United Nations
Development Programme


Type
Multilateral agency providing technical assistance and funding throughout the world.
Brief Overview
The UNDP, founded in 1965, is an international development agency and a subsidiary of the United Nations. The agency is devoted to the notion of ”sustainable human development,” which it identifies as the essential component of poverty reduction. The UNDP coordinates the development work of the UN and is the primary distributor of UN funds for development. The agency works in over 170 countries and territories (90% of funds go to 66 low-income countries in which over 90% of the world’s poorest people live), where its focus is on funding projects that are part of targets established with nations through UN conferences. The UNDP is especially interested in projects that provide poor families with access to services, credit, land, job opportunities, technology, skills, training, legal rights, and markets. In 1996, the UNDP donated the majority of its funds (39%) to projects in the area of poverty eradication and sustainable livelihoods for the poor. UNDP resources amount to over US $2 billion per year and has 5,300 employees worldwide.
Contact Information
website: http://www.undp.org
address:
United Nations Development Programme
One United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
USA
telephone: (+1) (212) 905 5315
fax: (+1) (212) 905 5364
e-mail: hq@undp.org

Stated Goals
1. To strengthen international cooperation for sustainable human development and to serve as a major substantive resource on how to achieve it.
2. To help the United Nations family become a unified and powerful force for sustainable human development.
3. To focus UNDP’s strengths and assets to make the maximum contribution to sustainable human development in countries served.
Regions of Work
Africa, Asia, Arab States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe and the CIS
Areas of Work
1. Poverty eradication and sustainable livelihoods
2. Gender equality
3. Environment
4. Good governance
Methods
The UNDP operates primarily through its anti-poverty programs. More than 85% of its staff work in the supported countries. Seventy-five percent of the programs are realized by local organizations with the support of NGOs, research institutes, UN specialized agencies, and UN volunteers. The UNDP coordinates efforts with the World Bank and the IMF.
Examples of Upgrading Project
“Ethiopia emerged from nearly 30 years of civil strife with thousands of communities in need of rehabilitation, thousands of returning refugees and some 400,000 demobilized soldiers. The Ethiopian Social Rehabilitation and Development Fund began to test a self-help, community-based approach to rehabilitation and development in 1992. In the initial phase, 1,220,000 people benefited from more than 200 projects: clinics, schools, drainage facilities, communal latrines, small dams and income generating enterprises like grinding mills, quarries and electrical workshops. Community organizations, local government staffs and NGOs simultaneously improved project planning and implementation capacities. The Fund is being expanded to implement small-scale, community-based projects throughout rural Ethiopia. UNDP is helping to mobilize the US$243 million required for this phase, and to put together machinery to effectively manage these resources.”
Project Selection Process
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