UNFPA 2011 achievements: thin gruel

By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D. | January 10, 2012

UNFPA just put up a (very short) webpage listing their accomplishments last year. They include releasing three reports (their annual report, a world population report, and one on midwifery), and hosting a conference on family planning. Other achievements are vague, including “increasing global media coverage of safe motherhood and MDG 5,” and “working with partners” to “address reproductive health.” The highest recognition it got, according to its own account, is that it was involved in some of the activities listed on an NGO website as “maternal health highlights.”

This is an exteremely poor return on the some $870 million investment (2010 figures) countries make annually to the agency. As Wendy Wright reported in this week’s Friday Fax, UNFPA and UNICEF were just found to be sitting on $3.2 billion according to an independent report. They have refused to release figures to auditors about salaries and expenses. By any measure, a conference and three reports is lackluster annual performance for any organization of UNFPA’s size and budget.

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