UNFPA'S MISSION STATEMENT

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, extends assistance to developing countries, countries with economies in transition and other countries at their request to help them address reproductive health and population issues, and raises awareness of these issues in all countries, as it has since its inception.

UNFPA's three main areas of work are: to help ensure universal access to reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health, to all couples and individuals on or before the year 2015; to support population and development strategies that enable capacity-building in population programming; to promote awareness of population and development issues and to advocate for the mobilization of the resources and political will necessary to accomplish its areas of work.

UNFPA is guided by, and promotes, the principles of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (1994). In particular, UNFPA affirms its commitment to reproductive rights, gender equality and male responsibility, and to the autonomy and empowerment of women everywhere. UNFPA believes that safeguarding and promoting these rights, and promoting the well-being of children, especially girl children, are development goals in themselves. All couples and individuals have the right to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children as well as the right to the information and means to do so.

UNFPA is convinced that meeting these goals will contribute to improving the quality of life and to the universally accepted aim of stabilizing world population. We also believe that these goals are an integral part of all efforts to achieve sustained and sustainable social and economic development that meets human needs, ensures well-being and protects the natural resources on which all life depends.

UNFPA recognizes that all human rights, including the right to development, are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated, as expressed in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Vienna Declaration and the Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights, the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development, the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women and in other internationally agreed instruments.

UNFPA, as the lead United Nations organization for the follow-up and implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, is fully committed to working in partnership with governments, all parts of the United Nations system, development banks, bilateral aid agencies, non-governmental organizations and civil society. UNFPA strongly supports the United Nations Resident Coordinator system and the implementation of all relevant United Nations decisions.

UNFPA will assist in the mobilization of resources from both developed and developing countries, following the commitments made by all countries in the Programme of Action to ensure that the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development are met.