The UN Capital Development Fund Deputy Executive Secretary Xavier Michon and Enabel Managing Director Jean Van Wetter, today signed a strategic partnership agreement, which demonstrates their joint commitment to cooperate in promoting the Sustainable Development Goals in the LDCs, and identify and develop synergies and partnerships in areas of shared interest such as innovative finance and digital technologies.

This will be implemented within a framework of collaboration and partnership with all stakeholders who are working to improve the lives of the communities we serve, to consider the development needs of future generations and to provide services for all within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and to leave no one behind.

Working together

The purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is to provide a framework of cooperation and facilitate and strengthen collaboration between the Parties, on a non-exclusive basis, in areas of common interest. The MOU aims to establish a working relationship between the Parties for a long-term collaboration through a partnership based on equality, mutual trust and transparency.

The overall objective of this MOU is to collaborate on the enhancement of local economic development and access to finance as the key drivers of poverty reduction and resilience building. The Parties will work to leverage their existing competencies to strengthen existing initiatives and explore future collaboration and funding for collaborating towards achievement of the SDGs in targeted countries of common interest.

The initiatives under this agreement will focus on, but will not be limited to:

• Local economic development, including climate and economic resilience building and women and youth economic empowerment.
• Exploring innovative sources of finance, including climate finance and private finance.
• Exploring ways to work with blended finance, including grants, reimbursable grants, loans and guarantees.
• Financial inclusion for all but in particular for women and youth, and through digital finance and MSME finance.
• Training and education, including e-learning and other innovative approaches
• Knowledge sharing.
• Resource mobilization: the Parties will explore joint funding and resource mobilization where appropriate based on the above areas of cooperation.

The agreement recognises the existing mandates, strategies, and programmes that each institution has in place, and their distinct capabilities and expertise to deliver on their responsibilities to Member States and shareholders. This partnership comes at a moment when the world has defined an ambitious SDG agenda which provides an unprecedented opportunity for transformative change, starting with the LDCs. The leadership of UNCDF and ENABEL will meet periodically to review the partnership and take stock of results achieved.

About Enabel

Enabel is the development agency of the Belgian federal government, implementing Belgium’s international development policy.

Under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we carry out public service assignments in Belgium and abroad.

We provide customised expertise, including Belgian public expertise, we promote the involvement of all and we pursue top-level partnerships.

Enabel enhances the impact of Belgium in international development by carrying out assignments for Belgian and international third-party donors.

For more information, please visit www.enabel.be

About UNCDF

The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 47 least developed countries.

With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. UNCDF’s financing models work through two channels: financial inclusion that expands the opportunities for individuals, households, and small businesses to participate in the local economy, providing them with the tools they need to climb out of poverty and manage their financial lives; and by showing how localized investments—through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance—can drive public and private funding that underpins local economic expansion and sustainable development.

By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 17 on the means of implementation. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a number of different SDGs.

For more information, please visit www.uncdf.org