UN pooled funds are financing instruments at the service of multi-stakeholder partnerships that bring together governments, UN agencies, civil society and private sector. In order to discuss achievements and learnings from this type of innovative financing instruments, the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the UN and the UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office convened the 2020 edition of the UN Pooled Funding Multi-Stakeholder Discussion Forum.

UN pooled funds are financing instruments at the service of multi-stakeholder partnerships that bring together governments, UN agencies, civil society and private sector. In order to discuss achievements and learnings from this type of innovative financing instruments, the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the UN and the UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office convened the 2020 edition of the UN Pooled Funding Multi-Stakeholder Discussion Forum.

The forum is a periodic platform for stakeholder dialogue and engagement, which was established in 2019 at the request of the UNDP Executive Board and following recommendations from an independent evaluation of inter-agency pooled funds in September 2018. 

Its objective is to review progress and discuss trends in global financing and strategies on the way forward, to strengthen partner engagement and reinforce the confidence of partners in the mechanism and its use. 

During this edition, representatives from Member States, UN entities and civil society discussed recent growth and trends, particularly around the specific commitments on pooled funding established by the Funding Compact, a mutual agreement by UN Member States and the UN Development System on how to improve the way the UN is funded.

Latest data shows a steady growth in pooled financing, due to its comparative advantages in funding lexible and integrated responses to humanitarian, transition and development challenges. For example, funding to development related inter-agency pooled funds has increased by 107% since 2016, and now represents approximately 9% of all non-core funding to UN development-related activities.

In the context of the integrated UN response to the COVID-19 pandemic impact, inter-agency pooled funds have quickly pivoted activities and resources to address challenges, building in the flexibility inherent to pooled financing.

An important part of the discussion centered on how to increase the efficiency and effectiveness with of pooled funds through series of common management features, fully spelled out under Commitment 14 in the Compact, covering such aspects as clear theories of change, solid results-based management systems, and transparency standards. The MPTF Office presented progress made in developing new tools and pooled instruments that embed these features, including through the UN Response and Recovery Fund. 

The next edition of this Multi-Stakeholder Forum will take place during the first half of 2020.

•         Meeting recording: https://youtu.be/DrRt3v7xhI4
•         Slides deck
•         Video pooled funding in action: https://youtu.be/6qUP2kHosaM