About the UN Global Facility

Our Origin and Purpose

The UN Global Facility for SME Recovery and Development was established to address a persistent gap in the global economic support architecture: while large enterprises and financial institutions receive substantial attention from international recovery programs, small and medium enterprises face disruption largely on their own.

Small and medium enterprises account for approximately 90% of businesses worldwide and more than 50% of employment globally, according to the World Bank. Yet they consistently receive a disproportionately small share of formal economic recovery support. The Facility was created to change that calculus by providing structured, high-quality advisory and market access support at scale.

Partnership with UNDP

The Facility operates in close institutional partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, drawing on UNDP's presence in over 170 countries, its relationships with national governments and regulatory bodies, and its established track record in private sector development and economic resilience programming.

UNDP brings the institutional legitimacy and country-level relationships that enable the Facility to operate across diverse regulatory environments. The Facility contributes deep private sector expertise in business advisory, market facilitation, and capacity building. Together, the partnership creates a support model that is both credible at the institutional level and practically useful at the business level.

Our Approach

Most economic support programs address isolated problems: a loan product, a training seminar, a trade fair. The Facility takes an integrated approach, recognizing that SME recovery and growth require simultaneous progress across multiple dimensions. A business that receives advisory support but cannot access relevant markets will not grow. A business that accesses markets but lacks the operational capacity to fulfill orders will lose ground.

Our four-program model covers SME recovery planning, one-on-one business advisory, market access facilitation, and capacity building, deliberately designed to work together rather than in isolation. Participating businesses receive support that addresses their specific combination of challenges, not a generic program applied uniformly.

Global Reach and Impact

Since inception, the Facility has supported over 12,000 small and medium enterprises across more than 40 countries. Seventy-eight percent of businesses that complete the core support journey report measurable revenue growth within 12 months. The economic value mobilized through Facility programs, including direct revenue recovery, new market revenues, and financing facilitated through partner networks, exceeds $2.4 billion.

These results reflect the depth of the Facility's engagement model. Average advisory engagements run six to twelve months. Market access facilitation includes direct introductions to buyers, distributors, and procurement officers, not generic database access. Capacity building programs are developed in partnership with regional institutions that understand local business environments.