United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

1. In the past year, has the governing body of your organization taken any decisions to advance sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and ensure that no one is left behind? If yes, please briefly mention these decisions taken by your governing body in 2024 and provide the respective symbols.

In its decision 2024/18 on the Annual Report of the Executive Director, the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board,  reaffirmed the importance of high-quality data and its contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, acknowledged the role of UNFPA in generating high-quality population data, and encouraged UNFPA to strengthen its capacity and efforts in this regard.

The Board reaffirmed the importance of the evaluation function at UNFPA and underscoreed the value of high-quality independent evaluation evidence in supporting the UNFPA Strategic Plan, 20222025, in accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;  (DP/2024/9). The Board also encouraged the Independent Evaluation Office to continue using innovative practices, including artificial intelligence, which is key in ensuring acceleration of the achievement of the SDGs.

2. During 2024, what actions have your entities taken to improve coordination among UN system entities across policy and normative activities as well as with ECOSOC subsidiary bodies with a view to increase impact and accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda? Please provide any relevant links.

UNFPA continues to provide capacity building and coordination, and leads UN working groups (e.g.  results groups),  towards integrated SDG implementation and review at the global, regional and country levels. At the country-level, UNFPA has continued to leverage its support to countries undertaking Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) through enhanced coordination with the Resident Coordinators and United Nations country teams members for more comprehensive and intersectional support to governments to strengthen national data and statistical capacities for disaggregated SDG reporting.

In line with the Secretary-General’s data strategy and call towards a UN 2.0, UNFPA has continued to support governments in leveraging the power of data by contributing its unique advantage and thought leadership in data, population and development, including by supporting capacity-building of governments and partners, and knowledge sharing and learning through UN inter-agency partnerships. This work is evidenced by UNFPA’s centre of excellence on civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS), and flagship initiatives such as the Population Data Portal (PDP, https://pdp.unfpa.org/).  

UNFPA has contributed to evaluations focusing on the Resident Coordinator system, which plays a pivotal role in coordinating UN development activities. These evaluations, presented during the ECOSOC Operational Activities for Development Segment in May 2024, provided insights into the system's effectiveness and areas for improvement, thereby informing strategies to enhance coordination and impact across the UN system.

3. In the past year, has your organization organized any intergovernmentally mandated conferences, forums or events that ​​​​contributed to the achievement of the SDGs, or has been in the process of planning and organizing any such mandated events to be held next year? 

N/A

4. In the past year, has your organization published or planned to publish any analytical work, guidance or reference materials, or toolkits to guide and support the implementation of SDGs at national, regional and global levels? Please select up to three to highlight, especially those that address interlinkages among the SDGs.  

5. The United Nations has defined six key transitions, or transformative entry points, that can have catalytic and multiplier effects across the SDGs and which have been guiding the UN development system work since the 2023 SDG Summit. In the past year, how has your organization contributed to  these transformative actions and how various actors are being rallied behind them to mobilize further leadership and investment to bring progress to scale? Please provide any relevant links. 

UNFPA has developed guidance to support country offices to contribute to integrated approaches to sustainable development as a part of the cooperation framework, leveraging the integrated nature of the ICPD Programme of Action (PoA). Linkages in relation to the six transitions include: ensuring that efforts to empower women small-scale farmers, including through the transformation of negative social norms contributes to women’s access to tenure of land and strengthens food systems. Promoting universal health coverage that addresses the health needs, including SRH, of all and especially those most left behind is a part of developing comprehensive social protection systems.  A key part of transforming education requires ensuring that young people have life-skills for health and well-being, including through comprehensive sexuality education. Increasing digital connectivity requires closing the gender digital divide, leveraging technology for good and addressing potential negative consequences of digital connectivity such as technology facilitating gender-based violence. Empowering women and girls in climate adaptation measures supports community-based local solutions, and ensures that no one is left behind. 

6. Please provide strategies (policies, guidance, plan) and/or collective actions taken to implement the 2024 Ministerial Declaration of the Economic and Social Council and the high-level political forum on sustainable development convened under the auspices of the Council. Please note any challenges foreseen and provide any relevant links.

The UNFPA Strategic Plan, 2022-2025, was designed to foster integration across UNFPA’s outcome areas, recognizing that advancing the ICPD PoA in the context of complex challenges requires a multi-disciplinary approach. The Strategic Plan Change Stories identifies 6 cross-cutting accelerators:  Human rights-based and gender transformative approaches; Innovation and digitalization; Partnerships and South-South and triangular cooperation, and financing; Leaving no one behind and reaching the furthest behind first; Data and evidence; Resilience and adaptation, and complementarity among development, humanitarian and peace-responsive efforts. The Midterm Review of the UNFPA Strategic Plan 2022-2025, identified six priorities for accelerated achievement of the ICPD PoA and Agenda 2030. These include: enhancing the normative role of UNFPA further by investing in data analytics, advocacy, and communication; sharpening the links between the three transformative results and the different social, economic and demographic contexts, including in low-fertility, high-income and middle-income countries; designing and deploying innovative and impactful interventions, including gender transformative interventions, to change discriminatory gender and social norms; further developing analytical, innovative and foresight capacities; increasing efforts to leverage development financing for the ICPD Programme of Action and the three transformative results; and systematizing innovation and knowledge management to improve creating, capturing, documenting and sharing innovative and successful solutions. 

7. What collective efforts is your entity undertaking to support countries in accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially in the areas of Goal 3 (Good health and well-being), Goal 5 (Gender equality), Goal 8 (Decent work and economic growth), Goal 14 (Life below water) and Goal 17 (Partnerships), which will go under in-depth review at the HLPF in 2025? Please note any achievements, challenges and gaps and provide any relevant links. 

UNFPA efforts to accelerated achievement of the SDGs focuses on three transformative results: (a) ending the unmet need for family planning; (b) ending preventable maternal deaths; and (c) ending gender-based violence and all harmful practices, including female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage. In this regard UNFPA:

• SDG3: supports governments to accelerate achievement of SDG3 by supporting health systems strengthening and addressing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services.  
• SDG5: supports social norms change and advocates for policies and programmes that promote gender equality at individual, community and national levels.
• SDG8: advocates for decent employment, investments in education, and access to adequate social services, including to help countries realize a demographic dividend.
• SDG17: plays a key role in strengthening data systems, including censuses, demographic and health surveys, and other large-scale data-gathering exercises.

Achievements in 2022-2023 include averting 31.2 million unintended pregnancies; 64,730 maternal deaths; saving 273,500 girls from FGM; averting 117,000 new HIV infections; reaching 347,00 women and young people with disabilities with sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services; and that 68.7% of the population scheduled to be counted in the 2020 round of censuses was counted.

Challenges include the stagnation in progress towards the SDGs due to polycrises and their social and economic disruptions; resistance in some quarters against sexual and reproductive health initiatives and reproductive rights; and worsening inequalities and inequities (especially those who are affected by vulnerabilities owing to disability, racism, xenophobia, sexual orientation and gender identity, ethnicity or residency status).