United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)[note 1] is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. The UNDP emphasizes on developing local capacity towards long-term self-sufficiency and prosperity.[3]
"UNDP" redirects here. For the South Korean political party, see United New Democratic Party.Abbreviation
UNDP
22 November 1965
Programme
Active
Based at United Nations Headquarters in New York City, it is the largest UN development aid agency,[3] with offices in 177 countries.[4][5] The UNDP is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states.[5]
Founding[edit]
The UNDP was founded on 22 November 1965 with the merging of the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance (EPTA) and the Special Fund in 1958.[6] The rationale was to "avoid duplication of [their] activities". The EPTA was set up in 1949 to help the economic and political aspects of underdeveloped countries while the Special Fund was to enlarge the scope of UN technical assistance. The Special Fund arose from the idea of a Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development (SUNFED) (which was initially called the United Nations Fund for Economic Development (UNFED).[7]
Countries such as the Nordic countries were proponents of such a United Nations (UN) controlled fund. However, the fund was opposed by other developed countries, especially by the United States, which were wary of the Third World dominating such a funding and preferred it to be under the auspices of the World Bank. The concept of SUNFED was dropped to form the Special Fund. This Special Fund was a compromise over the SUNFED concept: it did not provide investment capital, but only helped to bring pre-conditions for private investment.
With the US proposing and creating the International Development Association within the World Bank's umbrella, the EPTA and the Special Fund appeared to be conducting similar work. In 1962, the United Nations Economic and Social Council asked the Secretary-General to consider the merits and disadvantages of merging UN technical assistance programmes and in 1966, the EPTA and the Special Fund merged to form the UNDP.[8][9][10]
Global Policy Centres[edit]
The UNDP runs six Global Policy Centres, including the Seoul Policy Centre (USPC) on partnerships, the Nairobi Global Policy Centre on Resilient Ecosystems and Desertification (GPC-Nairobi), the Singapore-based Global Centre for Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development (GC-TISD), the Istanbul International Centre for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD), the Oslo Governance Centre, and the Singapore-based Global Centre for Public Service Excellence (GCPSE) that issues the "Raffles Review" email newsletter on developments in public administration research.
Innovation Facility[edit]
The UNDP established the Innovation Facility in 2014, with support from the Government of Denmark, as a dedicated funding mechanism to nurture promising development interventions.[28]
The Innovation Facility offers technical assistance and seed funding to collaborators across 170 countries and territories to explore new approaches to complex development challenges. Since its inception, the Innovation Facility has fostered innovation labs across all five regions to better deliver and monitor the SDGs.[29] In 2015, the Innovation Facility invested in 62 initiatives across 45 countries to achieve 16 SDGs.[30]
