UNDP RESULTS

RESULTS

United Nations Development Programme

Crisis Prevention and Recovery

In the Philippines, UNDP is training people affected by Typhoon Haiyan to rebuild their own communities. Photo: Lesley Wright

Over the past two decades, disasters have killed more than 1.3 million people, affected more than 4.4 billion and cost the global economy at least US$ 2 trillion. And every day, millions of people suffer from the direct and indirect consequences of conflict, insecurity and high levels of crime. Around the world violence kills about one person per minute and the average cost of a civil war is equivalent to more than 30 years of GDP growth for a medium-sized developing country.

And for both conflicts and disasters, it is the most vulnerable; women, the young, people with disabilities, the elderly, ethnic minorities, the displaced and those living in extreme poverty that suffer the most. Conflicts and disasters put hardwon development gains at risk, reverse progress towards eliminating poverty and exacerbate inequality.

UNDP helps governments and communities build resilience to conflicts and disasters so they can respond, recover and achieve their development goals. During 2013, UNDP was active in 177 countries in assisting households, communities, and governments to prevent, confront, and counter crises.

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I n Afghanistan, in 2013 UNDP provided temporary work to more than 50,000 conflict-affected people to repair community infrastructure, build micro hydropower plants, fix roads, restore water supplies and manage local natural resources;

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I n Bosnia and Herzegovina, UNDP efforts to support the government in getting the local population to turn in illegal weapons and explosives still held from the 1990s civil conflict resulted in close to 4,500 guns being handed in to authorities in 2013. More than 130,000 guns and 11,000 tonnes of ammunition have now been destroyed since similar efforts began in 2006.

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ith UNDP support to mine action in Cambodia, W more than 76,000 people were able to make use of and farm land that was declared free of mines in 2013. To date, 61 percent of this land is used for agriculture, while the rest is used for schools, and infrastructure development;

in the hands of civilians. The number of homicides and injuries related to firearms has continually reduced - from 410 in 2010 to 301 in 2013;

A female police officer participates in a UNDP-supported training in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Photo: Tobin Jones/UN Photo

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I n Cuba, UNDP helped improve the living conditions of more than 23,700 families and assisted close to 17,700 families rebuild damaged or destroyed homes and find shelter following Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

This included efforts to improve local employment opportunities, by using locally produced material;

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I n Colombia, UNDP helped more than 58,000 survivors of human rights abuses to make submissions to a law that which will foster justice and reparations from the country’s long-running conflict. UNDP has also facilitated national consultations to contribute to the peace talks between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC);

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fter 18 months of conflict in the Democratic A Republic of the Congo, UNDP helped restore courts and supported the establishment of several legal aid clinics. More than 3,000 people living in remote provinces in North and South Kivu received free legal advice in 2013;

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In El Salvador, a country with one of the world’s highest violent crime, UNDP support to local governments, police and NGOs has contributed to crime rates dropping by as much as 70 to 80 percent in some areas in recent years. In recent years, UNDP advocacy led to a reform of the Law against Domestic Violence; In Kenya, UNDP support, including an anti-violence campaign featuring sports stars and the training of local mediators helped to ensure relatively peaceful 2013 elections since devastating electoral violence in 2007; Before and during elections in Madagascar, UNDP helped the government to develop conflict prevention measures, which helped ensure that electoral tensions did not escalate into violence during two rounds of presidential elections in October and December 2013; To reduce high levels of crime in Nicaragua, UNDP supported the government in clearing illegal guns from the street. A database system to register arms led to the registration of close to 70 percent of weapons owned by private security companies as well as 20 percent of those

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I n the Philippines, in the aftermath of devastating Typhoon Haiyan, UNDP has now provided more than 42,000 people with emergency jobs to clear mountains of debris from roads, and help rebuild critical infrastructure. Most homes, schools and hospitals have now been restored and the country is beginning the long process of rebuilding. In a different part of the country, UNDP support to a peace process has helped the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front end a decades long conflict and agree to establish a new autonomous region called Bangsamoro;

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I n Somalia UNDP trained and equipped 12,000 police, along with several female judges and lawyers to improve justice, security and the rule of law;

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I n Sudan, UNDP is helping farmers to become productive again after that country’s long-running conflict through such efforts as training in hibiscus growing, bee keeping and livestock management;

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T he conflict in Syria has now killed more than 120,000 people and displaced close to 50 percent of the country’s population. More than 2.7 million Syrians have fled to neighbouring countries. UNDP is helping host communities to cope with the massive influx of refugees, for example, by improving services, fixing shelters and upgrading local infrastructure for more than 42,000 people in Lebanon. In Iraq, UNDP has set up legal aid and protection services for Syrian women to protect them from sexual and gender based violence;

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In Tunisia, UNDP assistance enabled the National Constituent Assembly to draft a new national Constitution, which was approved in early 2014;

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With UNDP support in Yemen, approximately 240,000 people benefited from mine risk education and clearance activities. UNDP helped survey close to 33 million square metres of land and clear approximately 13 million in 2013.

For more information, visit: www.undp.org United Nations Development Programme One United Nations Plaza New York, NY 10017 Updated August 2014