UN Country team focal points


  Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information. FAO helps developing countries and countries in transition modernize and improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices and ensure good nutrition for all. Since our founding in 1945, we have focused special attention on developing rural areas, home to 70 percent of the world's poor and hungry people.
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization: About FAO

  Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, brings together the efforts and resources of ten UN system organizations to the global AIDS response. Cosponsors include UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank. Based in Geneva , the UNAIDS secretariat works on the ground in more than 75 countries world wide.
Source: United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS: About UNAIDS

  International Labour Organization (ILO)
The International Labour Organization is the UN specialized agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights. It was founded in 1919 and is the only surviving major creation of the Treaty of Versailles which brought the League of Nations into being and it became the first specialized agency of the UN in 1946. The ILO formulates international labour standards in the form of Conventions and Recommendations setting minimum standards of basic labour rights and it promotes the development of independent employers' and workers' organizations.
Source: International Labour Organization: About us

  International Monetary Fund (IMF)
The IMF is an international organization of 184 member countries. It was established to promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange arrangements; to foster economic growth and high levels of employment; and to provide temporary financial assistance to countries to help ease balance of payments adjustment.
Source: International Monetary Fund: About the IMF

  The Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. In more than five decades, the agency has helped an estimated 50 million people restart their lives. Today, a staff of around 6,689 people in 116 countries continues to help 20.8 million persons.
Source: United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees: Basic facts

  United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
UNICEF is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. We have the global authority to influence decision-makers, and the variety of partners at grassroots level to turn the most innovative ideas into reality.  That makes us unique among world organizations, and unique among those working with the young. We believe that nurturing and caring for children are the cornerstones of human progress.  UNICEF was created with this purpose in mind – to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path.  We believe that we can, together, advance the cause of humanity.  We work in 191 countries through country programmes and National Committees.
Source: United Nations Children’s Fund: About UNICEF

  United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
UNDP is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners. In each country office, the UNDP Resident Representative normally also serves as the Resident Coordinator of development activities for the United Nations system as a whole. Through such coordination, UNDP seeks to ensure the most effective use of UN and international aid resources.
Source: United Nations Development Programme: About UNDP

  United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) was established by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations General Assembly (ECOSOC) in 1958. Its mission is to promote economic and social development in Africa by providing technical support and advisory services to member States in formulating and implementing relevant policies and programmes aimed at social and economic transformation of the African countries.
Source: UNECA: About the office

  United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO)The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was founded on 16 November 1945. For this specialized United Nations agency, it is not enough to build classrooms in devastated countries or to publish scientific breakthroughs. Education, Social and Natural Science, Culture and Communication are the means to a far more ambitious goal: to build peace in the minds of men. Today, UNESCO functions as a laboratory of ideas and a standard-setter to forge universal agreements on emerging ethical issues. The Organization also serves as a clearinghouse – for the dissemination and sharing of information and knowledge – while helping Member States to build their human and institutional capacities in diverse fields.
Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: About UNESCO

  United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
UNIDO is the United Nations’ specialized industrial agency, mandated to promote industrial development and international industrial cooperation. Since the mid-nineties, UNIDO has gone through a thorough reform process that directly or indirectly addressed the same issues that are now being discussed for the system-wide UN reform. In several ways, UNIDO is ahead of the discussion and can offer valuable lessons and models for increased system-wide coherence and cost efficiency. 
Source: United Nations Industrial Development Organization: About UNIDO

  United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.
Source: United Nations Population Fund: About UNFPA

  World Bank
The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. We are not a bank in the common sense. We are made up of two unique development institutions owned by 184 member countries—the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). Each institution plays a different but supportive role in our mission of global poverty reduction and the improvement of living standards. The IBRD focuses on middle income and creditworthy poor countries, while IDA focuses on the poorest countries in the world. Together we provide low-interest loans, interest-free credit and grants to developing countries for education, health, infrastructure, communications and many other purposes.
Source: World Bank: About us

  World Food Programme (WFP)
As the food aid arm of the UN, WFP uses its food to: meet emergency needs and support economic and social development. The Agency also provides the logistics support necessary to get food aid to the right people at the right time and in the right place. WFP works to put hunger at the centre of the international agenda, promoting policies, strategies and operations that directly benefit the poor and hungry.
Source: World Food Programme: About WFP

  World Health Organization (WHO)
The World Health Organization is the United Nations specialized agency for health. It was established on 7 April 1948. WHO's objective, as set out in its Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Health is defined in WHO's Constitution as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. WHO is governed by 193 Member States through the World Health Assembly. The Health Assembly is composed of representatives from WHO's Member States. The main tasks of the World Health Assembly are to approve the WHO programme and the budget for the following biennium and to decide major policy questions.
Source: World Health Organization: About WHO