The Government of Australia has provided an additional $629,000 to support the United Nations Population Fund.

This is in response to Tropical Cyclone Winston, addressing protection needs of women and girls through sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence services.

UNFPA Pacific Director and Representative Dr Laurent Zessler says the monetary support from the Government of Australia was both timely and would be critical to action on the ground.

Of the 350,000 directly affected populations, 170,000 are female with 87,500 women of reproductive age.

It is estimated that there are more than 5,600 pregnant women with around 800 of them expected to experience obstetric complications requiring emergency obstetric care.

The Government of Australia has also enabled the UNFPA Pacific Sub-Regional Office to preposition clean delivery kits, which have been and will continue to be distributed to health facilities.