Publications

New releases

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Programming to Address Violence Against Women

8 Case Studies Volume 2

This is the second volume in a series that documents best practices in preventing and responding to violence against women. These eight case studies feature initiatives from Algeria, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, implemented by governments and other partners with support from UNFPA. They can inform efforts on ending violence against women, which is both a human rights violation and a public health concern. Disseminating these good practices is one step towards sharing and learning from one another. In India and Nepal, national partners worked together to institutionalize a coordinated response to violence against women with a special focus on using the health system as an entry point. In Indonesia and Honduras, police and faith-based organizations were trained to respond sensitively to the issue. In various countries, governments drafted and passed national legislation and policies, such as the Domestic Violence Act in Zimbabwe and the National Strategy to Combat Violence Against Women throughout the Life Cycle in Algeria. In Guatemala, much progress was achieved through coordination and synergy between the national and local governments. In Sri Lanka the Government and national NGOs provided gender-responsive psychosocial support for women and communities affected by the tsunami.
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Gender Snapshot

UNFPA Programming at Work

This booklet provides a snapshot of UNFPA's programming efforts to advance gender equality and empower women. It reports on activities undertaken in six priority areas, based on contributions from the global, regional and country levels over the course of two years (2007-2008).
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Generation of Change: Young People and Culture

Youth Supplement: State of World Population 2008

This Youth Supplement to UNFPA's State of the World Population 2008 focuses on the interactions among culture, gender and human rights and the critical importance of culturally sensitive approaches for effective development policies and programmes. The report, which is the third in a series, addresses culture as it shapes and nurtures the lives of young people and shows how young people develop their own subcultures, which are often different from and may conflict with the dominant culture. The youth report points out the value to young people of protecting the culture in which they grew up, but it also speaks on behalf of their right to embrace their own cultures in their own ways. As in previous youth supplements, this report profiles the lives of young women and men from seven countries. They promote gender sensitivity in religious institutions (Colombia), oppose traditional harmful practices such as child marriage (Ethiopia); adapt international modern music to their own societies and use it to call for healthy behaviours (Vietnam); challenge gender stereotypes in sports (Mozambique); promote peace in place of political and armed violence (Occupied Palestinian Territory); use information and communication technologies to promote development (Mongolia), and encourage youth participation in government, even taking high office (Spain).  
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State of World Population 2008

Reaching Common Ground: Culture, Gender and Human Rights

Culture is and always has been central to development. As a natural and fundamental dimension of people's lives, culture must be integrated into development policy and programming. This report shows how this process works in practice. The starting point of the report is the universal validity of the international human rights framework. The focus is therefore on discussing and showcasing how culturally sensitive approaches are critical for the realization of human rights in general and women's rights in particular. The report gives an overview of the conceptual frameworks as well as the practice of development, looking at the everyday events that make up people's experience of development. Culturally sensitive approaches call for cultural fluency – familiarity with how cultures work, and how to work with them. The report presents some of the challenges and dilemmas of culturally sensitive strategies and suggests how partnerships can address them.  
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Programming to Address Violence Against Women

Ten Case Studies

This volume documents UNFPA's experience addressing many forms of violence against women. Intended primarily for development practitioners and others seeking to change attitudes and practices, it offers lessons that can help scale up responses. Projects in Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Romania, Sierra Leone and Turkey are discussed. Some of the principles derived from the case studies are summarized in a complementary handbook, Ending Violence Against Women.
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State of World Population 2007

Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth

In 2008, for the first time, more than half of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. By 2030, towns and cities will be home to almost 5 billion people. The urban population of Africa and Asia will double in less than a generation. This unprecedented shift could enhance development and promote sustainability—or it could deepen poverty and accelerate environmental degradation. The 2007 State of World Population report outlines the challenges and opportunities presented by the coming, inevitable urban growth. It also dispels many misconceptions about urbanization and calls on policymakers to take concerted, proactive steps to harness the potential of cities to improve the lives of all.
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State of World Population 2006

A Passage to Hope: Women and International Migration

Today, half of all international migrants—95 million—are women and girls. Yet, despite substantial contributions to both their families at home and communities abroad, the needs of migrant women continue to be overlooked and ignored. The State of World Population 2006 report, A Passage to Hope: Women and International Migration, examines the scope and breadth of female migration, the impact of the funds they send home to support families and communities, and their disproportionate vulnerability to trafficking, exploitation and abuse. The report reveals that although migrant women contribute billions of dollars in cash and services, policymakers continue to disregard both their contributions and their vulnerability—even though female migrants tend to send a much higher proportion of their lower earnings back home than their male counterparts.
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State of World Population 2005

The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals

How do we improve the lives of the nearly 3 billion individuals living on less than two dollars a day? How can we enable all individuals — male and female, young and old — to protect themselves from HIV? To save the lives of more than 500,000 women who die each year in childbirth? What will it take to show young people living in poverty that they have a stake in development and a hope for the future? For perhaps the first time in history, questions such as these are not simply rhetorical. They have answers: answers that go to the very heart of what it means to be a woman or a man, wealthy or poor.
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Adding it Up

The Benefits of Investing In Sexual and Reproductive Health Care

Gaps in sexual and reproductive health care account for nearly one fifth of the worldwide burden of illness and premature death, and one third of the illness and death among women of reproductive age. These gaps could be closed and millions of lives saved with highly cost-effective investments, according to Adding it Up: The Benefits of Investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health Care, a report released by The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. Policy makers, governments and donor agencies have vastly undervalued the diverse returns— economic and social as well as in health—such investments would bring, the report stresses. It calls improvements in reproductive and sexual health essential to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals set by world leaders in 2000.
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 How to order

In an effort to keep printing costs down, almost all UNFPA publications are made available for free online in electronic format, as PDF and Word documents. Some are also published as web pages (html), such as the State of World Population and the UNFPA Annual Report.

Requests for printed publications will be handled based on availability. To request a printed publication, please e-mail publication@unfpa.org.