United Nations Development Assistance Framework in Ethiopia

The UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) is the common strategic framework for the operational activities of the UN system in Ethiopia. It provides a collective, coherent and integrated UN system response to national priorities and needs, which are included in Ethiopia's second national poverty reduction strategy paper, the Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) 2005/6-2009/10. Ethiopia is one of seven priority countries selected by the Millennium Project, a special advisory body to the UN Secretary General on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to prepare a scaled-up investment plan that would allow the country to meet the MDG targets. The Government of Ethiopia is preparing this plan, which incorporates the MDGs into most key policies and will provide for making significant investment, building capacity and creating new structures and systems. The PASDEP is aligned with the MDG time frame and the MDG investment plan. The convergence between Ethiopia, the UN system and other development partners around the MDGs and the PASDEP will provide the organizing principles for this UNDAF (2007-2011). The foundations of this UNDAF are: the PASDEP, the Government's MDG Needs Assessment exercise; the experiences of the first poverty reduction strategy paper, titled Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Programme (SDPRP), and the first UNDAF cycle (2002- 2006); and detailed consultations with Government and a range of stakeholders. Central to each country's UNDAF is agreement with that country's government on three to five priority strategic areas, selected from the challenges identified. The five areas selected by the UNCT in Ethiopia for development cooperation over the period of this UNDAF are designed to contribute to the Government of Ethiopia's primary objectives of achieving the PASDEP targets by 2010 and the MDGs by 2015. Although these five areas of UN comparative advantage do not cover all the inter-related MDGs, they aim to have strategic and catalytic impact on Ethiopia's development.download