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Current News
SANAA, 7 May 2008: UNCDF: Mobilizing Capacity Development at the Local Level in Yemen: Working through a decentralized governance structure to build the capacity of local authorities to plan, finance and implement their own development carries many inherent challenges. One such challenge is access – reaching numerous local councils in remote areas to meet and support their individual capacity building requirements.
FREETOWN, 23 April 2008: Sierra Leone: Rebuilding a Country, One Loan at a Time: UNCDF-supported Microfinance Programme Helps Sierra Leonean Businesses to Recover from the Crisis. After more than a decade of civil war, Sierra Leoneans began returning to their country in 2001 in search of lost homes and businesses. That same year, the American Refugee Committee started providing loans to returning and host populations to restart their businesses and lives. Clients used the loans to purchase basic equipment or supplies to begin or expand small-scale trading, production, and service businesses, such as carpentry, market gardens, or street-side tabletop retail enterprises. Within the first year of operations, the programme served more than 3,000 clients through three local partners, developed systems for managing its portfolio and built local staff capacity to effectively disburse and monitor loans.
DILI, 18 April 2008: Supporting Inclusive Growth in Timor Leste by "Infusing" Financial Services for the Poor New programme addresses financial obstacles at both the level of the micro-entrepreneur and national sectoral policy: UNCDF has launched a major new initiative in Timor Leste that will facilitate easier access to credit, savings and other financial services for the economically disadvantaged, promote inclusive growth and raise the financial sector’s prospects in the country.
KAMPALA – 7 April 2008: UNCDF Pushes the Envelope on the Role of Local Authorities in Promoting Local Economic Development: Second Experts Meeting held in Kampala, Uganda to Map out Specific Strategies. Since the 1990s, many African national governments and the donor community have displayed a growing interest in Local Economic Development (LED) as a means of spurring economic growth and bringing economic benefits to deprived communities. The assumption is that while the public sector can best provide the basic engine for economic development through the provision of roads, markets and electricity, it is the local private sector that ultimately provides the fuel to generate the levels of growth that can bring people out of poverty.
NEW YORK – 2 April 2008: UNCDF Financial Inclusion Practice Area Ranks among Best of Participating Agencies in Global Review: New evaluation measures whether funding agencies are set up to support microfinance effectively. As part of an effort to evaluate how well its internal systems, policies, procedures, and incentives are set up to effectively support microfinance, UNCDF recently submitted itself to an external review coordinated by CGAP – the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor. The result: UNCDF received 83 out of 100 points, ranking consistently high in all five elements necessary to effectively promote inclusive and sustainable financial sectors.
CONAKRY – 18 March 2008: Conflict Prevention and Recovery Through Decentralization and Local Development: UNCDF's effort to build sustainable systems of good local governance in Upper Guinea has heralded more than effective service delivery and new infrastructure - it has brought the first period of peace and stability since social unrest there in early 2007 tore the community apart and destroyed most public buildings.
18 October 2007: UN Organizations Join Forces to Tackle MDG Obstacles in Asia: UNCDF, UNICEF and UNDP work together to improve local delivery of critical MDG-related services in poor Asian communities. The Asia-Pacific region as a whole is making remarkable progress with many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, there is uneven progress between and within countries, with many countries falling behind the rest of the world...
15 October 2007: Inclusive financial sectors: a global issue with an African perspective: An article on Financial Inclusion from the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting 2007. By UNCDF Executive Secretary Richard Weingarten. Although globalisation has been a key driver of the recent economic expansion that has benefited millions of people, these benefits have not been shared equitably either between or within countries. In many cases, particularly in Africa, globalisation has also served to intensify the income inequality gap. Although not a panacea, it is being increasingly realised that an inclusive financial system, one that ensures broad access to a wide range of financial services – from credit and savings to insurance and remittances – can help bridge this gap, leading to reduced poverty and sustained broad-based economic growth.
25 September 2007: Three UN Agencies Join Efforts to Tackle Gender Inequality in Local Development Gender Equitable Local Development seeks to improve women's access to basic services. As part of the worldwide effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals, there is increasing emphasis on the need for local government reforms to be associated with improving service delivery through local governments. What is often left out of the dialogue, however, is a major cross-cutting concern that merits more attention: the gender dimension of local development and in particular women's effective participation in local government, to help meet their specific needs and address gender inequalities...
15 July 2007: UNCDF and UNDP Seek to Accelerate Economic Recovery in Sierra Leone Through Joint Programmes in Local Development The UN Capital Development Fund and the UN Development Programme last week launched a new initiative to reduce poverty in Sierra Leone through the 'Kenema District Economic Recovery Programme' (KDERP). Working as a partner with the Government of Sierra Leone, the UN organizations are seeking to foster local economic development in the country, beginning with a pilot project in Kenema district. The organizations will develop the capacity of both the district and town councils to collect local revenue and provide services and infrastructure...
