The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has implemented crisis solutions locally, acknowledging the vital role of local actors in crisis response. Its Local Action approach helps the community become stronger and more self-reliant.
This article highlights nine cases where local governments and actors work together to strengthen local service delivery, enhance crisis adaptation and resilience, and create peaceful solutions.
Rebuilding Mali with service delivery and dispute resolution
With support from UNDP and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea under a regional Humanitarian, Development and Peace Nexus localization program, local governments in Mali have implemented a series of initiatives to restore services amid insecurity, displacement, climate challenges, and tension.
In Bandiagara, access to services has been a major challenge. Local governments and communities have helped rehabilitate health centers and markets, install solar lighting, and revitalize economic activity, reaching more than 140,000 people.
In the Koro district, where public services are strained by displacement, local efforts have helped rehabilitate health centers and markets, thereby enhancing the community’s sense of safety. Medical equipment, solar power, and street lighting support displaced and host communities by providing the services they need, benefiting 93,000 people.
The UNDP-EU partnership on Insider Mediation facilitates peaceful dispute resolutions with trained local mediators, including women and youth. This partnership works closely with local and national governments, helping to resolve over 200 disputes in 2025, especially those related to land and natural resources, thereby reducing violence and improving safety. The mediation and recovery efforts are reinforced through Saving Lives Entity (SALIENT), a joint initiative by UNDP and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNDOA), which works with national and local governments to reduce armed violence and strengthen community security.
Watch about the initaitive here.
Credit: UNDP Crisis Action
Benin is strengthening service delivery in crisis with capacity building
PNUD Bénin’s Prevention Facility (Facilité de prevévention) project, funded by the governments of Denmark, Luxembourg, and the Republic of Korea, supports local governments and community organizations to deliver services during difficult and unstable periods. The project equips local leaders with training and practical tools, which enable them to identify risks early and plan in advance, changing the way they think and work. This results in stronger, more prepared local governance that is better able to serve people.
Credit: UNDP Crisis Action
Burkina Faso is improving essential services and community infrastructure
Burkina Faso faces ongoing challenges, including insecurity and displacement. PNUD Burkina Faso, with funding from the governments of Denmark, Luxembourg, and the Republic of Korea, supports local development by improving essential services and community infrastructure.
In Dori, UNDP provided medical equipment to the Dori Regional Hospital Center to improve hospital conditions. Worth 20 million CFA francs, the provision of sover 60 additional hospital beds and 70 hospital mattresses improves patient care and maintains health services operations despite the difficult situation.
Credit: UNDP Crisis Action
Community-based mediation in Guatemala
Developed jointly by the Indigenous Mayor’s Office of Nebaj and PNUD Guatemala, with support from the European Union (EU), the training course “Indigenous Peoples, Internal Mediation and Peacebuilding”(Pueblos Indígenas, Mediación Interna y Construcción de Paz) was held in the Ixil territory of Santa María Nebaj within the framework of the global project—Insider Mediators.
The training aims to strengthen local governance and infrastructure for peace, through the recognition and reinforcement of the internal mediation capacities already exercised by indigenous peoples in their territories. Community members, including indigenous leaders, women, and young people are trained to resolve. Disputes before they escalate by encouraging open dialogue and strengthening trust within communities.
Credit: UNDP Crisis Action
Libya relaunching local election
Libya’s High National Election Commission, with support from UNDP Libya, organized local elections across 119 municipalities after national elections had been discontinued for over 10 years due to political conflicts.
More than 5,000 candidates ran for office. Among them, over 200 women were elected to local councils. For the first time ever, two women were elected as mayors, a major milestone for women’s participation in Libyan politics.
These efforts were supported through UNDP’s Funding Windows, by Denmark, Luxembourg, and the Republic of Korea, alongside other project donors including Libya, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK.
Credit: UNDP Crisis Action
Papua New Guinea enhancing locally led peacebuilding
UNDP Papua New Guinea is enhancing its peacebuilding and resilience portfolio to address multi-dimensional fragility in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Through the Insider Mediator project and area-based approaches, inclusive mediation teams, including community members like women and young people, help resolve disputes, rebuild trust, and reduce violence at the local level.
Credit: UNDP Crisis Action
Somalia supporting peacemaking through collaboration and local public participation
Somalia is promoting peacemaking through various initiatives. The Statebuilding and Reconciliation Support Program, a joint initiative of UNDP Somalia and United Nations Transitional Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNTMIS), funded by the governments of Norway and Switzerland through Somalia Joint Fund (SJF), was launched. The project supported its Somali counterparts at the national and regional levels in partnering with traditional peacemaking organizations to resolve social disputes.
UNDP has also supported Somalia’s constitutional review process, helping to shape a robust federal system and to effectively decentralize state powers and services. In 2024, seven public engagement and consultation sessions were organized. In 2025, over 5,500 people, including women, young people, and civil society groups, participated in public consultations. This strengthened governance by ensuring that local communities’ voices are heard at both the national and local levels, as well as by improving relationships between communities and government institutions.
Credit: UNDP Crisis Action
Ukraine facilitating recovery from wars
UNDP Ukraine works with war-affected municipalities through an area-based recovery approach to help communities recover basic services and rebuild livelihoods. Partnerships with the EU and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have sped up the rebuilding of infrastructure and improved services in the hardest-hit communities.
Credit: UNDP Crisis Action
Bangladesh stablising governance and sustaining reform
Following the 2024 political transition, UNDP Bangladesh has facilitated stablising governance and sustaining reform by providing the following support:
- Decentralisation reforms
- Local government empowerment
- Support for electoral processes for conducting national elections
- Support for national reform commissions
- Efforts to strengthen judicial independence and efficiency
UNDP Bangladesh also engaged with local governments, civil society organizations, the media, and human rights defenders to amplify the voices of marginalized communities in the reform dialogue and to strengthen civic watchdogs for accountability and rights-based reform.
Credit: UNDP Crisis Action
Conclusion
From 2022 to 2024, UNDP reached over 120 countries with local solutions, including 56 fragile and crisis-affected contexts. A total of USD 3.8 billion was invested in locally led development, reflecting UNDP’s commitment to putting local people and organizations at the heart of recovery, resilience, and peace. Approximately 37% of UNDP spending goes directly to local actors, helping to strengthen local services, institutions, and accountability during crises.