Partners

UNCDF knows that strong and lasting solutions to the problems of poverty can only come about through partnerships and collaborations. As part of its programming, UNCDF involves a wide range of partners, including host governments in the countries where it works, donor countries, other multilateral organizations and community organizations.

The Fund's relationship with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is both organizational and collaborative. While UNCDF is under the administration of UNDP, it has its own specific mandate and receives its own funding. However, UNCDF also considers UNDP to be its closest partner, and as such nearly all of the Fund's projects are formulated jointly with that UN agency.

In other cases, large multilateral organizations like the World Bank partner with UNCDF. The Fund's relationship with the World Bank has involved joint missions and collaborative efforts in several countries including Malawi, Uganda, and Senegal. The Bank and UNCDF also agreed to co-sponsor a study on Social Funds and Decentralization.

In addition to general contributions, donors often support UNCDF projects as partners through various co-financing arrangements, such as cost-sharing and trust fund arrangements. Donors can select a specific project, group of projects, country, region or programme theme for support through UNCDF. An example of this is the 1998 expansion of the UNCDF Viet Nam programme through bilateral support from the Government of Australia, and similar arrangements where the Government of the Netherlands expanded a UNCDF project in Mozambique and the Government of Belgium is involved in UNCDF projects in Mali, Niger and Eritrea.

The search for lasting solutions to the problems of poverty has also led UNCDF to forge collaborations with many non-traditional partners, including community groups, private entrepreneurs and non-governmental organizations. UNCDF is working to promote collaboration with NGOs and to involve them more in its operations, in line with new policy directives on NGOs and grassroots development being prepared and adopted by UNDP. Collaboration with NGOs is not determined by overall policy but on a project-by-project or country-by-country basis, depending on circumstances. UNCDF tends to work either with international NGOs (such as CARE, Développement International Desjardins and the World Wildlife Fund) that have a local presence, or with appropriate national NGOs (such as the Grameen Agricultural Foundation in Bangladesh and the Foundation for Micro-Enterprise Development in Bolivia).

UNCDF also collaborates often with organizations such as the Ford Foundation, which supported the 2001 Cape Town Symposium on Decentralization and Local Governance in Africa, as well as a Roundtable on Gender in Microfinance.

Most often, NGOs cooperate with UNCDF by providing technical assistance through subcontractual arrangements. However, cooperation with NGOs can vary according to country needs and NGO expertise. Recent initiatives have included projects co-financed with NGOs, and use of NGOs as intermediaries to identify individuals and/or groups to receive credits or loans in communities involved in credit projects. Occasionally, NGOs also contribute to the evaluation of UNCDF projects and programmes. UNCDF also supports a range of NGO projects designed to stimulate grassroots community development and self-help activities, such as a partnership with WWF in Madagascar to development sustainable livelihoods near the fragile ecosystems of a national park.

All Links:

UNDP
World Bank
Government of Australia
Government of the Netherlands
Government of Belgium
CARE
World Wildlife Fund
Ford Foundation