The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is the UN entity leading the fight against illicit drugs and international crime. Established in 1997, UNODC has approximately 500 staff members worldwide. Its headquarters are in Vienna and it has 21 field offices as well as a liaison office in New York. UNODC relies on voluntary contributions, mainly from governments, for 90 per cent of its budget.UNODC is also the core agency of the Global Compact supporting the work in the area of the 10th principle against corruption.

UNODC is mandated to assist Member States in their struggle against illicit drugs, crime and terrorism. In the Millennium Declaration, Member States also resolved to intensify efforts to fight transnational crime in all its dimensions, to redouble the efforts to implement the commitment to counter the world drug problem and to take concerted action against international terrorism.

The three pillars of the UNODC work programme are:

• Research and analytical work to increase knowledge and understanding of drugs and crime issues and expand the evidence-base for policy and operational decisions;
• Normative work to assist States in the ratification and implementation of the international treaties, the development of domestic legislation on drugs, crime and terrorism, and the provision of secretariat and substantive services to the treaty-based and governing bodies; and
• Field-based technical cooperation projects to enhance the capacity of Member States to counteract illicit drugs, crime and terrorism.

This information taken from: www.unodc.org/unodc/en/about.html