The Resident Coordinator System (RCS)

The Resident Coordinator System was established in 1981 to support the restructuring of the UN economic and social sectors, in accordance with a General Assembly (GA) Resolution.

The RC system encompasses all organizations of the United Nations system dealing with programmatic and operational activities for development and humanitarian assistance, regardless of their formal presence in the country.

The objective of the RC System is to promote and facilitate coordination and the efficient management of United Nations activities thereby enabling optimum United Nations system support for national capacity-building to assist Jordan realize its national priorities and goals. The key mechanisms and documents of the Resident Coordinator System include:

• The Common Country Assessment (CCA),
• The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF),
• The Annual UN Country Team Workplan,
• The UN inter-agency working groups.

The Resident Coordinator (RC)

The RC system, at the national level, is represented and led by the Resident Coordinator (RC). The RC is the designated representative of the Secretary General for development interventions, and at times also humanitarian interventions, at the national level. It is usually the UNDP Resident Representative in the country who assumes the RC function. The RC’s role in the country is multifaceted, and their responsibilities include:

• Ensuring the coordination of all UN operational activities,
• Assuming leadership within the UN system,
• Assuming the UN Humanitarian Coordinator (HC) role in case of an emergency and coordinating the UN country-level response to humanitarian crises,
• Encouraging and facilitating stronger coordination and coherence for UN activities, and promoting the UN global agenda, including the UN reform, at country level,
• Assuming responsibility for all common UN projects and initiatives designed to reflect corporate UN priorities,
• Reporting on an annual basis on all UN activities to the Secretary General. 

The RC is supported by the Resident Coordinators Office (RCO), which assists in the organization and management of UN agency collaboration and ensures that coordination mechanisms are in place. The RC System strives to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of providing UN assistance at the country level. The complementarities of the UN agencies combined with a division of labor based on agency mandates constitute the basis for strengthened coordination.