The UN system is comprised of more than 30 affiliated organizations, programs, funds, and specialized agencies, with their own membership, leadership, and budget processes. These entities work with and through the UN Secretariat to promote peace and prosperity.
UN funds and programs are financed through voluntary rather than assessed contributions, and include the following:
UNICEF provides long-term humanitarian and development assistance to children and mothers, working to help increase the number of girls enrolled in school worldwide and providing clean water, sanitation, educational support, and nutritional assistance to children in disaster zones and war-torn regions around the world. UNICEF is also responsible for procuring vaccines that reach 45 percent of the world’s children saving the lives of 2.5 million children each year.
UNHCR protects refugees worldwide and facilitates their resettlement or return home. UNHCR is currently working on the ground in 120 countries to help the more than 79.5 million people displaced by famine, armed conflict or persecution in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Somalia, and Yemen.
UNEP coordinates the UN’s environmental activities, developing international environmental conventions, assessing global environmental trends, encouraging new civil sector partnerships, and strengthening institutions so they might better protect the planet. UNEP covers international environmental issues impacting the U.S. that no one nation working alone can adequately address, such as plastic pollution in our oceans, the transboundary movement of toxic chemicals, and combating illegal trade in wildlife.
WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency dedicated to the goal of eradicating hunger and malnutrition, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, the agency provides food aid, cash assistance, and nutrition support to 100 million people in 88 countries. In 2020, in recognition of its lifesaving work, WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
UNODC is a global leader in the fight against illicit drugs, organized crime, corruption, human trafficking, and terrorism. The organization helps Member States address these challenges by providing field-based technical support to enhance the capacity of criminal justice systems and adherence to the rule of law, assisting in the implementation of relevant international treaties, and serving as a source of research and information to help guide policy decisions on countering drugs and crime.
UNRWA provides an array of vital services, including education, health care, economic opportunities, and emergency food assistance, to impoverished Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. The organization was founded by the UN General Assembly in 1949 to assist Palestinians who were forced from their homes by the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. More than half of UNRWA’s annual budget goes to its schools alone, which provide a curriculum focused on tolerance, gender equality, human rights, and non-violence to nearly 525,000 children.
UNDP is the UN’s global development network, focusing on the challenges of democratic governance, poverty reduction, crisis prevention and recovery, energy and environment, and HIV/AIDS. UNDP is one of the implementing bodies for UN electoral assistance, helping to facilitate elections in around 60 countries every year, including nations undergoing sensitive post-conflict political transitions.
UNFPA is the largest international source of funding for population and reproductive health programs in the world. UNFPA helps women, men, and young people plan their families, including the number, timing, and spacing of their children, go through pregnancy and childbirth safely, and avoid sexually transmitted infections. UNFPA also combats violence against women and child marriage. UNFPA does not provide, support, or advocate for abortion, nor does it support, promote, or condone coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.
UN Women coordinates the UN response to three issues globally, nationally, and locally: elimination of discrimination against women and girls; empowerment of women; and achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.
In addition to the programs, offices, and funds described in the previous section, the UN system also includes affiliated specialized agencies that work with and through the UN to advance international cooperation and progress. Through this work, these agencies promote core U.S. foreign policy, national security, economic, public health, and humanitarian objectives. Provided below is a snapshot of these agencies:
WHO serves as a coordinating authority on international public health. It is responsible for orchestrating international collaboration and developing solutions to confront global health emergencies, monitoring outbreaks of infectious diseases, spearheading global vaccination efforts, and leading campaigns to combat life threatening diseases like polio, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. WHO has helped lead the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing PPE and tests, conducting critical awareness-raising activities, and supporting research into treatments and vaccines.
IMO sets international safety standards for ships, ports, and maritime facilities, develops ship design and operating requirements, and leads global efforts to prevent maritime pollution. Standards promulgated by IMO are central to the health of the U.S. economy, as more than 90 percent of all international trade is carried out by ship. IMO also works with Member States to address security threats to the international shipping industry, including piracy and terrorism.
UNHCR protects refugees worldwide and facilitates their resettlement or return home. UNHCR is currently working on the ground in 120 countries to help the more than 79.5 million people displaced by famine, armed conflict or persecution in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Somalia, and Yemen.
WIPO encourages innovation and economic growth through the registration and protection of patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property, as well as through adjudication of cross-border disputes on intellectual property.
The IAEA is a UN-affiliated specialized agency that verifies compliance with the NPT and other nonproliferation agreements, having concluded safeguards agreements with 182 countries. These activities can provide the international community with advanced warning of and trigger a global response to the existence of an illicit nuclear weapons program, including providing a basis for action by the UN Security Council. The IAEA also carries out a variety of nuclear safety and research activities. For example, the agency continues to provide technical support to help Japanese officials monitor radioactivity levels in the coastal waters and fish populations near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which suffered a major meltdown following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
ITU facilitates the connectivity and interoperability of the world’s telecommunications networks, which is of critical importance to the U.S. telecommunications industry and American defense and intelligence communications capabilities. By allocating radio spectrum and satellite orbits, as well as developing technical standards to ensure that networks connect seamlessly, ITU’s work helps make communicating possible even in some of the world’s most remote locations.
FAO fights hunger worldwide by promoting sustainable agricultural development and supporting efforts to rebuild agricultural livelihoods in the wake of natural disasters. In addition, FAO works to develop global standards for food safety and plant and animal health, which in turn help protect American farmers and consumers and facilitate international trade.
UNESCO administers an array of programs in five broad areas: education; natural sciences; social and human sciences; culture; and communication and information. UNESCO’s work includes promoting freedom of the press, access to primary education for all children, and international Holocaust education.
WMO facilitates the unrestricted international exchange of meteorological data, forecasts and warnings, and works to further their use in the aviation, shipping, agriculture, energy, and defense sectors.
The World Bank focuses on poverty reduction and the improvement of living standards worldwide by providing low-interest loans, interest-free credit, and grants to developing countries for education, health, infrastructure, and communications.
ILO is responsible for formulating and overseeing implementation of international labor standards. The agency works to promote workers’ rights and improved working conditions around the world, seeks to abolish forced and child labor, and supports the creation of greater opportunities for employment.
UPU facilitates postal service across the globe, helping Americans conduct business everywhere, from Beijing to London to São Paulo. By setting standards for the worldwide postal system and promoting affordable basic postal services in all territories, UPU enables U.S. businesses to utilize the postal system to conduct business at low costs.
The IMF is an organization of 188 countries that fosters global monetary cooperation, facilitates international trade, promotes high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduces poverty. It offers financial and technical assistance to its members, making it an international lender of last resort.
IOM works to promote humane and orderly migration by promoting international cooperation on migration issues and providing humanitarian assistance to migrants. Among other initiatives, IOM is playing an important role in responding to the Mediterranean migration crisis, providing critical aid to vulnerable migrants making their way from West Africa to North Africa or Europe, including shelter assistance, hygiene kits, food assistance, and medical care. Because of its position as a transit country for migrants, IOM has also provided training to law enforcement authorities in Mali to help them recognize and counter cases of human trafficking.