Poverty should be focus of UN body: India

India on Thursday stressed that strengthening institutional capacity building in developing countries and decimating poverty should be made the core focus areas of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

India is the biggest contributor to the core budget of the UNDP among developing countries and has an abiding interest in group’s contribution and efforts on the global development agenda, India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Manjeev Singh Puri said at a session of the UNDP’s executive board here.

With the UNDP preparing a strategic roadmap for the 2014-17 period, Puri highlighted key areas of specific interest to India.

“The ‘DP’ in UNDP should now really become ‘decimating poverty’. (Further), strengthening institutional capacity building in developing countries (should) be made another core focus area of UNDP,” he said adding that many countries could do more if additional finance and technology were available. Puri said given that poverty eradication is the overriding priority of developing countries, UNDP resources during the 2014-17 period should be directed to where the need for poverty eradication is greatest.