UNDP | Papua New Guinea

UNDP - The Global Mandate

UNDP is the UN's global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help to assist countries contribute to the development of the country and help improve their people's livelihood. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges.

World leaders have pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals , including the overarching goal of cutting poverty in half by 2015. UNDP's network links and coordinates global and national efforts to reach these Goals. Our focus is helping countries build and share solutions to the challenges of: Achieving the MDGs and Reducing Poverty, fostering Democratic Governance, Crisis Prevention and Recovery, Energy and Environment for Sustainable Development , and responding to HIV/AIDS. These major focus areas have been further defined through specific Service Lines, which serve as a strategic interventions, upon which all of UNDP's efforts are concentrated.

UNDP helps developing countries in strengthening their capacity to deliver goods and services, attract and use aid effectively in a transparent and accountable manner. In all our activities, we promote the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women.

UNDP in Papua New Guinea

UNDP's assistance to the Government of Papua New Guinea is based on the Standard Basic Assistance Agreement (SBAA) which was signed in April 1981.

2003-2007 Country Programme:
Building upon UNDP's corporate mandate, global experience and strategic focus areas, UNDP's current programme in Papua New Guinea is articulated in the Country Programme Outline for 2003-2007. The Country Programme Outline identifies Democratic Governance and Poverty Reduction as the overarching themes for UNDP support to Papua New Guinea.

With these two cross-cutting themes UNDP's five practice areas provide specific entry points for UNDP to support Papua New Guinea's diverse development agenda. Concentration of efforts in these areas has been mandated by the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF, 2003-2007) for Papua New Guinea and is consistent with the national development priorities as outlined in the National Medium-Term Development Strategy 2005-2010 (MTDS). The Papua New Guinea UNDAF and UNDP Country Programme have been developed based on the Common Country Assessment (CCA, 2001) carried out by the UN Country Team in December 2001.

2008-2012 Joint UN Country Programme:
The United Nations Country Programme 2008-2012 - A Partnership for Nation-building is the result of an extensive Government-led formulation process that used the Medium Term Development Strategy as its cornerstone and constitutes a single and unified United Nations Country Programme (UNCP) for 2008-2012 for UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, WHO, UNHCR, UNAIDS, OCHA, OHCHR, IFAD, UNIFEM, ILO, UNESCO, FAO, and UN HABITAT.

The starting point for the process was a close examination of the United Nations’ comparative advantage in the areas of action outlined in the Medium Term Development Strategy. Under the overarching theme of “A Partnership for Nation Building”, it was decided to focus the United Nations support in five outcome areas:

Governance and Crisis Management: Government develops and implements effective governance and crisis management policies and strategies
Foundations for human development (which encompasses health, education and child protection): By 2012, children, youth, women and men benefit from basic quality health, education and protection.
Sustainable Livelihoods and Population: By 2012, rural communities in selected provinces of each region use improved sustainable livelihood practices.
Gender: By 2012, women and girls experience fewer gender inequalities in PNG
HIV and AIDS: By 2012, the rate of HIV and AIDS infection is halted or reduced and Government provides services to those people with, and affected by, HIV and AIDS

These outcome areas have been singled out by the Government of Papua New Guinea as essential components of its overall strategy for nation building. Through the nation building lens, the United Nations will systematically focus on developing a deeper understanding of the root causes of poverty and conflict by examining strategies for working to address potential instability and manage conflict more effectively, and assessing the potential role of all key stakeholders in contributing to nation building.

The key strategies on which the UN Country Programme is founded are capacity development, promotion of human rights and the application of the human rights approach to programming, decentralization and strengthening of civil society, promotion of evidence-based monitoring systems, the mainstreaming of gender equality and opportunities for women, fighting HIV and AIDS, and youth development.