UNDP works in some 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. We help countries to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and build resilience in order to sustain development results.
Inclusive growth, better services, environmental sustainability, good governance, and security are fundamental to development progress. We offer our expertise in development thinking and practice, and our decades of experience at country level, to support countries to meet their development aspirations and to bring the voices of the world’s peoples into deliberations.
In 2016, UNDP is continuing its work to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or Global Goals, as they help shape global sustainable development for the next 15 years.
UNDP focuses on helping countries build and share solutions in three main areas:
In all our activities, we encourage the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women, minorities and the poorest and most vulnerable.
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Resources
Displaying 331 - 335 of 359Scaling community land protection in the face of large-land investments in Sierra Leone
General
Like many West African countries, Sierra Leone has identified large-scale land investments as a key pathway for economic growth. However, large land concessions risk dispossessing rural communities and depriving them of access to natural resources vital to their livelihoods. Even when welcomed by communities, investments may lead to environmental degradation, human rights violations, and inequity. Communities have few avenues to seek redress when investments result in social and environmental harm. This action research project is implemented by Namati, Inc., a Washington D.C.-based foundation specializing in supporting community land protection initiatives. The project will test approaches to scaling up community land protection efforts and strengthening community capacity to engage with investors on more equitable terms. The project will employ community paralegals to support communities in Sierra Leone at key moments in the interaction between communities and investors. A mix of research methods will examine the institutional and policy barriers to securing tenure, how land registration processes and community-level rules can protect women and minorities against exclusion, strategies to address power imbalances in negotiations between communities and investors, and how citizens’ legal empowerment can foster state accountability for ensuring compliance with the social and environmental terms set prior to investment. As rising competition over land can increase the vulnerability of women’s rights to land, the project includes a specific focus on protections for women and vulnerable populations. It will also develop and test approaches to enhancing their participation in decision-making over communal land and during negotiations with investors. Findings are expected to strengthen community land rights and governance and to contribute to national land reforms and international debates on land rights. This project is part of a group of IDRC-supported projects in sub-Saharan Africa entitled “Using Action Research to Improve Land Rights and Governance for Communities, Women and Vulnerable Groups”
Sustainable Cities Impact Program Global Platform (SCIP-GP)
Objectives
cities pursue integrated urban planning and implementation and increase their ambitions, to deliver impactful sustainable development outcomes with global environmental benefits (GEBs)
Other
Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.
Target Groups
The Project aims strengthen integrated urban planning approaches through learning material and opportunities for city officials to improve sustainable, inclusive, and integrated planning approaches. Integrated planning relates to the transformation of existing practices and processes to enable multi-sector collaboration to allow cities to take advantage of the co-benefits to operate as systems (transportation, land use, housing, conservation, business, etc.) influencing one another, and increase efficiencies both in terms of land and resource use, ultimately benefitting biodiversity and ecosystems and the services they provide, climate mitigation and adaptation as well as pollution and health. Integrated planning for sustainable urban development aims to facilitate and articulate political decisions and actions to transform cities and neighborhoods. Integrated planning efforts also emphasize participatory approaches, in which women, minorities and vulnerable groups are part of the dialogues and influence decisions. Cities are natural places for integrated solutions and offer fertile ground to integrate interdependent operations. Traditionally, urban systems have been integrated with varying degrees of effectiveness through urban governance and land use planning. The integration of human systems and natural systems provides strong environmental, social and economic benefits. For instance, the development of and management of watershed ecosystems, forests as urban and peri-urban agriculture as elements of green infrastructure in and around cities, offer compounding benefits for global climate change mitigation and local urban adaptation, resilience, diminishing air and water pollution, and increasing quality of life. Moreover, in this century, problem solving is co-created, powered by multi-level governments, multi-sector networks and individuals and entities with knowledge and capacity that cut across disciplines (New localism, 2019). Cities must prioritize work across multiple sectors (e.g. land use, housing, transport, economic development water, waste, sanitation, public safety, education, and energy) and must align multiple strategies (e.g. planning, budget, staff skills, regulatory frameworks, civic engagement) to be able to have an enduring impact on the ground. Evidence-based and integrated urban planning provide this opportunity. When cities utilize integrated approaches for planning, the impact of the sectoral actions is higher than the sum of the parts. A study by the International Resource Panel (IRP) shows how parallel actions in urban spatial restructuring, human-scale sustainable design, resource-efficient urban components, urban infrastructure planning for cross-sector efficiency and the promotion of sustainable behaviors, leads to improvements in well-being for all, while reducing resource consumption and GHG emissions. According to the “Weight of cities” by the IRP, cities can achieve some 30-55% reduction of GHG emissions, water and metal consumption and land use compared to baseline projections, by leveraging connections and resource sharing across urban systems such as green buildings, district energy systems, bus rapid transport, and transition to renewables combined with strategic densification (IRP, 2018). Utilizing integrated urban planning approaches provides multiple benefits to cities. It allows cities to formulate cross-sectoral goals and to develop monitoring systems for cross-cutting policy fields. They enable cities to develop strategies and projects that involve the knowledge and perspectives of different disciplines and actors from civil and private sector. They help cities with limited budgets and capacities to implement their goals more efficiently by joining capacities and funds, and by reducing trade-offs between sectors and neighboring municipalities (Eisenbeiß, 2016). Integrated sectoral approaches include multiple benefits generated by looking at the connections between sectors. Examples include low-carbon transit-oriented development; circular economy and resource flow driven planning. The same thinking, area-based investments (integrated approaches at the neighborhood level) should use approaches to capture multiple environmental and livability benefits, such as combining green spaces with low emission zones to regulate temperature, air quality and noise for healthier living and a more sustainable environment. Not only does inclusive, integrated urban planning incorporate gender and vulnerable processes into decision making and participatory processes, the GP aims to mainstream gender in all its activities to ensure gender is considered robustly in project design and implementation. For instance, the Project will collect sex-disaggregated data for all events. The Project Team will staff a Gender Lead and will have the support of WRI’s Gender Specialist (as co-finance) through the duration of the project to advise on the design and implementation of the gender action plan.
