Spain steps in as UN jobs leave New York

Madrid will host around a quarter of nearly 400 UNDP positions being transferred from the organisation’s headquarters in the United States, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said on Tuesday. 

The remaining posts affected by the decentralisation drive will move largely to Bonn, Germany.

Albares said the decision reflected “Spain’s commitment to development cooperation and multilateralism,” welcoming Madrid as the destination for about 100 UNDP jobs leaving New York. 

Why the relocation?

The UNDP said the relocation was part of an effort to adapt to an evolving financial and development landscape, strengthen partnerships and improve its ability to support vulnerable populations. 

Germany is already a major UNDP hub, with Bonn hosting the United Nations Volunteers programme. With the new transfers, the organisation’s footprint in the German city will exceed 400 positions. 

UNDP said it was “grateful to Germany and Spain for offering to host the organisation,” noting that the agreements would reinforce joint efforts “to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities, protect the environment, and support crisis stabilisation and recovery.”

While New York will remain the UNDP’s global headquarters, only a small fraction of its workforce is based there. 

Fewer than 7% of staff work in the US city, according to the agency, which operates in about 170 countries and territories and employs roughly 22,000 people worldwide. More than 19,000 of them are already based in country offices and regional hubs.

The shift away from New York has been underway for months. At the start of 2026, UNDP also relocated 30 positions from the US to regional offices in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Arab States, Central Europe, and Asia and the Pacific, in a move aimed at placing staff closer to the communities they serve.

Is Trump building his own UN?

This UNDP exodus from New York comes as Trump establishes the so-called “Board of Peace,” a US-led initiative that some diplomats and analysts see as an attempt to sidestep the United Nations’ existing role in global conflict management.

According to the White House, the board will be central to implementing Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza war, providing strategic oversight, mobilising international funding and ensuring accountability as the territory shifts from conflict to reconstruction. 

The initiative has triggered unease at the UN. 

La Neice Collins, spokesperson for the president of the UN General Assembly, stressed that global peace and security remain the UN’s exclusive mandate. 

“There is one universal multilateral organisation to deal with peace and security issues, and that is the United Nations,” she said.

The timing of the Board of Peace — alongside the relocation of hundreds of UN jobs out of New York — has sharpened questions about whether Washington is reshaping multilateral diplomacy around US-controlled structures, potentially eroding the authority of the UN system it once helped to build.