What we do

What we do

Our approach helps ensure that vulnerable and fragile communities are strengthened before, during and after crises, to contribute to more peaceful, resilient and sustainable societies.

UNDP, through the course of crisis, maintains a development lens, and promotes coherence with humanitarian and peacebuilding actions.

UNDP is prioritizing the following three sets of development solutions and programmatic approaches:  

 

​​​​​​Breaking the cycle of fragility

woman leans over water source during protracted conflict in a fragile country
Transforming protracted and fragile contexts

As a development actor present before and throughout protracted crisis and fragility, UNDP brings a long-term view towards the governance and socio-economic conditions necessary for countries to break the cycle, exit from fragility, and resume progress towards the SDGs and 2030 Agenda. UNDP’s engagements aim to achieve the structural transformations needed to address the underlying and root causes of protracted crises and fragility, strengthen the social contract and promote risk-informed, resilient recovery for the furthest behind, leading to more sustainable pathways from fragility.

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Getting ahead of the crisis curve

children in masks under desk in anticipation of crisis event
Anticipating and preventing crisis

UNDP leads policy and programme efforts to get ahead of the curve of future crises by mitigating risk and addressing drivers and root causes of conflicts, disasters and other types of crisis. Prevention is at the heart of UNDP’s development mandate, anchored in its mission to reduce development deficits, fight inequalities, and foster inclusion. While this can apply broadly to all programme countries, the focus is on contexts where risks of conflict and other man-made shocks are increasing, or which are exposed to high levels of recurrent risk.

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Investing in hope – from jobs to justice

smiling man hold the rim of his hardhat on a UNDP project to respond and recover from crisis
Sustaining development throughout crisis

UNDP engages in the midst of and throughout crisis to sustain development engagement. UNDP supports local authorities, communities and people affected by crisis, and initiates early recovery processes, bridging towards longer-term structural transformation, resilience-building and sustainable development, with a focus on green and equitable recovery pathways. This often applies following a sudden-onset-crisis triggered by either disasters or man-made shocks. Well-planned crisis response can provide an opportunity to transform the development road map of a given country and overcome even pre-existing development gaps and vulnerabilities.

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