UNFPA Continues to Garner Support in a Challenging Aid Environment
Despite worldwide economic challenges and a competitive aid environment, total revenue for UNFPA in 2011 reached a record $934 million.
This amount includes $450.7 million in voluntary donor contributions to UNFPA’s unearmarked funding and $38.7 million in other revenue, which supports UNFPA programmes in developing countries and is also used for administration and management, and $444.7 million in funds earmarked for trust funds and special initiatives administered by UNFPA.
Included in revenue totals for 2011 are $4.9 million from foundations, $822,629 from corporations, $221,877 from non-governmental organizations or academic institutions, $52,746 from Americans for UNFPA and $68,496 from individuals.
Meanwhile, significant new partnerships and support from the private sector were announced in 2011 including a commitment by Johnson & Johnson to provide $4 million over four years to the ‘Health 4+’ group of organizations (UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNICEF, the World Bank and the World Health Organization) for a joint effort to build human resources in the health sectors of developing countries, starting with Tanzania.
Private sector partners also made in-kind contributions to UNFPA in 2011, including 100,000 packages of sanitary napkins donated for the ‘dignity kits’ that UNFPA distributed to women and girls affected by the conflict in Libya. In addition, a number of corporations, such as SAP and IBM, contributed staff resources and technical assistance to support the 7 Billion Actions campaign.
Expenditures
From its regular resources in 2011, UNFPA spent $358.6 million on projects in developing countries. This amount includes $306.9 million on country and regional programmes and $51.7 million on global programmes. From its earmarked funds, UNFPA spent an additional $327.9 million on programmes in developing countries.
Nearly half of UNFPA’s expenditures from regular resources in 2011 supported programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. About 44 per cent of regular resources were allocated towards initiatives that improve, strengthen or increase access to reproductive health.
Management highlights
In late 2011, UNFPA began implementing its new Business Plan, which aims at sharpening its focus on the most urgent needs at the country level. The Business Plan reinforces recommendations stemming from the organization’s Mid-term Strategic Review earlier in the year.
Among UNFPA’s actions to improve accountability in 2011 was the establishment of an internal audit monitoring committee to ensure urgent implementation of recommendations by the United Nations Board of Auditors and by UNFPA’s Internal Audit.
In response to the Mid-term Strategic Review, UNFPA established a new framework for results-based management and provided guidance for staff to make operations, programmes and administration more effective and to document achievements to make the organization more accountable to people and donors alike.
UNFPA increased its humanitarian response capacity in 2011 through training for 872 staff or representatives of partner organizations. UNFPA provided humanitarian services in 15 countries last year.
