United Nations System

United Nations System
Document ActionsWhat is the United Nations system?
The United Nations system is made up of the organizations established by the Charter of the United Nations, that is, the United Nations proper, the specialized agencies provided for in Article 57 of the Charter and a number of programmes established by the General Assembly under its authority derived from Article 22 of the Charter. To this must be added the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which is not a specialized agency in the strict legal sense.

The agencies, which are legally independent international organizations with their own rules, membership, organs and financial resources, were brought into relationship with the United Nations through negotiated agreements. Some of the agencies existed before the First World War, some were associated with the League of Nations, others were created almost simultaneously with the United Nations and yet others were created by the United Nations itself to meet emerging needs. Given the diversity of their respective fields of action, history and experience, each agency has its own needs and concerns, not to speak of "corporate culture".

Basic Information on UN System Organizations: Mission, Structure, Financing and Governance

Agreements between Specialized Agencies and the UN
Dates Organizations Signed Relationship Agreements with the UN
International Labour Organization (ILO): 14 December 1946
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): 14 December 1946
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): 14 December 1946
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO): 13 May 1947
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD): 15 November 1947
International Monetary Fund (IMF): 15 November 1947
Universal Postal Union (UPU): 1 July 1948
World Health Organization (WHO): 10 July 1948
International Telecommunication Union (ITU): 1 January 1949
World Meteorological Organization (WMO): 20 December 1951
International Finance Corporation (IFC): 20 February 1957
International Maritime Organization (IMO): 13 January 1959
World intellectual Property Organization (WIPO): 17 December 1974
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD): 6 April 1978
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO): 1 January 1986
World Tourism Organization (UNWTO): 11 March 2004
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
The relationship agreement between IAEA and the UN is contained in resolution 1145 (XII) of the UN General Assembly (14 November 1957).

To all intents and purposes IAEA operates like a specialized agency. The unique feature is that IAEA reports to the General Assembly and when appropriate to the Security Council as well as to ECOSOC on matter within ECOSOC’s competence. The specialized agencies report to ECOSOC.

World Trade Organization (WTO)
The status of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is more complex. Neither GATT (the predecessor to WTO) nor WTO has a formal agreement with the UN. The relationship of these entities to the United Nations dates back to 1952 when Eric Wyndham White (the first Executive Secretary of GATT) and Trygve Lie, the UN Secretary-General exchange letters which took note of the “close de facto working arrangements which exist between the United Nations Secretariat and the Secretariat of the Interim Commission (GATT)”. With the creation of WTO (1 January 1995) there was a further exchange of letters underlining the cooperative nature of the relationship between the WTO Director-General (Renato Ruggiero) and UN Secretary-General (Boutros Boutros-Ghali) in October 1995 of which the UN General Assembly took note in resolution 322 (12 December 1995).

The Executive Heads of IAEA and WTO are invited to meetings of the CEB like any other specialized agency head.

The Funds and Programmes
The fund and programmes (UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNRWA, UNEP, WFP, UNODC, UNCTAD, UNFPA, UN-HABITAT) were created by the United Nations to meet needs not envisaged at San Francisco, such as Palestine refugees, development assistance, food aid, or the environment. They are subordinate to the United Nations, but since they are immediately controlled by distinct inter-governmental bodies and derive most of their financial resources from other sources than the United Nations budgets, they are somewhat more akin to specialized agencies than to "subsidiary organs" such as UN commissions and committees. Moreover, as their activities are more operational and carried out at field level, they have needs dictated by an environment quite different from that of headquarters-centred administrations. The Programmes and Funds apply UN rules and regulations in the realm of administration and personnel.