Global Policy Forum

By Todd Zaun

With its budget for development programs falling $450 million in the last five years and countries cutting back on donations, the UN Development Program wants to focus more on attracting private capital, UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown said.

In Toyko to meet with Japanese donors, Malloch Brown said the new approach is "a strategic shift." He said the UNDP will increase its role as adviser, teaching poor nations how to attract capital and encouraging businesses to invest in ways that help reduce poverty. "The best tool of poverty reduction remains job creation," Malloch Brown said, adding that improving education and creating stable, transparent governments would make the countries more attractive to businesses.

Worried about budget deficits at home, big aid givers such as Japan and Germany have recently cut their contributions to the UNDP, while others are choosing to give aid directly to poor countries rather than through the UN agency. But Malloch Brown says that while private direct donations have helped, only a few countries were given aid.

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