Introduction

The UN development system (UNDS) is a loose configuration of more than 30 largely self-governing organizations, five training and research institutes (including the UN University with more than a dozen of its own academic centers), five functional commissions, five regional economic commissions, and other entities of the United Nations Organization proper. The exact number of the main entities—depending on who is counting and how—is illustrative of the complexity of the system. Headquarters are located in 16 different cities; the total number of field offices numbers more than 1,400 in some 150 countries—and both numbers continue to grow.