The Arab Gulf Program for Development (AGFUND) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have strengthened their partnership through new agreements to advance sustainable finance, innovation, and human development in the Arab region.
The agreements were signed by Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal bin Abdulaziz, President of AGFUND, and Dr. Abdallah Al Dardari, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States.
The new partnership framework focuses on three major pillars: renewing support for the Arab Human Development Reports, expanding innovative development finance mechanisms, and advancing the Green Financing Platform for the Arab region.
The agreements also place special emphasis on mobilizing investments for countries recovering from conflict and economic crises, where access to sustainable capital remains a major challenge.
Strengthening four decades of cooperation
The latest accords build on more than 40 years of collaboration between AGFUND and UNDP, a partnership that has delivered numerous regional development programs with cumulative funding exceeding $25 million.
Over the decades, both institutions have worked together on initiatives spanning poverty alleviation, financial inclusion, women’s empowerment, education, and institutional capacity-building.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal said that the renewed alliance reflects AGFUND’s continued commitment to creating sustainable development pathways that respond to the Arab world’s evolving socio-economic needs.
Image via SPA | Cropped by GBN
Focus on ‘Green Financing’ and innovation
A central component of the agreement is support for the Green Financing Platform – Arab Region, a UNDP-led mechanism designed to mobilize capital toward climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable investments.
According to UNDP, the Arab region requires nearly $600 billion by 2030 to meet climate commitments, despite having more than $4.5 trillion in banking assets that remain underutilized for green and inclusive growth.
The Green Financing Platform seeks to bridge this gap by helping governments attract private capital through innovative instruments such as green bonds, blended finance models, carbon pricing systems, and de-risking mechanisms that make sustainable projects more bankable.
The agreements also renew backing for the Arab Human Development Reports, one of the region’s most influential knowledge platforms for policy analysis and socio-economic benchmarking.
Produced under UNDP leadership, these reports have historically played a key role in shaping development discourse across Arab countries by highlighting structural reform priorities and long-term human capital needs.
The renewed AGFUND-UNDP partnership is expected to unlock broader regional impact by aligning development finance with innovation-driven solutions, reinforcing both institutions’ shared vision of inclusive, resilient, and sustainable growth across the Arab world.
