UNFPA seeks more funds for Rohingya support, launches survey to assess maternal needs

The UNFPA with its funding gap to manage Rohingya populations’ sexual and reproductive health needs has tied up with the icddr,b to conduct a survey among those Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh to assess their specific maternal health needs.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 8 Nov 2017, 04:30 PM
Updated : 8 Nov 2017, 06:11 PM

Regional Director for the Asia and the Pacific Bjorn Andersson, after his visit to Cox’s Bazar Rohingya camps, also urged the international community not to lose focus from the crisis until a solution.

The UN population agency earlier sought $14 million funds until February 2018 to provide lifesaving reproductive health and gender based violence response services to women and girls who constitute an estimated 67 percent of the new arrivals since Aug 25.

Over 600,000 Rohignya refugees entered Bangladesh, taking the total number of the stateless population living in Bangladesh for decades to 1 million.

Speaking to a group of reporters on Wednesday in Dhaka, Andersson said they had managed $5 million so far.

“We have not been really able to close the gap. But we are working on it,” he said, flanked by UNFPA Bangladesh's Acting Representative Iori Kato.

The regional director, however, said the most important part of the crisis is “to keep the situation on the agenda internationally what’s happening in Cox’s Bazar”.

“Really unfortunately we have seen how humanitarian situation becomes permanent,” he said, adding that the UNFPA will try to keep their issues such as sexual reproductive health and gender-based violence on the international agenda.

“The focus on the UNFPA is to provide maternal health services and support women who have been exposed to gender-based violence”.

The acting country representative said they tied up with the icddr,b on Wednesday to carry out a survey to assess the specific maternal and reproductive health needs of the Rohingyas.

“Unless we know the demography and needs of the population we are targeting we cannot plan intervention,” he said.

The UNFPA also stressed on having access to a range of “rights-based” family planning services. The UN agency reiterated that from a rights perspective, all people, whether refugees or host communities who want and need family planning, should get it.