18 January 2016: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Development Group (UNDG) are committed to supporting the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said in Geneva, Switzerland. She highlighted UNDP’s work in several countries on mainstreaming the Goals, and implementing and monitoring targets, especially on SDG 16 (Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels).

Speaking on ‘SDG Implementation—the UN Development System and UNDP’s Roles,’ at the UN Office in Geneva (UNOG), on 18 January 2016, Clark described how the UN system has aligned its work with the SDGs, and shared examples of early implementation through the Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS) approach. Highlighting the guide from UNDP, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for UN Country Teams, Clark said it has been used in 20 countries, for example to: assess alignment between the SDGs and national development plans in Bhutan, Cabo Verde, Namibia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tonga; integrate the SDGs into national development plans and visions in Colombia and Honduras; and establish a statistical database for key SDG indicators in Somalia. She added that Botswana has hosted dialogues and workshops to map potential shocks from climate change and global economic trends, to identify potential impacts on SDG achievement.Clark also noted that UNDP has worked with Albania, Indonesia, Rwanda, Tunisia and the UK on approaches for implementing and monitoring national goals, as well as targets for SDG 16.

On policy support, Clark said UNDG is mapping Geneva-based organizations’ expertise on the SDGs. She said UNDP will focus support on SDG 1 (End poverty in all its forms everywhere), SDG 10 (Reduce inequality within and among countries) and SDG 16, while also contributing to efforts related to environment and climate change, health and women’s empowerment. On SDG 16, she said UNDP intends to help mainstreaming the Goal into national development processes and build inclusive mechanisms for accountability, monitoring and reporting, including through providing disaggregated data. Clark also said UNDP is co-leading a UNDG Task Team with the UN Statistics Division to develop SDG reporting guidelines.

Also on implementation, UNDG organized a discussion with UN staff and Geoff Mulgan, NESTA, regarding applied thinking and collective intelligence. The discussion considered how to harness the best minds to act smartly as a collective to support SDG achievement. In a blog post reflecting on the discussion, UNDG’s Gina Lucarelli calls for “a resolution to apply collective intelligence as a framework to get Agenda 2030 moving.” [UNDP Administrator Speech] [UNDG Blog]