UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
Did you know that...
• 1.3 billion people currently live on less than US$ 1 a day.
• Nearly a billion people are illiterate, well over a billion lack access to safe water and some 840 million go hungry every day.
• Nearly a third of the people living in the least developed countries are not expected to live to the age of 40.
• Women account for more than 70 per cent of the world's poor.
• Per capita gross national product in the United States and Switzerland is $30,000; in the Democratic Republic of Congo it is $367.
• Only four of the richer countries provide 0.7 per cent of their gross national product for development assistance.Benefiting from safe water
Fatou Diop is the president of a women's group in Fandane Wolof, a village in Senegal.
"Water was our biggest problem. Access was difficult and there was not enough water for irrigated market gardening or tree nurseries. The water was so salty that we never had to add salt when cooking. And because we had no latrines, our ground water was in danger of being contaminated. But now, thanks to support from the government, UNDP and UNEP, the village has all the water it needs for drinking, washing, market gardening and livestock, as well as latrines to protect our underground reserves. We also have a mill for grinding millet into flour, which saves a lot of time. Women pay a few cents to use it and the money goes for repairs, towards the purchase of a new mill, and for our credit system. That system lets women take out loans for small business ventures, like making peanut butter for sale in the marketplace. Having access to water has given us time for commercial ventures."
UNDP involves local people in choosing, planning and implementing projects that will affect their lives.
Mediating a land dispute
Antonio Baldizon is a farmer and board member of the local federation of cooperatives in Leon, in the northwestern Pacific region of Nicaragua.
"Members of the Alto de la Cruz cooperative were about to come to blows over a land dispute. They disagreed on how to distribute lots among the approximately 100 cooperative members. Coop member, Maria Elba Urroz, ask me to step in because she knew I had been trained by UNDP to mediate land disputes in Nicaragua. I organized a meeting with all the cooperative members. After arguing about the location and size of lots for three exhausting days we finally agreed that each family would be allotted 12.5 manzanas (8.8 hectares). Now Maria and the other coop members can live and work together in peace."
UNDP helps communities rebuild in the aftermath of conflict and resolve disputes that threaten to erupt into turmoil.
programme sponsored by UNDP and FAO, I took responsibility for our family's pond. Applying the techniques I learned, we were able to harvest 400 kilogrammes of fish last year. This gave us more protein in our diet, as well as $330 from the sale of surplus fish. We used the money to buy livestock, repair the house, purchase furniture, pay fees for the children's education and our parents' health care -- and restock the pond. Now I am teaching other women in the community to raise fish."
Teaching a woman to raise fish Hoang Thi Mai lives with her husband, their four children and her parents-in-law near Dien Bien Phu in northern Viet Nam.
"When we were growing rice we could never produce enough food and had very little cash income. I persuaded my family to take up aquaculture so that the children would have fish to eat. After I was invited to attend the training
UNDP-supported poverty-eradication projects often have a multiplier effect.
UNDP in brief
UNDP:
• Helps countries build capacities for people-centred, sustainable development, working with government policy-makers, and with people and their organizations;
• Supports programmes in 174 developing countries and territories through a network of 132 country offices;
• Focuses on poverty eradication and livelihoods for the poor, gender equity, environmental regeneration and good governance;
• Stimulates development dialogue and action by commissioning a yearly Human Development Report and supporting the production of National Human Development Reports in 110 countries;
• Coordinates the country-level development activities of all UN organizations;
• Is funded by the voluntary contributions of almost every nation on earth.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
1 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
USA
Tel.: (1-212) 906-5000
Fax: (1-212) 906-5364
Website: http://www.undp.org
