About Africa

Africa is a development paradox – a rich continent with poor nations. While the continent has witnessed remarkable progress in economic growth and human development since the turn of the century, a lot remains to be achieved. A smaller proportion of Africans now live in extreme poverty and few African countries are classified low-income in the last ten years, than experienced over the preceding half century. However, the COVID-19 pandemic reversed many of these gains and the impacts of the war in Ukraine will make it more difficult for many African countries to get back on track to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

About UNDP's Regional Bureau for Africa

UNDP's Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA) supports Africa’s people, its governments, and institutions as they seek to consolidate and accelerate development gains to overcome the lingering effects of the global pandemic, and effectively address the challenges that remain, including: jobless growth, persistent inequalities, weak governance, climate change, and persistent violent conflict.

Headquarters

At its New York headquarters, the Regional Bureau for Africa team provides overall strategic oversight, guidance and quality assurance, as well as management, partnerships and communications support and a broader regional analysis, including on global issues.

Regional Service Centre

At the regional level, the Regional Service Centre in Addis Ababa, and sub-regional thematic hubs in Dakar, Nairobi and Pretoria, provide integrated and holistic support to RBA Country Offices and regional partners, such as the African Union Commission and the Regional Economic Communities, across all of UNDP’s areas of work.

The Regional Centre also leads in coordinating the UNDP Regional Programme for Africa, which focuses on supporting groups of countries or regional bodies to work together on addressing common and trans-border development challenges.

Country Offices

At the national level, UNDP Country offices provide proactive support, and respond to country demands, for policy and programme advice, and ensure alignment of country programmes with regional and corporate priorities.

UN system

As the United Nations lead agency on international development, UNDP works in 170 countries and territories to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. We help countries to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities, and to build resilience to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Our work is concentrated in three focus areas; sustainable development, democratic governance and peace building, and climate and disaster resilience.

The Regional Bureau for Africa also contributes to UN reform and coordination efforts by strengthening the UN Resident Coordination system in the region for greater coherence and harmonization of UN Country Teams, and leading the sub-Saharan Africa Regional UN Development Group.