National statement, delivered by H.E. Nicola Clase, Permanent Representative of Sweden to the UN, at the Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS: Interactive dialogue with the UNFPA Executive Board, 11 June 2026
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Madam Executive Director,
Sweden commends UNFPA for the consistency of its commitment - in stable settings and in the most demanding humanitarian conditions.
Let me begin where all serious policy must begin: with principle.
Sweden's commitment to sexual and reproductive health and rights, and to gender equality is steadfast. At its heart lies a conviction that every person, wherever they are born and whatever circumstances surround them, holds the right to make decisions about their own body, their own life, and their own future.
The pressures bearing down on multilateralism, on human rights, and on gender equality are real and they are intensifying.
Sweden remains one of UNFPA's most significant core donors. We have recently committed new humanitarian funding to Gaza, including support for UNFPA's sexual and reproductive health services and its work against gender-based violence. And we reaffirm our long-standing support for midwifery and for the Maternal and Newborn Health Fund - a programme of quiet, essential impact that deserves recognition well beyond what it currently receives.
On the UN80 process, allow me to be both supportive and precise.
Sweden believes in the ambition of UN80. The multilateral system must earn its relevance in a world that is changing faster than its institutions. Greater efficiency, greater coherence and greater accountability is a must.
We welcome UNFPA's engagement with that process.
But when we look at a possible merger between UN Women and UNFPA we have to be careful. We see clear risks for dilution of mandates and weakened consensus, disruptions to life‑saving operations during the transition and possible negative impacts on donor confidence and willingness to contribute There is a legal distinction here that in particular deserves to be named with care. UN Women's mandate is codified - it is anchored in the resolutions and founding instruments that gave the organisation its form and its purpose.
In contrast, UNFPA operates more through ICPD frameworks, strategic plans, operational functions, and intergovernmental consensus language rather than a single tightly codified mandate architecture.
These are structurally different things. A reform proposal that treats them as the same risks eroding, through institutional reorganisation, protections that were built through decades of joint effort.
We would strongly welcome for the Executive Board to receive comprehensive information on all alternatives, and to be consulted before the matter advances to the General Assembly.
As things currently stand we are not in a position to support a merger of UNFPA and UN Women.
In closing, Sweden looks to UNFPA to continue delivering on the full breadth of its mandate — with the efficiency, accountability, and transparency that sustains trust, and with the rigour that sustains results. What ultimately matters is what reaches people at country level.
Women, girls, and young people are not the objects of this work. They are its purpose.
Sweden is a resolute partner of UNFPA. That will not change.
Thank you.
