Integrated national financing frameworks (INFFs) can help countries design and deliver financing solutions that can support the achievement of national sustainable development objectives, and a sustainable recovery. Since INFFs were first introduced as part of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, interest in them has grown steadily. The international community has responded by developing tools and providing funding for national reform efforts.  In the last two years, the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development (IATF), led by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), has published a series of guidance materials to support INFF implementation. Governments in over 80 countries are working with UN Country Teams, UNDP and other UN system agencies to implement INFFs. The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout have further heightened interest in INFFs, with several countries adopting them in support of recovery plans. With a view to complementing the implementation support provided by partners, UNDESA is proposing a targeted support program for sustainable development and SDG Financing in 4 Small Island Developing States (SIDS), as part of the DESA-led Financing for SIDS (FINS Initiative). DESA’s work is complementary to UNDP country support, providing high caliber integrated experts who work in country, as well as tailored mentoring support and training at the regional and global level. This in-depth support both addresses the special needs of SIDS and will serve as a basis for refining and developing global analytical work. The SIDS work will thus be levered to support implementation of INFFs across a wide group of countries. INFFs can help SIDS develop effective and comprehensive frameworks for financing sustainable development and the SDGs at the country level, by considering all types of finance (i.e., public, private, domestic, and international) in a risk-informed manner. Initially, three African SIDS (Guinea Bissau, Mauritius, and Seychelles) expressed interest in receiving support on financing for sustainable development under the DESAled FINS initiative. To obtain support under the project, the government entity in charge of overseeing and coordinating the design of the financing strategy and its alignment with the country’s national development priorities (most usually the Ministry of Finance), in coordination with other relevant core Ministries as appropriate, must send a formal request for support to UNDESA through the UN Resident Coordinator Offices (UNRCOs).  As of August 2022, Mauritius and Seychelles have sent formal requests of support for the development of an integrated national financing strategy to UNDESA. This was the product of substantive exchanges with country officials that were facilitated by the UNRCO, UN country teams (UNCTs) and benefitted from engagement with other development partners such as UNDP.  Country selection for the project is a continuing process and conversations are well underway with other SIDS with similar levels of interest and political backing for INFF operationalization, such as the Dominican Republic and Vanuatu. 

The 2020-2022 World Social Protection Report noted that globally, only 46.9% of the population was effectively covered by at least one social protection benefit, and in Africa and Asia and the Pacific, this is even lower, at 17.4% and 44.1%, respectively. Evidence suggests that countries with better social protection policies and programmes are better at curbing the effects of the Triple Crisis, with overall positive effects on health, education, labour market outcomes, income inequality, and social cohesion. Hence, it is imperative to build countries’ capacity to build robust, sustainable, gender-sensitive and crisis-responsive social protection policies and programmes.   This project will support six selected countries in the regions of Africa and Asia and the Pacific to strengthen their social protection systems and programmes’ capacities to identify, reach out and expand to those left behind and build robust, sustainable, inclusive and crisis responsive policies and programmes by training policy makers on the use of already existing digital platforms that can provide useful guidance on monitoring SDG progress and acceleration by identifying those groups left furthest behind, understanding the factors and circumstances behind the Triple Crisis that affects them and help building the national capacities to accelerate participant countries development plans. Furthermore, the project will help developing local capacities to use the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) as an analytical tool to identify the most vulnerable people, show aspects in which they are deprived and, consequently, target resources and design policies more effectively. This work is expected to enhance capacities of target countries to develop integrated social protection policies and strategies that enhance the delivery of social protection services and increase resilience to future crises in the six selected countries in the regions of Africa and Asia and the Pacific, which would be demonstrated by the enhanced capacity of selected countries to design and implement public policies and programmes towards universal social protection, with a focus on identifying and incorporating into the policies and programmes the most affected people and people in vulnerable situations who are disproportionately impacted by the Triple Crisis