5 July 2007: UNCDF, UNDP and Partners Launch Landmark Governance Reform Programme in Laos The Government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) recently took another step forward in its efforts to tackle poverty and to exit Least Developed Country status by 2020. Supported by the UN Capital Development Fund, the UN Development Programme and bilateral assistance from the governments of Luxembourg and Switzerland, Lao government officials approved a new phase in the flagship Governance and Public Administration Reform (GPAR) programme, focussing on "Support for Better Service Delivery" (SBSD)...
20 June 2007: UNCDF and Partners to provide $6 million boost to Microfinance in Malawi The Government of Malawi and two United Nations organizations yesterday launched a new $6 million programme that is expected to contribute significantly towards poverty reduction by increasing access to financial services that service poor and low-income population groups. The programme is being called Financial Inclusion in Malawi (Fima)...
12 June 2007: Food Security Addressed through Local Government Initiatives in New Book from UNCDF Food and the Poor: How can democratic local governments reduce food insecurity in Africa?. The United Nations Capital Development Fund has published a new book on food security, with an emphasis on the challenges in Africa. Food and the Poor focuses on Africa and the specific situation of food insecurity for millions of African women and men. Many of its observations and recommendations are also pertinent in other contexts worldwide. The book primarily aims at stimulating further exchange and debate within the UN system and among our development partners and our national government counterparts...
7 June 2007: UNCDF, UNDP and Government of Liberia Launch New National Decentralization and Local Development Programme In response to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's call to bring government closer to the people through a participatory process, a project agreement for the establishment of the Liberian National Decentralization and Local Development Programme (LDLD) has been signed between the government of Liberia, the UN Capital Development Fund and the United Nations Development Programme. The Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs Toga McIntosh signed for the government while the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Jordan Ryan signed on behalf of UNDP...
30 May 2007: UN Group Seeks to Increase Access to Financial Services for Poor Press Conference at UN Headquarters reaches out to international media. A United Nations advisors group that was set up to follow up on the International Year of Microcredit has issued a series of key messages targeted at encouraging different audiences to boost access to financial services - from opening bank accounts to taking out loans to buying insurance - to the poor...
3 May 2007: Government of Ireland Scales up Support for UNCDF Local Development Programme in East Timor Further signaling its support for local governance as an avenue for improving livelihoods, the Government of Ireland recently increased its support for the Local Governance Support Programme (LGSP) in East Timor (Timor-Leste) with an additional EUR 1,150,000 (US$1.53 million) assistance package. The programme is jointly coordinated by UNCDF and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The support was channeled through Irish Aid, the development arm of the Irish Government...
4 April 2007 : Local Governance and the Fight Against Poverty : The experience of UNCDF, UNDP and CIDA in the northeast of Haïti. Hundreds of inhabitants of various communities in the northeast of Haiti have managed to increase and diversify their production, thereby appreciably reducing their poverty, thanks to a series of initiatives developed as part of a United Nations project to support local governance...
16 March 2007: UN Advisors Group Releases Five Key Messages for Four Key Audiences: Messages Targeted at Addressing Obstacles that Prevent the Poor from Access to Finance. The United Nations Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Sectors has released "Five Key Messages for Four Key Audiences": statements of best practices for expanding access to finance for the poor targeted at governments, regulators, development partners and the private sector...
5 March 2007: Remote Ethiopian Community Ensures Sustainable Water Supply: UNCDF strengthens capacity building for planning, budgeting and maintenance, provides grant funds to subsidize construction. KOKIT, METEMA: Gibtsu Sisay is the chairman of the Kokit Kebele Administration Committee. Kokit sits on the Ethiopian side of the border with Sudan, in the northern district of Metema. The region is extremely dry, poor and sparsely populated...
10 June 2006: In one of the poorest region of Burundi (Eastern Province of Rutana, near the Tanzanian borders), in collaboration with the Government of Burundi and UNDP, UNCDF is starting a new programme - Support to Reconstruction and Local Development Programme (‘Projet d’Appui à la Reconstruction et au Développement Communal’). The 5-year programme will benefit a population of about 275,000 people, whose livelihoods have been severely affected, since 1993, by a tragic civil conflict, caused by a combination of social, political and economic factors.
22 January 2006: UNCDF Reports to the Executive Board on its Budgeting and Decision-Making Processes [ pdf English ] | [ pdf Français ]
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