02 April 2014- Newly-appointed United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Country Representative Klaus Beck presented his letter of credentials to Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario on March 19.
The two discussed UNFPA’s goal to empower and improve the lives of underserved populations, especially women and young people including adolescents. This empowerment is enabled by an understanding of population dynamics, human rights and gender equality, and driven by the needs of Filipinos and tailored to the Philippine context.
Mr. Beck described his organization in a sentence: “UNFPA works with the government to promote sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender equality to improve the lives of the people and achieve sustainable development.”
UNFPA supports governments in gathering adequate information about population dynamics and trends to create and manage sound policies and generate the political will to address both current and future human needs by utilizing census, surveys and population and development-related research and analysis.
The Philippines, with the assistance of UNFPA, will continue to reduce and cease maternal deaths by achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health, including family planning. To accomplish these goals, the UNFPA 7th Country Programme of Assistance (2012-2016) focuses on upstream policy engagement and catalytic support in selected geographic areas based on a local development context and political commitment, as well as the availability of relevant and strategic opportunities to deliver integrated support to partners.
Even before he became the country representative, Mr. Beck was a part of the UNFPA Haiyan (Yolanda) Call for Action, which aims to raise US$16.2 million to respond to the reproductive health and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention needs of the Haiyan-affected population. The required funding consists of US$10 million for reproductive health and US$6.2 million for GBV concerns. Close to US$3.2 million or about 19% of the total requirement has been mobilized. END