Statement
Statement by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem
22 December 2023
As we reflect on the challenging year that has passed, we are reminded of the peace that is missing in our world – the fervent wish of the millions of women and girls UNFPA serves.
In 2023, conflicts and natural disasters devastated the lives of people around the world: Millions have been displaced from their homes, cut off from the communities that nurtured them and the services that safeguarded their well-being.
Even as rockets fell and the earth shook and climate impacts continued to be felt, women and girls in humanitarian contexts continued to give birth, to require sexual and reproductive health services, and to seek safety from gender-based violence in their homes and communities. Through it all, UNFPA stood by their side, providing essential services, protecting dignity and rights, saving lives and restoring hope.
Our rapid actions in 50 countries hit by crises meant that over 10 million people received lifesaving reproductive health services.
Women and children pay the steepest price in conflicts. In Gaza, about two-thirds of all the thousands of people killed are women and children, and some 180 women give birth each day under appalling conditions. There, we are distributing reproductive health and dignity kits to support a health system beyond breaking point and ensure that women have essential supplies to meet their most basic needs. In Sudan, we are running mobile clinics and deployed a network of midwives to support women in rural areas. In Ukraine, mobile teams are providing psychosocial support to people in need in hard-to-reach areas of the country.
From Bangladesh and Ethiopia to Yemen and beyond, over 3,600 health facilities were supported to provide life-saving care. More than 4.2 million more people found safety and protection from gender-based violence. Women and girls sought physical and emotional refuge in 1,700 safe spaces.
Tragically, there continue to be horrific reports of gender-based violence in conflicts. This includes numerous accounts of sexual violence during the brutal attacks by Hamas on Israel on 7 October. It also includes accounts of conflict-related sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Sudan.
UNFPA denounces once again in the strongest possible terms all acts of violence against women and girls, including sexual violence, whenever and wherever they occur. All such acts must be vigorously investigated and prosecuted.
Each day, UNFPA is dedicated to ensuring that women can give birth safely, access family planning services, and receive hygiene supplies to maintain their dignity. We offer safe spaces for women and girls at risk of gender-based violence, and medical and psychosocial support for violence survivors.
In launching its 2024 Humanitarian Action Overview, UNFPA is appealing for $1.2 billion dollars to reach 48 million people across 58 countries with such lifesaving and life-changing support – and to provide hope that there will be a better tomorrow.
