Baghdad, Iraq; 30 October 2020 - The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) has contributed CAD 20 million in support of UNFPA’s humanitarian response focusing on life-saving assistance aimed at alleviating the suffering of women and girls across Iraq.

The three-year contribution will support UNFPA works in providing emergency obstetric care, and sexual and reproductive health services, in ensuring protection from and responding to gender-based violence and in providing health services, supplies and medication, dignity and reproductive health kits to women and girls affected by the crisis in Iraq.

Dr Oluremi Sogunro, UNFPA Representative to Iraq, thanked DFAT for their trust, saying: “We are grateful for Canada’s generosity. The needs of women and adolescent girls, especially in displacement camps, remain acute. With the new funding from Canada, UNFPA will expand its interventions aiming at meeting the reproductive health needs of women and girls as well as preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development has been a steady partner to UNFPA humanitarian intervention since 2015. With the current contribution, the total amount of CAD 54.9 million dedicated to UNFPA’s humanitarian initiatives in the field.

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UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, delivers a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled.

For more information or media inquiries, please contact: Salwa Moussa, Communications Specialist, smoussa@unfpa.org