42. 区域办事处在发挥区域协作平台秘书处的作用时，在不同程度上帮助驻地协调员获得联合国区域专门知识和参与区域讨论。在五个区域中的四个区域，受访的区域办事处工作人员以及平台和同行支助小组成员指出，区域办事处帮助在专题联盟的工作与驻地协调员之间建立联系。例如，一些区域办事处自己参加了专题联盟秘书处，并邀请专题联盟主席参加与驻地协调员和驻地协调员办公室的会议。此外，在所观察的四次平台会议中的三次会议上，发展协调办公室发挥了连接者的作用，将会上的讨论与驻地协调员的支助请求和区域需求联系起来，并邀请驻地协调员直接在平台上发言以征求意见。在所观察的大多数平台和同行支助小组会议上，区域办事处似乎准备充分，积极参与讨论和协商；然而，鉴于它们在小组中发挥更大的领导作用，在小组会议上的参与程度明显高于平台会议。
42. The regional offices have, to varying degrees, connected the resident coordinators with regional United Nations expertise and discussions in their regional collaborative platform secretariat role. In four of five regions, interviewed regional office staff and platform and peer support group members noted that the regional offices had helped to connect the work of the issue-based coalitions with the resident coordinators. For example, some of the regional offices participated in the issue-based coalition secretariats themselves and invited issue-based coalition chairs to meetings with resident coordinators and resident coordinator offices. In addition, in three out of the four platform meetings observed, the Development Coordination Office played a connector role by linking the discussions to resident coordinator requests for support and needs in the region and inviting a resident coordinator to address the platforms directly to solicit input. The regional offices appeared well prepared, engaged and consultative in the majority of the platform and peer support group meetings observed; however, given their greater leadership role in the groups, engagement was notably higher in group meetings compared to platform meetings.