Executive Board, June 2026. Photo: UNCDF.

Mr. President, Distinguished Members of the Executive Board, Excellencies,

Let me start with a simple truth.

Eritrea. Senegal. Mozambique. Myanmar. Too often, these countries are seen as too small. Too risky. Too far from conventional finance. And so capital walks past them. Every single day.

This is the reality for the young woman in Asmara that I met during a recent visit with a business idea and the drive to match it. Capital walks past the farmer in Siem Reap, Cambodia who knows exactly what she would do with a loan — if only someone would give her one. These people are waiting, waiting for a chance.

Now, the challenge in development finance is not the absence of capital. The capital exists. The challenge is sequencing. Who goes in first? Who takes the early risk when the market is most fragile and the returns uncertain?

That is the role UNCDF was created to play. Not arriving after the risk is gone — showing up precisely because the risk is there.

In 2025, UNCDF showed up. Sixty-seven countries. 36 LDCs. 16 SIDS, twenty-four countries in fragile settings.

More than 350 businesses and financial institutions came to us. We could help, frustratingly, only 15 percent. A fraction of a fraction. Not because the model doesn't work. Because we didn't have the capital base to do more. Eight out of every ten deals — turned away and left on the table given the absence of resources. We do not expect to service all, but we need to be able to support more.

And yet look at what we did with what we had. In Afghanistan, under $2 million dollars, UNCDF (in support of UNDP and the RC/UNCT) deployed a guarantee that mobilized 35 million dollars in local currency lending to nearly 13000 small businesses. That is a leverage ratio of more than 20 to one. That is catalytic finance. Small capital. Tactical and surgical deployment. Big leverage. Similar results and impact in Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Nigeria, Solomon Islands and others.

As 2025 marks the end of the previous Strategic Framework, for every dollar deployed over that period, UNCDF unlocked twenty more. Overall, thirty-two million people benefited.

And we achieved this through a historical organization reform agenda driven by choice to become more relevant. We eliminated director-level positions by 50%, moved 90 percent of our people into the field, eliminated 30% of duplicative and redundant functions, modernized our internal systems to ramp up transparency, and updated digital solutions including adoption of AI tools. To further establish trust, we achieved a clean audit for the second year running.

We did the hard work. Painful at times, at a professional and personal level. And we are stronger for it.

Excellencies, we complement, not duplicate — that is what UN80 calls for. That is what we do.

I want to leave no doubt in your minds that UNCDF does not duplicate the MDBs, IFC and IDA included. We create the conditions that make their work possible in the market segments right at the bottom of the wealth pyramid. This is beyond reach for many, for a variety of reasons.

We complement the UN system with a unique financing capability. When you fund project implementation, that money delivers — once. When you give UNCDF unearmarked or earmarked capital and it is deployed as a guarantee, an investment grant or a concessional loan- it multiplies. Ten times over, in some cases.

Excellencies, moving forward, the singular challenge ahead is the capitalization of UNCDF for capital deployment, not for procurement heavy programmes and projects, not for staffing. What we need is flexible capital so that we can respond beyond the two out of every ten opportunities countries bring to us.

Think about that. And then think about the young people in early- stage last mile markets, the majority under 30, who are not asking for handouts. They are asking for functioning financial markets. For market development They are not at the margins of the development agenda. They are at its very heart.

It is for that reason, this Friday, under the leadership of Managing Director de Croo, we are launching the capitalisation drive for UNCDF.

The pipeline is real. The demand is real. The model is proven. UNCDF is ready.

So I leave you with one question… Are you with us?

Thank you.