RIYADH: Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal bin Abdulaziz, the president of the Arab Gulf Program for Development, known as AGFUND, has signed a set of strategic partnership agreements with the UN Development Program.
The UNDP was represented by Abdallah Al-Dardari, the UN’s assistant secretary-general and regional director for Arab states.
The agreements are designed to renew support for the Arab Human Development Reports and deepen cooperation in development finance and innovation — efforts aimed at strengthening development pathways across the Arab region.
Specifically, the partnership will back upcoming editions of the Arab Human Development Reports series, first launched in 2002, which has played a key role in advancing the understanding of development challenges in the region, with backing from a number of development and financial institutions, including AGFUND.
The agreements also extend support to the Green Finance Platform for the Arab Region and seek to scale up investments in innovative development financing, with a particular focus on countries emerging from crises.
Al-Dardari said that the Arab Human Development Reports had helped shape development policy and deepen regional understanding of critical issues for more than two decades. He described the new partnership as a continuation of that legacy and one that will help build more inclusive and sustainable pathways for the future.
Hammam bin Juraied, the CEO at AGFUND, explained that the agreements covered several Gulf and Arab states and were focused on maximizing the impact of development investments, particularly in countries facing economic headwinds, by providing the data and analysis needed to support decision-makers and investors.
The partnership between AGFUND and the UNDP spans more than four decades and has seen the implementation of numerous development initiatives and projects, with total funding exceeding $25 million.
