SDG Coordination Mechanism
Achieving Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) is a significant challenge for the developing world and critical to alleviating poverty. With the regional disparities, FSN remain strong and progress has been modest, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa. One of the main challenges in many LDCs is the lack of financing mechanisms to increase public and private FSN investments that can fill the gap of local food systems, improve the local fiscal space and transform the local economy.
New report underscores benefits of shifting from cash to digital payments in corporate supply chains
New UN Better Than Cash Alliance’s Cash Digitization Study recommends strengthening cash assistance collaboration across UN agencies & partners, to improve coordination and harmonization.
South and Southeast Asia are home to a combined 441 million youths, equivalent to almost 37 percent of the world’s population aged 15-24 years (UNDESA, 2015). Although most of the countries in these regions are currently experiencing strong economic growth, over 50 percent of working-age people are engaged in vulnerable low-paid employment and youth unemployment remains high with an increasing number of young people reaching the working age (ILO, 2016).
Recently, the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) completed the first comprehensive study of micro-merchants in Bangladesh engaged in the retail sector, particularly in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). This study addresses gaps in data and contributes to understanding of the market size, the nature of micro-merchant operations and opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship.
In 2017/18 the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) undertook the first comprehensive review of micro-merchants in Bangladesh engaged in the retail sector, particularly in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) operating mostly in rural areas.
Women and girls face barriers in the enabling environment, in the supply of and in their demand for financial products and services, as well as in their socio-cultural context. To address this challenge, UNCDF has developed a global strategy on women’s economic participation and empowerment for Financial Inclusion Practice Area (FIPA) called Participation of Women in the Economy Realized (PoWER).
A theory of change: how UNCDF supports governments to navigate the digital revolution.
The future success of inclusive digital finance depends on finding better and more affordable uses for digital wallets that will encourage low-income customers to use them regularly and repeatedly. High-volume payments (HVP) have gained industry attention as a means to drive or diversify usage, particularly among low-income customers.
Making Access Possible (MAP) is a multi-country initiative to support nancial inclusion through a process of evidence-based analysis feeding into a nancial inclusion roadmap jointly implemented by a range of local stakeholders.