Source: UNFPA
How do the many the different components of the UNFPA mandate contribute to poverty reduction? This publication analyzes this question in detail, looking at both the micro level (impacts on individuals and households) and the larger picture. The document concludes that the strength of UNFPA's contribution to poverty reduction resides in the complementarity of different interventions and the synergies by which population dynamics, gender equality and reproductive health work together to reduce poverty.

The object of this note is to review and assess the different ways in which the work at UNFPA contributes to poverty reduction and thus to the fulfillment of the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG). Its intended uses are: 1) To help Country Offices in arguing the potential role of UNFPA in poverty reduction, for the purpose of inter-agency processesi and UNFPA’s participation in national poverty reduction strategies (PRSs); 2) To clarify the role of UNFPA in this regard for the purpose of programme formulation; and 3) To shed some light on the assessment of poverty impacts of programmatic actions within the UNFPA mandate.

UNFPA is the only UN agency with a mandate for intervention in the area of population, implying that it is the agency best placed to address the many ways by which population dynamics and structure condition poverty at the macro level, as will be demonstrated later in this paper. In addition, it promotes several interventions which help to reduce poverty at the household level. Since the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, UNFPA’s work has been guided by the Programme of Action (PoA) adopted there. The close links between sustainable development, Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and gender equality affirmed in that Programme have guided UNFPA’s overall priorities. This triple institutional pivot constitutes the core of UNFPA’s current agenda.

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