULATION FUND WELCOMES RESTORATION OF UNITED STATES FUNDING IN 2000

NEW YORK, 23 November (UNFPA) -- The United States will resume its support for the United Nations Population Fund for fiscal year 2000, which began on 1 October. The UNFPA received no United States funds in fiscal year 1999. Under foreign assistance legislation approved last week, funding will be restored to the fiscal year 1998 level of $25 million.

The Fund's Executive Director, Dr. Nafis Sadik, today welcomed the news. "I am very pleased that the United States has rejoined the ranks of major UNFPA donors", she said. "The U.S. funds will help provide millions of women with reproductive health care, including family planning, thereby helping to reduce unwanted pregnancies, abortions, and deaths and injuries to countless mothers around the world."

“U.S. leadership has always been critical to the success of global efforts in the population field", Dr. Sadik continued. "The United States played a key role in the creation of the UNFPA 30 years ago, and was a central player in shaping the historic consensus at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. Through USAID, it is the largest bilateral supporter of reproductive health and population programmes. And the example set by the United States helps convince other governments to contribute to these programmes.”

The UNFPA's work is guided by the Cairo agreement, which called on governments to provide universal access to reproductive health care by 2015 as a global human rights imperative. The Conference recognized that meeting individual needs in this regard, enabling couples to choose the number and spacing of their children, would lead to smaller families and early stabilization of population growth.

The UNFPA is the largest internationally funded source of population assistance to developing countries. The Fund helps countries improve reproductive health and family planning services on the basis of individual choice, and to formulate population policies that support sustainable development and poverty eradication. The UNFPA is wholly funded by voluntary contributions.

For more information, please contact Alex Marshall, 212-297-5020, ; or William A. Ryan, 212-297-5279, ; Fax: 212-557-6416.

* *** *