The United Nations Capital Development Fund released its 2015 Annual Report: MAKING FINANCE WORK for THE POOR, which is now also available online at www.uncdf.org/ar2015 in both English and French.

The report gives an overview of the activities of UNCDF during 2015, and provides a number of compelling examples of how UNCDF is supporting the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to meet their development and graduation goals. As the report illustrates, we continue to see impressive results through our deployment of innovative finance solutions and partnerships for sustainable development and inclusive growth.

Both the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the 2030 Agenda recognize the need for new financing and businesses models that mobilize resources from the public and private sector to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Our programmes in inclusive finance and local development finance are innovating such models in LDCs by demonstrating how public resources -- including ODA and climate finance -- can de-risk the local economic space and crowd-in roughly ten times as much in public and private resources, especially from domestic sources. This builds resilient and dynamic local economies, and addresses exclusion and inequality.

“UNCDF, with its capital mandate and its status as an international support measure for the LDCs, is striving to shift these dynamics and make finance work for poor people and communities.” said Executive Secretary Judith Karl in her introduction to the Annual Report 2015.

The report shows the potential of innovative, frontier finance models for helping LDCs reach the  “last mile” of inclusion and development, and how UNCDF’s programmes provide critical demonstration value that LDCs and other development actors can leverage for transformational development change in local economies.

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