Over half of the population in the world’s 47 least developed countries (LDCs) live on less than $1.25 per day and billions of people still do not have the services and employment necessary for the enjoyment of a decent quality of life. Yet many LDCs have made significant progress in economic development as measured by national statistics and indicators.

The Local Development Finance team at UNCDF addresses three problems that prevent the benefits of growth from reaching all sections of the population and all parts of the territory:

• Fiscal resources and domestic capital markets are not investing in local governments and local economies in a way that promotes sustainable and equitable growth, which is holding back structural transformation and economic resilience;
• Local governments and local economies are not able to attract development finance and therefore the benefits of growth are bypassing many populations;
• Finance is not available for local catalytic infrastructure projects with high impact in critical themes such as women’s economic empowerment, climate change, clean energy and food security.

Know more about our programmes on local development finance.