Preventing Violent Extremism and International Development Agenda: Putting Theory into practice A New York Roundtable Event — 26 May 2017 Assistant Administrator and Director, UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to attend this Roundtable on “putting into practice, the...

The AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) and UNDP Regional Service Centre for Africa, under the Africa Regional Grant on HIV: Removing Legal Barriers, will host the second Africa Regional Dialogue on HIV, TB and the Law on 3-4 August 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

African governments need to integrate entrepreneurship more fully into their industrialisation strategies, according to the African Economic Outlook (AEO) 2017. The Outlook is produced annually by the AfDB, OECD and UNDP.

The EDI is a composite index made up of three weighted components – the extractive sector’s contribution to export earnings, fiscal revenues and GDP – and ranges from 0 to 100 with 100 being the highest dependence score.

New York — UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa convened a high level event hosted by the African Union Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations on Tuesday 16 May 2017. Billed as a knowledge building and sharing event, the meeting, which was attended by more than 100 participants, including 16 Permanent...

Refugees and host communities turn challenges into opportunities

With climate change, continuing urbanization trends and demographic growth – especially also in coastal areas, the impacts of floods are expected to increase dramatically in the next decades. Finding innovative and sustainable ways to work together with rather than against nature for effective flood risk reduction will be critical.

This first edition of the biennial Africa Data Revolution Report aims to address issues on the process of transforming data ecosystems, from the status quo to an aspirational state where data from both conventional and new sources are being harnessed to better inform decision-making and enable sustainable development with contributions from diverse data communities.

In doing its work, UNDP’s programmes are informed by past experiences and lessons from interventions implemented, wherever the organisation has a footprint, to address emerging issues and new realities– whether in the form of policy support, capacity building, technical advice or knowledge brokering. The issues that define development are unique from country to country and region to region – from climate change to conflicts – the knowledge generated from UNDP’s interventions, when managed efficiently and utilized effectively, has the potential to give the organisation an even more unique character.

Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is with great pleasure and honor that I am attending, on behalf of UNDP, this high-level government seminar on collective leadership. The Gambia is entering a phase of renaissance. The trauma has been deep as it lasted 23 years, almost a generation. It will take sustained...

The Lake Chad basin in Nigeria is on the brink of famine. For seven years, Boko Haram insurgents have descended on communities, driving people from their homes and killing thousands. The level of destruction is breathtaking. But more shocking is the vulnerable position survivors are in now. There are 5.7 million...

People in Mozambique are feeling the impacts of climate change. Natural disasters such as droughts, floods and cyclones are hitting the country hard. However, communities are not prepared for the repercussions. Many locals depend on the environment for their daily needs and disasters increase the risk of them falling into poverty.

In the run up to the Ocean Conference in June, this blog series explores issues related to oceans, seas, marine resources and the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14, Life below water. On Africa’s West Coast, the ocean is everything. For thousands of years, its bounty has provided food for families,...

Climate change portends bigger wildfires that are more difficult to control. As a result, wildfire management is becoming more important in order to reduce the damage to people, the economy and the environment.

Abidjan, 27 April 2017 — The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the GSMA are joining forces to harness the power of mobile technology to accelerate implementation of the universal Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs, otherwise known as the Global Goals, are a universal call to action to end...

Abdoulaye Mar Dieye Growth without resilience is but the ruin of the economy  Financial Afrik: Many African countries have engaged in medium- or long-term emergence programmes. What is your overall analysis of the situation? This is a topical issue. I am aware of a total of 27 African countries engaged in a...

New York, 25 April —13 million people will soon receive long-lasting insecticide treated bednets in some of the hardest to reach and conflict-affected regions of Chad. As regional insecurity continues to affect population movements in the country, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Fund...

North-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen are facing conflict and drought and are now approaching famine, with 20 million people near starvation in the worst preventable humanitarian crisis since World War II. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for US$4.4 billion by July to avert “catastrophe” in the four countries.

After more than a decade of conflict in which rape has been used as a weapon, sexual violence is sadly a fact of life for both women and men in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Congolese men and women are working courageously to eradicate this scourge. Here are some of their stories.

New York – The President of the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today welcomed the appointment of Achim Steiner as the Organization’s new Administrator. Mr Steiner’s nomination for UNDP Administrator was forwarded by Secretary-General António Guterres to the General...

New York – The following is a statement on behalf of President of the UNDP Executive Board, Ambassador Ib Petersen, Permanent Representative of Denmark to the UN, on the departure of Helen Clark as Administrator of UNDP: “Helen Clark today completes her time as head of the United Nations Development...

