The official Facebook account for the UN Capital Development Fund.
United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) mobilizes and catalyses an increase in capital flows for impactful investments in high-risk markets, especially in Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States and countries in special situations. By crowding in capital through the deployment of risk-absorbing financial instruments, mechanisms and structuring advisory, UNCDF contributes
06/21/2026
📍 The Solomon Islands is asking the same question most early-stage digital economies across the Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa are asking: how do you get financial institutions to start lending to micro-entrepreneurs, to women, and to youth?
🔍 The answer starts with making that first move bankable enough that the second move follows.
UNCDF is built to be that first-mover.
Missed UNCDF’s Executive Board segment? Here’s your 2-minute recap. 🎬
What does it look like when the right capital reaches the right place at the right time?
🔍 It looks like around 26,000 people in Tanzania gaining first-time access to clean water through the Tanga Water Bond. It looks like a small business in Nigeria receiving catalytic finance to produce therapeutic food for malnourished children.
📍 At this year’s Executive Board, Member States reaffirmed one thing: UNCDF’s catalytic model works where capital is needed most, and where risks are often perceived to be too high.
📈 That support matters. And so does the call that came with it: to match political endorsement with the flexible resources UNCDF needs to deliver for the countries and communities too often left behind.
🙏 Thank you to our donors, Member States and partners for standing with UNCDF, and for helping turn support into capital, and capital into development impact.
06/19/2026
UNCDF and UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji are excited to announce the official launch of the Sustainable Pacific Blue Circle Fund (SPBCF).
🌊 The SPBCF is a regional initiative dedicated to strengthening blue and green economy MSMEs across Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, helping them grow, access finance, and attract sustainable investment.
This initiative is made possible through the €8.8 million funding from the European Commission, whose long-term commitment to inclusive and sustainable development in the Pacific continues to open real doors for regional entrepreneurs and communities.
🤝 Led by UNCDF and implemented in partnership with United Nations Development Programme - UNDP, the SPBCF brings a blended-finance approach to a region teeming with innovation and ambition.
🔍 The initiative will combine technical assistance, incubation support, and initiatives to build a more supportive and connected business environment to create sustainable pathways to capital that have generally been out of reach for many Pacific MSMEs.
🪸 The Fund contributes to the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent and advances the SDGs targets for inclusive economic growth, climate action, gender equality, and ocean-based development.
🔗 Learn more ➡️ https://bit.ly/44mRxgM
06/19/2026
🌱 What does innovation in agriculture look like, and why is de-risking agribusinesses important?
During a recent visit to Jodoor, a Moroccan agritech start-up supported by UNCDF and the Africa Adaptation Initiative, Kawtar Zerouali reflects on the importance of supporting and de-risking innovative local businesses.
Too often, these businesses remain stuck between proof of concept and growth because they cannot access the financing they need to scale.
📖 Read more here: https://bit.ly/4uHq18A
06/18/2026
UNCDF Uganda is looking for a consulting firm to lead a market scoping study on sustainable and nature-based tourism MSMEs in Uganda.
📍 Uganda's tourism sector has significant growth potential but the MSMEs that make up the backbone of its tourism value chain continue to face structural barriers: limited access to finance, gaps in business development support, and low digital adoption that constrains their competitiveness and resilience.
🔍 This assignment will generate the evidence base needed to change that.
The work will combine field research, stakeholder consultations, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and data analysis, culminating in a final market scoping report and validation workshop.
📆 Deadline: 26 June 2026 · 11:00 AM New York time
🔗 Apply here: https://bit.ly/4eNIawF
06/17/2026
As part of a two-day visit to Kenya, the President of the 80th United Nations General Assembly, H.E. Annalena Baerbock, visited a DigiKen-supported digital innovation hub at PC Kinyanjui Technical Training Institute in Nairobi, drawing international attention to Kenya’s efforts to build an inclusive digital economy.
🔍 The visit brought together digital entrepreneurs, learners, and public servants, who shared how targeted investments in inclusive digital skills, innovation hubs, and access to finance are helping translate digital innovation into real economic opportunities and drive sustainable growth for all.
