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Rabat – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) intends to observe the 45th anniversary of its presence in Morocco on Friday, July 16.
The UNFPA is an agency within the United Nations that works with the government and partners to advocate for adolescents and youth’s rights and investments, including education, livelihood skills and health, including sexual and reproductive health.
The UN established the fund in 1969, following the declaration that “parents have the exclusive right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.”
According to the UNFPA website, the organization’s mission is to “deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.”
Some of the focus areas of the UNFPA team within Morocco include gender-based violence, teenage pregnancy, reducing maternal and infant mortality, improving and promoting access to family planning services, information and education on sexual and reproductive health for adolescents, frontlining the fight against HIV/AIDS, and even the development of technology for early detection of reproductive cancers.
In late June, coinciding with the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs’ visit to Rabat, the Kingdom of Denmark contributed approximately $4 million to UNFPA Morocco to kickstart the ACCESS Project. The stated goals of the project are to “ensure the continuity of essential primary health care services and the strengthening of prevention and hygiene measures against the COVID-19 pandemic”.
The project will also contribute to the sustaining of essential services, the management of gender-based violence, and promoting economic empowerment of women.
The UNFPA highlights the progress made within Morocco over the last four decades, but still recognizes the opportunities for improvement that are still present, especially the limited access to sexual and reproductive health services, and the high prevalence of gender-based violence.
