SECOND COMMITTEE HEARS FURTHER PROPOSALS FOR REVITALIZING AND STRENGTHENING OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

Press Release
GA/EF/2687

SECOND COMMITTEE HEARS FURTHER PROPOSALS FOR REVITALIZING AND STRENGTHENING OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) this morning heard further proposals for the revitalization and strengthening of the Economic and Social Council, as it began consideration of the Council's report.

The representative of Brazil said the Council should be playing a greater role in addressing macroeconomic policy issues, as its revitalization would only happen if the level of its substantive discussions on those issues was improved. He proposed that a closer interaction between bodies with technical competence on macroeconomic issues, including the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and delegations be established through informal meetings, such as briefings, hearings and brainstorming sessions.

The representative of Spain, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the Council still lacked any real capacity to evaluate or influence the operations of the United Nations machinery, as the role it should play had not been well defined in practical terms. The representative of the Russian Federation said the Council should institutionalize a brief working session to review its work. The representative of China stressed that the revitalization of the Council's work should be based on provisions of the Charter and relevant resolutions.

Statements were also made by the representatives of Italy, Syria, Philippines (on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries), Ukraine and Sudan. Representatives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and World Health Organization (WHO) also spoke.

In introductory remarks, the Director of the Division for Policy Coordination and Economic and Social Council Affairs of the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, Miles Stoby, said the roots of the documentation crisis were systemic. More efficient employment of technological innovations and more effective planning of work schedules on the part of the Secretariat could contribute to easing the effects of excessive documentation. Without a cultural change, however, in the way business was done in the economic and social sectors, where the tendency had been to increase the number of bodies as well as the frequency with which they met, it was unlikely that the documentation crisis would abate.

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Introducing reports this morning were the Acting Director of the Global Programme on AIDS of the World Health Organization, Dr. Stefano Betrozzi, and Francesco Mezzalama, Inspector of the Joint Inspection Unit. Mr. Stoby also introduced the report on water supply and sanitation.

The Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. today to continue its consideration of the report of the Economic and Social Council.

Committee Work Programme

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this morning to begin consideration of the report of the Economic and Social Council (document A/50/3).

The report includes a summary of, as well as action taken both by its organizational and substantive sessions, the later held in Geneva in July. Matters requiring action by the Committee pertain mainly to the general segment. Those calling for its attention include texts relating to economic and social repercussions of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory, overall guidance on operational activities for development to the United Nations funds and programmes, and the question of malaria and diarrhoeal diseases, in particular cholera.

Council Texts Calling for Assembly Action

-- By resolution 1995/3, the Council recommended to the Assembly the adoption of a draft resolution (document A/C.2/50/L.4) by which it would establish a target for voluntary contributions to the World Food Programme of $1.3 billion for the period 1997-1998. The Secretary-General would be requested to convene a pledging conference for this purpose at United Nations Headquarters in 1996, in cooperation with the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

-- By decision 1995/231, the Council endorsed and recommended the Assembly endorse the agreement between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund relating to resident country directors.

-- By decision 1995/232, the Council took note of the change of the name of the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office to Office to Combat Desertification and Drought, the acronym UNSO being retained, and decided to inform the GA of the change of name.

-- By resolution 1995/50, the Council requested the Secretary-General to finalize a comprehensive analysis of the implementation of resolution 47/199, on the triennial policy review of the United Nations operational activities for development, taking into account the outcome of the open-ended working group of the Assembly on a new funding system for those activities.

-- By resolution 1995/55, the Council recommended that the Assembly consider further the establishment of a separate executive board for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), taking into account the role of the Fund in the implementation of the Programme of Action adopted by the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development and bearing in mind the administrative, budgetary and programme implications of such a proposal.

-- By decision 1995/313, the Council recommended that the Assembly continue its consideration of the question of international migration and

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development, including the convening of a United Nations conference on that matter.

-- By resolution 1995/46, the Council recommended to the Assembly the adoption of a resolution on water supply and sanitation (document A/C.2/50/L.3). Under its terms, the Assembly would call upon governments to implement, among others, the provisions concerning water resources in general and water supply and sanitation in particular of chapter 18 of Agenda 21, the programme of action adopted by the 1992 UNCED. Among those recommendations are that government should assign high priority to programmes designed to provide basic sanitation and excreta disposal systems to urban and rural areas and to treatment of waste waters. The Assembly would decide to review at its fifty-fifth session the situation at the end of the 1990s of water supply and sanitation. The Secretary-General would be requested to submit a report through the Commission on Sustainable Development and the Council containing an assessment of the water supply and sanitation situation in developing countries, including proposals for action.

