‎Armenia‬’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Zohrab ‎Mnatsakanyan‬ was on Monday, January 11 elected President of the Executive Board of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the Organizations’ governing body, for a one-year term, Armenia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Executive Board is made up of representatives of Member States and is mandated by the UN General Assembly to provide inter-governmental support to and overall supervision of the activities of UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS. The Board meets three times a year ensuring that the three Agencies remain responsive to the evolving needs of program countries.

“2016 will be a pivotal time for our Board and sister-agencies in light of the recent adoption of the new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” Mnatsakanyan said in his acceptance speech. “The year will also be critical in view of the mid-term review of the strategic plans for 2014-2017, as well as the upcoming discussions of the new cycle of Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review, which remains the main political mechanism for member states to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and impact of the UN development system’s support to national development efforts.”

Armenia is a member of the Executive Board of the UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS since 2014. In June 2015, the Board approved UNDP’s and UNFPA’s country program documents for Armenia for the period of 2016-2020.