Takehiko Nakao, ADB president said the memorandum of understanding would facilitate projects in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. They could be at country or regional level, such as providing skills training to indigenous people in Bangladesh, co-ordinating relief work in Rohingya, helping the Kazakhstan government to establish an SDG strategy and providing mini-hydro projects to supply electricity to remote parts of Nepal.

Nakao said that the ADB had committed $22bn in new loans and grants last year. He said that its skills in funding practical projects on the ground complemented those of the UNDP in technical capacity building.

He commented: “Through this agreement, we will work together to realise a prosperous, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific.”

Achim Steiner, UNDP administrator, said that, established in 1966, the UN’s development programme now operated in 170 countries. It partnered with people at all levels to help build nations that could withstand crisis and grow sustainably, improving the quality of life for everyone.

He commented: “We are pleased to renew UNDP’s partnership with the ADB. It signals our commitment to expand our collaboration on the ground in numerous countries in the Asia, Pacific and South Caucasus regions. It will reinforce our joint engagement with countries to accelerate progress on achieving the SDGs.”

Adopted by all of the UN’s member states in 2015, and designed to be achieved by 2030, the 17 SDGs relate to social policy, climate change, environmental degradation, prosperity and peace and justice.

Holistic in nature, they recognize that ending poverty and deprivation must go hand-in-hand with strategies to improve health and education, reduce inequality and spur economic growth, while tackling climate change and working to preserve oceans and forests.

Read Simone Rensch’s feature on how SDGs are progressing.