THE UN JOINT SDG FUND 2023-2026 TRANSITIONAL STRATEGY
At the SDG Summit in September 2023, Member States adopted a strong Political Declaration expressing a recommitment to the SDGs and calling for “bold, ambitious, accelerated, just and transformative actions, anchored in international solidarity and effective cooperation at all levels.”
Specifically, in paragraph 40, Member States pledged “…to fully support the UN development system, including the RC system and the Joint SDG Fund, to deliver better in support of programme countries and their efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs”.
The Declaration explicitly recognizes the Joint SDG Fund as the UN’s pre-eminent joint financing mechanism for development. In an effort to meet this call, the UN Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG) informed by the Common Country Analysis (CCA) and Cooperation Frameworks has identified six major transitions needed for SDG acceleration.
The transitions serve as an organising frame to consolidate actions, resources and partners behind investment plans and pipeline programmes to accelerate progress across the SDGs, with the prevailing country contexts determining the enabling conditions, institutional capacities, priority level, financing, partners and action accorded to each area.
Recognizing the catalytic role the Fund can play in supporting UN country teams to step up effective delivery through coherent support for SDG acceleration under the leadership of UN Resident Coordinators, a new strategy for the SDG Fund has been formulated for the period 2023-2026.
The Strategy has been informed by the experiences and lessons learned in its first four years, as well as the 2022 comprehensive System-Wide Evaluation of the Fund.
The evaluation validated the Fund’s strategic mandate and emphasized its value as a flexible and agile pooled fund mechanism to accelerate the SDGs. At the same time, the evaluation emphasized the need to enhance the prioritisation and quality of the Fund’s interventions through a refined and strengthened value proposition that concentrates the Fund’s efforts on key transitions essential to achieving the 2030 Agenda and brings out the unique benefit of UN collective action.
As such, the Fund’s new strategy will work to accelerate the transitions by facilitating integrated policy and regulatory support for the SDGs, helping to shape investment strategies and financing solutions, and strengthening government and institutional capacities.
Note:
All joint programs of the Joint SDG Fund are led by UN Resident Coordinators and implemented by the agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations development system. With sincere appreciation for the contributions from the European Union and Governments of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and our private sector funding partners, for a transformative movement towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.
