11 Facts About UNFPA

UNFPA is the world's largest multilateral source of funding for population and reproductive health programs.

UNFPA uses a human rights-based approach in programming to address three "transformative goals":.

UNFPA has been accused by groups opposed to abortion of providing support for government programs which have promoted forced abortions and coercive sterilizations.

UNFPA says it "does not provide support for abortion services".

UNFPA provided aid to Peru's reproductive health program in the mid-to-late 1990s.

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When it was discovered a Peruvian program had been engaged in carrying out coercive sterilizations, UNFPA called for reforms and protocols to protect the rights of women seeking assistance.

UNFPA continued work with the country after the abuses had become public to help end the abuses and reform laws and practices.

From 2002 through 2008, the Bush Administration denied funding to UNFPA that had already been allocated by the US Congress, on the grounds that the UNFPA supported Chinese government programs which include forced abortions and coercive sterilizations.

Notion that UNFPA had any connection to China's administration of forced abortions was deemed to be unsubstantiated by investigations carried out by various US, UK, and UN teams sent to examine UNFPA activities in China.

However, according to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, the UNFPA contributed vehicles and computers to the Chinese to carry out their population planning policies.

Dr Nafis Sadik, former director of UNFPA, said her agency had been pivotal in reversing China's coercive population planning methods, but a 2005 report by Amnesty International and a separate report by the United States State Department found that coercive techniques were still regularly employed by the Chinese, casting doubt upon Sadik's statements.