COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSES FOLLOW-UP TO MAJOR CONFERENCES BY UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM
Press Release
SOC/4401
COMMISSION FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSES FOLLOW-UP TO MAJOR CONFERENCES BY UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM
19960530 In a panel discussion held yesterday afternoon as part of the special session of the Commission for Social Development, members of the inter-agency task forces for follow-up to United Nations development-related conferences stressed the need to develop national capacity-building, coherent policies and partnerships among the United Nations, the international financial community and donors in order to achieve the goals of those conferences.The Commission's special session is discussing ways of implementing the goals of the 1995 World Summit for Social Development, which included attacking poverty, unemployment and social exclusion.
The task forces were established last October by the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) to promote effective and integrated follow-up to the commitments and plans of action adopted at the recent world conferences. The task force on employment and sustainable livelihood is led by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the task force on enabling environment for economic and social development is headed by the World Bank, and that on basic social services for all is chaired by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), James Gustave Speth, was the panel's facilitator. Taking part in the discussion were the following: Colin Power, Assistant Director-General, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); Katherine Hagen, Deputy-Director, International Labour Organisation (ILO); Mark Malloch Brown, Vice-President, World Bank; and Rosario Green, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues. The Under-Secretary General for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, Nitin Desai, introduced the panel.
During the discussion, the need for the United Nations system to translate the results of those conferences to the country level was widely stressed. Also, the need for coordination within the system to ensure proper implementation of decisions was highlighted.
Emphasizing that poverty was growing as fast as population, a panellist from the UNDP stated that the gap between the top 20 per cent of the population and the bottom 20 per cent had widened in recent years. The share of the countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in world income had increased in the last 30 years and the globalization of the world economy had not replaced the need for development cooperation. The continuum of conferences had stressed that the polity was as important as the economy. Therefore, the United Nations system had organized itself around initiatives directed at the provision of basic social services and jobs, the empowerment of women, the creation of an overarching enabling environment and attempts at sustaining the natural resource base.
The importance of looking at macroeconomic policies, labour market practices, the need for democratic policy-making with the participation of the civil society was stressed by the panellist from the ILO. The task force on employment and sustainable livelihood had studied the problems of migration and disadvantaged people. It was also in the process of interacting with governments to determine a better understanding of what worked, so that information gleaned could be shared with other countries.
A new consensus on sound macroeconomic framework had been broadly accepted, the panellist from the World Bank stated. Emphasizing that structural adjustment could not be at the expense of social advancement, he said the World Bank was interested in good governance, believing that it made for good economics. Although there was no single mode of good governance, there was a need for transparency. He stressed the importance of resource flow and noted that private capital had never been more robust. However, the international system had to acknowledge that capital flow was no panacea. Not many countries had benefited from it and some 43 countries were actually de- globalizing, as they were in the process of falling out of the world economy. He stressed the need for a move from abstract global issues to down to earth country-by-country situations.
The Commission was also told that an ACC Committee, modelled after the Inter-agency Committee on Sustainable Development, had been created to cover gender-related operational level follow-up to the global conferences. The Standing Committee on Women would encompass coordination aspects of the substantive work of the United Nations system on women's and gender issues as a whole, including policy formulation, setting up of international norms and standards, support to intergovernmental bodies and dissemination of results. The new plan would serve as a useful tool for enabling the system to reach a consensus on gender approach, the operational meaning of mainstreaming, modalities for improved monitoring and evaluation of the impact of programmes for women's advancement and empowerment.
Social Development Commission - 3 - Press Release SOC/4401 11th Meeting (PM) 30 May 1996
A panellist from the UNFPA stated that the achievements of the international community over the past 50 years to promote development had fallen far short of expectations. Women continued to be the poorest of the poor with 550 million living below the poverty line in rural areas alone. He stressed the need for coordinated inter-agency work.
Following introductory statements by the panellists, Commission members raised questions about the frequency of the task forces' meetings, the difficulties encountered and problems of duplication in their work. The degree of success of the integrated approach to development was also questioned. In addition, members wondered about the future of improved cooperation, particularly in the financial areas.
Panellists responded that everything was not in place to go from targets to realities as the United Nations lacked resources. The integrated approach could succeed only if governments incorporated development goals of the world conferences in their own programmes. They also acknowledged that United Nations data and statistics had to be harmonized. Stressing that the establishment of the ACC task forces was part of genuine reform, panellists said that the integrated approach had worked in country offices of the United Nations. They emphasized the need to strengthen the responsibilities of resident coordinators and the United Nations country teams.
Duplication would strictly be avoided, it was emphasized. A tremendous interest had been demonstrated by many agencies in reconciliation and peace building in countries emerging from conflict and the World Bank was working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to dovetail programmes on rehabilitation and reconstruction. Commission members were also told that the task force on basic social services for all hoped to complete its work within a year.
The Commission will meet again at 10 a.m. today, 30 May, to continue its deliberations.
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