UNDP is the UN's global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. People across Asia and the Pacific benefit from UNDP's presence. Today, UNDP has established Regional Centres in Bangkok and Colombo to strengthen that presence for greater development impact.

The Regional Centre in Colombo (RCC) mainly focuses on poverty reduction with an overarching effort on achieving the Millennium Development Goals and HIV/AIDS and development. We provide advisory support to UNDP country offices in a number of cross-cutting areas, ranging from pro-poor macroeconomic and human development policies to international trade, trans-border challenges of HIV/AIDS, gender equality and supporting Governments in the implementation of MDG-based national development strategies in order to strengthen UNDP's position as a trusted and leading partner in overcoming development challenges.

The Regional Centre in Bangkok meanwhile focuses on support to Democratic Governance‚ Energy & Environment and Crisis Prevention and Recovery and works on cross-cutting issues including capacity development, ICT for development, public-private partnerships and mine action.

A main priority of the Regional Centres is to provide UNDP Country Offices in Asia and the Pacific with easy access to knowledge through high quality advisory services based on global applied research and UNDP lessons learnt.

The second priority is to build partnerships and promote regional capacity building initiatives, which allow UNDP, governments and other development partners to identify, create and share knowledge relevant to solving urgent development challenges.

The regional support system focuses on provision of quality applied policy advice, networks of UNDP staff to build communities of practice, assist in responding to queries, share information and apply regional and global perspectives. The system taps into UNDP's contacts with UN Agencies, the World Bank, professional networks, and academia to share knowledge and offer advice. The regional support system has served as an instrument to enhance UNDP's capacity for organisational learning, systematically strengthening capacity, credibility and professionalism of staff in country offices and at headquarters. The network of 25 Country Offices in the region serves 37 countries.