The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

Mission: Social protection, equality, education and jobs

Weak legal frameworks, increasing exclusion, and compounding crises such as climate change and conflict are barriers to achieving sustainable and equitable social development.

340M
More than 340 million women and girls will live in extreme poverty by 2030.

Through this mission, we are committed to scaling up actions to address these challenges – from strengthening gender equality and social inclusion, to building capacity, to fostering socio-economic development and employment opportunities.

Rooted in the values of the UN Charter and the Sustainable Development Goals, we’re dedicated to reducing inequalities, empowering communities and helping accelerate equitable socio-economic development that leaves no one behind.


How we support

Through our work with partners across a range of sectors – from aid and development, to the private and not-for-profit sectors – we leverage our extensive networks and geographical spread to promote social standards and capacity building – and provide a multiplier effect on social protection in the communities we serve.

  • Strengthening social safeguards

    We're committed to enhancing social safeguards in the projects we implement, supporting access to justice through grievance redress mechanisms and ensuring equal participation through stakeholder engagement.

  • Strengthening gender equality and social inclusion

    We ensure the projects we implement promote sustainable and equitable procurement and foster equality across all activities.

  • Capacity building

    We promote best practice labour standards that protect all workers’ rights, help strengthen governments’ procurement capacity, and create community awareness about social protection, labour conditions, decent work and advancing equality.

  • Fostering socio-economic development and jobs

    We help create decent and green jobs, support small and medium enterprises, mainstream socio-economic development approaches and design projects with the most marginalized members of society in mind.


In action

Stories of resilience: Three lives, one project

Working directly with more than 9,000 communities, the Afghanistan Community Resilience and Livelihoods Project provides short-term livelihood opportunities and delivers urgent essential services in rural and urban areas.