The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), French/Spanish acronym ONUDI, is a specialized agency in the United Nations system, headquartered in Vienna, Austria. The Organization's primary objective is the promotion and acceleration of industrial development in developing countries and countries with economies in transition and the promotion of international industrial cooperation. It is also a member of the United Nations Development Group.

UNIDO believes that competitive and environmentally sustainable industry has a crucial role to play in accelerating economic growth, reducing poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The Organization therefore works towards improving the quality of life of the world's poor by drawing on its combined global resources and expertise in the following three interrelated thematic areas:

Activities in these fields are strictly aligned with the priorities of the current United Nations Development Decade and related multilateral declarations, and reflected in the long-term vision statement, business plan and mid-term programme frameworks of UNIDO.

Kandeh K. Yumkella (born July 5, 1959) is the Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

Yumkella has worked in different high-level policy positions in UNIDO, including as Special Adviser to two previous Directors-General and as Representative and Director of the first UNIDO Regional Office in Nigeria [1].

In December 2005, Yumkella was appointed as Director-General of UNIDO, and in December 2009 he was reconfirmed for a second term in office.

In June 2009, Yumkella was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to chair a new Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change. The members of the Group, comprising international experts, industry leaders and United Nations system representatives, advise on energy issues critical to the new global climate change deal and beyond.

Yumkella is the Chairman of UN-Energy, a United Nations system coordination body dealing with energy-related issues.

He is also a member of the China Council of International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) which consists of senior Chinese officials and international experts and advises top Chinese Government officials on environment and development.

Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado (6 April 1963) is the President of the Republic of Ecuador and was the president pro tempore of the Union of South American Nations. An economist educated in Ecuador, Belgium and the United States, he was elected President in late 2006 and took office in January 2007. In December 2008, he declared Ecuador's national debt illegitimate, based on the argument that it was odious debt contracted by corrupt and despotic prior regimes. He then pledged to fight creditors in international courts, and succeeded in reducing the price of the debt letters and continued paying all the debt. He brought Ecuador into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas in June 2009. To date, Correa’s administration has succeeded in reducing the high levels of poverty, indigence, and unemployment in Ecuador.

Correa's first term in office had been due to end on 15 January 2011, but the new approved constitution written by the new National Assembly mandated general elections for 26 April 2009. In that election, Rafael Correa won in the first round with 51.9% of votes counted. It was the first time since 1979 in which a representative was elected without having to face a second round. Consequently, Correa began a new term in office due to end on 10 August 2013, which could be extended by reelection until 2017.

Evelyn Rose Matthei Fornet (born November 11, 1953) is a Chilean economist and politician.

Matthei entered Chilean politics in the late '80s and early '90s, as part of the National Renewal party's youth group called Patrulla Juvenil ("Youth Patrol"), along the future President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, and future fellow senator and minister, Andrés Allamand.

From 1990 to 1994 Matthei was deputy for District 23, and from 1994 to 1998, a deputy for District 15. Later, leaving National Renewal and entering the Independent Democrat Union, Matthei was elected senator in 1997, representing the Coquimbo Region, being re-elected in 2005. Matthei left her seat at the Senate in January 2011, when she was designated Ministry of Labor and Social Providence by President Sebastián Piñera.

Matthei holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She is the daughter of retired Air Force General and member of the military junta that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, Fernando Matthei and Elda Fornet. She is married to fellow economist and former Chilean Central Bank Deputy Governor Jorge Desormeaux.