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Report of the UNSDG Chair
on the Development Coordination Office

Financing

Quality of funding and financing

Financing

Quality of funding and financing

To maximize Member States’ investments in the UN development system and increase the quality of funding, the General Assembly and ECOSOC welcomed a Funding Compact.

Resident Coordinator commitments under the Funding Compact include ensuring the articulation of a funding strategy for the Cooperation Framework, establishing country-level pooled funds and coordinating UN Country Team (UNCT) submissions to the Joint SDG Fund.

UNCT funding strategies

The Cooperation Framework guidance includes the requirement of a funding strategy. Only a few UNCTs have articulated funding strategies for the Cooperation Framework so far. This number will increase as Cooperation Frameworks are being rolled out, and all RCO strategic planners and economists will be in place.

Country-level pooled funds

A new generation of country-level pooled funds is emerging to support the implementation of national priorities identified in the Cooperation Framework
  • 27 country-level Delivering as One funds continue to be active
  • 15 new additional pooled funds have been established in the wake of the reform
2019 saw an acceleration in the capitalization of these funds
  • papua new guinea
    The UN Country Fund in Papua New Guinea saw a major surge in contributions, including for the first time from the governments of Papua New Guinea and Germany; a EU contribution of about €100 million is in the pipeline.
  • pakistan
    In Pakistan, the UK committed £35 million to the UN Sustainable Development Framework Fund for inter-agency work along the north-west border with Afghanistan.
  • albania
    For the first time, the Government of Albania provided an unearmarked contribution of USD6.5 million to the national SDG Acceleration Fund.
Country-level pool funds often complement global pooled funding mechanisms, strengthen coherence, reduce fragmentation, broaden the donor base, share risk and provide flexibility to adapt to evolving circumstances.

Colombia

In Colombia, the UN Multi Partner Trust Fund for Sustaining Peace has mobilized USD150 million and in 2019 invested USD2.1 million in private sector investment proposals with direct impact on the SDGs, which leveraged private sector contributions seven times higher than the initial investment amount.

The Joint SDG Fund

The Joint SDG Fund has helped to stimulate collective action across UNCTs, governments, private sector, and civil society. It has mobilized so far USD276 million since 2017 and launched two calls for proposals after the RC system reform in 2019:

276 $
Million

2 Call for
Proposals

1.

A call on integrated approaches for SDG acceleration, with a focus on social protection, launched in March 2019 for a total envelope of USD70million, approved 35 joint programmes for vulnerable and marginalized groups, including children, adolescents, minorities, people living with disabilities and the elderly.

2.

A call on SDG financing, launched in December 2019, for a total envelope of USD100 million, – the largest single systemic initiative led by the UN in promoting SDG financing in its history – focused on creating the enabling environment and investing in key initiatives to offer proof of concepts, replication and the scaling-up of existing initiatives.

  • mauritania
    In Mauritania WFP, ILO and UNICEF support an integrated social protection system that will reach 280,000 people in an acutely vulnerable region.
  • cambodia
    In Cambodia, through the combined assistance of the ILO, UNICEF and WHO, a government cash transfer scheme will reach 200,000 pregnant women and children by 2022.
  • ecuador
    In Ecuador, ILO, UN Women and UNDP will enable 1.4 million young people to access decent work by 2022, half of them women.
  • georgia
    In Georgia, the social protection system, health and social services will be transformed to ensure social inclusion and equal rights for people with disabilities.