By UN Development Programme
Development solutions that meet today’s interlinked and multi-faceted challenges require flexible financing and strong partnerships.
The Funding Windows are the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) primary mechanism for thematic funding, a critical complement to UNDP’s regular “core” resources. In line with the UN Secretary-General’s Funding Compact, they provide flexible and pooled funding options coupled with rapid and effective oversight, reporting, and accountability principles and mechanisms. They also provide partners, which can be Member States, foundations, and the private sector, with greater coordination of their contributions and enhanced transparency and visibility.
The four thematic Funding Windows are: Poverty and Inequality; Governance, Peacebuilding, Crisis, and Resilience; Nature, Climate, and Energy; and Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, aligned with UNDP’s six signature solutions.
In 2023, Funding Windows delivered over USD 112 million in 119 countries and territories to tackle multidimensional poverty, advance gender equality and women’s empowerment, strengthen accountable and inclusive governance, and build resilience to crises and climate change. Thirty-five percent of resources were invested in fragile contexts and 30% in least developed countries (LDCs). Ninety-three percent of pooled resources across the Funding Windows empowered women and promoted gender equality. The resources invested through the Funding Windows also served as catalysts: each USD 1 invested in pooled resources mobilized an additional USD 4.5.
Through pooled resources, in 2023, the Funding Windows supported UNDP and partners to:
- Improve income generation and livelihood opportunities for over 69,600 people (53% women) and 2,880+ micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and businesses in 20 countries;
- Create over 9,400 short-term jobs in eight crisis and fragile countries;
- Improve access to essential services in 13 countries for over 380,000 people, including by building or rebuilding over 1,300 public infrastructures; and
- Develop 40+ initiatives, policies, and strategies to protect and promote civil society, inclusive spaces, and capacities for public dialogue in 20 countries.
In addition, the Funding Windows supported breaking the cycle of poverty for women and their communities in Africa and Latin America, resolving looming water conflicts between communities in Djibouti, Sri Lanka, and Syria, and developing localized ways to measure multidimensional poverty in Africa and Central Asia. In Western Balkans and Central Asia, UNDP worked to promote information integrity, utilizing innovation, deepening knowledge, and engaging young people.
Funding Windows resources enable UNDP to rapidly respond to crises as they emerge. In February 2023, a series of devastating earthquakes hit southwest Türkiye and central and northwestern parts of Syria. With fast-tracked resources through the Funding Windows, UNDP deployed experts to both countries to respond to the earthquakes and their devastation.
These results would not be possible without strong partnerships, both at global and country levels.
In 2023, UNDP country offices collaborated with 22 UN organizations, programme country governments, civil society, the private sector, academia, international financial institutions (IFIs), and other partners to advance the SDGs through joint efforts.
UNDP thanks continuing 2023 Funding Windows partners, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, and the UK, and the new partners, the Czech Republic, France, Iceland, and Malta, that joined last year, for their valuable partnership.
Read more about Funding Windows results and impact in 2023 from the 2023 Annual Report.
For more information about Funding Windows, please visit UNDP website, or contact fundingwindows@undp.org.