About the Development Account
The Development Account is a capacity development programme of the UN Secretariat. It is funded from the Secretariat’s regular budget and is a separate section in the Proposed Programme Budget of the UN Secretariat. With its biannual budget of $23.6 million it funds around 40 projects implemented by 10 entities of the Executive Committee of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA, 5 Regional Commissions, UNCTAD, UNEP, Habitat and UNODC). The Account was originally established by the General Assembly in 1997 and since then 204 projects have or are being implemented for a total budget of $127.6 million.
The objective of the Development Account is to fund capacity development projects in the priority areas of the United Nations Development Agenda that benefit developing countries. The Account encourages close collaboration of entities of the United Nations Secretariat on innovative, cross-sectoral regional or interregional activities which draw mainly on the technical, human and other resources available in developing countries.
Examples of typical projects include UNCTAD helping prepare trade negotiators for World Trade Organization accession, or helping countries in the Asia Pacific region to address financial implications of external shocks and climate change mitigation through innovative risk management instruments. DESA helped Member States to integrate sustainable principles into development strategies in countries emerging from conflict. DESA projects focused on strengthening the statistical capacities of regional entities and their members in specific areas where there was a need like environment statistics, use of the System of National Accounts, managing statistical offices. The Regional Commissions have been working with their Member States on regional capacity development aspects often sharing practices across regions, on subjects like migration, social protection and shared groundwater in the Mediterranean region.
UNEP used the Development Account to help Member states on specific aspects of sustainable production and consumption or bio diversity indicators. Habitat helped local governments to localize MDGs at urban and municipal levels. ODC helped set-up a South-South regional cooperation to share best practices for crime prevention in the developing world.
