MDG-F Framework

On 18 December 2006, UNDP Administrator Kemal Derviş and Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Leire Pajín, signed a landmark agreement to programme €528 million over the next four years through the UN system, towards key Millennium Development Goals and related development goals in select sectors and countries. This agreement paved the way for the establishment of the UNDP/Spain MDG Achievement Fund (MDG-F) which was launched in the first quarter of 2007. This document sets out the background and objectives of the Fund and explains how it will be managed.

The year 2005 witnessed an unprecedented increase in international support to development. At the UN World Summit that year, leaders reaffirmed their support to meeting internationally-agreed development goals, including the MDGs, and the commitment of the resources, partnerships and efforts required to achieve them. The MDG-F will support these poverty-reduction efforts, promoting the kind of development which enhances individual and collective rights, capacities and opportunities. The Fund will support innovative actions with the potential for wide replication and high- impact in select countries and sectors, within the framework of the Millennium Declaration’s global partnership for development and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The Fund’s decisions and approach will be informed by the imperatives of ensuring national and local ownership of Fund-supported activities, alignment with national policies and procedures, coordination with other donors, results-orientation and mutual accountability.

For the UN to meaningfully fulfill its role to help countries achieve the Goals by 2015 and address the global challenges of the 21st century, an intensive, coherent and efficient country level response is required from the UN development system, operating in concert. At the country level in 135 developing countries, the leadership of the UN’s support to the MDGs and national development strategies is the responsibility of the UN Resident Coordinator. UN Resident Coordinators provide the strategic direction and guide the operations of the individual UN Funds, Programmes and Agencies operating locally. As a group, these organizations make up the “UN Country Team”. UN Resident Coordinators also promote the normative agenda of non-resident agencies on the ground.

To meet the MDGs and foster sustainable development, the world needs more than ever a highly effective and legitimate UN. This means a UN that has the resources, operational efficiency, and capability to help countries address these complex challenges that often cut across the mandates of individual organizations; getting girls in school, for example, requires concerted action across a range of social and economic fields. At present, the funding structures and institutional incentives for joint UN interventions are not well- enough resourced nor especially conducive in their design, to allow for coherent support by the UN for the MDGs at the country level.

With the resources assigned to this Fund, the central driver of success for MDG achievement will be the leadership of the Resident Coordinators working with their respective Country Teams. The Fund will finance, typically, collaborative UN activities that leverage the clear value-added of the UN in the sector and country concerned, particularly where the UN’s collective strength is harnessed in order to address multi- dimensional development challenges.

At the same time, UN Agencies need adequate resources to provide leadership in their areas of expertise. In order to assist, the Fund may also provided limited direct support for the core mandates of the UN Funds, Programmes and Specialized Agencies entrusted with the effective delivery of the MDGs. While support for focused, time bound initiatives allow organizations to deliver on specific programmatic priorities, the regular resources available over a number of years to the core, normative and operational mandates of Agencies allow them to properly deliver on their expected role in the multilateral system, including on the longer term framework of the MDGs.

With this support, the Government of Spain is demonstrating its firm commitment to international development and to a strengthened multilateral system, and United Nations, in particular. The Spanish Master Plan for International Cooperation (2005-2008) outlines Spain’s policy, advocacy and financial priorities in support of the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In line with these priorities, the establishment of the Spain-UNDP MDG Achievement Fund is a landmark in this expanding institutional partnership.

Download the complete MDG-F Framework Document (.pdf)