28 September 2015: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) announced a new partnership with the g7+ on implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in countries affected by conflicts and fragility. The g7+ is an association of 20 countries that are or have been affected by conflict and are now in transition to the next stage of development.

The partnership was announced at a high-level event, ‘Implementing the New Development Framework in Countries Affected by Conflict and Fragility,’ organized by the Permanent Missions of Sierra Leone and Sweden, in New York, US, on 28 September 2015.

Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, said the ‘New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States’ developed by the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Stability advocates a sequenced and differentiated approach to development in fragile states, and prioritizes peacebuilding and state-building as integral to sustainable development. Noting that both the New Deal framework and SDG 16 (peaceful and inclusive societies) reflect the fact that there can be no development without peace and no peace without development, Clark said UNDP will prioritize support for implementing the following SDGs: Goal 1 (poverty eradication), Goal 10 (reducing equalities) and Goal 16.

On the new partnership with the g7+, Clark said UNDP will support g7+ member countries to undertake ‘SDG Readiness Assessments’ to help guide the support given by development partners. Clark added that countries affected by conflict and fragility “need champions at the highest level of the international development system,” to ensure that they are not left behind and to support their efforts to implement the SDGs.

The New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States is an agreement signed in 2011 between fragile and conflict affected states, international development partners and civil society, which aims to improve current development policy and practice in fragile states. By the agreement, countries commit to pursuing more political ways of working to address the root causes of conflict and fragility and to channelling investments in fragile states in line with basic but adapted aid effectiveness principles. [UNDP Administrator Statement] [Concept Note for Event] [About the New Deal] [g7+ Website]