ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL TO HOLD 1997 SUBSTANTIVE SESSION IN GENEVA, 30 JUNE - 25 JULY

23 June 1997

Press Release
ECOSOC/5698

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL TO HOLD 1997 SUBSTANTIVE SESSION IN GENEVA, 30 JUNE - 25 JULY

19970623 Background Release 'Fostering Enabling Environment for Development', 'Mainstreaming Gender Perspective in UN System' among Themes for Consideration

The Economic and Social Council will convene its 1997 substantive session in Geneva from 30 June to 25 July. Its high-level segment, to be held from 2 to 4 July, will discuss the following theme: "Fostering an enabling environment for development: financial flows, including capital flows; investment; trade".

On the first day of the high-level segment, the Council will hold its traditional policy dialogue with heads of multilateral financial and trade institutions of the United Nations system on important developments in the world economy.

The report of the Secretary-General before the high-level segment asks the following question: "What is an enabling environment?"

It answers that question by stating that, in its broadest sense, an enabling environment "encompasses the whole panoply of national and international policies, measures and institutions in the economic, social, legal and political domains that influence or affect the growth and development prospects of a country. Fostering an enabling environment for development implies a concerted effort by government, at the national and international levels, and in collaboration with other actors in development, to ensure that the interplay among those policies, measures and institutions and the sum total of their impact promotes not only sustained economic growth but a development style that is sustainable and broad-based and whose benefits are shared equitably by all members of society".

The key characteristics of an enabling environment, the report goes on, are well understood and generally accepted: stability, predictability, adaptability, a growth-orientation, transparency of legal and regulatory frameworks and a strong base of social and physical infrastructures. It implies that countries follow sound and growth-oriented policies, it adds.

Also before the high-level segment is the 1997 World Economic and Social Survey, according to which the world economy is experiencing widespread economic growth as it moves towards the close of the millennium. The momentum is encouraging, but it is not spread widely enough. In particular, the difference in well-being between the world's most fortunate citizens and its least fortunate ones remains unacceptably large and the number of people living in absolute poverty is intolerably high.

Besides reviewing the current global economic situation, the 1997 Survey seeks to foster international discussion of economic and social issues with a significant policy dimension. In addition to a review of fiscal adjustment, the Survey addresses selected issues that have been the subject of international attention.

Among those issues, the Survey examines the current situation of the international arms market. It states that while government-to-government arms sales have fallen considerably, economic forces have given rise to the existence of new actors in the arms trade and new arrangements for arms transfers. Those have been accompanied by a proliferation of civilian products that also have military uses. Although much has changed, the arms trade continues to pose a threat to international peace and security.

The Survey also includes an examination of the growth of international travel as an element of trade in services, noting that international travel has been both a foundation of, and an opportunity offered by, globalization. Moreover, the Survey examines the resurgence of tuberculosis, which now accounts for about 4 to 5 per cent of deaths worldwide. It states that tuberculosis can be controlled with existing drugs at relatively low cost; however, that requires government intervention and sustained, although modest, government funding. "This is one example of changed circumstances calling for flexibility in government expenditure policy", it adds.

Whereas the solution to the tuberculosis problem is clear, the Survey goes on, there is controversy about the answer to the longer-term problem of carbon dioxide emissions, another topic examined in the 1997 issue of the Survey. An analysis in one of its chapters states that the present policies to limit carbon dioxide emissions in the developed countries will be insufficient to bring about the necessary global reduction if the developing countries double their present one-third share of global energy consumption, and therefore of carbon dioxide emissions, by the year 2050. "There is thus a need to develop, in line with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, global approaches to complement the regional strategies for dealing with carbon dioxide emissions", according to the Survey.

The Council's coordination segment, to be held from 9 to 11 July, will discuss as a cross-sectoral theme "Mainstreaming the gender perspective into

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all policies and programmes in the United Nations system", and as a sectoral theme "Freshwater, including clean and safe water supply and sanitation". Reports of the Secretary-General on both topics will be before the Council.

The report on mainstreaming the gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system contains a series of recommendations towards achieving that end. Among those is the following: "The Council should encourage the Commission on the Status of Women to play a catalytic role and draw the attention of bodies dealing with legal matters, and political and security issues, such as in the area of peace-keeping, to the impact of gender factors on peace, conflict resolution and related areas. The consideration by the Commission in 1998 of the critical areas of concern on women in armed conflict, violence against women, human rights of women and the girl child could provide specific guidance in that regard.

The report on freshwater issues states that some estimates point to the possibility that by 2025 virtually all the economically accessible water in the world might be required in order to meet the needs of agriculture, industry, households and to maintain adequate lake levels and river flows. The increasing degradation of water quality is rapidly becoming a cause of major concern. The report calls for increasing efforts to promote partnerships between the public and private sectors and between institutions at the national and local levels so as to improve the allocative efficiency of investments in water and sanitation and to increase operational efficiency. Such efforts need to be coupled with effective government regulations and policies to ensure community participation and the involvement of women in the decision-making progress.

The Council's operational activities for development segment -- from 30 June to 1 July and from 7 to 8 July -- will begin with an informal dialogue with heads of United Nations funds and programmes. The high-level meeting of that segment will be devoted to the consideration of the following theme: "Funding operational activities for development". The working-level meetings of the segment will focus on matters related to capacity-building and field and regional level coordination. The Council will have before it reports of the Secretary-General dealing with both subjects, including problems encountered and appropriate recommendations.