Despite progress in reducing both the number of undernourished persons and the prevalence of undernourishment in recent decades, people living in rural areas have been left behind, with many continuing to face grinding poverty and hunger. In particular, smallholder farmers in remote and mountainous areas, drought and desertification- affected regions and small island developing states encounter constant challenges for growing crops, putting them at risk of poverty and hunger. The socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has further compounded these challenges, adding urgency to the call to galvanize action and delivery of the SDGs and the eradication of poverty and hunger, particularly in rural areas. Inadequate land use patterns and lack of sufficient arable land, land degradation, and desertification compound the perennial problems of poverty and hunger in many developing countries. Juncao technology that the National Engineering Research Centre of the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University of China has developed, has allowed smallholder farmers to grow nutritious mushrooms from dried, chopped grasses, without cutting down trees and damaging the environment. This environmental-friendly technology can help small-scale farmers and farming communities to develop a low-cost, commercial-scale mushroom cultivation industry that can provide sustainable livelihood options for family farmers and rural entrepreneurs along agri-food value chains. In addition, the technology can also be used for producing cattle feed, methane gas as a renewable source of energy and minimize soil erosion. The key beneficiaries of the project will be small-holder farmers, people living in poverty, women and youth, rural entrepreneurs along agri-food value chains, agriculture experts, and policymakers from relevant line ministries and government agencies, in particular in the ministries/agencies of agriculture, forestry, and of planning and economic development and  other stakeholders who would be equipped with the technology. Research scientists in the participating project countries will also benefit from the project as they will be able to enhance their knowledge and understanding of all aspects of the technology through study tours and online classes. Through south-south cooperation, this project aims to enhance knowledge and strengthen national capacities of developing countries to improve their policies and programmes supporting sustainable agriculture through the transfer of Juncao technology, contributing to getting back on track and accelerating global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, the project will address rural poverty and hunger, decent job deficits and inequality as key levers to getting back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The project will also advance efforts from development partners such as the Initiative on Partnership for Africa’s Development that was jointly launched by the People’s Republic of China and African Union on 28 May 2021. The Initiative aims at garnering more support for Africa’s post-pandemic recovery and development by increasing international support to Africa in such areas as response to COVID-19 , post-COVID reconstruction, sustainable development, agriculture, agro-industry, environmental protection, and scientific and technical cooperation. The main stakeholders that will be involved in the implementation of the project will include DESA/DSDG, as the lead implementing entity, and the National Engineering Research Centre for Juncao Technology of the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University of China. Partners such as the AUDA-NEPAD Agency will also be engaged to implement the project in Africa. The expected results of the project are (1) enhance agricultural productivity and added value of agricultural products by building the knowledge and capacities of smallholder farmers’ and agricultural researchers to adopt Juncao technology in the project countries; (2) enhanced capacities of smallholder farmers, agricultural researchers and entrepreneurs along agri-food value chains in the products and use of Juncao technology; (3) foster the creation of decent work in rural areas and related off-farm activities, especially for women and young people; (4) enhanced capacities of policymakers in relevant ministries to implement the transfer of Juncao technology through South-South cooperation, including through exchanging experiences, best practices and expertise, and to formulate specific policy changes, including extension systems that provide quality services to smallholder farmers and services to enhance business, marketing and entrepreneurial skills for agricultural products from small-scale producers, focusing particularly on women and youth, who tend to have less access to these resources; and (5) the establishment of a network of practitioners from the project countries who would continue to support one another with continued implementation of the technology after the life of this project.

Today more than half of the world’s population has no access to social protection at all. In Lao PDR and Tajikistan exclusion is even larger with, respectively, 87.9 and 73.4 percent of the population with no income security in cases of old age, maternity, unemployment and other life cycle and socioeconomic risks.  Poor governance, lack of integrated policy responses, and insufficient and unsustainable financing of social protection are key issues for a number of countries including Lao PDR and Tajikistan in their efforts to extending the coverage of social protection to all. There is a growing need for awareness raising at the global and national levels as well as for the sharing of knowledge and good practices, and the development of practical guidance for the strengthened governance and digitalization of social security systems, identified as a key accelerator enabling to leapfrog some of the bottlenecks to close the social protection coverage gap. The main objective of the project is thus to accelerate and extend universal social protection through the strengthening of the policy design, administrative governance and the digital transformation of social protection systems in Lao PDR and Tajikistan, and promote lessons learned to benefit other countries in the Global South. The project will pursue a two-fold strategy. In two focus countries, Lao PDR, and Tajikistan, technical support will be provided through the ILO country offices to strengthen governance, social security administration and services, and technical capacities of institutions and practitioners, including through the promotion of connectivity and digitalization. In parallel, the project will develop a knowledge base of good practices as well as hands-on training modules including on digital transformation of social protection planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation. These knowledge products will be useful for all countries and disseminated widely through UNRC network, DESA and ILO websites, seminars/workshops and training sessions including as part of the course offer of the ILO International Training Centre in Turin.

