De Croo officially elected to head UN Development Programme

17 November 2025

Former Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo was officially elected as the new head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in a UN General Assembly vote on Monday.

De Croo was nominated to lead the agency by UN secretary-general António Guterres in October, but still required formal approval by vote. Apart from Russia, which abstained, 172 countries voted in favour of the appointment.

In a statement posted to X on Monday, De Croo expressed his gratitude to Guterres and the UN's member states "for the trust they have placed in me to lead UNDP as its new Administrator".

Steering structural change

The agency is based at the UN headquarters in New York City and is tasked with helping countries to eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development.

"My approach will be simple: listen, partner and deliver – so that no one is left behind"

"I join UNDP at a moment when the world needs cooperation, action and impact more than ever," said De Croo. "My approach will be simple: listen, partner and deliver – so that no one is left behind."

"Mr. De Croo has dedicated much of his career to public service advancing global solidarity, combining political leadership, development cooperation, and innovation," said Guterres in a statement.

"Your leadership comes at a crucial time for the UN system"

He added that, in his former positions as prime minister and minister for Development Cooperation, De Croo "worked closely with multilateral institutions to steer structural change for people in some of the world’s most vulnerable regions".

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen congratulated De Croo in a post on X. "Your leadership comes at a crucial time for the UN system, as an ambitious reform is needed," she wrote.