Washington, DC - Today, UNDP and the World Bank signed two milestone framework agreements to strengthen and streamline their cooperation at the country level – the Standard Form of Agreement for the Delivery of Outputs and the Standard Form of Agreement for the Provision of Technical Assistance. Both will make project assistance faster and more efficient for countries.

UNDP and the World Bank share a long history of collaboration in over 90 countries, from joint efforts in preventing and responding to crises, to leveraging climate finance, unlocking data for development and helping countries to accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“The World Bank is a critical partner for UNDP. In the last two years alone, our vital partnership in Yemen has created emergency employment for 344,550 people, helping 2.4 million people from vulnerable households across the country buy essentials to survive.” said Achim Steiner. “I welcome these agreements with the World Bank which create new opportunities to achieve even greater development impact together around the world.”

The new Outputs Agreement can be used whenever a Government engages UNDP to support development of local capacities and achievement of the SDGs at national and municipal levels in World Bank-financed operations. Recent examples of this collaboration include Argentina, to support institutional and Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) development, and Guyana, to modernize the country’s telecommunications system.

The Technical Assistance Agreement is designed for when World Bank Borrowers engage UNDP to provide advisory or technical assistance services under World Bank-financed operations. Recent examples of this kind of cooperation include work on an Open Data Action plan in Serbia, and in Kazakhstan, where UNDP delivered training and infrastructure needs assessments of the Academy of Justice.

Manuela Ferro, Vice President Operations Policy and Country Services at the World Bank, said “As we work together to help countries grow and develop, it is critical that we align our policy requirements, and facilitate seamless coordination across all our development partners, making engagement with our client countries more efficient and effective. These agreements allow our focus to be on helping countries strengthen their capacity and manage crises, ensuring greater impact and progress towards ending poverty.”

The roll-out of the templates will be supported by strengthened WB-UNDP cooperation to help countries accelerate the SDGs and implement the 2030 Agenda.