United Nations Development Programme and System

This volume provides a short and accessible introduction to the organization that serves as the primary coordinator of the work of the UN system throughout the developing world –the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The book:

• traces the origins and evolution of UNDP, outlining how a central UN funding mechanism and field network developed into a more comprehensive development agency
• evaluates the UNDP’s performance and results, both in its role as system coordinator and as a development organization in its own right
• considers the return of the UNDP to a more central role within the UN development system, in order to review the successive attempts at UN development system reform, the reasons for failure and the future possibilities for a more effective system with the UNDP at the centre.

Offering a clear, comprehensive overview and analysis of the organization, this work will be of great interest to students and scholars of development studies, international organizations and international relations.

Stephen Browne (UK) is Director of The Future of the UN Development System (FUNDS) Project and Fellow of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He worked for more than 30 years in different organizations of the UN development system. He was UN resident coordinator in Rwanda and Ukraine and focal point in UNDP, New York, for poverty and social policy. His last UN job was as deputy head of the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva, the city where he now resides. He has written extensively on development and aid. His books include The International Trade Centre: Promoting Export Development in the current Routledge series; Aid and Influence: Do Donors Help or Hinder? (London: Earthscan, 2006); Beyond Aid: From Patronage to Partnership (London: Ashgate, 1999); and Foreign Aid in Practice (London: Pinter, 1990).