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Agreement to reduce poverty and tackle climate change

Madrid — The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark and Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Soraya Rodriguez, signed here today a multi-year Strategic Partnership Agreement for close to €400 million. This new commitment from Spain will go towards UNDP projects aimed at reducing poverty and tackling climate change. It will also go towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals and fostering democratic governance, conflict prevention and recovery, and peacebuilding, as well as supporting UN Reform.

“This development partnership agreement tells us that Spain is no ordinary donor,” Clark said. “Spain is a country which is a partner in every sense in development. It vigorously participates in debate about the direction of development and about what the multi-lateral agencies should be focusing on, and it adds a tremendous amount of value to us as a partner.”

The Secretary of State stressed the importance of UNDP and Spain’s commitment to its shared goals.

“We will measure the impact of the projects in each country and their effectiveness in helping accomplish the Millennium Development Goals,” Rodriguez said.

“When Spain approached UNDP in 2006 with the idea of a Millennium Development Goal Achievement Fund, the largest ever single contribution of this kind into the multilateral development system at the UN, we couldn’t have imagined what this partnership would lead to,” Clark said. “Not only this strategic agreement today but also the impact which the Fund stands to have as it spans five continents, 50 countries, and is already financing close to 130 programs doing very exciting and valuable work for poor people.”

Helen Clark is in Spain for two days on an official visit. In addition to signing this partnership, she met today with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé, members of the Spanish Parliament, and the Director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, Elena Madrazo.

To learn more about the MDG-Achievement Fund, go to http://www.undp.org/mdgf/.