UNDP Mexico’s "Area of Competitiveness and Private Sector Development" helps to reduce poverty by promoting the competitiveness of Mexico’s value chains, and  the creation of quality employment within them. 

Towards this goal the Area performs two types of activities: On one hand, it assists the planning, implementation and evaluation of projects that support  SMEs financially or with technical assistance, including their relationship with larger enterprises. On the other, it has a policy design unit to collaborate with governments at the federal and state levels in the formulation of policies that improve Mexico’s competitiveness.

The value chains that the Area assists in Mexico range from the agricultural to the manufacture of sophisticated components. Its analysis for the formulation of policies range from sectoral issues, i.e. for the textile sector, to horizontal  issues, such as SME financing.

The value chains assisted often deal with the subject of trade standards, such as the required sanitary standards for the export to the US market of fruits and vegetables, or the strict quality requirements for the production of airplane components.

Area projects that are most involved in the promotion of trade standards for SMEs are the Supplier Development Project, which assists SMEs to comply with large enterprises which in turn export the finished products, and the Observatory of Value Chain Competitiveness, which produces reports on the status of different sectors and the constraints they must overcome to become globally competitive.