2025
From the beginning UNDP has worked in partnership to build the foundations for human development and create opportunities for people to thrive.
The organization was established in 1965 as a merger of the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance and the UN Special Fund and grounded in the principles of the UN Charter.
As the world’s largest development agency and the operational backbone of the UN system, our work is woven into the fabric of more than 170 countries and territories.
Hand-in-hand with governments, global and local partners, and guided most recently by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), our work has transformed billions of lives, creating jobs, fostering inclusion, supporting those in crisis, reducing inequalities, and promoting progress for everybody, particularly the most vulnerable.
Lifting people out of poverty
As the world has evolved, so has our understanding of development.
Three decades ago, our inaugural Human Development Report by economists Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen introduced an entirely new human-centred way of thinking about economic growth. This groundbreaking work fundamentally shifted how the world measures progress, moving beyond GDP to encompass broader aspects of human well-being and uncovering the complex realities of poverty, while sparking a global conversation about what development truly means.
Each year our Human Development Index presents a composite measure of life expectancy, education and well-being, putting people at the centre of development.
This transformative approach has guided decades of steady progress in lifting people out of poverty, with particular focus on women and underserved communities.
Since 2022, with our partners, we have brought essential services to 160 million people, connected 259 million to financial services, and linked 82 million to clean energy. These numbers represent real lives transformed—families getting free or affordable healthcare, women entrepreneurs accessing credit, children studying by electric light for the first time.
The evolution continues today through initiatives like the timbuktoo initiative supporting 10,000 African tech start-ups, while YouthConnekt Africa has empowered 12 million African young people and aims to create 10 million dignified jobs.
Leading climate action
UNDP works with more than 140 countries and territories to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions while adapting to the impacts of climate change.
Our Climate Promise 2025 unites UN agencies and country teams in a coordinated effort to jointly support governments as they boost their climate ambitions.
The initiative supports countries as they prepare their third round of climate pledges under the Paris Agreement commitments to keep global heating below 1.5C.
Our work on Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) is integrated with our Nature Pledge, which supports national biodiversity strategies and action plans in over 140 countries to halt nature loss and unlock the potential of nature-based solutions to drive sustainable development.
The Pledge includes the BIOFIN initiative, which has helped 41 countries mobilize over US$1.6 billion for nature, including green bonds and leveraged funds.
Governance
UNDP plays a central role in promoting good governance as a foundation for sustainable development, from the 1990s where we provided technical assistance to Cambodia’s National Election Committee and Indonesia’s General Elections Commission, to the present.
Since 2022 we have supported more than 830 million voters to participate in 62 elections across 44 countries.
But our governance work goes far beyond elections. We strengthen institutions and local networks, build capacities to deliver public services, enable justice, protect human rights and empower leaders to respond to citizens’ needs.
This often means advancing gender equality and elevating women’s leadership at the heart of inclusive, future-ready governance.
Gender
From the late 1970s UNDP began to respond to growing international attention on women’s equity and social justice, actively participating in global policy developments such as the Millennium Declaration, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
UNDP led in integrating gender considerations into development programming and policy advice.
Gender equality is now embedded in all 17 SDGs, with UNDP leveraging it as a transformative force for reducing poverty, advancing climate action and promoting inclusive governance. Over 100 countries included gender equality considerations in their national climate action plans in 2022, reflecting UNDP’s influence in mainstreaming gender in environmental and climate resilience strategies.
Crisis
UNDP has always played a key role in supporting state-building and institution development.
In the Western Balkans in the 1990s, following the breakup of Yugoslavia, our post war recovery strengthened democratic governance, social cohesion and rule of law in newly-formed states. This has transitioned into public administration reform and strengthened institutional capacities for countries to meet the standards for EU membership.
As conflict and climate shocks increase, we have doubled down on our commitment to people living in the world’s most challenging environments.
We live and work in the world’s most challenging contexts, including Afghanistan, Gaza, Haiti, Myanmar, Ukraine and Yemen. Since 2015 our stabilization programmes, which make conflict-affected areas safer, restore basic services, and help people earn a living again, have benefitted nearly 17 million people and enabled 6 million to return home.
