On 15 October 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon designated Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, as the Senior Official of the United Nations system responsible for coordinating follow up action for the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples.

This designation is in response to the Outcome document of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples (A/69/L.I) in which the Secretary-General is invited to accord an existing senior official of the United Nations system, the responsibility for coordinating a system-wide action plan, raising awareness of the rights of indigenous peoples and increasing the coherence of the activities of the system in this regard.

The Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which is headed by USG Wu, is the technical and substantive Department on indigenous issues and houses the Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII).