Berlin a ‘Launch Partner’ to UNDP’s Accelerator Labs in 60 Countries
By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has greeted the German government’s decision to raise a further 25 percent in funding from its 2019 core resources, which follows a 60 percent increase for 2018. Germany is currently the largest government donor to UNDP.
Germany – which assumes a seat in the UN Security Council on January 1, 2019 as a non-permanent member for 2019-2020 – has also confirmed that it will become a “launch partner” in supporting UNDP’s pioneering and groundbreaking launch in January 2019 of Accelerator Labs in 60 developing countries.
These Labs will become integral to UNDP’s existing country-based teams and infrastructure, and will enable UNDP to connect its global network and development expertise spanning 170 countries, with a more agile, innovation capacity to support countries in their national development priorities.
“We welcome the decision by Germany to invest in UNDP’s core capacity as well as our cutting-edge Accelerator Labs initiative,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner. “It is my hope that by supporting and connecting a diverse group of government actors, entrepreneurs, academics, and civil society with global networks of development innovation and best practice, we can surface nationally inspired solutions that will accelerate and scale up progress towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs]”.”
Alongside its increase in core contributions from 40 to 50 million EUR in 2019, Germany will be a launch partner in the “Accelerator Labs” with 10 Million EUR for 2019. Both contributions have been approved with the budget for 2019 by the Bundestag (federal parliament), which is expected to come into effect in early 2019. Additional launch partners will be announced in the near future, the UNDP said in a press release.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet. At its heart are the 17 SDGs, an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership to end poverty, improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth; and all this while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
Germany’s Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Gerd Müller said: “The work that UNDP is doing is absolutely essential in a changing world where countries are increasingly turning their backs on multilateralism. Development in particular is a global challenge that we can only tackle and achieve through concerted action as a global community of nations.”
“The SDGs and the 2030 Agenda require a commitment from all of us, every nation and every individual,” added Müller. “That is why we are giving our backing to UNDP and to its new initiative, the Accelerator Labs. Their task will be to bring together clever minds around the globe who have good ideas regarding trailblazing solutions for the future. That way, the goals of the 2030 Agenda will be translated into concrete action on the ground.”
UNDP works in over 170 countries, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. The Accelerator Labs will be connected and supported by a global learning network and a wide array of partners to build on work already done by UNDP in incubating policy and innovation in labs in over a dozen countries.
“While all nations are committed to the SDGs, time is of the essence,” said Steiner. “With its global presence and as a trusted partner to development actors, UNDP sees these Labs as a catalyst for a next generation of development solutions, emerging from within the countries we serve.”
The new Strategic Plan 2018-2021 sets out a focused menu of new policy and programme services to Member States, which will greatly benefit from Germany’s generous funding, says the UNDP press release.
The four-year plan has been designed to be responsive to the wide diversity of the countries the UNDP serves. The diversity is reflected in three broad development contexts: Eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions; Accelerate structural transformations; and Build resilience to shocks and crises.
To respond to these issues, and better focus its resources and expertise to deliver on the 2030 Agenda, UNDP has identified a set of approaches that we call our Signature Solutions: keeping people out of poverty; governance for peaceful, just, and inclusive societies; crisis prevention and increased resilience; environment: nature-based solutions for development; clean, affordable energy; and Women’s empowerment and gender equality. [IDN-InDepthNews – 13 December 2018]
Photo credit: UNDP
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