Tarawa, Kiribati – Kiribati is the first country in the Pacific (Fiji and Samoa Parish) where the United Nations, with assistance from its regional development partners, has established a One UN Fund. The Kiribati One UN Fund

Tarawa, Kiribati – Kiribati is the first country in the Pacific (Fiji and Samoa Parish) where the United Nations, with assistance from its regional development partners, has established a One UN Fund. The Kiribati One UN Fund allows development partners to provide multi-year financing to United Nations organizations at the programme level, thus ensuring that the UN organizations will upscale their efforts to achieve concrete development results as envisaged in the new Kiribati Development Plan (2008-2011).

In 2008, the UNCT in Fiji agreed on all arrangements and set up the necessary UNDAF Implementation Plan that forms the foundation of the Kiribati One UN Fund. The Kiribati One UN Fund arrangements have to take specific note of the remoteness, difficult operating environment and UN Joint Presence in Kiribati is led by UNICEF, on behalf of UNDP and UNFPA also.  Working closely with the MDTF Office (the Administrative Agent of the Kiribati One UN Fund), the RC Office and the UNCT developed the necessary arrangements. After receiving clearance by the Joint Strategy Meeting with the Government of Kiribati and development partners in-country in October 2008, the Terms of Reference for the Kiribati One UN Fund, along with all other documentation, was finalised in February 2009, paving the way for raising resources from donors and development partners.  

The Kiribati One UN Fund was formally established in July 2009 when ILO, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA. UNICEF, UNIFEM and WHO signed the MOU. Shortly thereafter, in August 2009, it received an allocation of $500,000 from the Expanded Delivering as One Funding Window (EFW) and, based on the Kiribati UNDAF Implementation Plan, the seven eligible Participating UN Organizations submitted proposals for funding. The proposals were carefully reviewed by the RC Office and the Government of Kiribati, and were approved and endorsed in late-September 2009. In February 2010, an additional allocation of $500,000 was approved by the EFW for the Kiribati One UN Fund, and the UNCT has chosen a joint programme approach for allocations this time.