Over the years, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund has led efforts to achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health, realize reproductive rights, and reduce maternal mortality in Liberia.

In January this year, UNFPA started its fifth Country Programme of support to Liberia. The Programme, which runs from 2020 to 2024, is supporting Liberia to ensure that adolescents and youth, including the marginalized, youth with disabilities and those furthest behind, have skills and knowledge. This enables them to claim and make informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health and rights and wellbeing; and women, adolescents and youth, especially marginalized and furthest behind, have improved access to quality gender responsive, comprehensive and integrated SRHRs information and services; including family planning and STIs/HIV including during humanitarian situation.

It is also aimed at ensuring that the national capacity is strengthened to advance gender equality, prevent and respond to gender based violence and harmful practices, and promote women and girls’ empowerment; as well as the national statistics system is enhanced to produce and use disaggregated population data to inform policy decision making and development programming.

As part of Sweden’s support to the UNFPA’s five years plan for Liberia, the Embassy of Sweden on Tuesday, 18 August 2020, announced the contribution of forty-three million Swedish Krona; approximately US$4.9 million United States over the next four and half years.

“We are of the utmost conviction that the programme will contribute to the realisation of specific human rights including the right to life and the right to health. It will also tackle discrimination, as well as effecting specific change such that women, adolescents and youth especially marginalized and furthest behind, have improved access to quality gender-responsive, comprehensive, and integrated SRHR information and services,” H. E.  Ingrid Wetterqvist, Swedish Ambassador to Liberia said during the signing ceremony in Monrovia.

“UNFPA is a strategic partner to Sweden, with capacity to achieve relevant results significant to the needs and conditions of women and girls in Liberia, especially the poorest women and girls in rural communities,” Ambassador Wetterqvist added.

In response, UNFPA Liberia Representative, Dr. Bannet Ndyanabangi said “access to quality sexual and reproductive health services and reproductive rights by all; especially women and girls is the core of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.” 

Dr. Ndyanabangi said that UNFPA would continue its evidence-based advocacy for an enabling policy and programme environment for women and young people to access sexual reproductive health information and services; including family planning; delivery of gender sensitive, age-appropriate and life skills based Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) for both in and out of school adolescents and young people.

“We will also ensure the continuous delivery of quality obstetric and newborn health care services and capacity building of institutions and harmonized community structures to deliver quality youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services as well as quality clinical and psychosocial support for survivors of sexual and gender based violence,’’ he added.