ADDIS ABABA, May 19 (Xinhua) -- The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Sweden on Friday signed funding agreement amounting to 7.2 million U.S. dollars in support of UNFPA's country program in Ethiopia.
The fund from Sweden is utilized to support UNFPA's 8th country program implemented in 2016-2020 in eight regions of the East African country, in responding to national priorities as articulated in Ethiopia's 2nd Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) and various sectoral plans.
The funding provided by Sweden will partly go to support UNFPA'shumanitarian responses in Ethiopia, according to UNFPA.
Rakoto Victor, UNFPA Acting Country Representative, and Annika Jayawarden, Head of Bilateral Development Cooperation at Swedish Embassy in Ethiopia, have signed the agreement at a ceremony held in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia.
Expressing her country's commitment to supporting areas of gender equality and sexual and reproductive health, Jayawarden highly appreciated Sweden's strong partnership with UNFPA.
UNFPA says its 8th country program in Ethiopia will address increased access to and use of health services focusing, among others, on maternal and new-born health; increased capacity of national institutions; increased participation and decision making by women and youth in benefiting from targeted services.
The funding from Sweden will also go to support UNFPA's humanitarian response which aims to improve sexual and reproductive health care in refugee camps for South Sudanese refugees and surrounding host communities.
The support from Sweden will be very instrumental in realizing the various programmatic interventions of UNFPA in Ethiopia, which in turn helps the country achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs),such as reducing maternal death, poverty and gender inequality, noted the UNFPA Acting Country Representative.
