Communities and local sustainable development solutions

UNDP empowers communities by promoting their rights, enhancing their environmental management systems, advising on finance mechanisms that will support local investments and innovations for sustainability, learning, and strengthening indigenous and community voice in national and international policy processes. This work builds on more than 40 years of experience in policy and practices, for example:

• Small Grants Programme (SGP) is a corporate programme of the Global Environment Facility implemented by UNDP since 1992. SGP grant making in 119 countries promotes community-based innovation with special consideration for indigenous peoples, women, and youth. SGP delivers strategic initiatives with key partner-donors: The Community-Based Adaptation programme; the Community Development and Knowledge Management for the Satoyama Initiative; the NGOs Environmental Governance project; and the Global Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Areas Support Initiative.

• The Equator Initiative partnership highlights successful community-driven nature-based solutions to sustainable development challenges, through the Equator Prize, case studies, and the solutions database. The Equator Initiative also helps communities scale up their solutions by convening national and thematic dialogues, and by connecting Equator Prize winning communities to policy makers.

• The UN-REDD Programme supports the engagement of forest-dependent communities and indigenous peoples in REDD+ policy and actions. It advances participatory governance, builds safeguards systems, helps implement free, prior and informed consent, and assists with grievance mechanisms. UN-REDD launched Community-Based REDD+ (CBR+), a grant-making initiative to finance REDD+ engagement and innovations at the grassroots level to scope socially-inclusive approaches to REDD+ that empower indigenous peoples and rural communities in local land-use planning and alternative livelihoods.