The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development is an autonomous institution within the United Nations system established to promote research on the social dimensions of development. Responsibility for approving the research programme and budget of the institute is vested in a Board, made up of outstanding social scientists nominated by the United Nations Commission for Social Development and confirmed by the Economic and Social Council of the Untied Nations. The institute has emphasised a holistic, multi-disciplinary and political economy approach in its research programmes, since most development problems, and particularly issues of social development, cut across disciplinary boundaries.