News

Speaking out for sexual and reproductive health and rights in Egypt

calendar_today28 July 2022

Members of a UNFPA-supported youth club in Egypt perform in an awareness-raising session on sexual and reproductive rights and health. © UNFPA Egypt
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Updates

Japan and UNFPA partner to support maternal health in Palestine

calendar_today30 June 2022

UNFPA and Japan join forces to improve maternal health in Palestine and provide assistance to women in need. © UNFPA Palestine
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News

With emergency obstetric care elusive, pregnant women in Yemen face tragic consequences

calendar_today15 June 2022

A pregnant woman in an internally displaced persons camp in Aden Governorate, Yemen. Because of funding cuts, UNFPA – the leading provider of reproductive health services in the country – has had to scale back operations by 25 per cent so far this year. Of the 1.3 million women who will give birth in 2022, an estimated 195,000 will develop complications requiring life-saving medical assistance. © UNFPA Yemen
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News story

Women take the lead with new counselling and support centre in Palestine

calendar_today02 June 2022

A meeting is held at the newly established women-run centre in Issawiyah, Jerusalem. Image courtesy of PCC.
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Publication date

Mar 2022

Author

UNFPA Regional Humanitarian Hub for Syria and the Arab States

Resources

Regional Situation Report for Syria Crisis #115 – March 2022

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Publication date

May 2022

Author

UNFPA Arab States

Resources

Syria Crisis: Overview of Funding Needs 2022

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Publication date

Apr 2022

Author

UNFPA Yemen

Resources

UNFPA Response in Yemen Situation Report #1 – January-March 2022

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News

War in Ukraine shocks global food supply, putting lives at risk

calendar_today27 April 2022

A young mother and her baby are weighed before being examined for malnutrition at UNFPA-supported Marib General hospital in Yemen, a country that relies heavily on food imports. Skyrocketing food prices have increased the number of people in need of food assistance from 16.2 million in 2021 to 19 million people in 2022. © UN/Giles Clarke
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Slideshow

Yemen on the brink: Portrait of a humanitarian crisis

calendar_today11 March 2022

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In December 2021, Yemen took on a grim distinction: For the third year in a row, it was the country that needed the most humanitarian funding support in the world. Of the 20.7 million people needing assistance or protection, 12 million are in acute need. Though last year’s $100 million humanitarian appeal was only half funded, UNFPA reached nearly 2.8 million people with reproductive health services, protection information and services and emergency relief, supporting 127 health care facilities, 1,500 reproductive health workers, 51 safe spaces, nine shelters and eight mental health centres. This month, without additional funding, 63 of those health facilities and a third of the safe spaces, shelters and specialized facilities for gender-based survivors will be forced to shut, leaving nearly 1.3 million women without access to reproductive health care and protection and psychosocial support.

Top: A displaced girl inside her temporary shelter at an internally displaced persons camp in Marib, Yemen. © UN/Giles Clarke

Faisal and Fatima Saad and their children have lived in their tent in Al Turbah since fleeing Taiz City in 2015. “We left because of the bombings, missiles, tanks, mines,” said Faisal. “Sometimes I washed cars. We were basically scavengers in Taiz, but it worked.”  

They are among some 1,000 families, or about 6,000 people, at this internally displaced persons camp. “The cold is the biggest problem here, and we don't have clean water,” Fatima said. “There's no medicine, no cash. Some days we have food and sometimes we don't.”  © UN/Giles Clarke

Married at 15, Rima* suffered abuse at the hands of her husband, who beat and kept her chained to a wall in their home. Now 17, she is getting help at a UNFPA-supported mental health centre. “I want to go back to studying. I want to have a future,” she said. “I want to be a doctor. And I want to be a cop so I can take my husband to court.” Of Yemen’s 4 million child brides, 1.4 million were married before age 15. © UN/Giles Clarke

*Name changed for privacy and protection.

A young girl fetches water at an internally displaced persons settlement in Marib, Yemen. Of the 48 active front lines in the country, the Marib front lines are most concerning. Since the start of 2022, more than 50,000 people have been displaced from Marib. With an estimated 4 million internally displaced people – 73 per cent of whom are women and children – Yemen is the fourth largest displacement crisis in the world. © UN/Giles Clarke

Painted circles keep displaced Yemeni women socially distanced as they collect emergency relief items including food, family hygiene supplies and female dignity kits distributed as part of the UN Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM). UNFPA, which leads such rapid response efforts including those of UNICEF and the World Food Programme, distributed 62,701 kits last year, reaching 434,497 people. © UN/Giles Clarke

Women sew clothes​​ at a UNFPA-supported women and girls safe space in Al Turbah that they can sell. One of 51 safe spaces that UNFPA supports, it provides livelihood skills training among a range of gender-based violence services to women in the area or who have been displaced. © UN/Giles Clarke

Halima*, 30, was displaced within Taiz when her neighbourhood came under fire in 2015. She, her husband and three children fled south to another village, where she became the main breadwinner selling perfume at the market. Though she works 11 hours a day, she can barely afford the $60 monthly rent and has borrowed $1,000 that she worries about repaying. “My children dream of eating eggs,” she said. “All we have is bread.”

Her unemployed husband physically and verbally abuses her. “I stay only for the sake of my children,” she said. Sometimes, as her husband attacks her, she’ll hear her youngest daughter shouting, “Don’t touch mum, don’t beat mum!” Halima is currently receiving psychosocial support at a UNFPA-supported women and girls safe space. © UN/Giles Clarke

*Name changed for privacy and protection

A woman with her baby inside her temporary shelter at the internally displaced persons settlement in Al Turbah. From January - December 2021, UNFPA supported 151,115 safe deliveries, including 17,764 Caesarean sections across 21 governorates in Yemen. The agency reached a total of 1,584,175 women with reproductive health services. UNFPA is the sole provider of reproductive health medicines in the country. © UN/Giles Clarke

Ten-year-old Khadija Mohommad carries wood back to the family’s temporary shelter at Shaab internally displaced persons settlement on the outskirts of Aden. She has a painful blood disorder, but the family cannot afford medical treatment. “I want to feel better and do more to help my mother,” said Khadija, whose family fled Al Hudaydah after conflict erupted close to their home. © UN/Giles Clarke

News story

Free maternal services are a lifeline to expectant mothers in Yemen

calendar_today24 March 2022

A midwife hands Saba her newborn son. Saba lost two earlier pregnancies because of a lack of obstetric care in a country where only half of health facilities are operational and only two out of 10 functional health facilities provide maternal and child health services. © UNFPA Yemen
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