United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA)
OFFICE IN SOUTH AFRICA
UNFPA
PO Box 6541
Pretoria 0001
tel: 27 12 338 5289
fax: 27 12 320 4355
http://www.un.org.za
jparsons@un.org.za
HISTORY AND PRESENT STATUS
UN General Assembly resolution 2211 (XXI) (1966)
called upon organisations of the UN system to provide
assistance in the field of population. Accordingly
the Secretary-General set up the UN Trust Fund for
Population Activities in 1967. GA res. 42/430 (1987)
renamed the Fund as the United Nations Population
Fund.
GA res. 48/162 (1993) transformed the governing
body of UNDP/UNFPA into the UNDP/UNFPA Executive
Board, to provide intergovernmental support to and
supervision of the Fund in accordance with the overall
policy guidance of the Assembly and ECOSOC.
UNFPA's Mission Statement endorsed by Executive
Board decision 96/28 (1996) states, in part, that
UNFPA extends assistance to developing countries,
countries with economies in transition and other
countries, at their request, to help them address
reproductive health and population issues, and raises
awareness of these issues in all countries. Its
three main areas of work are:
To help ensure universal access to reproductive
health, including family planning, gender issues,
sexual and reproductive rights, and sexual health
to all couples and individuals on or before the
year 2015. That is, to help Governments strengthen
the basic health-care systems that are essential
for the effective delivery of reproductive health
services.
To support population and development strategies
that enable capacity-building in population programming.
To promote awareness of population and development
issues and to advocate for the mobilisation of the
resources and political will necessary to accomplish
its areas of work.
OTHER DEPARTMENTS AND COOPERATING ORGANISATIONS
Department of Welfare
GENERAL COMMENTS
There is no membership per se. The Executive Board
for UNFPA is the same body as the Executive Board
of the UNDP of which South Africa is currently a
member (1998 - 2000). The Executive Board has 36
members.
The UNFPA's four-year country programme for 1998-2001
for South Africa has a budget of US$6 million for
reproductive health programmes, while it receives
an additional US$3 million from the United Kingdom's
DIFID for Reproductive Health Programmes in Northern
Province. Of this total of US$9 million, US$1.5
million and US$1 million from each facet of its
budget, will be spent during 1999.
The UNFPA, as implementing agency of decisions
of the UN Commission for Population and Development,
works closely with the National Population Unit
(NPU) of the Department of Welfare in providing
advice, and with formulation and implementation
of South Africa's population programme. In addition
the UNFPA is providing advice to the National Population
Unit in its work regarding censuses and sample surveys
of population trends.
At the request of the former Minister for Welfare
and Population Development, Ms Fraser-Moleketi,
UNFPA has devoted the largest portion of its financial
resources disbursed in terms of its first Country
Programme (1998-2001) to strengthening the capacity
of the National Population Unit (NPU) to facilitate
