Resources and
Publications
The UNDP has been
involved with local communities and has developed a
variety of documents, such as guidelines, case studies,
fact sheets, etc. that are fundamental in the process of
mainstreaming community-based approaches to sustainable
development. Below, you can find some UNDP documents and
resources available on local initiatives.
On-line Resources
- Tools for Integrated Community
Development
- Sourcebook
on Building Partnerships with Civil Society
Organizations
Documents and Publications
- GEF SGP Community
Biodiversity Projects
- Empowering the Poor: Local
Governance for Poverty Reduction
- Analysis of
Best Practice on Community Risk Management
- Ecoagriculture Practices: Findings from
the 2002 Equator Initiative Nominations
- The Millennium Development Goals and
Local Processes: Hitting the Target or missing the
Point?
- Responding to Climate Change,
Generating Community Benefits
- Community Action to Address
Climate Change
- Partners in Human Development
UNDP Policy positions
- UNDP and Civil Society
Organizations: A Policy of Engagement
- UNDP and Indigenous Peoples: A Policy
of Engagement
On-Line Resources
 Virtual
Key Tools for Integrated Community Development
UNDP Jordan SGP and CO - December 2003
The GEF SGP Jordan Environmental forum has posted on
its website a collection of on-line capacity development
resources on Integrated Community Development. These
resources are useful for all NGOs and GOs working in
community development. They include capacity development
tools (manuals, guides, toolkits) and best practices in
sustainable community development gathered from around
the world. Please click
here to access this information point
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 Sourcebook
on Building Partnerships with Civil Society Organizations
This Sourcebook seeks to help UNDP country offices to build
substantive partnerships with civil society organizations
(CSOs) and develop policy and programme initiatives with CSOs
to promote human development. It is also a useful compendium
of UNDP efforts to date with CSOs. Its primary audiences are
the UNDP country offices. We also hope it will be of value
to other development practitioners at the country level. It
is important to note that most references to CSOs concern
local and national organizations, not international institutions
and/or networks.
More Info...
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Documents and Publications
 Community
Biodiversity Projects
GEF Small Grants
Programme, February 2004
The following documents are a compilation of the
preliminary analysis of the GEF Small Grants Programme
portfolio on biodiversity. Each of the different
documents explores the background of the community-based
initiative, describes the project implementation and
provides the results and partnerships from the SGP
intervention. It is a good source of information about
the type of work that UNDP GEF SGP does at the field,
and how supports local initiatives. Please select the
country where you would like to see the information
about their projects:
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 Empowering
the Poor: Local Governance for Poverty Reduction
United
Nations Capital Development Fund, December 2003
This resourcelfull book analyzes some of the most
important current international development initiatives
and identifies some aspects of the conceptual frameworks
of major international organizations and bi-laterals on
poverty and on poverty reduction approaches. By focusing
on a new understanding of poverty and its underlying
factors, these frameworks, initiatives, and strategic
thinking have achieved a broad consensus about the
knowledge base on poverty and the challenges ahead.
More info...
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Analysis of Best Practice
on Community Risk Management
Phillipines
UNDP Country Office, 2003
Public administrators of Qinglong County were able to
combine scientific information, public education,
extensive preparation, and speedy countywide
communications to prevent human tragedy during the Great
Tangshan Earthquake (GTE) of 1976. Many of the 470,000
residents of Qinglong County evacuated from their homes
just before the magnitude 7.8 Tangshan earthquake hit .
No one in that county died from the destruction caused
by GTE. In the counties surrounding Qinglong, however,
nearly a quarter of a million people were crushed to
death.
More Info...
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Ecoagriculture Practices: Findings
from the 2002 Equator Initiative Nominations
CBI Group,
Equator Initiative and
Ecoagriculture Partners
December 2003
This research paper was conducted by Christian Isely
in close collaboration with Sarah Sheer to distill some
direct lessons from ecoagriculture practices analyzed
from the 2002 Equator Prize Nominations. Some of the
findings identified the inclusion of the recognition of
agricultural ecosystems and the symbiosis between
natural and productive landscapes. The need for
increased data collection was emphasized since present
data favors certain types of production systems and
strategies. In particular, the need for more research on
failures was stated. In response, a template is being
developed to standardize data collection and provide a
means for the exchange of information.
The reserach also explores ecoagriculture in the
context of the Millennium Development Goals. It was
determined that ecoagriculture strategies play a
tremendous role in achieving some of the goals directly
while playing a significant part in achieving the goal
set as a whole. In reference to the strong role
ecoagriculture plays in reducing poverty and enhancing
biodiversity.
If you would like to explore further Christian's
findings, presentation and research,
please click here for more information.
To download the entire document of the above
ecoagriculture research please
click here.
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The Millennium Development Goals
and Local Processes: Hitting the Target or missing the
Point?
CBI Group and IIED - November
2003
This IIED publication was produced for
an international
conference held on 18 November 2003 in London and is
available as a
free download. This
publication explores the impact of the MDGs in critical
areas. The conference and publication were supported by
UNDP’s new Community-Based Initiative (CBI) Group,
Capacity 2015 and the Equator Initiative to discuss the
importance of mainstreaming local initiatives into the
development programmes and agendas of international
agencies. The report analyses the implications of the
MDGs for local peoples and seeks ways to ensure that
action undertaken within this framework will effectively
address the priorities of disadvantaged groups,
encourage their own initiatives and give them a voice in
decisions affecting their lives.
Among the key
outcomes of this meeting were a deep commitment to
further explore the role of community-based initiatives
in UNDP’s development agenda; as well as a realization
of the need to disseminate the MDGs more widely through
international and national NGO networks in order to
build local community ownership of these goals and a
better understanding of their relevance to their
particular circumstances.
Click here to download this publication
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 Responding
to Climate Change, Generating Community Benefits
GEF
Small Grants Programme - November 2003
A review of community
initiatives supported by the Global Environment Facility
Small Grants Porgramme 1992 to 2003
The publication sets out the lessons and experiences
that have emerged from SGP's portfolio of
community-based climate change projects. It is based on
the results of a decade of monitoring and evaluation
work undertaken by SGP country programmes and projects
at the community level and a recent review of SGP's
climate change portfolio. These activities have enabled
a clear understanding of the overall contribution of SGP
to global climate change abatement while enhancing
environmental and local benefits.
For more information, please
click here to visit the SGP website.
To download the publication, please
click here
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Local
Communities and Protected Areas
IUCN,
2002
This issue of Parks aims to showcase the different roles
that local communities are playing in protected areas,
highlight some emerging issues and challenges, and
advance the debate on the state of community
involvement in conservation.
The inside cover should read"Cover: Pokot pastoralists -
many of their best lands have been expropriated and made
into reserved areas. Background: Mt Kilimanjaro, taken
from Amboseli National Park, Kenya.
To download the publication, please
click here
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Community Action to Address Climate Change:
Case Studies Linking Sustainable Energy Use with Improved
Livelihoods
GEF
Small Grants Programme - November 2003
This publication documents nearly 50 climate
change-related projects funded by the Global Environment
Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme between 1992 and
2003. These projects, undertaken in 29 countries by
community-based and non-governmental organizations,
address climate change and generate global environmental
benefits by helping to remove barriers to the use of
renewable and energy efficient technology. At the same
time, these projects link sustainable energy use with
improved livelihoods. These case studies are a joint
effort of the GEF Small Grants Programme and the Global
Programme on Energy for Sustainable Development of the
United Nations Development Programme to improve
knowledge management and share lessons learned.
Each case study is presented in a consistent format
that highlights technical aspects, details of project
implementation, types of environmental and livelihood
benefits generated, and lessons learned. Case studies
are classified according to a set of themes to help
readers locate certain types of projects, such as those
introducing innovative technology applications,
promoting private sector involvement, undertaking
institutional capacity development, or contributing to
particular Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This
publication offers a substantial base of knowledge about
the implementation of community-based climate change
projects that address climate change while generating
livelihood benefits in diverse settings. It will be a
useful reference for international institutions, energy
and development practitioners, governments, and members
of civil society and the private sector involved in
supporting, initiating and implementing future projects.
