Can the UNDP do more with less? | The Futures Summit

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN's lead agency for international development, operating in over 170 countries to reduce poverty, strengthen governance, and build resilience against crises. For decades, UNDP has served as a backbone of the multilateral system, deploying technical expertise, coordinating humanitarian and development responses, and helping countries build the institutions and capacities needed for lasting stability. Today, that mission is being tested by a funding environment unlike any since the UN's founding, with official development assistance (ODA) declining by roughly one-third in the past year. For UNDP, core funding remains a concern. While total contributions remain on track, UNDP is expecting further cuts to its core funding base, which make up 11% of total funding. This year, they are facing a projected loss of $188 million in core funding. Without a reversal of core funding trends, UNDP cannot sustain the high level of project delivery needed to fulfill its mandate. Against this backdrop, the agency is forced to make difficult choices about what to prioritize, and how to remain trusted and effective at a pivotal moment.  

Under the leadership of Administrator Alexander De Croo, UNDP is repositioning itself around a sharper mandate and a new financing model, one that moves beyond traditional ODA dependency and toward mobilizing private capital as a core instrument of development. This reflects a growing recognition that the challenge is not simply a shortage of capital globally, but the difficulty of directing it effectively to fragile and underserved contexts. Administrator De Croo has pointed to returns of up to $60 for every dollar invested in the Sustainable Development Goals as evidence that the fundamental case for development remains strong. At the same time, constrained budgets will require UNDP to do fewer things and do them better, sharpening its focus and reducing overlap across the UN system. Central to this is the UNDP positioning development as a tool for preventing conflict and instability, and that security challenges from migration to geopolitical volatility cannot be sustainably addressed without tackling their roots in poverty, inequality, and lack of opportunity. This discussion draws on Administrator De Croo's early tenure at UNDP to explore what a reimagined model of development cooperation can look like, and how the broader multilateral system can close the gap between the resources available and the scale of need on the ground.  

The CSIS Futures Summit is made possible through generous support from Chevron Inc. (Founding sponsor), ADM, Cisco, and the Embassy of Denmark in Washington D.C.