-- By resolution 1995/47 B, the Council requested the Secretary-General to include in his report to the Assembly's current session an examination of options from all existing sources for an adequate funding of the core functions of the secretariat of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. By a draft resolution annexed to that text, the Assembly would decide to convene a closing event of the Decade, through coordinated sectoral and cross-sectoral meetings, in order to facilitate the full integration of disaster reduction into the substantive efforts for sustainable development and environmental protection by the year 2000. Other provisions of the draft address details of the preparatory process for that event.

-- By resolution 1995/23, the Council invited the Assembly to consider providing the Economic Commission for Africa with additional resources, allocated within the regular budget, to enable it to pursue the major activities of the programme for the Second Transport and Communication Decade in Africa.

-- By resolution 1995/24, the Council urgently appealed to the Assembly to consider the possibility of converting, within existing resources, the grant provided to the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning to establish core posts in the regular budget. It called upon the Assembly through its Second and Fifth (Administrative and Budgetary) Committees, to take the necessary action to ensure that adequate resources were made available to the Economic Commission for Africa for implementation of its work programme.

In addition, during its consideration of the report of the Council, the Committee will have before it several reports, most of them already considered by the Council's substantive session. Those reports include a note by the Secretary-General (document A/50/126-E/1995/20 and Add.1, of 29 March) transmitting a report of the Joint Inspection Unit entitled "Communication for Development Programmes in the United Nations System" and the comments of the

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Administrative Committee on Coordination on the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) report.

Another note by the Secretary-General (document A/50/132, of 10 April) concerns the United Nations Population Award. In 1995 the laureates were Dr. Halfdan Mahler of Denmark -- for his career in public health which has included strong leadership in reproductive health, family planning and population issues, and the Ethiopia-based Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC), a non- governmental organization -- for its efforts to create the social, cultural and public health conditions that allow women to exercise their reproductive rights, including family planning.

A further note by the Secretary-General (document A/50/175-E/1995/57, of 16 May) transmits the report of the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) on progress made in the implementation of the global AIDS strategy. A Secretary-General's report (document A/50/180-E/1995/63, of 18 May) reviews action plans for the prevention and control of malaria and diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera. Annexes to that report include one containing a summary of the status of vaccines against those diseases, including against rotavirus, the most important cause of dehydrating diarrhoea in young children worldwide, and against shigella, the most important cause of dysentery in children and adults.

A report of the Secretary-General (document A/50/213-E/1995/87, of 8 June) reviews progress made in providing safe water supply and sanitation for all during the first half of the 1990s. It states among its conclusions that the objective of providing water supply and sanitation services to all is inextricably linked to poverty in peri-urban and rural areas. Solutions to the problem of reaching the millions of people worldwide who lack suitable facilities will only be found within a framework of poverty alleviation.

In addition, a note by the Secretary-General (document A/50/262- E/1995/59, of 3 July) transmits a report by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) on economic and social repercussions of the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory, covering the period from April 1994 to March 1995.

Statements

Dr. STEFANO BETROZZI, Acting Director of the Global Programme on AIDS of the WHO, introducing the report on the progress in the implementation of the global AIDS strategy, said it did not concern the Joint Programme on HIV-AIDS. He had brought two reports concerning that other programme which were available for interested delegations in the conference room. The report before the Committee contained an overview of the AIDS pandemic today and what WHO was doing to confront it. Highlights of the report included efforts in prevention and research, focused on microbicides that would be used by women.

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He also described the activities of the behavioural unit, including those targeted at young people. In addition, the report provided information on activities of other United Nations system agencies concerning AIDS, including those of the World Bank, the largest single provider of funds to confront the pandemic.

FRANCESCO MEZZALAMA, Inspector of the JIU, introduced the report entitled "Communication for Development Programmes in the United Nations System". He said the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had supported the report's conclusions, particularly those relating to public information and communication functions, coordination between communication operations at Headquarters and in the field. He said the report included a proposal for the establishment of a communication coordinating committee at the country level and contained a recommendation concerning the importance of communications in peace-keeping operations. Commenting on the report, the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) had appreciated the innovative application of communication to humanitarian assistance and peace-keeping operations; the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) on the contrary had expressed some reservations.

MILES STOBY, Director of the Division for Policy Coordination and Economic and Social Council Affairs of the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, said in introductory remarks that the working relationship between the Council and the Assembly needed to be looked at again. The problem of multiple consideration needed to be addressed. A trend had begun to emerge whereby the Council's high-level and coordination segments served as preparatory bodies for the Assembly. Any review of the relationship of the two bodies should look into whether the Council should not normally be expected to dispose of most matters before it in accordance with its Charter authority and the relevant Assembly resolutions and limit its preparatory role to a few identifiable areas.

