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The UN System in Thailand
As Bangkok is the UN’s regional centre for Asia and the Pacific, the UN System in Thailand is unusually large and complex. The UN community of agencies extends well beyond those that serve Thailand alone. Indeed, UN programmes for Thailand are quite modest in financial terms, since it is a relatively successful middle income country. However, UN programmes with Thailand as a significant partner are extensive.
The UN System in Thailand now comprises 24 agency offices, a figure which includes both the Asian Development Bank and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), neither of which are technically UN agencies but both of which have so much in common with it, that they are treated as if they were UN agencies for most operational purposes. Most of these agencies have a regional mandate whilst the remaining ones are focused primarily on Thailand.
This increasing concentration of the UN’s regional presence in Bangkok reflects the city’s growing status as “the Geneva of Asia”. The UN’s regional centre is increasingly paralleled by bilateral donors, many of which manage the programmes of development co-operation in the sub-region from Bangkok. It is also increasingly matched by the presence of international Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), which choose Bangkok as their regional headquarters.
UN programmes for Thailand are quite modest in financial and operational terms, since it is a relatively successful middle income country. However, UN programmes with Thailand, as a significant partner, are extensive. There are several UN inter-country programmes with Thailand as a significant partner in areas such as trafficking, child labour, HIV/Aids and environment. In recent years, Thailand has expanded its partnership with the UN through its participation in peace keeping and development efforts in the region such as East Timor. A schematic illustration of the Thai-UN relationship is depicted in the following figure.
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