V.C: Poverty Reduction and Gender Achievement

Promote inclusive growth, gender equality and achievement of the MDGs

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66. Poverty reduction is at the centre of United Nations work in development. As stated earlier, while economic growth is essential to human progress, it is not sufficient for achieving the MDGs. UNDP will support countries in accelerating inclusive growth to ensure equitable, broad-based human development. National human development reports, involving a broad spectrum of society in cooperation with national authorities, can inform and complement national planning documents and build the necessary (and often absent) ‘bridges’ between the gross domestic product/financial accounting approach and the wider, deeper human development approach. 67. UNDP will assist countries in formulating, implementing and monitoring MDG-based national development strategies centred on inclusive growth and gender equality. This will include technical support for participatory MDG-related planning, reviewing existing strategies, and conducting needs assessments. UNDP will help identify policy options, undertake diagnostic studies and conduct training to build local and national capacity. Emphasis will also be placed on supporting MDG planning processes at the sub-national level. 68. The contribution of UNDP will focus especially on four critical dimensions of the effort to build inclusive growth and achieve the MDGs. First among those is embedding the pursuit of the MDGs in a national development strategy that links the MDGs to each other, that captures synergies, and is comprehensive. 69. Second, analyzing data to help governments decide on the relative allocation of resources for health, education, irrigation, transport, and other sectors. UNDP can support analysis of the trade-offs, of the interaction between economic decisions and broader dimensions of human development, and of the overall coordination and harmonization process involving the donor community. 70. Third, helping to create an enabling environment for access to a broad range of financial services, supporting the role of the private sector and small and micro-enterprises as potential vehicles for generating growth and employment, reducing poverty, and providing the poor with greater access to markets, goods, and services. 71. Fourth, significantly scaling up public investments needed to achieve the MDGs. UNDP has invested significantly in building its capacity to provide support to countries in formulating and implementing MDG-based national development strategies. The MDG support team will focus on mobilizing and organizing support from the broader United Nations system and the MDG support agenda will be incorporated more closely into the UNDG framework. A UNDG policy network managed by UNDP has been established, and UNDP chairs the coordination meeting of United Nations system chief economists on MDG matters. An MDG ‘monitor’ is being established to track progress towards achieving the MDGs. UNDP will work closely with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to support countries in preparing and implementing MDG-based national development strategies as well as MDG-consistent medium-term expenditure frameworks, and scaling up MDG-related investments. UNDP will also work with the International Labour Organization to integrate employment strategies for poverty reduction into development strategies, and with other United Nations organizations in sectors pertinent to their mandate. 72. An important part of the work will be to support countries in assessing which state interventions can have the largest impact on reducing persistent inequities in a manner that is consistent with MDG achievement in highly unequal middle-income countries. The policy analysis that will emerge from work on inequality will address fundamental issues of the inclusive growth agenda. 73. Effective reduction of poverty, inclusiveness and equity depend on the ability of institutions to deliver public goods and social services, effectively regulate markets in the public interest and provide legal access to economic assets and opportunities in ways that are fair and equitable. UNDP will assist governments in the expansion of access to financial services for the poor. In response to country demand, it will provide support to improving regulatory frameworks for public service delivery to enhance access by the poor. In doing so, UNDP recognizes that no one size fits all needs. UNDP will forge strong partnerships with the Bretton Woods institutions and relevant United Nations organizations working in this area. Fostering inclusive globalization 74. Well formulated domestic policies will not be as effective unless the globalization process is beneficial to all developing countries. It will be particularly important that the international trade and investment regime and development finance are consistent with and supportive of MDG achievement and the fulfillment of other agreed international development goals for all developing countries. UNDP works closely with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to ensure that the globalization process is inclusive and supportive of MDG achievement. 75. Due to expanding demand from countries with limited capacity, UNDP has initiated regional trade and development programmes to build national capacity to analyse trade trends and trade policies and their effects on poverty reduction and human development. Such analysis can assist countries in targeting more effective, pro-poor trade policies, and can also provide support in negotiating bilateral, regional and multilateral trade frameworks that are conducive to human development. UNDP will seek to support the beneficial regional and economic integration of all developing countries. Policy research will be used to inform national multi-stakeholder processes as well as governmental and inter-governmental policymaking processes at national, regional and global levels, and will contribute to regional human development reports. 