Russia to expand its support to UNDP youth programming

On 22 December 2020 Mourad Wahba, UNDP Associate Administrator a.i., and Dmitry Chumakov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, have signed an agreement on the new contribution of $10 million by the Russian Federation for UNDP projects supporting youth employment, wellbeing and innovation potential.

“UNDP highly values how our partnership with Russia has matured over the past years,” said Wahba. “Russian support always comes timely: in the spring, we agreed that part of the Trust Fund's replenishment would go towards Covid recovery, and now projects are already starting in nine countries. Today we are replenishing the Youth Window, also very timely as the pandemic has further exacerbated the challenges of youth worldwide, including unemployment, lack of access to quality social services, education and health.”   

The new contribution will be channeled to the programme countries via the Youth Window of the Russia-UNDP Trust Fund for Development. The Youth Window created in 2017 has already supported 10 projects in the CIS, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean focused on employment opportunities for youth, digital skills, professional education, entrepreneurship and innovation. Projects to be implemented from the new contribution will be selected on a competitive basis and UNDP Country Offices eligible to apply will be set by Russia and UNDP in 2021.

Since its establishment in 2015, the Russia-UNDP Trust Fund for Development has supported 48 projects in over 30 programme countries worldwide. With the latest contribution, the total funding provided by Russia to the Trust Fund stands at $95 million. The Trust Fund has improved the livelihoods of 1,140,000 people with access to employment, community infrastructure, trade opportunities, education, climate smart and disaster-proof solution.