Baghdad, Iraq; 3 March 2019 – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) extends its gratitude to the Government and People of Japan for the generous contribution of US$ 1,339,285 to increase access to reproductive health services and strengthen the response to gender-based violence across Iraq.

While the country moves towards the reconstruction and resilience phase, the need for humanitarian assistance persists, and services established by UNFPA during the crisis need to be sustained in areas of internally displaced persons and returnees, and camps for refugees.

This new commitment will ensure increased access to emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC) as well as regular reproductive health services through the financing of 21 reproductive health clinics across the country. The contribution will also go towards providing survivor-centred case management and psychosocial support to gender-based violence survivors at the UNFPA-supported women centres, capacity-building of service providers as well as community mobilisation for gender-based violence prevention.

Expressing Japan’s commitment to providing necessary services to the vulnerable people, including women and children, H.E. Mr Naofumi Hashimoto, Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Iraq said: “Japan has recently decided a new assistance package for Iraq amounting to US$ 63 million, including this project as a contribution to the reproductive health and gender-based violence sectors. With this package, the total amount of Japan’s assistance to the people affected by the crisis reaches US$ 500 million.”

“A timely intervention is critical for preventing maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity,” said Dr Oluremi Sogunro, UNFPA Representative to Iraq, acknowledging the generous contribution from Japan. “This new funding will enable UNFPA to provide timely and quality response to the reproductive health needs and gender-based violence-related issues in six governorates across Iraq.”

The Government of Japan has been a key partner to UNFPA, contributing a total of US$ 10,552,085 million over four years in support of the Fund’s interventions and services to women and girls across Iraq.

As of 1 February 2019, UNFPA had only received 29 per cent of the required funding, a total of US$ 6.4 million out of the US$ 22 million required for its humanitarian interventions in the country targeting 700,000 individuals through reproductive health services and 400,000 persons with the gender-based violence response.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, delivers a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled

For more information or media inquiries please contact: Salwa Moussa, Communications Specialist, smoussa@unfpa.orgsmoussa@unfpa.org