Recent experience indicated that Member States were still not fully satisfied with the Council's working methods and organization of work, he said. Among the areas on which attention had focused was the length and spacing of the substantive session. A possible solution to the problems that had emerged from the current arrangement was to have the Council maintain a single substantive session a year but split it into two segments. One could be a broadened high-level segment (encompassing the existing high-level, coordination and operational activities for development segments) separate from the general segment that could serve to enhance the authority of the Council and enable it to take decisions at a high political level. Also, a separate general segment would enable the Council to focus on its overall guidance, monitoring and management role and should contribute to alleviating difficulties encountered with clustering items in the current general segment. The Council would thus hold an organizational session, one resumed organizational session and a substantive session divided into two focused segments.

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He went on to say the roots were systemic. Documents were prepared at the request of intergovernmental and other bodies which met at stipulated times. As the number of bodies increased, so would the demand for more documentation. As bodies met more frequently, so too would documentation requests accelerate. More efficient employment of technological innovations and more effective planning of work schedules on the part of the Secretariat could contribute to easing the effects of excessive documentation to some degree. However, without a cultural change in the way business was done in the economic, social and related sectors where the tendency had been to increase the number of bodies as well as the frequency with which they met it was unlikely that the documentation crisis would abate.

Introducing the report on water supply and sanitation. Mr. Stoby said that it had become evident that the provision of those services for all could not depend exclusively on public investment, particularly if the provision of services by public utilities was not accompanied by suitable cost-recovery policies. A significant acceleration in providing services could only come about with the involvement of the private sector, local communities and through the generation of financial resources through cost-recovery measures. The situation was particularly critical in connection with the generation of an effective demand for sanitation services where the neglect of the needs of the urban and rural poor was most evident.

ANA MARIA MENENDEZ (Spain), speaking on behalf of the European Union, said that although significant improvements had been made, the Council still lacked any real capacity to evaluate or influence the operations of the United Nations machinery. The role it should play had not been well defined in practical terms. Critical factors for the improvement of its efficiency are its working methods and ensuring the complementarity of its various segments and avoidance of duplication.

She said the high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council's session devoted to Africa's development was disappointing. There was need for a more focused dialogue with heads of international and trade institutions. On the operational activities segment of the Council sessions, more was needed in its preparation to encourage ministerial participation. Conclusions reached on coordinated follow-up to major international conferences should be implemented expeditiously.

The general segment portion of the Council's sessions should be radically streamlined, she continued. The Economic and Social Council should ensure harmonization and coordination of the agendas and the multi-year programmes of the functional commissions by promoting a clearer division of labour among them and clear policy guidance.

ANDREI MELEKH (Russian Federation) said the Economic and Social Council continued to carry out reforms along the lines proposed in the General Assembly resolutions. The recent Council session had also carried out a policy review of ways and means of enhancing United Nations development activities. The Council should institutionalize a brief working session to review its work. It should also choose the theme of its sessions well in

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advance. The portion of the session devoted to dialogue with heads of international institutions and agencies should be thorough to ensure results. Strict control should be exercised in the allocation of time for statements.

He said measures taken in the preparation of documentation were still unsatisfactory. The Russian Federation favoured introduction of the necessary organizational control to ensure timely translation of reports.

MS. YANYI YANG (China) said some changes in the working methods of the Council were required. Further attempts, however, to reform the functions and mechanism of the Council, its subsidiary organs and secretariat should not be made until a general review had been undertaken by the General Assembly. Her delegation favoured increasing the Council's efficiency and weight through the adoption of appropriate and necessary measures. The crux of the matter was how efficiency was defined and the criteria to be adopted.

The Chinese delegation believed that the yardstick for measuring the efficiency of the Council, its functional commissions and subsidiary organs should be the clear definition of their mandates and whether they were fully implemented by tapping their potentials. The revitalization of the Council's work should be based on the mandates defined and entrusted to the Council by the Charter and United Nations resolutions as well as on the objectives and tasks set out by the recent international conferences on international cooperation for development.

ALAIN MODOUX, a representative of UNESCO, speaking on the JIU report, said it was vital that the United Nations system improve its communications system. That was important to promote its activities and programmes. He stressed the importance of creating conditions at the local level for an effective participation of the population by, for example, community radio stations managed by representatives of the local community. The UNESCO had experience in the area of communication for development. Among 180 projects being implemented in developing countries and countries in transition, at a cost of $40 million, he cited projects in African countries, including Rwanda and Burundi, and in the former Yugoslavia.

Dr. KAZEM BEHBEHANI of the World Health Organization (WHO), said malaria affected 300-to-500 million people a year with a death toll of 2.7 million a year. Ninety per cent of the cases occurred mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria was a controllable disease. A global strategy for combating malaria adopted by WHO had four basic elements which included global political commitment and development of national control plans. The WHO was helping a number of countries in Africa draw up national plans. It was also providing training and technical assistance. The fight against malaria remained a challenge and WHO was committed to combating the disease.

