UNDP Management Response to 

the Evaluation of UNDP Strategic Plan, 2022-2025

Excellencies, Distinguished Members of the Executive Board

On behalf of UNDP, I would like to thank Director Isabelle Mercier and her team at the Independent Evaluation Office for presenting key findings and recommendations of the Independent Evaluation of UNDP Strategic Plan for 2022-2025.

I am pleased to report that UNDP has already been drawing valuable lessons from the evaluation as we develop the next Strategic Plan and will continue to do so until the new Strategic Plan is presented to the Executive Board.

UNDP Strategic Plan 2022-2025

The UNDP Strategic Plan 2022-2025 outlined UNDP’s ambition to support countries in their determination to reach the Sustainable Development Goals during the decade of action.

Designed and adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Strategic Plan 2022-2025 prepared UNDP to be agile and anticipatory in the face of uncertainty and volatility. It defined ambitious 'moonshots’ to help millions escape multidimensional poverty, access to clean energy, participate in elections, and invest public expenditure and private capital in the Sustainable Development Goals.

In overall, the period of the current strategic plan , including the launch of the People for 2030, Digital Strategy 2022-2025, and the creation of the Global Policy Network, made it possible for UNDP to offer more coherent, integrated and rapid responses in an era of poly-crises and uncertainties.

Before presenting UNDP’s management response to the recommendations of the independent evaluation, I would like to highlight a few key achievements of the organization under the current Strategic Plan.

In a world of transformative technological developments like generative artificial intelligence, UNDP continued to adapt and remain responsive to partners’ changing needs and demands. Partners’ demand for support with digital transformation continues to increase; and as a result, by the end of 2024, 50 percent of UNDP projects included a digital component.

Since 2021, Integrated National Financing Frameworks have leveraged $16 billion in new finance and aligned an additional $32 billion with Sustainable Development Goals in 86 countries. By the end of 2024, UNDP had aligned over $764 billion in public and private finance in the Sustainable Development Goals against its moonshot goal of $1 trillion.

Internally, UNDP continued to make efficiency gains to generate more funds for development results, investing 92 cents of every dollar in development programming and services in 2024.

As the operational backbone of the United Nations development system, UNDP administers payroll for personnel in 70 United Nations entities and hosts common United Nations premises in at least 121 countries worldwide.

UNDP management response and actions

Now, I would like to present a few highlights of UNDP’s management responses to key recommendations of the evaluation, as a detailed management response was already shared with respected members of the Executive Board.

Overall, the independent evaluation report made nine recommendations, of which UNDP fully accepted seven and partially accepted two. The partially accepted recommendations relate to the development of an integrated operations strategy and the promotion of human development through governance

Regarding the recommendation on elevating human development through governance as a catalyst, while UNDP acknowledges the critical role governance plays, and we have it as one of our four strategic goals in the draft new strategic plan, it is important to emphasize that UNDP's approach to advancing human development is comprehensive and multidimensional. The work of UNDP spans several interconnected areas that are equally essential and contribute to human development: poverty eradication, environmental sustainability, access to clean energy, crisis resilience, gender equality and women's empowerment. These integrated efforts collectively strengthen our impact on human development outcomes worldwide and not only the work on governance.

On the evaluation’s recommendation regarding systems thinking, a key lesson from implementation of the current Strategic Plan is the growing disconnect between the scale and scope of development issues, and the largely siloed, fragmented and short-term approaches that continue to inform much of public and development sector’s work. While recognizing that breaking siloes is a continuous process, the organization has already invested in capabilities, systems and ways of working such as the introduction of portfolio approaches in programming, as well as the introduction of more rigorous impact measurement approaches for sustained development impact. It is our progress on this that allowed us to advance on the integrated efforts that I mentioned above across multi-sectors.

On the leaving no one behind agenda, UNDP has elevated this concept as a core direction of change in its current Strategic Plan, and a key programmatic principle both for UNDP and the United Nations Sustainable Development Group. UNDP's approach supports the design of programmes that enhance vulnerable populations’ access to economic opportunities, basic services, social protection, employment and livelihoods, and participation in decision-making process that affects their lives.

Regarding the recommendation to leverage UNDP’s broad mandate and global presence to enhance regional and global thought leadership on structural transformation and resilience-building, UNDP acknowledges the need for a systematic and collaborative approach to research and analytics. This will enable the organization to harness its expertise to address global and transnational challenges more effectively.

Finally, on to the recommendation regarding strengthening the business model, UNDP has undertaken an independent diagnostic analysis of its business model to assess how it creates, finances, and delivers value to its partners. Based on the findings of the independent diagnostic as well as the independent evaluation, UNDP is implementing targeted actions to enhance its strategic positioning, address challenges, and seize future opportunities while increasing the effectiveness and sustainability of its work.

Excellencies, thank you again for the opportunity to introduce UNDP’s management response. I stand ready to answer any questions you may have.

With this, I conclude my remarks.