🤝 DigiKen is a joint United Nations initiative funded by the European Commission through the Joint SDG Fund, led by UNESCO and implemented by UNCDF, UN Environment Programme, and UN Women, in partnership with the Government of Kenya.
📈 Within the programme, UNCDF plays a key role by unlocking financing for digital MSMEs, including through a $900,000 guarantee partnership agreement with the Co-op Bank Kenya to help de-risk lending to digital businesses.
The visit underscored the importance of translating global commitments on digital transformation into practical, locally grounded solutions
In the markets perceived as too small, too risky, and too far from conventional finance, UNCDF shows up.
We deploy risk-absorbing instruments and provide investment advisory to augment the collective impact of the UN system, focusing on three capabilities that drive local growth and development:
➡️ MSME finance
➡️ Subnational finance
➡️ Digital finance
By developing market systems and deepening the financial sector, UNCDF works to make capital:
✅ Better, so everyone has a fair chance to thrive;
✅ Stronger, so markets can develop; and
✅ Greater, so the potential of people, especially youth and women, is unleashed.
From 2022-2025, every dollar invested in UNCDF catalysed an additional $20.
And we are just getting started.
“Eritrea. Senegal. Mozambique. Myanmar. Too often these countries are seen as too small, too risky, too far from conventional finance. And so capital walks past them every single day."
That is how Pradeep Kurukulasuriya, UNCDF Executive Secretary, opened his address to the United Nations Development Programme - UNDP Executive Board annual session yesterday.
The challenge in development finance is not the absence of capital. Capital exists. The challenge is sequencing. Who goes in first? Who takes the early risk when markets are most fragile and returns are most uncertain?
This is a role UNCDF was created to play. And the results show.
➡️ In 2025, we derisked investments in 67 countries (36 LDCs, 16 SIDS, 24 fragile settings).
➡️ $2 million unlocked $35 million in local currency lending in Afghanistan
➡️ From 2022–2025, every dollar invested in UNCDF has catalysed an additional $20.
💬 As the Executive Secretary highlighted to Member States, UNCDF "complements the UN system with a unique financial capability. When you fund project implementation, the money delivers but it does so once. When you give UNCDF capital deployed as a guarantee, investment grant, or concessional loan, it multiplies ten times over."
The SDG financing gap is $4 trillion a year. Today at the United Nations Development Programme - UNDP Executive Board, Alexander De Croo, UNDP Administrator and UNCDF Managing Director, was direct about what that gap actually represents:
💬 "The barrier in achieving that is not a lack of capital. There is no lack of capital in the world today. What we lack is the capability to connect that available capital with the sustainable development needs that we have."
The barriers are known. Policy and regulatory uncertainty. Perceived risk that exceeds actual risk. A shortage of bankable projects that give private investors a credible entry point.
Closing those gaps requires a combination that UNDP and UNCDF are positioned to deliver together.
➡️ UNDP leads on upstream policy derisking, working with governments to identify regulatory gaps and create the enabling environment that investment requires.
➡️ UNCDF deploys the instruments that make entry possible at the early stage: guarantees, concessional loans, and first-loss capital in markets where risk is too high for most financial institutions to move first.
🤝 That combination — policy derisking and catalytic capital at the last mile — is what is needed to unlock private capital, build investable markets, create jobs, and support economic growth.
The private capital is there. The pipeline is being built.
06/10/2026
At the Conference 2026, Guest of Honor Hon. Salome Makamba, Deputy Minister of Energy, reaffirmed the government’s dedication to clean cooking energy:
💬 “The Government of Tanzania is committed to achieving 80 percent clean cooking access by 2034. This conference has helped us align policies, financing, and community engagement strategies to accelerate progress. Clean cooking is central to protecting health, empowering women and youth, and safeguarding our environment.”
📢 She also highlighted the President’s championship of clean energy initiatives, noting that national awareness campaigns supported by UNCDF have been instrumental in mobilizing communities and shifting cultural attitudes toward modern cooking solutions.
European Union in Tanzania Wizara Ya Nishati United Nations Tanzania