STEFANO CACCIAGUERRA (Italy) said his country fully supported the statement made by the representative of Spain on behalf of the European Union. His delegation welcomed measures to improve communications for development programmes. He said close attention should be paid to communication issues in the work on Agenda for Development.

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BASSAM AL-KHATIB (Syria) said the General Assembly had repeatedly affirmed the sovereignty of Arabs over the natural resources of the occupied territories. It had also condemned Israeli practices aimed at dominating those resources. The Israeli actions violated the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, and the Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949. The Assembly had also called for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. He said Israel was changing the character of the territory through construction of new settlements and introduction of Hebrew names and education.

Syrian nationals on the territory were being prevented from marketing their produce, he said, and were also being deprived of rainwater. The people were suffering from Israel's attempts to impose its will and to deprive them of their cultural identity.

CECILIA B. REBONG (Philippines), speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, said they noted with concern the continued deterioration of the safe water supply and sanitation services situation, particularly in rural areas. They agreed that the problem of safe water supply and sanitation was inextricably linked to poverty in urban and rural areas, and that solutions could only be found within a framework of not only alleviating poverty but eradicating it. The Group shared the view of the Secretary-General that no real solution would be at hand without significant infusions of funding into that sector.

She urged donor governments, multilateral financial and development institutions and non-governmental organizations to give favourable consideration to requests for grants and concessional financing, particularly with regard to environmental sanitation and sewerage, and to waste-water- treatment projects.

The Group also called for support by the United Nations system and other institutions and agencies in combating malarial and diarrhoeal diseases. They expressed support for WFP's target of $1.3 billion contributions for the period 1997-1998, and hoped the Secretary-General would convene the pledging conference for that purpose in 1996.

SVITLANA M. HOMANOVSKA (Ukraine) said there had been positive changes in the Council's work, but the results of its last session had shown that the enhancement of its efficiency had still not been achieved. The main theme of its sessions should be timely and take account of the interests of all countries, including those with economies in transition. There was a need for an open dialogue with heads of institutions and agencies.

There was also a need for more time to enable delegations to exchange views during the general segment section of the Council's sessions. Attention should be paid to the work of the regional commissions, and she commended the activities of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) which, she added, had assisted the countries with economies in transition. There was no need for a radical overhaul of the economic and social systems of the Organization but efficient use must be made of existing resources. An important area for additional reform was defining the machinery for cooperation.

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SERGIO FLORENCIO (Brazil) said the Council should be called upon to play a greater role in addressing macroeconomic policy issues. The United Nations still had to improve its role as a global forum for addressing central economic issues such as trade, finance and technology. A new Economic and Social Council, with an essentially deliberative role, could help the General Assembly assume that function. The Council should develop closer and more focused dialogue with the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the specialized agencies. To that end, the Council must make more efficient use of the United Nations expertise on economic issues.

The revitalization of the Council would only happen if the level of its substantive discussions on macroeconomic policy issues was improved, he said. That required two elements: a stronger interaction between the different bodies with technical competence on macroeconomic issues, including Department of Economic Social Information and Policy Analysis (DESIPA), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the regional commissions; and a closer interaction between delegations and the technical bodies. That could be achieved through informal meetings, such as briefings, hearings and brainstorming sessions. Those meetings would require no additional expenses, as DESIPA was based in New York and the UNCTAD and the regional commissions could participate through their local representatives.

IZZELDIN HAMID (Sudan) fully supported the points raised by the representative of Syria concerning the report on Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory. He also supported the views of the Group of 77 and China that the Council should be more effective in dealing with macroeconomic policy matters and sustainable development in a global and interrelated manner.

Referring to the report on the anti-malaria struggle in developing countries, he said the efforts of the agencies involved in combating malaria should be encouraged. Malaria was widespread in the Sudan and claimed the lives of many people every day, the majority of them children. The Government gave the highest priority to fighting malaria in its national comprehensive health strategy, and a ministerial committee for malaria control had been established.

The disease was, however, still a very serious health problem. Due to the lack of financial resources to control and prevent malaria in the Sudan, he continued, it had elaborated a project proposal describing the magnitude of the spread of malaria in the country. The programme stipulated budget requirements of over $100 million for a six-year period. He supported the strategy of giving low priority to the use of insecticides, which should be limited to specific situations. Referring to the report's statement that two or three countries in each region would be selected to receive more intensified support to acquire and document experience that could guide countries in the process of implementing the malaria control strategy, he expressed the hope that the Sudan would fulfil the criteria stipulated and be selected as one of those countries in its region.

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