The UN Resident Coordinator Office
The Resident Coordinator (RC) system encompasses all organizations of the United Nations system dealing with operational activities for development, regardless of their formal presence in the country. The RC system aims to bring together the different UN agencies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operational activities at the country level.
Resident Coordinators lead UN country teams in more than 130 countries and are the designated representatives of the Secretary-General for development operations. Working closely with national governments, Resident Coordinators and country teams advocate the interests and mandates of the UN system while drawing on the support and guidance of the entire UN family.
Coordinating development operations promotes more strategic support for national plans and priorities, makes operations more efficient and reduces transaction costs for governments. This helps the UN to be a more relevant and reliable partner for governments.
The UN Resident Coordinator in Kyrgyzstan
The UN Resident Coordinator in Kyrgyzstan is Mr. Brian Williams.
Mr. Brian Williams of the United States has been appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kyrgyzstan, with the approval of the host Government. He takes up his post on 1 October.
Mr. Williams brings more than 30 years of experience in international development, peacebuilding, public health, humanitarian action and development coordination. Most recently, he served as Chief of the Peacebuilding Fund within the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), where he managed the Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund.
He assumed this role following his assignment as Chief of Policy and Programming ad interim in the United Nations Development Coordination Office (DCO). From 2015 to 2020, Mr. Williams served as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Albania. Prior to that, from 2010 to 2015, he led the Peacebuilding Fund, overseeing the financing of initiatives aimed at supporting peacebuilding and conflict prevention in countries emerging from conflict.
From 2001 to 2008, Mr. Williams worked on the global HIV response, serving as Country Coordinator of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Myanmar and in various positions at UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva. Since 1990, he has worked on humanitarian assistance, governance, the rule of law, recovery and peacebuilding in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Rwanda.
Prior to joining the United Nations, Mr. Williams worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), CARE International and the International Rescue Committee.
Mr. Williams holds a master’s degree in development studies from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Harvard University, both in the United States.
He is married and has two children.
