Democratic Governance Trust Fund - 2011 Annual Report

In 2011, when popular uprisings challenged authoritarianism and fear, and opened new space for civic engagement, the pivotal role of democratic governance was vividly apparent as never before. People asked for change, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was supporting nations to respond to this call and renewed our commitment to redressing such causes of development failure as exclusion, inequity and injustice.

The combination of flexible and targeted funding through the Democratic Governance Thematic Trust Fund (DGTTF) has consistently amplified UNDP results in democratic governance. By deliberately pursuing innovations, the DGTTF has improved UNDP’s knowledge of what works best in different contexts.

As this report demonstrates, the DGTTF has supported many significant firsts in 2011. Funds have supported the first national agreement on governance assessments in China, the first women’s parliamentary caucus in Togo, the first measurement of multiple deprivations in rural Namibia, the first assessment of expenditure needs and revenue capacities of all 85 municipalities in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the first civic education strategy on corruption in Timor-Leste, and the first National Strategy against Gender-based Violence in Chad.

These are small but significant steps at a time when global changes are occurring at great speed, and in more directions than we can predict. The DGTTF continues to allow UNDP to respond in the most immediate, flexible and, in the end, effective ways.