In Yemen's critical healthcare crisis, The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and KfW are enhancing services by training 243 healthcare workers, empowering them to provide life-saving care amidst significant resource challenges.

After months of being repeatedly displaced around Gaza, Malak, 22, faced an uncertain three hour drive to reach the hospital when she went into labor.

If you ask people how they would define comprehensive sexuality education, you’ll probably get a range of responses, possibly peppered with misinformation and confusion. Here are the facts: Comprehensive sexuality education is a process of teaching the emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality, with a goal of helping children stay safe and prepare for the future. It leads to fewer pregnancies, less disease and less abuse. It teaches young people about human development, reproduction and healthy relationships, and about how to recognize abuse, resist peer pressure and understand consent. It saves lives.

Pictured are young people at the Kibirizi youth space in Rwanda’s Rubengera sector.

Hear Esther* tell her terrifying story and see how UNFPA—the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency—is supporting the care she's receiving.

The WHO report underscores the staggering impact of alcohol and drug use, with 2.6 million deaths annually from alcohol, emphasizing urgent global action to address substance use disorders and their devastating health and social consequences.

Sexual violence and conflict in Sudan: A war on the bodies of women and girls

Aisha*, a 17-year-old from Khartoum, faced unimaginable hardship after losing both her parents last year. Isolated and unable to contact relatives due to the escalating conflict, her neighborhood was overtaken by an armed militia, effectively trapping her in her home. In the beginning, Aisha ventured out only for essential supplies. Although initially left unharmed by the soldiers, her situation deteriorated when two soldiers intruded her home, interrogating and then leaving her in fear. However, they returned, armed and intent on assault. Aisha endured repeated assaults over four days before escaping to a friend’s house in Kassala State. In Kassala, Aisha discovered she was pregnant. Rejected by her friend’s family, she faced isolation and despair. An attempted suicide underscored her desperation until a family directed her to a safe space for women and girls supported by UNFPA. Here, she received medical attention, counseling, and temporary shelter. Despite finding immediate help, her future remains uncertain as her due date approaches.

UNFPA's boat clinic brings vital reproductive health services to women in remote villages of Benin, addressing critical gaps in access to care.

In the Maldives, UNOPS partnered with the Islamic Development Bank to deliver state-of-the-art medical drones.

In an ideal world, every mother-to-be would have access to a skilled midwife and could give birth in a safe and peaceful environment. Unfortunately, many women lack these assurances. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is striving to achieve this ideal scenario for every woman by investing in midwives and training, including in emergency humanitarian situations, and by equipping maternity wards and mobile health teams.

Midwives in Chad's Kalambari refugee camp provide crucial care and support, helping Cameroonian refugees navigate the challenges of displacement and access essential sexual and reproductive health services.

Approximately 800 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Making motherhood safer is a human rights imperative, and it is at the core of UNFPA’s mandate.

The two-year violent clashes in Ethiopia's Tigray region damaged or destroyed over 90% of health facilities, leading to an increase in obstetric complications and maternal deaths. Cases of obstetric fistula, – a condition in which prolonged, obstructed labour without access to medical care causes a hole between the birth canal and bladder or rectum, or both – also rose due to a lack of medical care. However, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) supports several initiatives to both heal and prevent fistula, including a network of six regional facilities run by Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia. UNFPA also supports a network of 54 "maternal waiting homes" across Ethiopia to reduce obstetric complications and maternal mortality.

Aissata's difficult journey to access maternal health care underscores the persistent challenges faced by women in Mali, highlighting the need for increased support and accessibility to essential services.

UNFPA's Palestine Representative Dominic Allen describe the heroic efforts of desperate medical staff helping women in Gaza give birth safely at the overcrowded Al-Emirati Hospital in Rafah as doctors run out of basic medical supplies.

One year on, reproductive health and protection services have yet to fully recover. Many women and girls still remain in temporary shelters – in both Türkiye and Syria – where risks of violence, sexual exploitation and abuse have soared, and where access to services and support to prevent and respond to gender-based violence are limited.