As is known, our relations with the United Nations (UN) and its specialized agencies have recently gained considerable impetus.

Our cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), one of the most important specialized agencies of the UN occupies a special place in this regard.

The UNDP, which carries out economic and social work in the field of development and contributes to countries’ creating development models suitable to their structure, has realized many projects in Turkey under three main topics; the eradication of poverty, democratic governance, environment and sustainable development.

Moreover, Turkey’s official development assistance to the least developed and developing countries, which continued to increase even in times of global economic crisis and reached 3.276 billion Dollars in 2013, has become an integral part of our multidimensional foreign policy. Thus, Turkey, as an emerging economy and donor, has become a development cooperation partner for the UNDP in the international arena. Therefore, the “Partnership Framework Agreement” we signed with UNDP in 2011 has deepened our relations with this agency and has confirmed Turkey’s position as a global development partner.

The decision of moving the UNDP Regional Center for Europe and the CIS to Istanbul has constituted a new stage of our partnership. The agreement on this issue was signed on 27 September 2013 by Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoğlu and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark and came into force on 1 March 2014 following the completion of the ratification process. A building has been designated within the framework of our commitment to allocate an office in Istanbul for the Regional Center. The Center will be moved to this office in the forthcoming months, and will conduct its activities concerning a wide geographical area in Istanbul.

Turkey has committed to contribute 3 million Dollars per year for 5 years to the regional programme that the UNDP Regional Center will conduct in Europe and the CIS countries. The “Third-Party Cost Sharing Agreement", constituting the legal framework of our commitment, has been signed today by Mr. Davutoğlu and UNDP Administrator Helen Clark.