“The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.”

These words of Swedish diplomat and Nobel Laureate Dag Hammarskjöld are as valid today during this pandemic as they were 70 years ago when the former UN Secretary-General wrote them. His words also reflect the nature of the long and important partnership that UNDP has had with Sweden for many years. With nearly $400 million in annual contributions, Swedish support enables UNDP to help nearly 170 countries to implement the 2030 Agenda and reach the Sustainable Development Goals, and to maintain a presence on the ground in some 150 countries and territories. Its contributions directly fund 164 projects, in addition to the 1,838 SDG initiatives supported through its overall support to UNDP’s operating budget.

The Nordic nation should be commended for being one of the few countries that meets the UN development assistance target of 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI). In addition to funding, Swedish leaders in government, business, and academia work constantly with UNDP, sharing their valuable expertise on a wide range of development challenges.  Sweden also is one of the 36 members of our executive board, providing important guidance and inputs to our policy making processes.

Dag Hammarskjöld’s statement about never relaxing nor abandoning the pursuit of peace and progress is powerfully true on the ground in Ukraine, where Sweden has been an active partner of UNDP since 2004, supporting a wide range of initiatives from recovery and peacebuilding in the East to the empowering local communities in the West.

His Excellency Tobias Thyberg, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden in Ukraine, met with me and my colleagues this week at UNDP Ukraine to explore ways to expand our partnership in support of Ukraine in its time of need during this pandemic. He told me that during the pandemic, the Government of Sweden stands ready to reinforce their long-standing partners with even additional support to tackle COVID-19 consequences on the ground. The recently approved additional funding for support to local initiatives aimed at crisis response and post-crisis recovery will allow UNDP to support at least eight new cross-sectoral partnerships and pilot their innovative solutions.

We at UNDP Ukraine are very grateful for and proud of the partnership we have had with the Government of Sweden. Most recently, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) worked with UNDP to pilot seven projects through the Empowered Partnership for Sustainable Development Programme in different parts of the country. The programme seeks to replicate and upscale the best of national and international experiences, including that from the Swedish approach to integrated municipal development known as SymbioCity approach, to address sustainable development challenges at the level of local communities. The project helps to build  partnerships by bringing together civil society organizations, business and government representatives and supports creative initiatives that address the most common problems faced by local communities, such as lack of economic opportunities, limited mobility of certain population groups, inefficient use of energy and poor waste management. The project’s approach is based on a holistic concept, within which local communities are considered as living systems, with different functions (such as food, transportation, energy and waste) combined to form symbiotic loops, promote synergistic efficiency and prevent overuse of land, energy and natural resources. The development solutions identified and tested within the piloted initiatives can be further scaled-up and replicated by local communities across the country to accelerate their sustainable development.

In another example, and together with support from the European Union and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), we have been able to help ensure that Ukraine’s development leaves no one behind by delivering critical services to the most vulnerable groups in Eastern Ukraine.  The primary aim of the project is to heal the wounds of the conflict, to reduce the risks of reoccurrence and to address existing grievances. The first phase of the project involved setting up  a reliable monitoring system for conflict-affected areas, and support to local authorities to resume basic services. A central facet of the initiative is a network of five Citizen Advisory Bureaus (CABs) to provide administrative, psychological and legal aid to the vulnerable population in the aftermath of the conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

Another related project in the same region, and within the framework of the project “Good governance and citizens engagement for justice, security, environmental protection and social cohesion in eastern Ukraine” we have developed, SIDA assistance, an online training programme for local authorities, civil society and media that build capacities in fiscal decentralization, good governance, public monitoring and anti-corruption best practices.

With regards to the environmental dimensions of the 2030 Agenda, Sweden has partnered with UNDP and the Government of Ukraine to reduce environmental degradation and is providing support to 25 civil society and citizen groups initiatives to address environmental challenges in targeted communities.  Some of the projects approved and supported relate to solid waste management, the development of renewable energy sources, energy-efficient street lighting, eliminating water and soil pollution and improving the quality of safe drinking water.

We at UNDP and the people of Ukraine are very grateful to the citizens of Sweden and their representatives in Government for walking side-by-side with us as we advance slowly toward a more sustainable world that is both formed and informed by the SDGs. We look forward to the continued progress this continued partnership will support and the tangible results on the ground it will produce.