UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- The U.N. Population Fund says the highest number of donors gave the largest total amount since the organization began its operations in 1969.
The $360 million contributed from 180 countries is to promote a raft of activities from ensuring safe births to reducing poverty, the agency said Monday.
"We are very thankful for the continuous and growing support from nearly all U.N. member states," said Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid of UNFPA. "We take this new record as a solid sign of the global commitment to our work and mandate. It also highlights the importance of sexual and reproductive health, as well as HIV prevention, for development."
The number of UNFPA donor countries has steadily increased over the last few years, from 69 in 1999, to 172 in 2005, to last year's record.
For five years now, the U.S. Congress has withheld Washington's contribution to UNFPA, claiming the U.N. agency was advocating coerced abortions in Asia, despite a U.S. State Department inquiry which said there was no basis for such allegations.
The top six donors were the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, Japan and Denmark. In addition, every nation in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as all sub-Saharan Africa, pledged funds to UNFPA in 2006.
In 2005, co-financing income, earmarked to specific projects, reached $158 million, which included contributions for two highly visible emergencies, the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake.
Co-financing income in 2006 reached the same high level, even though there were no emergencies of the same scale. The number of donors committed to multi-year funding also rose from 55 countries in 2005 to 73 countries in 2006.
