Largest ever: UNFPA launches 1.2 billion humanitarian appeal as crises prove devastating for women and girls’ health and rights

New York, 13 December 2022 – UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, has outlined record-breaking funding needs to respond to women and girls facing crisis around the world. The agency has appealed for $1.2 billion to provide life-saving reproductive health and protection services to 66 million of the world’s most vulnerable women, girls and young people in 65 countries in 2023. This includes $289 million in Afghanistan, $70 million in Ukraine, $62 million in Somalia, and $23 million in Haiti.

Humanitarian needs soared to shockingly high levels in 2022. For the first time ever, the number of people forcibly displaced surpassed 100 million. Lethal droughts and floods wreaked havoc from Pakistan to the Horn of Africa. The Russian invasion of Ukraine forced millions from their homes, and exacerbated food insecurity in countries including Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, and Yemen. Conflict and instability continued in the Democratic Republic of Congo, northern Ethiopia, Haiti, and beyond.

Whole communities have borne the brunt of these crises, but as is often the case, women and girls are paying an unacceptably high price.

“UNFPA calls on the international community to ensure that life-saving services critical to women and girls' health, safety, dignity and future are at the heart of every humanitarian response. We must continue providing lifelines, restore hope and keep moving forward. We depend on the strong financial and political support of our partners, because women and girls depend on us.”

The 2023 Humanitarian Action Overview highlights how UNFPA and partners will scale up the delivery of integrated reproductive health services – maternal health/emergency obstetric care, family planning and gender-based violence prevention and response, including medical and psychosocial support – to respond to the immediate needs of 66 million women, girls and young people in emergencies around the world.

In 2022, UNFPA and partners, including women-led civil society organizations, delivered life-saving assistance to more than 30 million women, girls and young people. This includes:

• 2 million women, girls and young people received gender-based violence prevention and response services in 46 countries.
• 1.4 million pregnant women were assisted to deliver safely at UNFPA-supported facilities in 29 countries.
• 1,000 safe spaces were supported in 42 countries.
• Half a million Dignity Kits were distributed to women and girls in 42 countries.
• More than 42,000 health care workers received training on the minimum initial service package for reproductive health in emergencies, including the clinical management of rape.

UNFPA is grateful to all of its partners for their financial contributions to safeguard the rights of women and girls in humanitarian settings and give them hope for the future.

As the world is faced with multiple, intersecting crises, UNFPA calls for predictable and flexible humanitarian funding to save lives and ensure that the rights and needs of women and girls are protected and fulfilled.

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For more information

• For international media and interview enquiries, please contact: Eddie Wright; ewright@unfpa.org;  +1 917 831 2074.
• Humanitarian Action 2023 Overview video summary can be found here
• Humanitarian Action 2023 Overview report can be found here
• Photos can be found here
• B-roll footage can be found here (link to be updated soon)