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#FutureSmartUNDP

Development is changing. So are we.

Por United Nations Development Programme

This is a critical moment for development.

Unknown two short years ago, COVID-19 has upended our world and exposed profound weaknesses in how we organize our societies. The recovery offers us a choice: go back to business as usual or build forward better and smarter.

Virus vs. humanity

With speed and agility, this opportunistic foe exploits every opening as it gallops across the globe, constantly adapting to outsmart our roadblocks. Fuelled in part by poverty, inequality and civil discord, it in turn feeds these social ills.

COVID-19 is showing us how our development progress can be erased if we don’t insure it against future risks. To beat the pandemic, we must be quicker and more agile than a virus. We must seize every opportunity and anticipate the unknown. And we need the same approach if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on climate change. In short, we need future-smart development.

UNDP’s new Strategic Plan is engineered to respond to this moment.

The Plan recognizes the complexity of the development landscape and the challenges we face as a global community. It sets out our vision for a future-smart UNDP, working with partners to create a world where people and planet thrive together.

More than a mantra, #FutureSmartUNDP is our benchmark for success in the future of development.

A father smiles up at his son as they play. Both are Syrian refugees living in Jordan. UNDP works with countries and communities to build resilience to crisis, including conflict and displacement.

Transforming systems, changing lives

In 2022, UNDP begins a new chapter. Our Strategic Plan 2022-2025 provides the vision for how UNDP delivers programmes in the more than 170 countries and territories where we work but also how we work within the organization.

This vision challenges every UNDP staff member and partner to push boundaries, embrace new ideas and raise our aspirations. It invites all of us to act with ambition and scale. Only then can we bring about the kind of transformation this moment demands.

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To be an effective partner in transformative change, UNDP has to build a new culture: one that embraces complexity, actively manages risk, continually adapts and seeks to learn alongside delivering results.”

– UNDP Strategic Plan

In the next four years, UNDP will work with countries to make a difference for millions of people. We’re aiming to:

Expand capabilities, so 100 million people get out of multidimensional poverty.
Support 500 million people to gain access to clean energy.
Support 800 million people to participate in elections, many for the first time.
Promote over US$1 trillion of public and private investment in the SDGs.

Doing what matters most – at scale

The Strategic Plan sets out a path to achieve these lofty goals. We’re helping countries go beyond solving immediate development challenges to achieve systemic change and better equip themselves to prevent and respond to crises.

Through our six signature solutions, we tackle areas where people’s needs are greatest and UNDP’s capabilities are strongest.

Our approach is based on human rights, empowerment, inclusion and equity to make sure no one is left behind.

Poverty and inequality

We’re investing in the enhanced capabilities people need to move above the poverty line and keep moving forward.

In practice

Unequal vaccine access is costing lives. And it’s creating a two-track pandemic recovery that undermines global solidarity and trust, and leaves all of us at risk. In partnership with WHO and the University of Oxford, our Global Dashboard for Vaccine Equity helps policymakers understand the implications of vaccine inequity and take action.

Find out why until everybody is safe, nobody is safe.

READ STORY

Navigating uncertainty: Human Development Report 2021/2022 will explore how COVID-19, climate change and other destabilizing forces are impacting human development and how we can thrive in unsettled times.

In India, Bitola Devi has been vaccinating against polio, tuberculosis and malaria for more than 30 years and is learning new skills to advance her career.

Governance

Building effective, inclusive and accountable governance is critical for countries to achieve transformational change and keep from sliding back.

In practice

As the world’s largest partner in parliamentary development, UNDP works with some 65 national parliaments to enhance their institutions so they can anticipate change, adapt and respond to new challenges.

See how upgrading digital capacity allowed legislatures to advance good governance during the pandemic.

READ STORY

Infodemic: Spreading even faster than the virus, misinformation and disinformation have helped fuel the COVID-19 pandemic and undermine public health responses. The UNDP Oslo Governance Centre has created a Guidance Note outlining rapid responses and long-term strategies to combat information pollution.

See how UNDP Accelerator Labs use gamification to combat COVID-19 misinformation. READ STORY

A poll worker looks over documents in Liberia. In the next four years, UNDP aims to support 800 million people to participate in elections, many for the first time.

Resilience

We help countries and communities build resilience to a wide range of shocks and crises, including conflict, the climate emergency, disasters and epidemics.

In practice

In a volatile world, with overlapping crises of health, environment and inequality, our societies are being put to the test. Our upcoming special report on human security looks beyond the traditional territorial notion of security to consider how we protect the things that matter most: our basic needs, our physical integrity, our human dignity.

Learn more about the human security approach.

READ STORY

In Afghanistan where there is a deepening humanitarian and economic crisis and the threat of a total collapse in basic services, UNDP’s ABADEI (“Hope”) programme works with UN partners and NGOs to provide vital community-level solutions and prevent further erosion in development gains. UNDP is also working with the Global Fund to extend a lifeline to Afghanistan’s health system.

Get a glimpse into UNDP’S work in Afghanistan through the eyes of SURGE Advisor Usman Qazi.

READ STORY

Even in the midst of crisis or fragility, transformation can take root. With emphasis on energy, governance and youth, UNDP’s new $3.6 billion programmatic offer for the Sahel is changing the narrative about the region and unlocking potential while addressing the underlying causes of instability.

Find out more about The Sahel of Tomorrow.

Watch video

Even in the midst of crisis or fragility, transformation can take root. UNDP’s programmatic offer is changing the narrative in Chad and other Sahel countries.

Environment

We help governments protect, manage and value their natural assets.

