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Paidamoyo Chipunza recently in Tanzania

Countries must wisely choose areas of focus in family planning, maternal health and young girls’ health where maximum results are likely to be derived, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) deputy executive director Dr Natalia Kanem has said.Speaking to the media during a media training on family planning, prevention of maternal deaths and safe guarding young people’s health for the East and South African region (ESAR) which took place in Dar es Salaam recently, Dr Kanem said UNFPA was concerned by the global dwindling of financial resources across all sectors and urged countries to “plan strategically” for their efforts to succeed.

“We are concerned because budget lines are tighter, some of the pledges which have been made to countries and to the UN system are not necessarily fulfilled in a timely manner and it affects the programmes that we are doing across the countries,” she said.

Dr Kanem said her organisation was still looking forward to a change in the funding trends such that it will continue providing the much-needed support to the young girls and women in a more sustainable manner.

“We have that patience, we have that favour, we have that understanding and more and more we are being equipped to be better prepared to show the difference that we can make,” she said.

She however, said as someone who has sat on the donor’s table for a part of her career, donors were interested in funding projects that produce results hence countries must strive to produce results from their programming.

“Our work also has to be effective, because we are living in an era of results, which is part of the reason why we are trying to focus, streamline and to choose— which is what strategic planning is all about. You have to focus, you got to choose wisely in order to succeed,” she said.