ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL DISCUSSES IMPLEMENTATION OF RESULTS OF UNITED NATIONS MAJOR CONFERENCES
Press Release
ECOSOC/5657
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL DISCUSSES IMPLEMENTATION OF RESULTS OF UNITED NATIONS MAJOR CONFERENCES
19960703 There was a need for increased complementarity and transparency in the work of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) and the Economic and Social Council, the representative of Ireland told the Council, as it began consideration this afternoon of the implementation of the agreed conclusions reached at last year's coordination segment relating to the implementation of the results of major United Nations conferences in the economic and social fields.Speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, he stressed the need for strengthening reporting and improving the working methods of the Council and the General Assembly.
The current segment of the Council's annual session is devoted to the coordination of United Nations policies and activities relating to the achievement of the Organization's economic and social objectives. Recommendations emerging from the discussions during the coordination segment are submitted, in the form of "agreed conclusions", to the General Assembly and forwarded throughout the United Nations system.
The commitment to provide new resources for implementing conference recommendations, as called for under the global conferences' programmes of action, had not yet been fulfilled, the representative of Costa Rica, speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, said. As a result, the burden of providing resources had fallen on national governments. She stressed that the Group of 77 attached great importance to Council's consideration of measures to secure those resources.
The representative of Indonesia said that while the major United Nations conferences had been considered successful undertakings, implementation of their recommendations had fallen short of expectations, largely because of inadequate resources and a lack of adequate political will. "This reflects the general malaise that the United Nations is currently in", he said. South Africa's representative underscored the importance of ensuring the broadest involvement of people at the community level in attempts to realize the outcomes of the conferences.
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The Secretary-General should be asked to collect factual background about the products of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, the Committee for Development Planning, the Committee on Natural Resources and the Committee on New and Renewable Sources of Energy and Energy for Development, the representative of Canada said. He added that the Secretary-General should collect information on the contribution of those commissions' deliberations and their relationship with other bodies.
The Chief of the Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs Branch of the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, Sarbuland Khan, introduced the Secretary-General's report on the implementation of the agreed conclusions of the 1995 coordination segment of the Council. Speaking also at the conclusion of the debate, he said the report complemented previous reports of the Secretary-General. He added that a real effort was being made to submit consolidated papers with specific recommendations. The Secretariat had submitted two reports to the Council on streamlining. However, those reports had not yet been considered by the Council. Commenting on the interface between the ACC and the Council, he said the Committee had made clear decisions on how it would follow up conferences and was aiming at agreement with the Council.
The representatives of Colombia, China, United States, Belarus and the Russian Federation made statements. Also speaking were the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and a representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The Council will meet again at 10 a.m. on Monday, 8 July, to consider operational activities of the United Nations for international development cooperation.
Council Work Programme
The Economic and Social Council met this afternoon to continue its coordination segment. It is scheduled to discuss the implementation of the agreed conclusions of its 1995 coordination segment.
A report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of the 1995 agreed conclusions (document E/1996/59) addresses the implementation and coordinated follow-up by the United Nations system of the results of major conferences in the economic and social fields.
The report notes that the agenda of the General Assembly contains a number of items dedicated to following up on plans of action developed at various global conferences, including the 1995 World Summit for Social Development, the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the Barbados Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, and the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna.
The Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) will review the implementation of the results of recent global conferences on the basis of a thematic approach, drawing on the work of its standing machinery and other relevant inter-agency mechanisms, says the report.
With regard to national level arrangements, it adds that inter-agency task forces have been established by ACC to address basic social services for all, employment and sustainable livelihoods, and an enabling environment for social and economic development. At the country level, the resident coordinator system, with the support of the global task forces, are using thematic groups to implement policy recommendations emanating from recent global conferences.
Concerning the preparation of Secretariat reports, the report states that the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development has examined options for document consolidation regarding follow-ups to the major conferences. The Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis is coordinating the United Nations Data System Task Force, the broad purpose of which is to develop a coordinated and consistent methodological approach to data collection across the United Nations system. The Inter- Agency Committee on Sustainable Development has invited the task managers of its task force on national strategies to take the lead in enhancing the consistency of requests for information in areas where overlap has been identified.
According to the report, to avoid duplication and save costs, a group of authors of global reports -- including the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Resources Institute and the Earth Council -- is discussing the establishment of a consortium of global report producers, which would allow the use of a common data and knowledge base, including indicators, models, scenarios and expert systems. The ACC's Joint Consultative Group on Policy -- consisting of the UNDP, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) -- is harmonizing programming procedures for common-country assessments within the resident coordinator system.
