Locations
Crisis
Getting ahead of the crisis curve
Anticipating and preventing crisis
Prevention is at the heart of UNDP’s development mandate, anchored in its mission to reduce development deficits, fight inequalities, and foster inclusion. 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.
Crisis category: Contexts where risks of conflict and other man-made shocks are increasing, or which are exposed to high levels of recurrent risk.
Recognizing that investment in prevention and protection from risks is the only way out of a world of deepening inequality and compounding insecurities, UNDP is working to shift responses to crisis from a culture of reaction to one of prevention.
What we offer
Building on UNDP’s Crisis Risk Dashboards (CRDs), a global Risk Anticipation Hub is being established to produce futures-informed decision intelligence applied to decision-making on crisis-related risks and uncertainties that are likely to impact on countries’ development trajectories.
The hub will offer:
- Data collection and visualization
- Analysis, sensemaking and foresight, and
- Clear links into rapid decision-making on investment priorities and anticipatory programme actions.
This will enable the organization to respond with agility and to course correct – to be more risk-informed and adaptive.
Building on the established country-specific CRDs, the Hub will support country offices and partners upon request, including development practitioners, policy makers, programme countries and other partners, as well as supporting decision-intelligence systems at regional and global levels.
UNDP supports countries to:
- Develop disaster and multi-risk informed development plans and strategies
- Strengthen disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk
- Invest in disaster reduction for resilience
- Enhance early warning and preparedness in the realm of disasters from hazards such as earthquakes, floods, droughts or cyclones
- Strengthen pre-disaster recovery capacities and post disaster recovery for building resilience.
This includes UNDP’s engagement in the Capacity for Disaster Reduction Initiative (CADRI), a global partnership that helps countries reduce disaster and climate risks through providing access to a unique pool of multidisciplinary expertise in various socio-economic sectors.
UNDP provides practical guidance to strengthen the institutional, legal and policy environment for disaster and climate risk management, for example by supporting risk governance assessments to analyze capacities and gaps, strengthening institutional and regulatory systems, or fostering urban and community-based disaster/climate risk management.
UNDP supports national capacities for conflict analysis, conflict sensitivity and impact measurement.
UNDP will significantly expand its capacity to support county office to analyse conflicts, review existing portfolios and develop new programmes targeting the root causes of the conflicts and/or mitigating conflict drivers.
The Joint UNDP-UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention deploys Peace and Development Advisors at county and regional levels, supporting UN Country Teams in some 120 countries with support on conflict analysis and sensitivity.
UNDP strengthens capacities for conflict prevention and peacebuilding at regional, national and sub-national levels and across borders.
The Joint UNDP-DPPA Programme supports UN Country Teams and national stakeholders on conflict prevention and sustaining peace, strengthening: capacities for mediation, dialogue and consensus building, social cohesion, conflict prevention and peacebuilding and community resilience to address psychosocial support, hate speech and information pollution (with a particular focus on the role of youth as peace-builders). Support includes cross-border, regional, national, and sub-national policies, strategies, and action plans.
UNDP has also launched a new Prevention Academy within its Crisis Academy.
UNDP supports countries through:
- Designing and implementing transitional programmes in democratic governance, social cohesion and justice
- Support to electoral processes
- Support for security governance and consolidation of security sector reform
- Establishing infrastructures for peace that include early warning systems for monitoring community conflicts and violence likely to have an impact.
In contexts where irregular or non-constitutional transitions have happened, UNDP supports participatory transitions back to constitutional order, in close consultation with DPPA, through electoral and other means.
Through the Blueprint for Transformation, Global Programme for Strengthening the Rule of Law and Human Rights, Phase IV provides support for the rule of law, access to justice and people-centered security systems; fundamental prerequisites to preventing crisis, widespread abuse, and atrocities.
These efforts seek to build accountable and inclusive institutions that can protect human rights. Support includes capacity building of national human rights institutions and civil society, which in turn help prevent governance crises, such as unconstitutional changes of government.
UNDP supports evidence building and research on the prevention of violent extremism (PVE) including through groundbreaking studies in Africa and in Asia.
Based on these studies, UNDP designs PVE interventions promoting diversity and tolerance, addressing the specific needs and challenges of youth, supporting return and reintegration of former fighters, and developing data monitoring systems to track hate speech and social cohesion online.
UNDP works to support conflict-affected and fragile countries through integrated solutions that address the impacts of the climate emergency on conflict.
This is done through UNDP’s engagement in the Climate Security Mechanism, together with DPPA UNEP and DPO but also through UNDP’s programmatic support to government’s work on climate security with emphasis on climate-proofing conflict prevention and peacebuilding, and ensuring that nature, climate and energy efforts not only do no harm, but also contribute positively to peace.
Under the Climate Promise, UNDP is on-the-ground in 46 conflict-affected and fragile contexts pursuing work to this end. Climate-induced displacement is also an area where UNDP offer integrated approaches linking human mobility, climate adaptation, urbanisation, local development, and conflict lenses.
UNDP fosters and strengthens social cohesion at local and/or national levels and strengthens local and national institutions that promote conflict prevention and peace.
Social cohesion is defined as the extent of trust in local, provincial, or national government, as well as horizontally within and amongst communities, and between displaced groups and host communities.
UNDP supports governments and citizens to address the distrust and challenges of managing difference and diversity.
UNDP supports the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda by ensuring that all conflict prevention and peacebuilding programming, policy and analysis is gender responsive, addressing gender inequality as a root cause of crisis and conflict and advocating for the participation and leadership of women in prevention and peacebuilding efforts across all levels.
Spotlight
Conflict prevention in action
In Kenya, a holistic approach to electoral support reduced the risk of electoral violence through data collection, early warning, and dialogue processes. In Lebanon, a Tensions Monitoring System has been established to collect data, analyse and provide feedback and recommendations on addressing community tensions. In the Philippines, UNDP accompanied national counterparts throughout the peace process. In Nigeria, UNDP contributed to the creation of the national peace commission. In Guatemala, UNDP’s engagement with insider mediation has helped mitigate tensions with indigenous communities. In the South Caucasus, UNDP reduced inter-community tensions though the restoration of cultural heritage sites.
Spotlight
UNDP's Crisis Risk Dashboards
To help countries prevent crisis, UNDP’s Crisis Risk Dashboards provide data aggregation and visualization for risk analysis, and inform decision-making processes on policy and programme priorities. Active globally, and in 41 countries and regional hubs, the dashboards can map trends in violent incidents, hate speech, human rights concerns, protests, and others. These crisis risk capacities are being consolidated into a new Risk Anticipation Hub, for data engineering and sensemaking, and to inform fast and effective decision-making on anticipatory and preventive actions and programming to address crisis risks.