As we close the year, this December edition of our newsletter shines a spotlight on how UNDP Saudi Arabia has helped connect the Kingdom’s fast-growing global role with concrete impact for people living through crisis. From humanitarian response to longer-term recovery,  resilience and peace, 2025 has been a year of translating partnerships into real change on the ground.

As 2025 draws to a close, UNDP Saudi Arabia is proud to look back on a year marked by deeper, more strategic partnerships with the Kingdom’s leading humanitarian and development institutions, and by tangible impact in some of the world’s most fragile contexts, from Gaza and Syria to Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and beyond. Together with key partners such as KSrelief, the Saudi Fund for Development and other Saudi cooperation actors, significant resources were mobilized through UNDP’s global network in 2025 alone, contributing to a growing portfolio that has reached millions of people with life-saving water and basic services, livelihoods support and early recovery initiatives.

These partnerships translated into very concrete results on the ground – restoring essential services, supporting local economies and helping communities rebuild in the wake of crisis   while also accompanying UNDP Country Offices from Riyadh to ensure that Saudi-financed programmes are fast, responsive and anchored in local realities.

At the same time, 2025 further cemented Saudi Arabia’s leadership on the global development and humanitarian stage, with UNDP as a partner of choice across high-level platforms from New York to Brussels and Riyadh. Through UN General Assembly side events, the European Humanitarian Forum, the Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum and the “HDP Nexus in Action” workshop at UN House Riyadh, Saudi institutions and UNDP jointly promoted a more integrated humanitarian–development–peace approach, showing how Saudi support can unlock longer-term resilience, climate action and economic opportunity.

Looking ahead to 2026, UNDP Saudi Arabia will continue to connect the Kingdom’s expanding international role with UNDP’s 170+ Country Offices across the globe, ensuring that commitments made in global fora  translate to durable gains for people on the ground and contribute to the ambitions of Vision 2030. 

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