BACKGROUND PAPER on United Nations Development Programme (UNDP ...

esponses are at the heart of the UNDP mandate for poverty elimination and
democratic governance.
UNDP is also mainstreaming the crisis prevention perspective into all of its
development work through policy dialogue, staff training and knowledge networking.
Why and when we get involved
Today, 90 percent of deaths in wars are civilian, 11 million refugees are seeking
protection, and there are 20 to 25 million internally displaced persons around the
world.
In September 2000, at the United Nations Millennium Summit, world leaders
unanimously endorsed a set of international development goals, including the
overarching goal of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by
2015. Reaching those goals, however, will require greater attention of the
international community to issues of crisis prevention and recovery.
UNDP supports these goals with its partners and other UN agencies by
strengthening coordination mechanisms to:
(1) work together more effectively with national governments, agencies, donors
and other aid partners;
(2) prevent a crisis, mitigate natural disasters, response planning and transition
to recovery;
(3) reinforce in-country cooperation;
(4) support resource mobilization;
(5) develop national capacities to reduce the continued impact of residual
weapons, such as land mines, on social and economic infrastructure and
livelihoods;
(6) strengthen and implement policies and programmes that incorporate conflict
prevention and peace-building perspectives;
(7) support strengthening of justice, the rule of law and human security; and
(8) support demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants in order to protect
civilians from post-conflict erruptions and to reduce the impact of illicit small
arms proliferation and availability.
Where we help
The continued presence of UNDP, before, during and after crisis, puts it in a unique
position to support crisis prevention and recovery initiatives. As UNDP's crisis
prevention and recovery arm, BCPR works in over 60 developing countries and
stands ready to respond to emerging conflicts and crisis situations.
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