UNDP and International Financial Institutions

International Financial Institutions (IFIs), including multilateral, regional and national development banks with international operations, are critical development partners to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). IFIs have deep institutional expertise in providing and catalyzing investments in sustainable development and have taken steps to align their activities with the 2030 Agenda, including by scaling-up climate finance, designing and deploying innovative SDG-related financial instruments, and helping to crowd-in public and private resources to advance global public goods in areas such as combatting climate change and forced displacement.

As underscored by the UNDP Strategic Plan, the Secretary-General’s Strategy for Financing the 2030 Agenda and related Financing  Roadmap, UNDP is scaling up its engagement with IFIs. By leveraging the respective missions, added value and complementarities, UNDP works with IFIs at all levels, from joint assessments, analysis and research, to project development and implementation.  

Since 2010, IFI partners have contributed more than $1.8 billion to UNDP programmes, both through direct grants to UNDP, and in the form of Government Cost-Sharing financing, through which UNDP provides capacity development or implementation support to national government projects financed by IFI loans.

Forging partnerships

In every region, UNDP is working with Governments and IFIs to leverage development expertise and resources towards shared outcomes to enhance support for national governments and local communities, and improve the sustainability of development efforts.

Current collaboration

UNDP has entered into formal agreements with the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank, Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), Eurasian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Islamic Development Bank, and the World Bank Group.

UNDP also works closely with the International Monetary Fund, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, and the Caribbean Development Bank.

In addition to global and regional Banks, UNDP is increasing collaboration with national development banks, including Germany’s KfW, the China Development Bank, Italy’s Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and BNDES, the Brazilian National Development Bank, and is currently in discussions with recently established banks, namely the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank and the New Development Bank.

Most collaboration with IFIs takes place through one of several modalities. These include:

• Research and knowledge products, such as the African Economic Outlook Reports and Guide for Integrated Planning in Africa with the African Development Bank; Pathways for Peace report with WB; Harmonizing Investments and Financing Standards towards Sustainable Development along the Belt and Road report with China Development Bank; or our ADB-UNDP collaboration.
• Assessments and analysis, such us the joint post-disaster assessments with the World Bank (WB), most recently in Albania and India; and recovery/peacebuilding assessments with the WB and others, recently in Cameroon and Nigeria;
• Partnering through joint priorities or “parallel financing”, working with IFIs on common projects and joint outcomes through separate funding streams, such as joint applications to the Green Climate Fund with the European Investment Bank in Armenia, parallel financing with Asian Development Bank in Vietnam, and collaboration with the World Bank in Somalia around institutional strengthening;
• Project implementation, to support governments in the design or implementation of national development projects funded by IFIs, while developing long-term capacity. Click here to access examples of tripartite collaboration between Governments, IFIs and UNDP globally.

UNDP and IFIs for the Global Goals

• UNDP-ADB to strengthen Bhutan's macroeconomic forecasting and modelling (September 11, 2020)
• Cameroon: UNDP, UNOPS, UNICEF, Islamic Development Bank and the Government of Cameroon join forces to fight the COVID-19 pandemic (August 2020)
  
• Guinea-Bissau: 26 tons of Personal Protective Equipment procured by UNDP with World Bank’s financial contribution help strengthen the COVID-19 response in the country (July 2020)
  
• Kazakhstan: UNDP and ADB join efforts to strengthen medical waste management in Kazakhstan during COVID-19 (July 2020)
  
• Timor Leste: Ministry of Finance and UNDP Launch Food Security Project for Tens of Thousands of Timorese (July 2020)
• Angola joint impact assessment  (June 2020)
• Moldova: UNDP and the World Bank support the process of measuring the social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (May 2020)
  
• UNDP, ADB, ESCAP joint regional report on the SDGs (May 2020)
  
• Hospitals and bridges: Major sites re-open in Ramadi highlighting city’s recovery (February 2020)
  
• Partnership Agreement between UNDP in Armenia and Asian Development Bank Armenia (February 2020)