This report provides a review of the active UNDP-GEF wind energy portfolio. It looks at the design, costs and efficiency of existing projects, drawing on the experience of 14 wind energy projects that have been financed through UNDP to help national governments implement wind energy public policies. It includes a detailed analysis and recommendations for future projects on prioritizing countries, choosing types of policies and designing mechanisms. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), for example, emerges as a possible way of increasing revenues of wind energy projects.

This Report comes on the heels of the landmark Second Session of the Conference of State Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption in Bali, Indonesia, which is aiding countries in the implementation of their anti-corruption efforts. The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) is the first legally binding, international anti-corruption instrument that provides a unique opportunity to mount a global response to a global problem. This Regional Human Development Report examines the problem of corruption from the perspective of the countries of Asia and the Pacific.

Climate change is the defining human development challenge of the 21st Century. Failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty. The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even though they have contributed least to the problem.

This paper presents four case studies from India in which rainwater harvesting has lead to both ecorestoration and poverty alleviation.

This report provides an overview of the joint Ministry of Power-UNDP project that seeks to improve access to clean energy and demonstrate mechanisms to manage more effectively, energy and electricity at district levels in Chhattisgarh and Orissa. Access to clean energy is an important ingredient of any energy and development policy.

This study highlights the central role of capacity development for scaling up rural energy service delivery and to catalyze private financing for achieving universal energy access and the MDGs. Although it takes considerable upfront public investment to kick-start capacity development, once these investments have been made they can attract substantial financing from private sources.

Biomass and biomass residues, if sourced in an environmentally and socially sustainable fashion, represent a vast

Although wind energy is a rapidly growing technology its use remains geographically concentrated, with more than 75 percent
of global installed capacity found in just five countries. These countries, and others wishing to develop wind energy have