India to contribute $100 mn to UN development fund

United Nations : India has pledged to contribute $100 million to the India-UN Development Partnership Fund to help the poorest nations achieve the world organisation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to reduce poverty and raise the quality of life.

Anjani Kumar, a Counsellor in India’s UN Mission, announced the multi-year contribution at the 2017 UN Pledging Conference for Development Activities on Monday.

This contribution would be in addition to $10.582 million India is contributing to various



other UN programmes, he said.

A total of $398.98 million was pledged by about 20 countries during Monday’s conference session.

The Fund launched on June 8 is managed by the UN Office of South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and focuses on the least developed countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

The $100 million that India is contributing is not earmarked “in the spirit of sustained predictable funding for SDGs and South-South Cooperation,” Kumar said.