(UN Agency)
(1) Overview of activities
UNHCR leads and co-ordinates international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. Until a long-term solution is found, UNHCR provides material assistance to refugees, allowing them to rebuild their lives, continue their education, access healthcare, and receive water, food and shelter.
In five decades, the agency has helped an estimated 50 million people restart their lives. Today, a staff of more than 6,000 people in some 116 countries continues to help some 17 million persons. UNHCR has an annual budget of approximately US$ 1 billion. Learn more about UNHCR.
(2) Role in emergency relief and reconstruction
In humanitarian situations, UNFPA’s mission is to support
1. Safe motherhood (through assistance for prenatal care, delivery assistance and emergency obstetric care);
2. HIV prevention and care (through education as well as support for universal precaution and safe blood supply) and
3. Protection of women and girls, including prevention of sexual violence and medical treatment for victims, as well as psychosocial care for trauma.
UNFPA also supports demographic data collection surveys and censuses which are critical to guiding effective relief planning and national recovery. Learn more about UNFPA’s role in emergency relief.
(3) Major opportunities for business support
Businesses can contribute the following types of resources to support UNFPA’s emergency response activities:
> Cash (preferred)
> Professional services and expertise
> Air and sea transport for emergency supplies, including vehicles for local use
> Computers, communication and audiovisual equipment
> Personal basic hygiene supplies such as body and laundry soap, towels and wash cloths, combs, toothbrushes and paste, water purification tablets and women’s sanitary supplies
> Basic clinic and hospital supplies and equipment for maternity wards, including delivery beds and supplies, ambulances and supplies used to enforce universal precautions against HIV/AIDS such as sterilizing equipment, gloves, soap and safe blood transfusion supplies
> Basic non-food, non-medical emergency relief items such as generators, solar radios and batteries, and emergency lights
Before contacting UNFPA regarding an in-kind donation, please read the section of this guide entitled “Contributions that cannot be accepted” in "How Can My Company Help?".
(4) Contribution/Contact information
UNFPA accepts cash contributions from businesses on its website. UNFPA also works with a small number of companies who make significant contributions of in-kind goods or services. Typical in-kind contributions accepted by UNFPA are worth US$100,000 - US$1million.
For donations and contact information, visit http://www.unfpa.org/support/corporate.htm
Contact information:
Philippe Grandet
Resource Mobilisation Specialist
grandet@unfpa.org
tel : 1-212-2975298
fax: 1-212- 2974918
(5) Examples of engagement with the private sector
In 2003, UNFPA and its partners launched the first-ever global Campaign to End Fistula (http://www.endfistula.org/index.htm). Obstetric fistula is an injury of childbearing that has been relatively neglected, despite the devastating impact it has on the lives of girls and women. It is usually caused by several days of obstructed labour, without timely medical intervention - typically a Caesarean section - to relieve the pressure. The consequences of fistula are often life shattering: In about 95 per cent of cases, the baby dies. The woman is left with chronic incontinence. The campaign aims to make the condition as rare in the South as it is in the North. This includes interventions to:
> Prevent fistula from occurring.
> Treat women who are affected.
> Renew the hopes and dreams of those who suffer from the condition. This includes bringing it to the attention of policy-makers and communities, thereby reducing the stigma associated with it, and helping women who have undergone treatment return to full and productive lives.
Award-winning agency Young & Rubicam (Y&R) is lending its creative services to the Campaign to End Fistula. The agency works with UNFPA to raise awareness of obstetric fistula in the United Kingdom through broadcast, print and electronic materials. The Campaign currently covers more than 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and some Arab States.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) provides all of the required sutures for fistula repair operations during the two-week project, the Fistula Fortnight. The company’s primary goal is to provide scientifically sound, high quality health care products and services to help heal, cure disease and improve quality of life.
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(!) This website is intended only for companies who wish to donate to support UN emergency relief activities.If you wish to sell your products or services to the UN, please visit the website for UN procurement services.
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