Financing the Recovery: A Formative Evaluation of UNDP's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and SDG Financing

This formative evaluation looks at how UNDP can support SDG financing to help Governments realizetheir commitments, while recognizing that many of the UNDP SDG financing tools are still in their early stages, and that the pandemic is not yet over. We reviewed the existing UNDP mechanisms for supporting SDG financing, as well as its broad toolkit. The evaluation used the current financing architecture and global opportunities as a lens through which to examine whether the UNDP approaches met the needs of countries as they emerge from the pandemic.

The evaluation provides UNDP with specific recommendations as it implements its Strategic Plan, 2022–2025 and the bold ‘moon shot’ of promoting the alignment of $1 trillion of investment to the SDGs. Recommendations include a strategic road map, and the consolidation of the many UNDP offers and tools to realign resources with demand and need. The evaluation also provides important considerations for the UNDP regional hubs and country offices on how to engage with Governments and the private sector to support the goal of SDG financing. Avenues include integrated national financing frameworks, domestic resource mobilization, sovereign bond financing and climate finance.