UNDP Europe and CIS

UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS

UNDP's Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS (RBEC) serves 28 countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, including those in Central Asia. Working under a mandate issued by the UN Secretary-General, RBEC, formerly the Directorate for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (the former Soviet republics), began the process of establishing offices and programmes in the region in 1992.  With its headquarters in New York, RBEC's outfit comprises 22 country offices and its Regional Centre in Bratislava.

Country Offices

As in the rest of UNDP, country offices are the heart and soul of UNDP's Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS. In addition to working closely with their host governments and representatives of business and civil society, the country offices possess most of RBEC’s human and financial resources, and are vast repositories of development knowledge and expertise. The country offices are managed by UNDP’s Resident Representatives, who also coordinate United Nations’ activities in their countries and serve as UN ambassadors to their host countries. Together with the representatives of other United Nations agencies, RBEC’s country offices help government, civil society, and private sector partners to work more effectively towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Europe and the CIS region.

Headquarters

RBEC’s headquarters in New York sets the Bureau’s strategic direction and helps country offices and their partners to find solutions to problems that extend beyond national borders. It places special emphasis on the development of programming involving two or more neighbouring countries, and liaises with other UN and UNDP agencies in New York, Geneva, Vienna, and elsewhere. The New York headquarters also works with the UNDP leadership to set policy for the entire organization, thereby ensuring that lessons from the region are reflected in the global development agenda.

Regional Centre

The Bratislava Regional Centre (BRC) links the country offices and UNDP's Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS headquarters in New York. The BRC supports country offices by providing policy advice and backstopping services delivered by UNDP’s Bureau of Development Policy, as well as by RBEC’s regional specialists. The BRC also manages regional projects (conducted in at least three countries), and helps to capture and spread development successes and best practices throughout the region.

The Regional Centre also manages activities in Slovakia and in those countries in the region that have no UNDP offices: Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, and Slovenia, as well as the country programme for the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena, where UNDP has been active since 1984. UNDP also has a very active role in fostering development in Cyprus through a bi-communal approach including Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, with its ultimate aim to support the political objective of reunification.

For more information please visit: http://europeandcis.undp.org/