How was the UN resident coordinator system established?

The 1977 annual report of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Governing Council, E/1978/53/Rev.1, discusses the role of the resident representatives and the issues of streamlining the institutional machinery of the UN development activities, reducing the administrative costs and establishing “a single official” to coordinate these activities at the country level.

General Assembly resolution 32/197 of 20 December 1977 establishes resident coordinators. Operative paragraph 3 endorses conclusions and recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Restructuring of the Economic and Social Sectors of the United Nations System. The recommendations are listed in the Annex to the resolution. Paragraph 34 of the Annex refers to the system of the resident coordinators.

In 2018, General Assembly resolution 72/279 decides to, among other things,

"separat[e] the functions of the resident coordinator from those of the resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme".

Resident Coordinators are now part of the UN Secretariat rather than UNDP.