The horrific atrocities committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) when it invaded Syria and Iraq in 2014 shocked the world. Thousands of Iraqi women were left to bring up children alone, separated from families, and living in poverty in displacement or refugee sites. By working closely with the government, the United Nations Development Programme () has prepared communities in Anbar, Ninewa, Salah al-Din, and Kirkuk to accept 9,000 ISIL-affiliated families back into their societies.
UNDP
Trees communicate and cooperate through underground networks of fungi known as the 'wood-wide web'. Mycorrhizal connections facilitate complex ecological systems that represent the best of innovation. , an effort between the Malaysian Government and international bodies to conserve biodiversity, worked to restore contiguous forest landscapes throughout the Central Forest Spine. As part of these efforts, a forest tree nursery programme was initiated in 2022 to support the national social forestry initiative. The indigenous community in Air Banun Orang Asli Resettlement, in Malaysia, was selected as the central village to host this initiative, where the main nursery holds 10,000 seedlings of forest tree species.
Women are paid less than men in the same jobs; they do most of the unpaid household and care work and often have difficulty accessing finance and other wealth-creating resources.
Amira's coffee cupping initiative in Yemen not only preserves the nation's rich coffee heritage but also empowers women to become integral players in enhancing the industry's quality, economic growth, and global recognition.
Ana Andrić appreciates how women in Herzegovina are active in all segments of mountain development, from the organization of excursions, to mountaineering, skiing and other activities. Ana, along with hundreds of women from Herzegovina area have been hiking through the Čvrsnica and Prenj mountain ranges for more than a decade, striving to restore life in its villages and contribute to the promotion and preservation of these mountain idylls. She knows that achieving gender equality and women’s well-being in all aspects of life is more crucial than ever if we want to create prosperous economies and a healthy planet. But the trend of underrepresentation of women in the labour market in Bosnia and Herzegovina is constantly present. The ‘Sustainability of Protected Areas’ project, financed by the Global Environment Facility and implemented by in Bosnia and Herzegovina is working to protect nature and biodiversity beyond mountains.
Women are paid less than men, do most of the unpaid household and care work, and often struggle to access finance. To address this situation, governments, institutions, and development actors must commit to transformative change. This includes introducing fairer tax systems, promoting women in leadership, addressing unpaid care work, expanding employment opportunities, and dismantling policies that hold women back. UNDP's helps institutions create equal opportunities. With the as our guide, and partners are working to unleash women's economic power. This International Women's Day, let's invest in women and accelerate progress.
The , "Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarized world" presents ways forward that hinges on reimagining cooperation in ways that do not assume away divergent interests or opinions but work with them to deliver global public goods that benefit us all. This report is the first in a new trilogy of human development reports that will further explore the layers of uncertainty: how to address polarization (2023-24), shape our shared digital future to advance human development (2025), and marshal human aspirations to navigate the Anthropocene (2026).
The Cerrado savannah, situated primarily in Brazil, is the world's most diverse savannah in terms of its biodiversity. ±¬ÁϹ«Éç Development Programme () collaborates with local partners to promote livelihoods, safeguard ecosystems, preserve traditions, and bring socio-biodiversity to market shelves. The Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN), in partnership with UNDP, was chosen in 1994 to manage the Small Grants Programme in Brazil, which is known as the Fund for Promotion of Productive Eco-social Landscapes. SGP Brazil has supported over 890 projects in the Cerrado, Caatinga and Amazon regions so far.
Voznesensk, a city in Mykolaiv Oblast with a population of about 40,000, was occupied by Russian invasion forces in March 2022. The town was heavily bombarded because of its strategic location, on the way to Kyiv, Odesa and other major cities. The occupation lasted only three days, but more than 700 buildings were damaged or destroyed. ±¬ÁϹ«Éç Development Programme () – together with the EU and the Governments of Sweden and Denmark – opened a Recovery and Development Office in the city in early January 2023 to coordinate international aid and support local authorities, NGOs, and businesses. In June 2023, UNDP helped set up a community security and recovery working group and is building two additional police stations to serve over 5,000 residents.
Ukraine is heavily landmine-contaminated due to war, with an area four and a half times the size of Switzerland affected. The UN has been leading the mine action programme since 2016. Clearing mines is a difficult and expensive long-term prospect, with the full demining package estimated to cost more than $37 billion. International partners, including are helping Ukraine.
Part community exchange, part communion with the natural world, part experiential hospitality, ECO EGYPT answers the call to the innate human desire for freedom, exploration and wonderment. Ecotourism done well offers a heightened sense of discovery through awe-inspiring natural landscapes and authentic engagement with unique local cultures. With the goal of prompting natural rediscovery and boosting the importance of ecological conservation, ECO EGYPT Experiences sheds light on the myriad wildlife, plant diversity, and natural landscapes on offer throughout the country. This work is implemented by the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency and Egypt, and financed by the Global Environment Facility.
Alaa Abu Mudallah started the "Khotwa" training center in Gaza to address the lack of practical and technical support for students. The center thrived, with 400-500 students each month, until it was hit and demolished during the Gaza escalation of May 2021, forcing Alaa to start over. As the economic situation worsens in the fourth month of the Gaza war, Alaa has lost everything and is now relying on her savings to survive, which she finds humiliating. An earlier estimated that if the war continued for more than three months, poverty would increase by 20-45 percent and the Human Development Index would plummet, setting back progress by 11-16 years.
is a UNDP video series exploring the trends shaping our world. From digitalization to inequality, the nature and climate emergency to crisis response, we examine the critical challenges we must address to achieve the future envisioned in the .
Season 2 Episode 4: Futures scope - Development practice is vastly different that what it was 50 years ago.
Urbanization has led to around 4.4 billion people living in cities today, accounting for 56% of the global population. This has made cities economic powerhouses but has come at a cost. The Global Environment Facility () Small Grants Programme (), implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (), supports local communities in developing sustainable urban solutions. SGP operates in 127 countries, providing financial and technical support to community-based organizations. Their focus areas include clean energy access and sustainable transport, biodiversity conservation, land use planning, climate action, and more. SGP has supported over 28,000 community-based projects in 136 countries with over $795 million in project funding.
is an initiative led by the (UNDP) that aims to make economies work for gender equality. The earnings gap between men and women is only one part of a broader gender imbalance that has many causes and serious consequences for women's well-being and overall development progress. According to the if women earned the same as men over their lifetimes, the world could reap a significant 'gender dividend'. This is why lifting women out of poverty is critical to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on gender equality and has multiplier effects for all 17 Goals. Equanomics envisions a new path by dismantling economic structures that generate and perpetuate gender inequality, and it is helping countries take it by building expertise and supporting partners that want to transform their economies to work better for everyone.