Cooperation among the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO) has included the incorporation of recommendations of the United Nations global conferences into the policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), says the report. The Secretary-General and the Director-General of the WTO have agreed on a "flexible framework" for their cooperation, open to further review. The organizations' cooperation will include information exchanges, reciprocal representation, and cooperation among secretariats.
The report recalls a provision of the agreed conclusions of the Council's 1995 coordination segment according to which effective follow-up to the global conferences would require the urgent mobilization of resources. It notes that official development assistance (ODA) provided by the members of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as a percentage of their combined gross national product (GNP) dropped from 0.31 per cent in 1993 to 0.30 per cent in 1994, the lowest level since 1973.
The report adds that the question of new and innovative ideas for generating funds for development will be considered by the Council at the current session on the basis of a note by the Secretariat transmitting the main ideas and proposals emanating from United Nations committees and from independent studies in that regard.
Statements
ANA TERESA DENGO (Costa Rica), speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, said that the Council should consider organizing its work on a multi-year basis as a means of enhancing its effectiveness and coordinating functions. The initiative of the ACC to establish task forces in support of the coordinated follow-up and implementation of the major United Nations development conferences was welcome. Development agencies, such as the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), should be allowed to play an active role in the work of the task forces.
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The commitments to provide new and additional resources, as called for by the programmes of action adopted by the major global conferences, had not yet been fulfilled, she said. As a result, the burden or providing resources for implementation of conference recommendations had fallen to national governments. The Group of 77 attached the highest importance to consideration by the Council of measures to secure those resources as a cornerstone of international cooperation.
JOHN CAMPBELL (Ireland), speaking on behalf of the European Union and of Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Iceland and Norway, said the results of the United Nations conferences represented a major step forward, marking a new and more intensive cooperation between the members of the international community in promoting the development of all people. The conclusions agreed at the last substantive session of the Council had examined the steps which the system should take to ensure effective coordination of the follow-up to the conferences and what the Council's role should be in that regard. However, it was clear that those terms had only been partly implemented, and the reasons for the partial implementation had not been analysed in depth.
With regard to the obligations imposed by the agreed conclusions on the Secretariat, he said there were a number of areas where progress had been made. The inter-agency coordination had been strengthened at all levels. However, there was need for increased complementarity and transparency in the work of the ACC and the Council. Work also remained to be done in the area of reporting, and there had been few improvements in the working methods of the Council and the General Assembly. Also, much remained to be done by the functional commissions if they were to provide the best possible support to the Council. Members States shared responsibility for the lack of progress, he added.
JAIRO MONTOYA (Colombia) said that linkages between the Agenda for Development and the follow-up to the global development conferences should be clarified, with a view to identifying common themes and formulating recommendations which reinforced both. The Secretary-General should formulate specific recommendations regarding the strengthening of the commissions in following up on the global conferences.
As regards coordination, he said that the selection of themes to be considered by the ACC should be made by the General Assembly and the Council. It was essential that the decisions of the ACC be in line with the priorities and themes identified by the Assembly. Otherwise, a "double track" would be created for conference follow- up. After some 10 major conferences, issues related to money, finance, trade, transfer of technology and global macroeconomic coordination had not been adequately addressed.
CLAUDE BAILLARGEON (Canada) said some of the conclusions of last year's session had been clearly implemented. It had been agreed that the coordination
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segment should deal with a cross-cutting theme, and, indeed, for the last few days poverty issues had been discussed. It had also been agreed that effective conference follow-up should include the review of the mandate, composition and working methods of the Council's subsidiary bodies. The Council had then been charged by Assembly resolutions to implement reviews of bodies like the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, the Committee for Development Planning, the Committee on Natural Resources and the Committee on New and Renewable Sources of Energy and Energy for Development.
The current session should establish a preliminary framework for those reviews building on what was agreed on last year, he said. The Secretary- General should be asked to collect some factual background about the products of the four above-mentioned bodies. He should also collect information on the contribution of their deliberations, their relationship with other bodies and the source of their secretariat and other support. Since internal reviews were under way in many regional commissions, the secretaries of those commissions should be asked to report to the Council at its 1997 session.
WANG XUEXIAN (China) said that follow-up to the United Nations development conferences should be based on the consensus of the international community. The essence of that consensus had been that economic growth in all countries should be pursued in a manner consistent with social development and environmental protection.
