UN Capital Development Fund

About UNCDF:

• It makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 47 least developed countries (LDCs).
• It offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development.
• Headquarter- New York and works worldwide out of 3 Regional Offices, Dakar, Addis Ababa and Bangkok.
• UNCDF is an autonomous institution affiliated with UNDP.
• UNCDF contributes to SDG 1, SDG 17 directly.

History:

• UNCDF was established by the UN General Assembly in 1966 with the mandate to assist developing countries in the development of their economies by supplementing existing sources of capital assistance by means of grants and loans.
• The mandate was modified in 1973 to serve first and foremost but not exclusively the LDCs.

Funding of UNCDF:

• It is voluntarily funded UN organization. Its funding comes from UN member states, foundations and the private sector.

UNCDF’s financing models:

It works through 3 channels:

1. Inclusive digital economies, which connects individuals, households, and small businesses with financial eco-systems that catalyze participation in the local economy, and provide tools to come out of poverty and manage finances;
2. Local development finance, which capacitates localities to drive local economic expansion and sustainable development through:
   • fiscal decentralization;
   • innovative municipal finance;
   • structured project finance.
3. Investment finance, which provides catalytic financial structuring, de-risking, and capital deployment to drive SDG impact and domestic resource mobilization.