ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL CONCLUDES OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES SEGMENT
Press Release
ECOSOC/5663
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL CONCLUDES OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES SEGMENT
19960710 The Economic and Social Council this afternoon concluded its segment on operational activities for development by finalizing its discussions on those activities and taking note of several reports that were before it for consideration as part of that segment. The Council's discussions focused on follow-up to policy recommendations of the General Assembly on coordination of system-wide development activities.Among issues discussed this afternoon was the question of frequency of regular sessions of the executive boards of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). It was suggested that the number of those sessions should be reduced.
The representative of Ghana said less frequent sessions would cut down conference, documentation and travel costs. Moreover, the secretariats of the agencies would be able to do proper strategic planning. The representative of the United States said it was possible to reduce the frequency of sessions by avoiding long interventions and adopting good working methods. The representative of China suggested that the number of sessions could be reduced, while increasing their length. The representative of the Philippines noted that the question of reducing the frequency of executive board meetings had been addressed in Assembly resolution 50/227, on the triennial policy review of United Nations operational activities for development. She commended the efforts of agencies to operationalize that resolution.
Speaking on budget harmonization, the Director of the Division for Finance, Personnel and Administration of UNFPA, Imelda Jenkins, said that technically work on that matter had begun in 1995. Stressing the different nature of those agencies, she said the UNDP was a funding organization that involved other entities for execution and implementation of its programmes. The UNICEF, on the other hand, was a funding and implementing organization whereas UNFPA was a funding organization that also executed parts of its programme. Therefore, although harmonization would mean more similarity, it would not mean sameness.
Initially, harmonization would address the issue of scope and content, which involved the applicability to UNFPA and UNDP of the integrated budget approach recently adopted by UNICEF, she continued. An in-depth analysis was
being undertaken to identify the difference between programme activities and activities in support of programmes. Common presentation styles and specifically development of a common comparable table reflecting resource utilization was being addressed and work was being done on the delineation and levels of aggregation for expenditure categories. In addition, efforts were being made to arrive at a common terminology. She stressed that the organizations were making every effort to ensure that their next biennial budgets would reflect the results of the work on harmonization.
Also this afternoon, the Deputy Director of UNICEF, Karin Sham Poo, replied to questions raised this morning. She said the Fund took issues of national execution and capacity-building seriously as those were crucial for sustainability. In response to a question on who was footing the bill for common premises, she said the bills would be divided among the agencies.
In other statements this afternoon, the representative of the Czech Republic called for assistance to countries in transition in the field of infrastructure, stressing that the assistance required by those countries was specific and distinct from that provided to low-income developing countries. The creation of a democratic, legal and institutional framework of a market economy should be the focus of United Nations' assistance to countries in transition, she stated. The representative of Belarus also stressed the need for focusing on liberalization of trade and on completing privatization.
Further this afternoon, the Council endorsed a decision of the Executive Board of UNICEF recommending to the Assembly that it allocate a plenary meeting during its next regular session to the commemoration of UNICEF's fiftieth anniversary.
In other actions, the Council took note of the following documents: report of UNICEF's Executive Board on its first and second regular sessions (document E/1996/32, Parts I and II); note by the Secretary-General transmitting the report of the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) entitled "United Nations system common premises and services in the field" and the comments of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) thereon (documents E/1996/43 and A/51/124-E/1996/44); report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of Assembly resolution 50/120 (document E/1996/64 and Add.1, Add.2 and Corr.1, and Add.3); and the annual report of UNFPA to the Council (document E/1996/68).
It also took note of the following: annual report of UNICEF to the Council (document E/1996/69); report of the Executive Board of the World Food Programme (document E/1996/73); report of the UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board on its annual session of 1996 (document E/1996/74); report of the UNICEF Executive Board on its annual session of 1996 (document E/1996/L.19); report of the UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board on its first regular session of 1996 (document DP/1996/11); and report of the UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board on its second regular session of 1996 (document DP/1996/17).
The Council will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 11 July, to begin its general segment.
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