Poverty Reduction

UNDP is committed to incorporating the concerns of local communities into UNDP approaches to poverty reduction at the macro-level through participation and inclusion in poverty-reduction strategies and action plans as well as at the local level by empowering local communities and their organizations to network and influence policy. In addition, UNDP works with Governments to ensure that local communities are included and consulted in poverty-reduction strategies and processes.

Drylands Development Center - The Drylands Development Centre (DDC) is a centre of excellence dedicated to working with people to fight poverty in the drylands of the world. The Centre helps to influence policies and bring about lasting changes.

The Centre recognizes that about one billion people depend directly upon the natural resources of the drylands for their livelihoods, and that many of them are poor and marginalized. Achieving sustainable development in the drylands has significant implications for reducing poverty and hunger worldwide. Over forty percent of the world is dry and over 2.3 billion people live there. Of the population living in dry areas approximately 1 billion are poor which accounts for close to half of the world's poor.
It will be impossible to meet the Millennium Development Goals of halving world poverty and hunger by 2015 unless life is improved for the people of the drylands. Fortunately, the drylands have the potential to be productive and there is a real opportunity for the people who live there to prosper.

1) We carry out research and analysis of policies that affect communities in the drylands, and provide advice and policy-making support to decision-makers.
2) We help countries to design and manage capacity development programmes in their drylands, and help to ensure that national policy and planning frameworks address the social and environmental concerns of dryland populations.
3) We build partnerships, generate knowledge and promote learning. Our learning networks link local level actors with the international community.
4) We promote the strengthening of the capacities of individuals and institutions at the local level while working to ensure that national policy and legislation support local development.
DDC Website

Zimbabwe Poverty Reduction Forum -The main goal of the Poverty Reduction Forum in Zimbabwe is to provide local communities with an arena for debate on issues of poverty reduction with key decision-makers. The forum has grown to a membership of 300 organizations, bringing together NGOs, academics, community-based organizations, trade unions and a growing number of peoples’ organizations. The forum has influenced a range of national policy issues from poverty reduction strategies to national budgetary processes. It has also provided a critical channel for national debate between local communities and the Government on structural adjustment processes.
 

The Lachi Poverty Reduction Project (LPRP) -The Lachi Poverty Reduction Project is a participatory rural development project, which was initiated as a part of UNDP’s Regional South Asia Poverty Alleviation Programme (SAPAP). The project’s objectives are:
- Social mobilization through formation of community organizations
- Strengthening local development capacity by providing micro credit
- Training community members in important skills and supporting communities with technical interventions to improve access to drinking water and productivity of small farms
- Establishing formal linkages between communities and government line departments and demonstrating participatory development activities to the public sector.

 

Small loans help poor communities in Nicaragua Following three years of success in extending loans for micro-enterprises and small rural businesses in northern Nicaragua, the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), a UNDP affiliate, has renewed an agreement with Financieras Nicaraguense de Inversiones (FNI) to continue support for a $1.75 million revolving loan fund through 2003.

During the first phase, women accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the total number of borrowers benefiting from loans provided by micro-credit institutions through the project.
In addition, four out of five institutions supported by the project have achieved financial self-sufficiency. Three-quarters of the loans are for less than $500, an indication that the project is reaching borrowers who are poor.

In its first phase, the project allocated 20 loans totalling $3.1 million to nine local micro-credit institutions in the region, which provided services for 4,380 people. The project also aims to help the local credit institutions become self-sustaining. To do so, UNCDF provided technical assistance to FNI and the local institutions.
"The easy availability of loans without any conditions is an obstacle to the adoption of better financial practices," said Carmelo Angulo Barturén, UNDP Resident Representative." The criteria for eligibility for loans should be based on objective factors, geared to the circumstances and needs of the target groups and a commitment to promoting sustainability, he said.
"Loans provided at subsidized rates are not a guarantee of success in providing support for micro and small businesses," said Mr. Barturén. "Priority should be given to providing access to credit, and that can only be assured if the credit institutions are sustainable."

In this vein, Mr. Barturén said that the project's most significant achievement has been to change the outlook local institutions from an aid-oriented to an entrepreneurial approach.
The project operates in the Departments of Jinotega, Nueva Segovia, Estalí, Matacalpa and Madriz.

For more information contact Mauri Starckman, UNDP Nicaragua and Adam Rogers, UNCDF.