To get communities back on their feet after disasters or conflict, we remove debris, reconnect electricity, encourage social cohesion, support small businesses and create jobs to revitalize communities and create a path to stability.
We are at the forefront of mine action. Our efforts began in Cambodia in the 1990s and quickly expanded worldwide. Since then, we have cleared thousands of square kilometres in Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine and other places affected by explosive hazards. Our programmes go further, integrating mine action into broader development strategies to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities, and foster inclusive growth.
Beginning in Cambodia in the 1990s, UNDP's mine action work spans 3 decades and more than 50 countries. We work with partners to assit victims, undertake clearance operations, build institutional capacities and educate communities about the dangers.
In Ukraine, the most landmined country on Earth, mine clearance helps lay the foundations for recovery, allowing for safe mobility and returning agricultural fields to productive use.
Advancing thinking and innovation
Throughout its history, UNDP has introduced transformative concepts in development, crisis response and global thinking.
We use strategic foresight to help partners navigate uncertainty, imagine alternative futures, and design more adaptive, inclusive, and forward-looking development strategies.
Since 2002, The Equator Initiative has been the first global effort to celebrate outstanding efforts of Indigenous and local communities to reduce poverty and protect biodiversity. It has supported tens of thousands of livelihoods and restored vital ecosystems, including Kenya’s Maasai Mara ecological corridor and Brazil’s Cerrado ecoregion.
Our digital initiatives in more than 90 countries harness the fast-changing benefits of digital technology which is embedded into 70 percent of our projects.
We have responded to unprecedented global shifts, growing needs and limited resources with new thinking and new partnerships. Our national digital strategies reached more than 200 million people in 2024 and attracted more than $1 billion in investments.
UNDP launched its Digital Strategy 2022-2025 in February 2022, becoming the first in the UN System to adopt a "Digital by Default" approach. This comprehensive strategy supports countries in their digital transformation journey while ensuring human rights are protected, with no one left behind.
Our global innovation network of Accelerator Labs is working on more than 6,000 projects in 115 countries. These labs are transforming how development challenges are addressed in the 21st century by identifying local solutions that can be tested, adapted and replicated elsewhere.
In Barbados, Deandra Crawford is testing a circular farming model—growing rice, barley, and crayfish together. Supported by the UNDP Accelerator Lab, the experiment explores sustainable food production in water-scarce Small Island Developing States.
Financing sustainable development
With just five years to go to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, affordable financing is critical.
The SDG financing gap for developing countries has expanded to an estimated $4.3 trillion annually, up from $2.5 trillion before the COVID-19 pandemic. Developing countries face mounting debt and economic pressures, leaving less for tackling poverty, and addressing gender equality and clean energy initiatives.
In response, UNDP is pioneering innovative financial solutions to expand shared prosperity. Collaborating with the private sector, international financial institutions, and local partners, we promoted over $867 billion in SDG-aligned investments between 2022 and 2024.
An evolving world, an evolving UNDP
As the world changes, so do we.
From our origins providing technical assistance in the 1960s, through the human development revolution of the 1990s, to today's integrated approach addressing climate, digital transformation, and crisis response, we have continuously evolved to meet the world's changing needs.
In all this work, we maintain the highest standards of effectiveness, transparency and efficiency.
From climate shocks to technological advancements to increasing conflict and displacement, profound disruption is all around us. Yet the world continues to see the benefits of our work, which imagines a better future for humankind.
Building the future
Our 60th anniversary is a moment to mark our and our partners’ combined accomplishments and to re-commit to our shared future, to remind ourselves of what multilateralism, innovation and unwavering commitment have already created, and will continue to do.
As we've evolved over six decades, we’re positioned to navigate what lies ahead. We look forward to new partnerships and new ways of thinking to address the challenges that are coming.
Let’s commit to future generations a world where everyone thrives in peace, dignity, and equality on a healthy planet.
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