The United Nations Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States was established by General Assembly Resolution 56/227 as a follow-up mechanism to the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries to ensure effective follow-up, implementation, monitoring and review of the implementation of the Programme of Action for the LDCs for the Decade 2001 – 2010, adopted at that conference.

Main functions
The key functions of the Office of the High Representative in regard to LDCs as recommended in the Secretary-General's report A/56/645 and endorsed by General Assembly Resolution 56/227 are:

(a) To assist the Secretary-General in ensuring the full mobilization and coordination of all parts of the United Nations system, with a view to facilitating the coordinated implementation of and coherence in the follow-up and monitoring of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries at the country, regional and global levels;
(b) To provide coordinated support to the Economic and Social Council as well as the General Assembly in assessing progress and in conducting the annual review of the implementation of the Programme of Action;

(c) To undertake appropriate advocacy work in favour of the least developed countries, in partnership with the relevant parts of the United Nations as well as with the civil society, media, academia and foundations;

(d) To assist in mobilizing international support and resources for the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries and other programmes and initiatives for least developed countries;

(e) To provide appropriate support to group consultations of Least Developed Countries.