The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) signed today a new partnership framework agreement encompassing five UNCDF global initiatives.

Sweden, already a significant core support donor to the UNCDF, now supplements its existing support with an additional contribution aimed at reinforcing UNCDF's work on inclusive growth and sustainable development.

With a total contribution of SEK 110,000,000 ($16,3 million) for the period 2012-2015, Sida will support UNCDF in its efforts to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. This will be achieved through contributions to a number of innovative UNCDF global initiatives, including Mobile Money for the Poor (MM4P), Making Access to Financial Services Possible (MAP), CleanStart, the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) and the Local Finance Initiative (LFI).

UNCDF Executive Secretary David Morrison praised Sweden for supporting UNCDF to address emerging global problems ranging from the impact of climate change to lack of access by low-income households and micro-entrepreneurs to financial services. "We are very proud to collaborate with Sida that shares with us the conviction that the fight against extreme poverty needs innovative approaches and strong partnerships involving all development actors" he said. "Sweden has for a longtime been a key supporter of our efforts and with this new innovative partnership with Sida, UNCDF's global programs will translate into large numbers of poor families, micro and small enterprises gaining access to affordable and sustainable financial and social services, resilience to climate change, access to sustainable energy and new economic opportunities."

Mr. Carl-Fredrik Birkoff, Head of Global Programs at Sida, welcomed the new global partnership with UNCDF. "UNCDF's global programs correspond well with our own Strategy for Global thematic development cooperation 2011-2014, as well as policies on economic growth, environmental and climate issues and ICT for development" he said. "We are very pleased with this new partnership and convinced it presents another boost for reducing poverty and accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals."

UNCDF developed these global programs in response to country-level demand for support in areas such as climate change adaptation finance, local infrastructure finance and access to energy finance that grow naturally out of its existing expertise in financial services and local development finance and are complementary to its country programs.

For example, the UNCDF CleanStart program offers a sustainable financing model to make renewable energy more accessible and affordable for low-income consumers. A traditional cook-stove emits about a tonne more CO² per year than a more energy efficient cook-stove, which translates into almost 500 million tonnes of CO² every year and is expected to grow to 600 million tonnes by 2030.Access to clean and efficient cookstoves in the developing world will produce a triple dividend of environmental protection, improved health and socioeconomic development with significant local and global implications.

This innovative multi-year framework agreement confirms the commitment of UNCDF and Sida to advance the internationally agreed aid effectiveness principles. It also confirms the importance that Sweden and UNCDF attaches to accelerating efforts towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals.