With the joint commitment to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs in our region, the OTS and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) enhanced their relations on the basis of the MoU signed in 2016.

Indeed, the said cooperation dated back to 2015. In this regard, Former Secretary General Ramil Hasan participated in the UN Summit for the Adoption of Post-2015 Development Agenda held on 25-27 September 2015 in New York where countries as well as international organizations came together at the highest level to show their commitment to implement the new development agenda. From 2014 until 2018, he also had several bilateral meetings in New York and Istanbul with Cihan Sultanoğlu, Former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations; and Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (RBEC) of the UNDP.

The OTS co-hosted the international conference on ICT for Development with the UNDP RBEC on 27-28 October 2015 in Istanbul.  Speakers at the level of Vice-Minister from the OTS Member States as well as other regional states including Moldova and Afghanistan took the floor at the conference. Furthermore, governmental officials and senior representatives of private sector also addressed the audience at the panels on the topics of e-governance, open data, ICT’s role in transforming rural development and agriculture and private sector in putting ICT to work for development.

The conference was attended by 150 guests from various sectors related to the ICT and sustainable development from 15 countries. The panels were followed by brainstorming sessions. The Conference enabled knowledge and expertise sharing in order to promote e-transformation and open data in the Member States and around the region. In that sense, it was instrumental to discuss how countries in the region should advance their development priorities using modern technology.

As a concrete outcome of the partnership between the two organizations, the UNDP became one of the partners of the International Conference on the Role of Youth in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) co-organized by theOTS and the UNOAC on 20-21 October 2016 in Istanbul.  Cihan Sultanoğlu was one of the keynote speakers of the said conference. The Fifth Panel of the conference titled Framing Development Solutions and Urging South-South Cooperation for the Empowerment of Youth in Countering Violent Extremism co-organized by the UNDP in cooperation with the UNOSSC. Furthermore, the OTS Secretariat and the UNDP RBEC participated in each other’s meetings during the year.

In 2017, the OTS and the UNDP continued to materialize joint events. In this regard, during the GSSD EXPO 2017, the OTS organized in partnership with UNDP the Solution Forum entitled “Good Practices of South-South Cooperation for Implementation of SDGs: Development Through Transformation” on 28 November 2017 in Antalya. The Forum showcased successful South-South cooperation examples from the Eurasian region making a transformative impact on the achievement of SDGs.

Recently in September 2022 on the margins of the 77th UN General Assembly in New York, OTS Secretary General had a meeting with the Associate Administrator of UNDP. Secretary General and Associate Administrator underlined the importance of further cooperation between the two organizations in addressing current global challenges and furthering the Sustainable Development Agenda – 2030.  Secretary General, emphasizing the expanded agenda of the Organization and establishment of new mechanism such as the Turkic Investment Fund, noted that new avenues of cooperation are available for the two organizations to further their ongoing partnership, the legal basis of which was founded upon the Memorandum of Understanding concluded between the OTS and UNDP in 2016. UNDP Associate Administrator agreed to have further consultations and come up with a concrete plan of action and prospective projects to collaborate in particularly in the areas of common concern including green transition, renewable energy and green bonds.