The UN Resident Coordinator Office

The UN Resident Coordinator provides leadership to the Pacific UN Country Team and the UN’s programming work, as outlined in the United Nations Pacific Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2023-2027, in support of national priorities. The RC has a team composed of national and international staff, forming the RC Office (RCO), and is based in Suva, Fiji.

• The RC oversees 5 Pacific Small Island Developing States (Pacific SIDS or PSIDS) - Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
• Twenty-six resident and non-resident UN entities are signatories to the UN Pacific Strategy and members of the Pacific UN Country Team.
• The current United Nations Pacific Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework covers 14 countries and territories and outlines UN’s engagement in support of these countries’ national strategic priorities. The current cycle is for the years 2023-2027. The UN Pacific Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework focuses on four key pillars: Planet, People, Prosperity and Peace.

The RCO fulfils ten core coordination functions:

1. Strategic analysis and planning
2. Oversight of the UN country programming cycle
3. Representation of and support of UN Secretariat and UN agencies (incl. non-resident agencies)
4. Support to national coordination systems and processes
5. Development and management of shared operational support services
6. Crisis management preparedness and response
7. External communication and advocacy
8. Human rights and development
9. Joint resource mobilisation and fund management
10. General UNCT oversight and coordination.

The UN Resident Coordinator in Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu 

Mr. Dirk Wagener of Germany has more than 20 years of experience in international development cooperation in the United Nations System where he served in various leadership capacities in the fields of sustainable development and poverty reduction, peacebuilding and conflict prevention, gender equality, humanitarian assistance, green economy, and environmental protection.

Prior to his appointment, he served as UNDP Resident Representative in Papua New Guinea where he also led the UN Country Team as acting UN Resident Coordinator for over one year. In this role he chaired the intergovernmental negotiations between the Government of Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Bougainville Government on the implementation of the Bougainville Peace Agreement and negotiated an agreement on a joint roadmap towards the settlement of the final political status of the autonomous region.

Prior to this, he served in various field and headquarters assignments with UNDP and UNEP in Africa, and Asia and the Pacific, including as Coordinator for the global Resource Efficiency Programme in the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya leading the agency’s global efforts on SDG 8 on Sustainable Economic Growth and SDG 12 on Sustainable Consumption and Production. He also served as Team Leader for Partnerships and Management Support with UNDP in Ethiopia, as acting Deputy Resident Representative and Assistant Resident Representative with UNDP in the Lao PDR, as Management Advisor with UNDP in Cambodia, as well as Assistant Resident Representative and Programme Specialist with UNDP in Papua New Guinea where he started his UN career in 2002.

Prior to joining the UN, Dirk started his professional career volunteering and working with non-governmental organizations in India as Rural Development Officer and as Agronomist in Germany.

He obtained his master’s degree in International Agricultural Sciences (Rural Development) and his bachelor’s degree in Agronomy from the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.