UNDP Farewell Party for Helen Clark Statement by M. Abdoulaye Mar DIEYE, UNDP Regional Director New York, 18 April 2017   I have been attending, lately, a series of Farewell parties for Helen Clark. I have heard a bouquet of testimonies on her leadership skills, her political acumen and her phenomenal human touch. No...

Approximately 2.1 million Liberians have registered to vote in the upcoming October 2017 presidential and legislative elections, according to provisional results. Almost half of those registered are women. Voter registration was conducted between 1 February and 14 March 2017. Incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has reached the two-term limit for presidential office, which means a new president will be elected, as well as members of the House of Representatives by the end of 2017.

It is my great pleasure and honor to present this keynote speech at this follow up event to the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on Africa’s development (TICAD VI) on the theme “Achieving the SDGs in Africa through Structural Transformation” that is co-hosted by the Government of Japan, JICA, United...

The Crown Prince is an advocate for UNDP’s efforts to assist Member States achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1- to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. His visit to Liberia is an opportunity to see first-hand the country’s progress in Ebola recovery, in consolidating peace, and plans for taking forward the SDGs.

Abidjan, 31 March 2017 — The second edition of the International Conference on the Emergence of Africa (ICEA) has concluded after three days of discussions on the theme of implementing plans for emergence in Africa. ICEA 2017 began its work on Tuesday, 28 March, after the opening ceremony chaired by H.E....

Abidjan, 29 March 2017 — Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), attended the opening ceremony of the Second Conference on the Emergence of Africa (ICEA) yesterday. The ICEA, the first edition of which was held in Abidjan in March 2015, is intended to be an exchange...

Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator Opening Speech at the Second International Conference on the Emergence of Africa Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire 28 March 2017  I am very pleased to join H.E. Alassane Ouattara, the President of Cote d’Ivoire, in welcoming you to this second International Conference on the Emergence of...

For the first time ever, Africa now has its own legally recognized umbrella grouping of organisations of persons with disabilities (DPOs) to ensure that decisions concerning disabled people are taken with and by persons with disabilities, their families and their organizations at pan- African, sub-regional, national and local levels. The African Disability Forum (ADF) was formally registered on 15 March 2017 by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Eighteenth session of the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa First Joint Meeting of RCM-Africa and UNDG UN system Support to Harnessing Demographic Dividend through investments in the Youth Dakar, Senegal, 25 March 2017   Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,   I am delighted to be part of this very first...

Millions of people are not benefiting from progress, with the gap set to widen unless deep-rooted development barriers, including discrimination and unequal political participation, are tackled. A quarter-century of impressive human development progress continues to leave many people behind, with systemic, often unmeasured, barriers to catching up. A stronger focus on those excluded and on actions to dismantle these barriers is urgently needed to ensure sustainable human development for all. These are the findings of the Human Development Report 2016, entitled ‘Human Development for Everyone’, released today by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The report finds that although average human development improved significantly across all regions from 1990 to 2015, one in three people worldwide continue to live in low levels of human development, as measured by the Human Development Index.

Women, girls, youth, the unemployed, people living in rural areas and those in conflict-affected areas are being left behind in myriad ways. Sub-Saharan Africa is losing around a third of human development outcomes - higher than any other developing region – to inequalities in health, education and economic opportunities.

Gambia has long been fraught with deep social and economic inequality. More than 60 percent of its people live in poverty. Data from Gambia Bureau of Statistics indicate that almost 30 percent of the active labor force is unemployed, with slightly higher unemployment rate in the rural areas (31.1 per cent) than the urban area (28.4 per cent). Moreover, unemployment is highest for the youth (39 per cent).

Since December 2016 more than 600 Burundian young women and men wearing t-shirts printed with the message “I commit to peace for my country” have been busy rehabilitating roads, and cleaning and constructing drainage systems in parts of the capital city Bujumbura to help build stronger community ties to reinforce peace.

Lake Tanganyika is one of the world’s natural wonders. Holding about 17 percent of the globe’s surface freshwater, it is also the oldest and the deepest lake in Africa. Bordering four countries (Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Zambia), it offers a source of livelihood for over 10 million people.

Brussels, 14 March 2017 – Persistent insecurity and fragility in the Central African sub-region can only be addressed if national and regional actors, as well as international partners, prioritize peacebuilding and development of border areas, boost citizen’s engagement and participation, and improve governance...

Mr. President of the Republic, Mr. Prime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Government, Ladies and Gentlemen, Ministers of the Countries represented here, Ladies and Gentlemen, Representatives of the Institutions of the Republic, Your Excellencies, Ambassadors and Heads of Diplomatic Missions, Dear...

Efficient conversion technologies and sustainable land management practices save forests and livelihoods.