About This Offer

Operating in over 170 countries and territories, UNDP works with governments to build the conditions under which markets function and thrive, translating development priorities into durable prosperity. This means strengthening governance and institutional foundations, aligning public and private capital with national strategies, and turning potential into investment-ready projects and enterprises. UNDP also helps countries build the policies and capabilities needed to ensure trade and investment deliver prosperity across value chains, anchored in responsible business conduct, decent work, and long-term economic stability, so that no one is left behind.

• Strengthening Governance and the Enabling Environment

Trade and investment depend on predictable rules and institutions. UNDP supports governments in putting in place legal, regulatory, and policy frameworks that reduce uncertainty and make markets investable, including modernizing commercial legislation, strengthening contract enforcement, and establishing credible dispute resolution mechanisms. National policies grounded in international standards of Responsible Business Conduct create a level playing field where investors can engage with confidence. Anti-corruption measures, risk-based anti-money laundering frameworks, and greater transparency in procurement and budgeting lower perceived risk and strengthen market confidence. UNDP also supports customs modernization, digitalization of trade procedures, and logistics planning to turn agreements into real flows of goods and services.

• Aligning Finance and Turning Strategies into Pipelines

Many countries have clear trade and development priorities but lack the financing architecture to realize them. Through Integrated National Financing Frameworks (INFFs), UNDP works with ministries of finance and planning to map all sources of finance, including public, private, domestic, and external, against national strategies, identifying where private capital can best complement public resources. UNDP's Investment Accelerator builds on this, working with governments, development finance institutions, and private investors from the earliest stages of project design, starting with NDC implementation and extending to energy, digital, jobs, and social sectors, to translate priorities into investable portfolios. With UNCDF, multilateral development banks, and others, UNDP supports de-risking instruments, guarantees, and blended finance structures that move projects from concept to viable business models.

• Jobs, Skills, and Priority Sectors for Trade-Led Growth

UNDP helps countries turn trade and investment opportunities into comprehensive growth, decent jobs, and productivity gains. Using integrated policy tools and economy-wide analytics, UNDP shows how reform options affect GDP, employment, fiscal space, competitiveness, and distributive outcomes, helping governments design reform agendas that are open to trade and investment while supporting private sector development and inclusion. UNDP also supports national planning that puts trade, investment, and private-sector growth at the center, aligning trade policy with industrial policy, jobs strategies, infrastructure, digital transformation, and energy. This includes identifying job-rich, export-oriented sectors such as agriculture, health, energy, and the digital economy, and supporting value-chain development, SME upgrading, and supplier programs that connect local firms, including those led by women and youth, to regional and global markets.

Limitations

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