LOMA MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK CONSERVATION PROJECT: AN APPROACH TO PROTECT THE LARGEST POPULATIONS OF WESTERN C
General
The purpose of this project is to support the protection of Loma Mountains National Parks endangered.chimpanzees by: (1) conducting surveys to estimate chimpanzee abundance, understand population.dynamics, and identify cultural traits; (2) conducting fecal analysis and botanical surveys to determine.chimpanzee dietary habits, and resource needs and use; (3) using botanical surveys, satellite imagery and.ground-truthing to map chimpanzee habitat; (4) restoring that habitat through reforestation with key tree.species; (5) improving biomonitoring through increasing the number of community monitors and.expanding their training; (6) conducting environmental education in 14 schools and introducing a Roots.& Shoots program for regional youth; (7) improving understanding of local economies through a.socioeconomic study and land use planning; and promoting a shift to more environmentally friendly.livelihoods.
Scaling Up Fertilizer Micro-Dosing and Indigenous Vegetable Production and Utilization in West Africa (CIFSRF
General
Poor soil fertility and land degradation result in low production yields and quality for indigenous vegetables in West Africa. This project will address the challenges to improve vegetable production through fertilizer innovations. Increasing vegetable yields and quality This project will build on earlier research funded by the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF), a program of IDRC undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada. Two earlier projects generated promising results to improve food security in West Africa for poor families. Using innovations developed in this earlier work, researchers will speed up adoption of innovative approaches that will use cost-saving fertilizer micro-dosing and better water management to improve indigenous vegetable production in Nigeria and Benin. The project team will develop, test, and deploy two different models (Innovations Platform and Satellite Dissemination Approach) that will reach and benefit more farmers with sustainable vegetable production and marketing approaches. They will connect women-led cooperatives and youth groups to the private sector and business organizations, directly reaching more than 255,000 households. The team's work will involve further developing commercial seed production, postharvest handling, and value chains. They will also strengthen producer groups. Project leadership A consortium of five universities in Canada, Benin, and Nigeria will lead the project. They will mobilize at least 20 private sector partners and government agencies to build small and medium vegetable and fertilizer businesses. Their work will serve to double the income of approximately one million farmers in West Africa along the vegetable value chain.
GEF GOLD+ Bolivia: Enhancing the formalization and mercury reduction in artisanal and small-scale gold mining
Objectives
To reduce the use of mercury and increase incomes in the ASGM sector in Bolivia through a holistic, multisectoral integrated formalization approach, and increasing access to finance leading to the adoption of sustainable mercury-free technologies and access to traceable gold supply chains
Other
Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.
Target Groups
495. Mercury reduction is the project's main objective and key benefit for both the environment and human health. Considering that Bolivia is currently one of the main mercury-importing hubs where the use of this chemical is high and widespread, the contribution of the project in terms of global environmental benefits will be significant as well as the contribution to the country’s obligations under the Minamata Convention on Mercury. 496. In addition, the project will contribute to economic, social, and environmental benefits supporting sustainable development in the country. 497. Gold mining is an essential source of economic income and job opportunities, especially considering that most of the cooperative members and personnel linked to the ASGM activities come from rural areas. However, due to the lack of control on trade and exports, inefficient gold recovery technologies and reduced formalization of the operations, considerable revenues are not being ripped and benefitting the state, producers, and society in general. By strengthening national and local authorities' technical and institutional capacities, policies, regulations, and measures for greater control and monitoring of gold producing and trading activities could be implemented. This will reduce gold smuggling, tax evasion and illicit trade resulting in increased revenues at the central, regional, and municipal levels. 498. The project will promote a scenario in which the ASGM sector can increase its economic incident and impact at the local and national level for the thousands of families that depend primarily, secondarily, or temporarily on this activity. Additional economic gains will be achieved through more efficient technologies and consequent higher gold recovery and responsible supply chains that will ensure access to formal markets and better prices. The economic gains can then translate to social well-being and livelihood security. 499. Specific to women miners, the project will improve their access to finance, savings, and entrepreneurship, which will lead to economic empowerment that contributes to their well-being and their families. Gender mainstreaming activities will reduce gender inequalities among project beneficiaries. 500. The transition towards more efficient and/or cleaner recovery technologies and the introduction of better practices will improve the working and living conditions of the miners including women and vulnerable population, leading to a better health for all. Better mining practices will also improve the quality of water, and therefore host communities will have access to cleaner water. 501. The miners and communities will increase their skills and knowledge, leading to improved education in mining areas. Furthermore, promoting formalization processes will also allow miners to access social and financial services. Proper development of the ASGM sector can reduce conflicts over land use or linked to environmental pollution.502. Finally, and in line with the innovative approach followed by the GOLD+ programme, apart from mercury reduction, the project will allow for better land management and proper handling and disposal of mine tailings, which will benefit biodiversity and will make communities more resilient to climate change.