What Role for UNDP? Since the 1960s the United Nations Development Programme

(UNDP) has been central to the development activities of the United Nations system. However, the organization is still in search of a role through which it can make a real difference with the structure and resources at its disposal. In May 1996 UNDP’s Executive Board adopted the following mission statement for the organization: ‘UNDP’s mission is to help countries in their efforts to achieve sustainable human development by assisting them to build their capacity to design and carry out development programmes in poverty eradication, employment creation and sustainable livelihoods, the empowerment of women and the protection and regeneration of the environment, giving first priority to poverty eradication.’ This is quite a task, considering that UNDP is operating in some 130 countries, with an annual budget of some $US1.