ABSTRACT
Three factors inform and constrain the role of the United Nations in developing countries. The first is that the United Nations is a political organization, not a developmental one. Development is an intensely political and often highly contested matter and, unlike dedicated development organizations or individual nation-states, the UN, its organs, agencies, funds and programmes have very little room for independent initiative. The UN’s developmental roles are shaped directly and indirectly by the priorities of its more powerful member states.
