United Nations Development Programme

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the United Nations’ global development network. It was established in 1966, and is headquartered in New York City. The UNDP is funded by voluntary contributions from its members. To cooperate with governments to meet the challenges of development in various dimensions, it has 177 country offices across the globe. Fighting poverty is the overarching goal at the center of UNDP’s mandate. Although started with a wider focus, the UNDP gradually evolved into a more poverty-focused organization. During 1990s, the UNDP defined a set of priorities, poverty at the top. This prioritization was triggered during an annual meeting of the UNDP Executive Board in 1995. The following year, the UNDP started to publish a series of reports on poverty, and in 1997, published the “Human Development Report” on poverty. The Human Poverty Index (HPI) was also introduced by the UNDP in 1997, but with limited coverage. The 2000 to 2003 Multi-Year Funding Framework (MYFF) contributed to UNDP by making it a “more focused and result-oriented” institution. A second MYFF was adopted for 2004 to 2007. Finally, a Strategic Plan replaced the MYFF, covering 2008 to 2013. The UNDP now has a new Strategic Plan that was adopted for 2014 to 2017. The UNDP is also one of the major actors working on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

The first MYFF identified priorities all aiming at poverty reduction: promote pro-poor macroeconomic and sectoral policies and national antipoverty plans; promote entrepreneurship and access of the poor to microfinance, promote employment and foster skills among the poor, support the capacity of the poor and civil society for self-organization and the development of alliances, and strengthen the capacity of governments and vulnerable groups to take preventative measures to reduce the impact of health epidemics, such as human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). The second MYFF not only declared an across-the-board goal for poverty reduction (i.e., “to eradicate extreme poverty and reduce substantially overall poverty”), but it also defined two subtargets to reach this goal: promote poverty-focused development and reduce vulnerability, and promote the livelihoods of the poor through strengthened self-organization and access to assets and resources.

The Strategic Plan (2008–2013) integrated new elements for promoting inclusive growth, gender equality, and achievement of the MDGs; fostering inclusive globalization; and mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS on human development. These activities would promote the overall goal to strengthen national and local capacities to achieve inclusive growth, reduce poverty and inequality, and stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. From the development perspective, in 1990, the UNDP took a step forward and published its first “Human Development Report” (HDR). HDRs adopted a new concept of development, which is defined as “a process of enlarging people’s choices.” These choices cover a wide range of issues pertaining to human dignity: to live a long and healthy life, be educated and have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living, political freedom, guaranteed human rights, and personal self-respect.

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The faces of children in a slum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on August 8, 2012, express the urgent need for their country to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as set forth by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for countries around the globe. The primary goal of the MDG is to eradicate poverty and extreme hunger. In the case of Cambodia, according to the UNDP, the goals of poverty reduction are apparently achievable, although child labor and malnutrition needs more attention. (Flickr/N.D.

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