Exclusive Interview: UNDP's Achim Steiner on the 'chronic erosion' of development

Impact of US Policy Changes

• ⚠️ The US administration's decisions led to the termination or stop orders for nearly 100 UNDP projects, significantly impacting partners and vulnerable populations.
• 🎯 These cuts affected critical areas like HIV/AIDS antiretroviral supply, stabilization efforts in crisis contexts, and programs supporting rule of law and anti-corruption.
• 💡 While not fundamentally altering UNDP's overall portfolio, these cancellations created major problems for specific communities and institutions that had built long-term partnerships.

Chronic Erosion of Development Finance

• 📉 Over the past decade, there has been a chronic erosion of finance available for development cooperation, with core funding for multilateral institutions like UNDP declining.
• 📊 Despite overall OECD figures for Official Development Assistance (ODA) increasing, the actual funding for much of the developing world, especially Africa, has been stagnant or decreasing.
• 🔑 This trend is characterized as a "defunding" of international cooperation, impacting UNDP's ability to address major development challenges beyond crisis countries, such as energy transitions and inequality.

Adapting to New Realities

• 🚀 UNDP is adapting by reorienting towards the private sector and focusing on the "future of development," addressing global threats like climate change, cyber security, and the digital age.
• 💡 The organization emphasizes bespoke offers to countries and building an infrastructure for global cooperation to tackle shared challenges that transcend national borders.
• 🌱 Efforts include helping countries evolve their taxation systems through initiatives like "Tax for SDGs" and "Tax Inspectors Without Borders" to boost domestic resource mobilization.

Challenges to Multilateralism

• 💬 The concept of multilateralism is being tested by growing skepticism, inward-looking national policies, and political polarization, making international cooperation more difficult.
• ⚠️ Retreating from global cooperation is deemed irrational given the interconnected nature of threats like uncontrolled climate change, cybercrime, and mass migration.
• 🌍 The 2015 adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was a "declaration of interdependence," recognizing that solving global problems requires collective action.

Future of Development Investment

• 💰 Current international cooperation investment (0.33% of GNI from OECD countries) is an "ridiculous sum" for solving global poverty, climate change, and security issues.
• 📈 There's a critical need for systemic reform of institutions like the UN and Bretton Woods, focusing on core functions and decluttering, rather than just "accountancy reform."
• 💡 Innovative financing models, including hybrid finance and derisking private sector investments, are crucial, especially for fragile and low-income countries where private capital is less likely to invest.