UNDEF 2020-2024 (2025)

From the annual report for 2023: Results from UNDEFs annual report for 2023 •There were 83 active projects during the reporting period, mostly from Rounds, 15, 16 and 17. •For Round 17 (2023) UNDEF received 1,872 project proposals from 133 countries, of which 30 projects were approved. •During the reporting period, UNDEF worked to further streamline its project cycle and introduce efficiencies into its processes. Project documents have been simplified while respecting UN system-wide requirements, reducing the burden on project partners. Another efficiency has been in adjusting the workflow for non-objections from Member States and obtaining Secretary-General approval for short-list. •In 2023, UNDEF continuously updated its interactive lesson learned platform with new lessons from evaluation reports and other project information. This tool is used to ensure that the learning is linked to the wider project cycle and the work of program officers. All new partners must reflect lessons learned from previous UNDEF projects in their project proposals, and address how they will consider these lessons. •UNDEF has been working to increase partnerships with UN entities to amplify impact. In 2023, the Fund continued to engage with partners, in particular UNDP, OHCHR, the Development Coordination Office, and the Department of Global Communications, collaborating around events and identifying opportunities to elevate civil society voices. This engagement, in particular the International Day of Democracy event in the SDG Pavilion helped to elevate the Fund and bolster partnerships. As a result, in 2023, UNDEF and UNDP collaborated to form an inter-agency working group on democracy support to strengthen democracy work within the UN system and amplify impact. This group consists of 10 UN entities and is managed by UNDEF. •To mark the 16th anniversary of the International Day of Democracy, the UN Democracy Fund and the UN Office for Partnerships hosted an event in the SDG Pavilion, a unique convening space created by the UN Office for Partnerships. The event kicked off the weeks programming and focused on the need for the values of democracy to accelerate the SDGs, particularly for climate action, and highlighted the role of youth in protecting and promoting civic space and moving climate action forward. •To mark 75 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNDEF hosted an SDG Roundtable in collaboration with UNDP and featuring UNDEF civil society partners. The discussion focused on how to encourage greater involvement of citizens in decision-making and policy discussions notably through a citizens assembly model. Illustrative examples of country results: •Securing the Digital Environment for the 2022 Election in Kenya (UDF-19-840-KEN) This project addressed the potential impact of the internet, social media and digital technologies, both positive and negative, on electoral integrity and confidence in the electoral process in Kenya for the 2022 elections. -Familiarity with social media's impact on democracy rose from 84% to 100%. -Knowledge of misinformation and microtargeting increased from 55.8% to 70.4%, and understanding of social media's electoral role grew from 23.3% to 77.7%. -87.5% of key digital stakeholders participating in the post-election review roundtable (target: 60%) agreed that digital codes of conduct can limit the potential negative impact of digital threats on the election information environment. -Awareness of solutions like digital codes of conduct increased from 55.1% to 88%. •Promoting Youth Participation in Regional Development in Tunisia (UDF-18-810-TUN) The project proposed to integrate young, marginalized people into local governance by getting them involved in monitoring public projects, analyzing central authorities choices and identifying the development potential of their regions. -Some 85% of participants reported that this experience gave them a better ability to carry out budgetary monitoring of projects and/or territorial diagnosis and allowed them to have a better understanding of the opportunities and constraints of their region (target: 70%). The trainers' observations also conclude that there has been an increase in the ability to think and question development issues. -47% of public authorities considering the recommendations made by the young participants as satisfactory, and 21% reporting as very satisfactory. -92.5% of Policy Dialogue participants report the contribution of the program for young people and public authorities in terms of territorial diagnosis and budgetary monitoring results are either very satisfactory or satisfactory.

The intended outcome of the intervention is to strenghten the voice of civil society, promote human rights and encourage the participation of all groups in democratic processes.