The government of the United Kingdom is a longstanding partner of UNFPA and a leading donor, supporting women and girls and those left furthest behind.
In 2023, the UK remained the biggest contributor to the UNFPA Supplies Partnership, the world’s largest procurer of donated contraceptives. The programme also provides critical maternal health medicine in many of the world’s lowest income countries – where maternal death rates are high and modern contraceptive use is low. Support for this programme also helps the UK deliver on its commitment to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children by 2030.
The UK’s vision for gender equality includes enabling girls to live free from violence, and empowering them to have access to universal sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services. The country’s support for key UNFPA programmes aimed at ending child marriage and eliminating harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation, is crucial to achieving gender equality and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
As one of UNFPA’s top five humanitarian donors in 2023, UK contributions provided life-saving aid, sexual and reproductive health services, and gender-based violence protection services to the most vulnerable women and girls, in places such as Afghanistan, Somalia and Ukraine.
Support from the United Kingdom goes to programmes throughout Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. The UK is a key ally in promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights globally, and in supporting UNFPA’s normative work and operations in more than 150 countries.
