Renewed partnership with Denmark supports flexible funding, humanitarian and family planning resources to achieve results for women and girls

UNITED NATIONS, New York – The Government of Denmark has signed a three-year multilateral partnership agreement to support UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, by providing core resources, humanitarian funding, and financial support to the UNFPA Supplies Partnership.  

Between 2023 and 2025, UNFPA will receive 1.2 billion Danish Kroner – $162 million – in funding. The contribution includes $92 million in core resources, $53 million for the UNFPA Supplies Partnership and $16 million for UNFPA’s humanitarian response. 

The agreement was signed today at UNICEF Headquarters in New York, where world leaders are currently gathering for the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly to make commitments to the world’s most pressing issues, with UNFPA shining the spotlight on women's and girls' health and rights. 

The new agreement will enable the UN sister agencies to carry out their missions with the greatest possible flexibility and predictability, in part thanks to the multi-year nature of Denmark’s commitment. 

The signing ceremony brought together UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem, the Minister for Development Cooperation of Denmark, Mr. Flemming Møller Mortensen, and the heads of the three other UN agencies. “The leadership and support from Denmark mean we can forge ahead to achieve our ‘three zeros’ and end unmet need for family planning, end preventable maternal deaths, and end gender-based violence by 2030,” said Dr. Kanem.

“More than 200 million women and adolescent girls still cannot readily access the contraceptives they want,” stressed UNFPA Executive Director. Denmark’s funding will help fill the gap. “Sexual and reproductive health and rights are the foundation upon which women’s full participation in their societies is built," Dr. Kanem added. “This funding will help strengthen that foundation so that women and girls, and their societies, thrive and prosper.” 

Mr. Flemming Møller Mortensen underscored the particular focus on the most vulnerable places and peoples that Denmark puts at the centre of its Strategy for Development Cooperation: “The world needs a strong UN,” he said. “We appreciate the role which each of the four agencies and entities of the UN development system here today play, as well as your efforts to achieve greater cross-cutting coherence.”

Dr. Kanem acknowledged Denmark’s long-standing political and financial support to UNFPA and its commitment to the rights and futures of women and girls. Between 2018 and 2021, Denmark’s overall funding supported UNFPA’s efforts to avert 4.4 million unintended pregnancies and 1.3 million unsafe abortions, and to reach over 7.2 million women and girls with reproductive health services.