It is a tribute to the resilience of the United Nations System that it has continued to work reasonably smoothly despite the drastic transformations that have occurred in its whole context. Without dealing historically with the corresponding changes that have occurred in the coordination problems to be faced, it may be well at this point to outline very briefly the nature of those problems, administrative, substantive and others. The next chapters will discuss the instrumentalities and procedures, intergovernmental and inter-secretariat, that have been developed to deal with coordination and to facilitate the functioning of the system.

Let it be stressed that while the total activities of the system are to be seen as a whole and in perspective, only a part–and probably a minor part–need coordination, in the narrow sense of the term, the remainder being self-contained and not impinging on the activity of other agencies. This is especially true of the work of WHO and some of the highly technical agencies such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Universal Postal Union (UPU); it is least true of the United Nations itself, almost all ofwhose activities have a bearing on, or require support from, the agencies. Furthermore, the greater part of the coordination takes place informally among the officials directly concerned. What remains and constitutes the substance of the inter-agency arrangements for coordination is, of course, still sizable.