The United Nations Resident Coordinator

The United Nations Resident Coordinator is the designated representative of the United Nations Secretary General in the Country Office for development operations and the leader of the United Nations country team. In most countries, as in the Maldives, the UN Resident Coordinator is also UNDP’s Resident Representative.

The Resident Coordinator has the overall responsibility of coordinating the operational activities for development carried out at the country level in consistence with the objectives and priorities of the Government of the Maldives and the mandates and objectives of the United Nations system.

The principal function of the Resident Coordinator is to manage a process of collaboration and cooperation between agencies of the UN system, both resident and non-resident.

The United Nations Resident Coordinator System

The United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Maldives is Patrice Coeur-Bizot. He also holds the post of the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The Office of the Resident Coordinator comprises of the Resident Coordinator, Senior Advisor, Assistant to the Resident Coordinator, the Communications Associate and a Field Reporting Officer. Activities of the United Nations Resident Coordinator are supported through the ‘Support to Resident Coordinator Fund’.

Aims of the Resident Coordinator System

>  To provide a broader support role for the United Nations presence.

>  To ensure maximum support for national capacity building to assist countries in realizing their national goals.

>  To facilitate coherent and coordinated implementation of goals and programs of international global conferences and General Assembly Resolutions.

>  To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operational activities at the field level.

Achieving the aims

>  Through mobilising the United Nations Country Team to respond to the capacity development needs of the country especially in the areas of governance, advancement of women, promotion of sustainable human development, environmental protection, and eradication of poverty.

>  Supporting efforts to achieve key goals and commitments to UN global conferences

>  Strengthening capacities for aid Coordination and Management

>  Through effectively coordinating and managing development assistance which is essential to the efficient and responsible use of public resources for priority needs

>  Providing substantive and logistical back up to UN system technical assistance that fall within national priorities.

>  Assisting the government in formulating clear policies and plans in main sectors of sustainable human development

>  Enhancing the catalytic role for better government/private sector/civil society cooperation.

All activities two or more UN agencies undertook together are included in the UNRC Annual Report produced at the end of the year. The Annual Report is accompanied with details of how the SRC Funds were utilized in the past year as well. The UNRC Work Plan, which is created at the beginning of each year with the collaboration of all agencies, highlights the activities the RC Unit plans to execute during the year.