In practice

From Pledge to Action: At the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference, 154 countries submitted enhanced climate action pledges. UNDP’s Climate Promise supported 89 of them, including 83 percent of submissions by developing countries. The next phase of Climate Promise will work to forge better connections between climate pledges, sustainable development plans and credible pathways to net zero emissions. Find out more about the State of Climate Ambition.

Showing promise: See how developing countries are leading the push for a climate-smart future. read story

In the current age of the Anthropocene, human activity is the greatest force driving the destruction of nature. On the flipside, this means we also have the power to turn things around and build nature positive economies and societies.

See how volunteers in Uruguay are restoring native forests, home to many native reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals, including threatened species.

READ STORY

In Indonesia, we work with Indigenous and local communities to protect biodiversity and generate sustainable livelihoods.

read story

Meet Aleksey Grachev, a zoologist working to protect Kazakhstan's snow leopards, symbols of prosperity and critical players in the local ecosystem.

read story

As in many countries, the changing climate is making areas of Bolivia uninhabitable for humans and wildlife alike. The next phase of UNDP’s Climate Promise will help countries turn their climate pledges into action.

Energy

We work to expand energy access while accelerating the transition to renewables.

In practice

In sub-Saharan Africa about 570 million people don’t have access to electricity. This is an investment opportunity and a sound development proposition. Our Africa Minigrids Program is scaling up solar to advance energy and climate goals together.

See how solar power helps fight Covid-19 in Africa and elsewhere.

READ STORY

Solar is part of the solution in Armenia, where it is energizing communities affected by conflict.

READ STORY

‘Don’t choose extinction’: The world spends, US$423 billion each year subsidizing energy sources that fuel global warming. UNDP is making the case for fossil fuel subsidy reform as a critical component to tackle the climate emergency and growing inequality.

Our very special envoy on the issue, Frankie the dinosaur, brings a unique perspective.

Learn more

In Armenia, UNDP supports cleaner, cheaper energy to ease the economic strain on communities hosting displaced persons.

Gender equality

We’re working to strengthen women’s economic empowerment, participation and leadership and to remove obstacles to equality.

In practice

This year, UNDP will launch its updated Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025 to strengthen our work to shift power relations and tackle the social, political and economic drivers of inequalities and gender discrimination.

See how women in leadership are working for an equal future in Iraq.

read story

Though they are on the frontlines of fighting COVID-19, women are often missing in response mechanisms and recovery taskforces. UNDP’s COVID-19 Gender-Responsive Local Economic Recovery Handbook assesses the pandemic’s impact on women’s economic security and offers tools to develop effective solutions.

The UNDP-UN Women COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker monitors government responses and highlights those that have integrated a gender lens.

read story

Women trained in masonry helped rebuild their community following an earthquake in Nepal. UNDP works with partners to strengthen women’s economic empowerment, participation and leadership.

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“In an uncertain world, its business model must empower UNDP to respond to partners with the flexibility and at the scale they expect.”

- UNDP Strategic Plan

To accelerate and scale up results, we’re investing in three powerful enablers.

Strategic innovation

To enhance the performance of entire systems, we help make them adaptive and resilient.

In practice

System transformation in action: UNDP’s "deep demonstrations" explore different facets of system transformation with government counterparts, whether it’s changing the trajectory of an entire sector or shifting the needle on complex issues like the future of work.

Our Mayors for Growth initiative is supporting 300 cities as they embark on strategic planning in uncertainty.

read story

Incubator for the future: The UNDP Accelerator Labs is the world’s largest and fastest learning network on sustainable development. Testing solutions with national partners, we bring bright, unusual talent into the development sector through 91 Labs covering 115 countries.

Our Data Futures Platform is a one-stop shop, empowering decision-makers with the best data and insights to advance the SDGs. Insights include how countries are investing in pandemic recovery and a temporary basic income simulator.

Digitalization

We support countries in building inclusive, ethical and sustainable digital societies.

In practice

Our new Digital Strategy 2022-2025 establishes a long-term vision for a world in which digital is an empowering force for people and planet. UNDP will leverage digital to amplify the impact of our programmes, while working to bridge the digital divide.

Learn how we’re harnessing the force of digital.

watch video

In Dominica, digital transformation opens up career opportunities online.

read story

Development finance

We partner with governments and the private sector to align capital flows with the SDGs and climate action.

In practice

The Sustainable Finance Hub offers a comprehensive package of methods and tools to support SDG Integration and enable governments, the private sector and international financial institutions to accelerate financing for the SDGs.

In Uzbekistan, SDG bonds are attracting attention from international investors. READ STORY

Paraguay has emerged as a regional pioneer in SDG bonds.

READ STORY

UNDP holds the secretariat of the G20 Sustainable Financing Working Group. The Group is charting a roadmap for future work on financing standards and alignment with the SDGs.

Read UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner’s article on reimagining global finance to deliver on the SDGs and vaccine equity.READ STORY

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“The challenge of the next four years is to accelerate and scale up development results significantly, bringing the Goals back within reach.”

- UNDP Strategic Plan

Going farther, together

This is a critical time for sustainable development – and for the world.

The actions we take today will shape the world we live in for generations to come. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the next eight years won’t be easy. But it’s the only way to rebuild a stronger, more sustainable global economy that leaves no one behind.

UNDP is prepared to confront the complexity of the moment.

Together with our government partners and allies within the UN system and beyond, we’re bringing local expertise and global perspective together to design and deliver solutions calibrated to place and time. This is future-smart development that creates impact that can withstand setbacks, from pandemics to natural hazards and humanmade disasters.

UNDP is focused on the future. Because it’s already here.

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“#FutureSmartUNDP is leveraging the extraordinary power of innovation, digitalization and finance to drive the future of development. Working with countries and communities, we are co-creating a more inclusive and sustainable future for this generation – and the many generations to come."