Small countries, Big D.R.E.A.Ms: Delegates of developing nations in the UNDP share potential solutions to a post Russo-Ukrainian crisis

Delegates of Turkey, Ukraine, and Greece visualize their plans using a map (What about the smaller countries?)

Amidst debate in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) committee, groups of delegates representing smaller countries voice their insights on where the discussion is headed.

Entering the unmoderated caucus, the Australian Associated Press had the opportunity to interview underrepresented nations due to their land and population size. The Australian Associated press approached a 10-15 person bloc composed of underrepresented countries that are proposing a resolution paper under the acronym “D.R.E.A.M”. Composed of the delegates of Algeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Fiji, the leading delegates say this bloc is composed of “countries under development”.

D.R.E.A.M seeks to reintegrate Ukrainian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) back into the country after the war.

“Something that is fundamental to our paper is demining the entire part of Ukraine, specifically the agricultural land to ensure that they are able to have stable income in the future as agriculture is a big part of how they make their money and about their GDP”, explains the Delegate of Algeria (Liu).

The quintet reveal that D.R.E.A.M stands for Development, Reconstruction, Economy, Accountability, and Model.

“[This] focuses a lot on the humanitarian that these Ukrainian refugees need”, adds the Delegate of Sudan (Alexander).

Diverse funding is one of the ideals that the D.R.E.A.M group plan to use.

“Another major part of our plan is to focus on gathering funding from diverse sources, we’re not just relying on grants from… let's say all the member states, we’re trying to really have a diverse source of funding so we can do more with our money.”, says the Delegate of the Democratic Republic of Congo .

The delegate of the democratic republic of congo explains the importance of the voice of underrepresented countries during the debate on the Russo-Ukrainian war.

“It’s all about the U.S, it’s all about the U.K… but we’ve realized that the D.R.E.A.M group figured out that we need a voice, we need to be able to impact to the solution.” said the Delegate of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Croft).

Every voice matters no matter how impactful. Together, the D.R.E.A.M group stands as an active example in the UNDP on how the voices of small, underrepresented countries matter just as much as the superpower countries.

“Our people at home,” said the Delegate of the DRC, “... matter just as much as people anywhere else (Croft).”

Works Cited

Alexander. D.R.E.A.M Plan. 29 May 2026.

Croft, Julian. Democratic Republic of Congo Interview. 29 May 2026.

Liu, Trinity. D.R.E.A.M Plan. 29 May 2026.