This project aims to strengthen capacity of four developing countries to develop and implement integrated forest landscape restoration plans to halt deforestation, tackle its drivers and its intensifying factors, and make progress towards the forest-related SDGs. It also aims to build capacity for developing and implementing policy measures for enhancing mobilization of public and private sector investments into forest landscape restoration. The expected outputs include background situation analysis studies on the status of forests, levels and drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, forest management and forest landscape restoration and other measures to combat deforestation; national experts with capacity to develop and implement integrated forest landscape restoration plans; national policy frameworks and  measures for attracting and harnessing public and private sector investments in forest landscape restoration; and development and dissemination of tool kits and training materials to other additional countries to promote upscaling of these activities beyond the project countries.

SIDS have been persistently lagging other comparable economies in the developing world on the path to sustainable development. This is caused in part by the diverse characteristics of SIDS, which include low- and below sea-level- lying coastal communities, multi-island jurisdictions, and their attendant vulnerabilities. Many also have small populations or limited usable land area, which limits their development options. The COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events have further aggravated this situation by hampering the sustainable economic growth of these island economies and undermining the security of their populations. Promoting innovation and digital transformation in the Caribbean can help countries to ‘build back better’ by delivering services in a more effective and inclusive way, particularly to underserved, rural, physically disconnected, and otherwise marginalized segments of society.However, the public sector in the Caribbean appears to be facing a capacity challenge in delivering change and transformation, with challenges being experienced in relation to mindsets, capacity, processes, and right skillsets. Implementing effective, accountable, and inclusive governance and institutions, and pursuing opportunities for innovation and digital transformation, including digital services, could build resilience      through progressive structural changes, and mitigate geographical remoteness. Their populations could then be provided with reliable, fast, and affordable connectivity and better access to services, such as health and education.Implemented by UN DESA and ECLAC Caribbean, with the collaboration of the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD), this project aims to strengthen public sector national capacities for Innovation, Digital Government Transformation and Changing Mindsets in three Caribbean SIDS after the pandemic by: (i )strengthening public servants’ skills, knowledge, and understanding of the importance of public sector transformation by promoting changing mindsets strategies and approaches in support of innovation and digital transformation  to support the implementation of the SDGs ; and (ii) strengthening institutional arrangements, structures, mechanisms and approaches to promote innovation and digital governance transformation to improve public service delivery, leaving no one behind and reaching the furthest behind first. In this regard, multi-island jurisdictions are likely to especially benefit from improved governance and institutional service delivery modalities.

This project will contribute to strengthened capacity of developing countries to identify and address the vulnerabilities to aggressive tax avoidance that produce the greatest risks based on the country’s economic circumstances, which would be demonstrated by the application by each country of a risk assessment tool to identify its most significant risks from aggressive tax avoidance. Second, the project will assist each country in developing a customized action plan to address those risks. Third, the project will provide technical assistance to each target country to support implementation of the action plan.This project will complement recent UN projects that have focused on various aspects of IFFs, including measurement, reporting, data and statistical capacity. It will do so through close engagement with the target countries to identify the specific tax avoidance structures used by MNEs in those target countries and then assisting them, including through technical assistance, in addressing the related vulnerabilities in their tax policy and administration.Accordingly, the project will also promote sustainable development by helping to reduce risk and build resilience and preparedness to deal with aggressive tax avoidance from MNEs in developing countries facing different geographic and economic circumstances. The target countries will encompass a range of industries and engage with multiple trading partners so that the experience, materials and tools developed during this project will respond to the different challenges faced by a broad range of developing countries.The project will be implemented by UNDESA/FSDO. In planning, implementing and learning from project activities, UNDESA/FSDO will closely collaborate with ECA, ECLAC, ESCAP, UNCTAD and UNSD, as well as the Resident Coordinator Offices.

Micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) contribute to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  MSMEs help reduce levels of poverty through job creation and economic growth, they are key drivers of employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship for women, youth and groups in vulnerable situations, and also make up the majority of the world’s food producers and ensure sustainable food production systems, they play a critical role in closing the gender gap as they ensure women’s full and effective participation in the economy and in society. Despite their noted contributions to the achievement of the SDGs, MSMEs, especially women and youth-owned enterprises, have been hit the hardest by the negative socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The urgent need to enhance MSME resilience has been prioritized in the General Assembly resolution A/RES/74/270 ‘Global Solidarity to fight the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)’ and the Secretary-General’s report ‘Shared responsibility, global solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic’. In accordance with official expressions of interest from pilot countries, the project will support the implementation of integrated and inclusive policy measures that enhance MSME resilience, including building an enabling policy environment and improving capacity and skills among MSME entrepreneurs. It will build the capacity of policymakers to design and implement effective policy measures tailormade to demands of MSME entrepreneurs, as well as improve the capacity of MSME entrepreneurs, particularly women and youth MSME entrepreneurs, expanding their access to financial resources, high-value market opportunities and innovative techniques that enhance resilience. Capacity building workshops, policy dialogue, technical trainings and study tours will be delivered to build the capacities of policymakers to formulate and implement structural transformation initiatives that include MSMEs as well as enhance the abilities of MSME entrepreneurs to access and adopt good practices and innovations conducive for MSME resilience. The project will deliver guidelines, toolkits and knowledge products to disseminate experience and good practices on MSME resilience for building forward better among pilot countries. It will endeavor to develop and promote a community of practice (CoP), targeting policymakers, MSME entrepreneurs and other stakeholders committed to fostering MSME resilience and building forward back from both project pilot countries, as well as countries willing to contribute to the project with their expertise and resources. To ensure its long-term sustainability, the project will leverage existing partnerships with government counterparts, Resident Coordinators’ Offices, UN Country Teams and private sector partners, which DSDG/DESA has built through implementing the current MSME project from 2017. To scale up sustained impact, the project will pursue opportunities to align with inter-governmental process, global and regional initiatives, such as the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in the Asia-Pacific region, creating synergies and leveraging resources for continued implementation of project achievements beyond its lifecycle. MSME entrepreneurs, in particular women and youth MSME entrepreneurs, are the targeted beneficiaries of this project. Project stakeholders include government authorities, development partners, private sector, civil society and research institutions. Eventually, by enhancing MSME resilience, the project will expand MSME contribution to shared prosperity, sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth, sustainable patterns of production and consumption, reductions in inequality, and solidarity and cooperation among countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. 

This project’s objective is to enhance the capacity of governments in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions to develop evidence-based, intergenerational policies for inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the context of population ageing. The Secretary-General’s report on Our Common Agenda highlighted the importance of strengthening capacities to understand and assess the future, building long-term intergenerational thinking into important policies and decision-making.  This project directly responds to this call by using disaggregated National Accounts data to address the twin goals of inclusion and sustainability in the context of population ageing.  National Inclusion Accounts (NIAs) disaggregate national economic statistics by age and socioeconomic status. NIAs help identify and describe how economic resources are shared between population groups. This type of accounting is needed for long-term forecasts of the costs and funding sources for social protection, education, and health care programmes to ensure their fiscal sustainability and distributional equity. This project will support eight developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia and the Pacific to strengthen capacity to produce National Inclusion Accounts, analyze the impacts of population ageing on inclusive and sustainable development, and formulate public policies and plans to achieve these goals.

The objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of Governments, civil society organizations and sport associations/federations, including Paralympic committees and national special Olympic organizations in the target countries to jointly elaborate plans for the full and effective inclusion of persons with disabilities, with a specific focus on autism, in society through sport. At the same time, the project aims at developing the skills of sport instructors in the field of running to train young people with autism and their family members and monitor their progress in sporting activities over time.