To download the entire document and specific case
studies, please visit the
GEF
SGP website at
www.undp.org/sgp
Samples of Some Case Studies (PDF files)
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 Partners
in Human Development
Civil
Society Organization Division - October 2003
This report is part of an ongoing inquiry into the
evolving nature of UNDP partnerships with civil society
organizations (CSOs). The 32 examples of civil society
partnerships in four thematic areas cited here provide
practical insights from country experiences, with the
goal of promoting innovation and improving learning and
practice. The report builds on the work of a number of
previous publications
documenting the expanding context of UNDP partnerships
with civil society, from community experiences in
poverty reduction and citizens’ participation in
budgetary processes to conserving indigenous knowledge
and enabling sustainable recovery from crisis.
To download the entire publication
click here ...
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Seeking Accountability on Women’s Human Rights: Women
Debate the Millennium Development Goals
Women's International Coalition for Economic Justice
- March 2004
WICEJ launched its new publication, Seeking
Accountability on Women’s Human Rights: Women Debate
the Millennium Development Goals, at the World
Social Forum in Mumbai, In dia,
in January 2004 and at the UN Commission on the Status
of Women in New York in March 2004.
WICEJ has invited women from different
regions, working on diverse issues, to contribute to the
debate from their particular vantage points. These take
the form of articles as well as brief opinion pieces.
The contributions range from great skepticism to
energetic endorsements of the opportunity at hand. As
the MDGs and initiatives for implementation are still
relatively new, it is clear from these articles that
there are many different understandings of what they
are, how they emerged, how they work, what level of
flexibility there may be in adapting them, and how broad
the engagement of civil society should be.
In Seeking Accountability on Women’s Human Rights,
WICEJ does not seek to take a position. Our goal is to
place in your hands key elements of the current debate,
so that women’s organizations around the world can
assess how, why and whether to engage with the MDGs.
To download the entire publication
please
click here
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Millennium Development Goals: What
role for civil society?
CIVICUS
- 2004
CIVICUS latest newsletter focuses on the UN Millenium
Goals and the role of civil society.
-CIVICUS Secretary General, Kumi Naidoo talks about the
role of civil society in the Millennium Development
Goals.
-Introduction: Civil Society and the MDGs
-News briefs pertaining to MDG 1: Eradicate extreme
poverty and hunger; MDG7: Ensure environmental
sustainability; and MDG 2: Achieve universal primary
education
-What's New
on the Word and Web Front? includes useful resources and
publications discussing the MDGs
-Classifieds
To read the latest e-CIVICUS (MS
Word) in English please
click here
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The IMF
and Millennium Development Goals: Failing to deliver for
low income countries
Oxfam - Sept.
2003
To
download the entire publication please
click here
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Anti-Poverty or Anti-Poor?
The Millennium Development Goals and the eradication of
extreme poverty and hunger
Focus on the Global South - 2004
This dossier was produced by Focus on the Global South
with generous assistance from United Nations Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP),
Bangkok.
It contains the discussion paper and
the statement that form the output of the forum. The
short statement was formally presented to the UNESCAP
Committee on Poverty Reduction during the member on the
same day. The rest of the dossier ia a compilation of
relevant analyses and experience contributed by some of
the participants as well as others in the regional civil
society.
To download the
entire publication please
click here
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UNDP Policy Positions
UNDP and Civil Society Organizations:
A Policy of Engagement
Civil Society
Organization Division - 2001
The United Nations Charter gives UNDP a powerful
mandate to work with civil society organizations(CSOs).
At the Millennium Summit 2000, the Secretary-General
reaffirmed the centrality of civil society and its
organizations to the mission of the United Nations in
the twenty-first century:
“Not only do you [civil society organizations] bring to
life the concept of ‘We, the Peoples,’ in whose name our
Charter was written; you bring to us the promise that
‘people power’ can make the Charter work for all the
world’s peoples in the twenty-first century.”
To download the entire policy on Civil Society
Organization please
click here...
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 UNDP
and Indigenous Peoples: A Policy of Engagement (2001)
Civil Society
Organization Division - 2001
The policy provides UNDP staff with a framework to
guide their work in building sustainable partnerships
with indigenous peoples and their organizations. It sets
out the critical issues for UNDP support; the priority
areas of engagement; the principal objectives for an
effective partnership; and the main principles guiding
the relationship with indigenous peoples.
To download the entire policy on Indigenous Peoples
please
click here...
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