Framework of cooperation

Strategic Partnership Agreement

In 2004, UNDP and the European Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding, called the Strategic Partnership Agreement, which laid the foundation for a strategic partnerhsip between the two organizations.

The FAFA

The Financial and Administrative Framework Agreement (FAFA), signed in 2003, provides the overarching framework governing the contribution-specific agreements signed between the EU and UNDP.

It facilitates the administrative cooperation by standardizing contractual modalities and commitment to rely on UN standard auditing, control, accounting and procurement procedures. This agreement is applicable to all European Commission Directorates-General and all the UN organizations that are party to it. 

Since then, the FAFA has been adapted twice, in 2014 and 2018, to embrace changes in each of the organisations’ regulatory frameworks. The latest version is available here.

Communications and visibility are key for the EU to mobilize its citizens and governments to remain engaged in development aid and cooperation as well as for the EU - UNDP strategic partnership.

The ‘Joint Action Plan on Visibility’ between the EU and the UN (2006) builds on the FAFA, emphasizing the shared commitment to communicate the results of the EU-UNDP partnership, with the aim to ensure transparency of the European taxpayers' money and to foster global solidarity.

The ‘Joint Visibility Guidelines for EC-UN actions in the field’ (2008) provides practical advice to EU and UN staff in the field on how to best organize the communications activities.

Aid Effectiveness

The EU and UNDP share a commitment to improving the quality and impact of development assistance. Both organizations are signatories to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005), which defines a series of targets based on the principles of: ownership on the part of partner countries; donor alignment as regards strategies and procedures; donor harmonization; managing for results; and mutual accountability. 

During the fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, the EU and UNDP also endorsed the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (to which UNDP, together with OECD, acts as a secretariat). Both UNDP and the EU are represented in the Steering Committee of the Global Partnership.

The Global Partnership builds on international efforts on aid effectiveness, broadening the agenda from one focused on aid to one which aims to get maximum impact from all forms of development cooperation. The EU and UNDP have agreed to make a shared effort to encourage all stakeholders, including emerging economies and private sector actors, to be actively involved in this Global Partnership.

Further, the "New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States", adopted at  the Busan conference in 2011, proposes key peacebuilding and statebuilding goals, focuses on new ways of engaging, and identifies commitments to build mutual trust and achieve better results in fragile states.