While all the conferences had called for the strengthening of the role of the United Nations, he went on, it should be understood that such institutional goals were not an end in themselves, but a means for strengthening the role of the United Nations and for providing improved services. If institutional issues were pursued alone at the expense of substantive matters, such as financial resources, technology transfer, and improving the international economic environment, follow-up actions would not get off the ground.
IRMA ENGLEBRECHT (South Africa) said that due to its political situation in the early 1990s, South Africa had been unable to attend several of the major conferences. "Nevertheless, my Government accepts its responsibility to nationally implement the outcomes of these conferences." Due to South Africa's historical circumstances, its Constitution guaranteed the rights of all people and affirmed the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom.
She said that the various functional commissions of the Council were reviewing the outcomes of the major conferences in their respective domains. South Africa underscored the importance of ensuring the broadest involvement of people at the community level in attempts to implement the outcomes of the conferences. "Unless efforts intended to realize the outcomes of these conferences are supported by the necessary flow of resources, we will not achieve our objectives", she stated.
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HERIYANTO SOEPRAPTO (Indonesia) said that while the major United Nations conferences had been considered successful undertakings, the implementation of their recommendations had fallen short of expectations. The general problem seemed to be inadequate resources and a lack of political will on the part of Member States to take the necessary steps in the follow-up process. "This reflects the general malaise that the United Nations is currently in." The best hope for progress would be the pursuit of new and innovative ideas for generating funds.
He said that the Council should assist the Assembly by making recommendations to it on policies for an effective, efficient and coordinated follow-up to the major international conferences. The Bretton Woods institutions had significant roles to play, and, therefore, the Assembly should develop guidelines for collaboration between them and the United Nations. "It goes without saying that the implementation of such guidelines should be in accordance with national governmental policy in the context of external assistance", he added.
LESLIE LEBL (United States) said that she found interesting the suggestion that the Council develop a multi-year programme of work, as the functional commissions had done.
VLADZIMIR GERUS (Belarus) said that the United Nations was taking real action to implement the conclusion and recommendations of the development conferences. The Council was today trying to develop a new methodology for agencies and commissions implementing those recommendations. The role of resident coordinators should be strengthened as part of any mechanism for that implementation. Not enough attention had been paid to the necessity for consistency in the decision-making of heads of United Nations specialized agencies. Follow-up to the global conferences would be impossible without adequate resources.
Dr. NAFIS SADIK, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), recalled that she had been the chair of an inter-agency task force on implementation of the Programme of Action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1995). Due to its success, that task force had been transformed, in October 1995, into an ACC task force on basic social services for all, chaired by the UNFPA. That task force now had two working groups: one on primary health care, with the World Health Organization (WHO) as the lead agency; and one on education, with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as the lead agency. The task force aimed to build on existing coordination mechanisms, such as the resident coordinator system, to enhance system-wide collaboration.
She stressed that the UNFPA accorded great importance to system-wide collaboration. It was working jointly with a number of other United Nations agencies in a variety of fields. Concerning the issue of resources, she called
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for implementation of the "20/20" approach, by which 20 per cent of national budgets and 20 per cent of ODA are allocated to basic social programmes.
NINA SIBAL, a representative of UNESCO, said development could not be achieved by institutions and governments on their own; it required the mobilization of all members of society, especially youth. A change in behaviour was needed to achieve the goal of solidarity, without which there would be neither sustainable development nor sustainable peace. That was entirely in line with UNESCO's mission, which involved advancing peace through fostering educational, scientific and cultural relations among peoples of the world.
She said that UNESCO was currently further examining the recommendations of the various conferences pertaining to its spheres of competence and was in the process of developing a coherent approach aimed at contributing to the development goals of Member States. Priority areas included promoting endogenous capacity-building; developing rural areas; fostering people's participation through democratization and respect for human rights; promoting environmental awareness; and improving communication worldwide through the use of new information and communication technologies. For assistance to reach Member States, it was necessary to involve those partners both within the United Nations system, as well as those outside of it.
SERGEI A. ORDZHONIKIDZE (Russian Federation) said the Secretary- General's report on the follow-up to last year's agreed conclusions had been presented in a useful manner. A number of measures had been taken to follow up those agreed conclusions. It was critical to assess the results of such efforts. In order to fully implement the Council's recommendations, it was necessary to set up a procedure and time-limits for reviewing the mandates, composition and working methods of the functional commissions.
Concerning reports, he said, "Fully aware of certain political sensitivity and complications related to the issue of downsizing the volume and streamlining the documentation, we still feel that there is an urgent need to take speedy steps with a view to upgrade the quality of documentation, to cut the cost of its preparation and to ensure its timely presentation."
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