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Elena and her teenage daughter Tatiana fled the war in Odessa, Ukraine to seek shelter in Chișinău, Moldova. To this day, more than 3 million Ukrainians have crossed borders into neighboring countries. Like Elena and Tatiana, most of them are women and children who left their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons behind. on how is taking action to respond to their needs. UNFPA’s priority now is to safeguard the health and rights of women and girls, including to give birth safely and to live free from violence and abuse. #Withrefugees

Internally displaced persons rely on mobile health teams deployed by to remote areas of Afghanistan, where health services have been severely disrupted. Even before recent upheavals, Afghanistan had one of the  maternal mortality rates in the Asia and Pacific region at 638 deaths per 100,000 live births. Without additional funding, this number could soar to 963 deaths between now and 2025. In its , UNFPA seeks to raise $251.9 million to continue and expand services to address the reproductive health needs of 9.3 million Afghans.

has operated programmes in Ukraine since 1997 and in the Republic of Moldova since 1995. In addition to providing technical and programme advisory services to the neighbouring countries to the Ukraine that are receiving refugees, the agency is working to bring reproductive health equipment and supplies and mobile health teams providing sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services to Ukraine. It continues to operate 10 shelters, eight crisis rooms and a support hotline for gender-based violence survivors.

At the Starobilsk Multidisciplinary Hospital in Luhansk, women are giving birth in the basement with artillery shelling nearby. This woman had a baby boy on a day the hospital issued three bomb alerts. There are an estimated 265,000 pregnant women in Ukraine, 80,000 of whom will deliver in the next three months.  remains on the ground and is preparing to increase operational capacity to deliver life-saving sexual and reproductive health services and supplies. 

In the days since Russia launched a military offensive in Ukraine, the world has seen the photographs of women giving birth in underground metro stations and newborns hastily being moved to makeshift bomb shelters as health facilities become inaccessible or too damaged to function. An estimated 80,000 women will give birth in the next three months in Ukraine – many of them without access to critical maternal health care. remains on the ground and is preparing to increase operational capacity to deliver life-saving sexual and reproductive health services and supplies. 

In Yemen, people are living through the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. 20.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance or protection. Expectant mothers are particularly vulnerable as they face life threatening shortages for maternal health services.

Child marriage is a human rights violation that often ensnares the most vulnerable, impoverished and marginalized girls. But it is also calamitous for communities and societies, locking child brides and their families in a cycle of poverty lasting generations. Ending child marriage – enabling girls to complete their educations, postpone motherhood, find gainful employment and fulfil their potential – could generate billions of dollars in earnings and productivity,  finds. This Valentine’s Day, as in previous years, calls on the world to end  and brings your attention to these .

As part of ’s , women in the internally displaced persons camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, learn about the harmful effects of female genital mutilation (FGM).

The initiative aims to eliminate the degrading and hazardous practice of manual cleaning of public sewer systems and help the women employed gain financial independence. 

The Youth Leadership School for young people of African descent in the Latin America and Caribbean region seeks to strengthen young people’s technical and entrepreneurial skills. Around the world, people are finding new ways to remove the barriers to fundamental rights. By blending tech solutions with the wisdom and knowledge of UNFPA’s network of partners, these innovations are changing lives, at scale. is partnering with innovators to accelerate progress for women and girls. More in this .

If 2020 was defined by the pandemic, was to be the year of the vaccine. Yet, the promise of a world returning to normal remains beyond reach – and for some entirely elusive. With the close of another year, an uncertain one beckons. Still, these seemingly insurmountable challenges were stared down by health workers, humanitarians, families and survivors. Pictured is a mother with her baby at a UNFPA-supported health facility in Venezuela. To help remind us of the everyday but extraordinary heroism shown by those working to secure the health and rights of their community, you can see more of .

The Internet can be a hateful, hostile place, particularly for women, girls, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities, who are more likely to have their images abused online. Online misogyny and violence is a widespread human rights violation. This is why is launching bodyright, a brand new “copyright” for the human body. It demands that images of our bodies are given the same respect and protection online as copyright gives to music, film and even corporate logos. Claim your bodyright...and let’s end online violence.

Just as gender-based violence takes on many insidious forms, so does digital gender-based violence: image-based abuse aka non-consensual sharing of intimate images or “revenge porn”, cyberstalking, online harassment, sextortion, online trafficking, doxxing. The perpetrator could be a stranger on another continent or someone next door targeting sexuality against her. Marginalized groups, including people with disabilities and LGBTQI individuals, may be even more vulnerable. presents the stories of survivors during the .

Yemen lays tragic claim to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and aid operation. Two-thirds of the population, or 20.7 million people, need humanitarian assistance in 2021. Multiple emergencies have pummeled the country: violent conflict, an economic blockade, currency collapse, flooding and the COVID-19 pandemic in a country where only half of health facilities are operational. One woman dies every two hours during childbirth, an almost entirely preventable tragedy. More than a million pregnant and breastfeeding women are already acutely malnourished.

Désir Murielle gave birth to her son, Yves, in a tent on the grounds of Hôpital de Référence Communautaire de l’Asile, which was damaged in the 7.2-magnitude earthquake of 14 August. The hospital is one of 18 damaged or destroyed health facilities receiving support from to continue offering reproductive health services in the area most affected by the disaster. Next month, with the support of the Ministry of Health, UNFPA will deploy a fully-fledged mobile emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC) unit to handle deliveries and obstetric complications.