New York, Nov 4 – The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) signed a one-million-dollar (US$) Development Services Agreement (DSA) today, to help countries unlock climate finance to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Under the Agreement, UNDP will share its expertise with KOICA over the course of three years (2022 Nov - 2025 Nov) to help identify and design interventions in select countries that could distinctly benefit from climate financing and unlock the necessary resources required for implementing their NDCs.

“Financial resources and sound investments are needed to address climate change. Our new collaboration with KOICA will help us support governments on their climate mitigation and adaptation actions, and to build resilience”, stated Haoliang Xu, UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.

The partnership comes at a time when countries are coming together at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to take action towards achieving the world's collective climate goals, as agreed under the Paris Agreement.

“UNDP has been a valuable partner of KOICA in its development cooperation efforts for over 15 years. This new partnership for GCF-funded activities is expected to pave the way for combining experiences and expertise of both KOICA and UNDP to further promote climate resilient development of developing countries and achieve global net-zero, thereby creating greater impacts of climate ODA projects through their concerted efforts.” said Seok Hwa Hong, Vice President, KOICA.

UNDP forges this partnership with KOICA — a Direct Access Entity (DAE) of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) — as KOICA moves towards building an effective and efficient grant-aid structure and pipeline of initiatives focused on supporting climate action in developing countries. The UNDP-KOICA partnership will link up with other UNDP partnerships including with the GCF and Global Environmental Facility (GEF).

UNDP will share its experiences in a series of workshop and directly support KOICA in designing viable proposals that will blend climate funds, as an anchor investor, with additional co-financing leveraged from other sources, including Korean public and private sector financing. Climate funds, such as the GCF, are accelerating finance for transformative action on climate change, with particular focus on enhancing direct access, an indication that partnerships like this have significant catalytic potential.

About UNDP

UNDP works in 170 countries and territories to eradicate poverty while protecting the planet. UNDP helps countries develop strong policies, skills, partnerships, and institutions so they can sustain their progress. More information is available at: www.undp.org.

About Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA, Korean: 한국국제협력단) was established by the Republic of Korea as a governmental organization for Official Development Assistance (ODA) to implement and enhance the effectiveness of Korea’s grant aid and technical cooperation programs for developing countries. More information is available at: www.koica.go.kr.

Contact Information:

UNDP: Sangita Khadka, sangita.khadka@undp.org, Tel: +1 212 906 5043

KOICA: Sunha Jung, sjung@koica.go.kr, Tel: +82 31 740 0888