76. These regional initiatives are complemented by the Enhanced Integrated Framework for Trade Related Technical Assistance to the Least Developed Countries. This is a six-organization initiative – UNDP, the World Trade Organization, UNCTAD, the International Trade Centre, the IMF and the World Bank – that seeks to help the poorest countries overcome supply-side impediments to trade (such as lack of infrastructure or relevant institutions) and build international competitiveness. UNDP will contribute substantively to diagnostic trade integration studies; undertake specific capacity building initiatives, and work to ensure that trade capacity becomes an integral part of national development strategies in least developed countries. 77. Another challenge facing developing countries is the generation of sufficient external financing (aid, debt relief, new borrowing, foreign investment, and capital flows) to supplement domestic resources. With its near-universal country coverage, UNDP can play a unique role in strengthening national capacities to negotiate and manage development finance, including the financial volatility that particularly affects emerging-market developing countries. UNDP also works with DESA and partner countries to advance proposals for MDG-consistent debt sustainability. Mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS on human development 78. By the end of 2005, almost 40 million people were living with HIV around the world, and over 25 million had died of AIDS. Reaching the MDG target of halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 is critical to achieving the other MDGs, particularly targets related to poverty, education, gender equality, and child and maternal mortality. 79. As a founding co-sponsor of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), UNDP is responding to the multisectoral challenges of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and contributing to comprehensive United Nations system action. The UNDP response to HIV/AIDS is guided by the UNAIDS division of labour, which designates UNDP as the lead United Nations organization for addressing dimensions of HIV/AIDS relating to development, governance, mainstreaming, legislation, human rights and gender. Within that framework, and taking into account the role or UNDP in the global response to pandemics as ‘principal recipient of last resort’ for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, during 2008-2011 UNDP will focus its interventions in four priority areas: (a) Integrating HIV/AIDS concerns into national development processes. Mainstreaming HIV priorities into national planning processes and poverty reduction strategies is critical to ensuring implementation of effective multi-sector action to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on sectors, communities and households. As recommended by the Global Task Team on Improving HIV/AIDS Coordination, UNDP is leading a global joint programme with the World Bank and the UNAIDS secretariat to provide technical support and resources to countries. UNDP is in charge of multi-stakeholder capacity-building activities and support to implementation at the country level, while the World Bank guides training activities at the regional level. The joint programme now covers 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and will be expanded to an estimated additional 40 countries during 2008-2011. (b) Strengthening the governance component of AIDS responses: To respond to the complexity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, national responses require coherence and coordination at the national level, coupled with decentralized action and the participation of a wide range of stakeholders across government, civil society and the private sector. Strengthening the coordination capacity of national AIDS authorities, and promoting harmonization and alignment of United Nations system and donor support to national efforts, is a priority in order to avoid duplication and fragmentation of programmes. UNDP also promotes meaningful civil society participation in planning, implementation and evaluation of AIDS responses – particularly networks of people living with HIV, women’s groups, and vulnerable and marginalized groups affected by AIDS. (c) Promoting human rights and gender equality. Protecting human rights and promoting gender equality are essential for reducing vulnerability to HIV and mitigating the impact of AIDS on women and girls. AIDS stigma and discrimination drive the epidemic underground and hinder access to prevention, treatment, care and support services. Promoting an enabling legislative environment and women’s empowerment is critical to scaling up HIV/AIDS responses. (d) Accelerating implementation of Global Fund programmes to tackle AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Countries are receiving more funding than ever before from multilateral initiatives such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, but they are often unable to implement necessary programmes effectively due to insufficient or overstretched capacity. UNDP collaborates with the Global Fund in developing the capacities of national stakeholders to implement Global Fund grants to tackle AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. In circumstances where there are no suitable national recipients, countries have asked UNDP to provide financial and programmatic oversight for Global Fund grants in its capacity as principal recipient of last resort. In addition, UNDP builds the capacity of local partners to develop, implement, manage and track their own Global Fund programmes.

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