Denmark's political and financial support helps make progress on population and development needs

Denmark remains committed to supporting the well-being of women and girls worldwide. The Government of Denmark continues to prioritize core resources – also called “regular” – as its most efficient investment towards UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency. As we step into 2024 and mark 30 years since the International Conference on Population and Development, regular sources of funding are essential for UNFPA to deliver people-centred programmes and ensure that sexual and reproductive health and rights receive the attention and support they deserve.

Despite clear progress made since the 1994 Cairo Conference, funding for sexual and reproductive health and rights still lags behind other thematic development areas. Women's and girls’ needs are often overlooked in humanitarian crises, despite the fact that they continue to give birth and are at much greater risk of gender-based violence. Mothers are just one example of this conundrum: Bringing new life into the world can bring them dangerously close to death. According to the most recent data, approximately 800 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. This is about one woman every two minutes. In nearly all regions of the world, maternal deaths have either increased or stagnated since 2015. 

The year 2024 will be pivotal in taking stock of progress and shaping the future. Pushback against the ICPD agenda, and controversy around areas of UNFPA’s work where progress is yet to materialize, mean that strategic support from partners like Denmark will be crucial. More than ever our focus must centre on solutions – the implementation of which will suffer greatly without core funding. Regular resources are key to localization and ownership by local stakeholders, and for countries to address their own development.

Core resources are the bedrock of UNFPA’s operations. It is through these foundational funds that all other projects take life and enable UNFPA to address the most pressing needs. In Uganda, Denmark has been funding the Women Adolescents and Youth (WAY) programme, which sets up safe spaces where refugee women and girls have a chance to recover from trauma and abuse, receive counselling and rebuild their lives to also help other women in their community. In 2023 alone, the programme supported more than 3,600 refugee women and girls.

This is the true impact of core funding: The seed that propels impactful programming, a catalyst for life-saving interventions, a circle of positive change in communities. In 2022, Denmark’s overall funding helped avert more 620,000 unintended pregnancies and prevent some 1,445 maternal deaths around the world. 
 
Investing in core resources drives transformative change for women and girls, for which UNFPA greatly appreciates Denmark’s steadfast support.

For more information, read more here.