In addition to those two focus areas, the Council will consider the implementation of resolution 50/120 -- on the triennial policy review of the United Nations operational activities for development -- on such subjects as the country strategy note, the programme approach, national execution, simplification and harmonization of rules and procedures, common premises and administrative services, and harmonization of budgets, as well as monitoring and evaluation and other issues pertaining to the greater integration of the United Nations system, particularly at the country level.

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In addition, the Council will have before it the reports of the Executive Boards of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) and the report of the Secretary-General on issues arising from the Executive Boards of the United Nations funds and programmes.

The report of the High-level Committee on the Review of Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries on its tenth session, which met in New York from 5 to 9 May, will also be before the Council. The Committee is entrusted with the overall intergovernmental review of technical cooperation among developing countries within the United Nations system. It reports to the General Assembly through the Executive Board of the UNDP and the Economic and Social Council in accordance with the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries.

The general segment, starting on 14 July, will focus mainly on action on conclusions and recommendations of subsidiary bodies of the Council. It will have before it for the first time, and as a result of the Council's restructuring and streamlining efforts, a compendium prepared by the Secretariat presenting those conclusions and recommendations.

Also during the general segment, under the consideration of integrated and coordinated implementation and follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits, the Council will have before it a report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of the agreed conclusions of its 1996 coordination segment, which concerns the United Nations system activities for poverty eradication.

Still on matters of coordination, a report of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) will inform the Council of the work of its task forces on an enabling environment for economic and social development, basic social services for all and employment and sustainable livelihoods, as well as the inter-agency committees on sustainable development and on women and gender equality, and identify policy and coordination issues to be addressed by the Council and the General Assembly.

In addition, a note by the Secretary-General transmitting the report of the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on the outcome of the World Food Summit (Rome, November 1996) is also scheduled for consideration.

Other topics to be taken up during the general segment include progress made by the United Nations system's focal point on multisectoral collaboration on tobacco or health; findings of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Informatics; a report of the Executive Director of the Joint and Co-sponsored

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United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; and a report of the Council of the United Nations University.

A new item before the general segment deals with three proposals for the proclamation of international years, as follows: proclamation of the year 2000 as the international year of mountains, proposed by Kyrgyz Republic; proclamation of the year 2001 as the international year of volunteers, proposed by Japan; and proclamation of the year 2000 as the international year of thanksgiving, proposed by Argentina.

Recommendations of subsidiary bodies of the Council to be considered include those of the Commission on Sustainable Development on its fifth session (New York, 7-25 April); Committee for Development Planning on the work of its thirty-first session; Commission on Science and Technology for Development on the work of its third session (Geneva, 12-16 May); Commission on Population and Development on the work of its thirtieth session (New York, 24-28 February); and Commission on Human Settlements on its sixteenth session (Nairobi, 28 April-7 May).

Also to be considered are reports of the Secretary-General on the work of the Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods on its nineteenth session and the reports of the Secretary-General on the Fourteenth United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok, 3-7 February) and on the Sixth United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas (New York, 2-6 June). In addition, the report of the Secretary-General on the Thirteenth Meeting of Experts on the United Nations Programme in Public Administration and Finance (New York, 21 April-2 May) is also scheduled for consideration.

Among social questions to be examined during the general segment, the Council will have before it the report of the Commission on the Status of Women on its forty-first session (New York, 10-21 March), the report of the Board of Trustees of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) on its seventeenth session (Santo Domingo, 17-21 February), as well as a report of the Secretary-General on the follow-up to the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women and full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Also before the session are the 1997 Report on the World Social Situation, the report of the Commission for Social Development on its thirty-fifth session (New York, 25 February-6 March) and the report of the Secretary-General on the process of implementation of the objectives of education for all.

Other reports before the session are those of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice on its sixth session (Vienna, 28 April-9 May),

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and the report of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs on its fortieth session (Vienna, 18-27 March). The latter report contains information on the Commission's activities as the preparatory body for the Assembly's special session on the fight against the illicit production, sale, demand, traffic and distribution of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, scheduled to be held next year.

The Council will also consider the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003).

For its deliberations on human rights matters, the Council will have before it the reports of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on its fourteenth and fifteenth sessions (Geneva, 30 April-17 May 1996 and 18 November-6 December 1996), as well as the report of the Commission on Human Rights on its fifty-third session (Geneva, 10 March-18 April).

In addressing programmes of special economic, humanitarian and disaster relief assistance, the Council will consider, among others, a Secretary-General's report on assistance for the reconstruction and development of Lebanon. In addition the Secretary-General will apprise the Council on the status of the assistance to the drought-stricken areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

In addition, the Council will consider the report of the Secretary-General on regional cooperation and take the necessary action on the decisions and recommendations of the regional commissions contained therein. It will also have before it the summaries of the surveys of regional economic and social conditions prepared by the regional commissions, highlighting the main problems and prospects of those regions. A note by the Secretary-General on reform of the United Nations and its impact on the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as a note on a Europe-Africa permanent link through the Strait of Gibraltar are also scheduled to be taken up.

Other documents before the Council include the report of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations. In addition, the question of an increase in the membership of the NGO Committee is also to be considered. In its decision 1995/304, on the general review of arrangements for consultation with non-governmental organizations, the Council decided to increase, on the basis of equitable geographical representation, the current membership of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations and to implement that decision after the completion of the current review.

The annotated provisional agenda for the 1997 substantive session of the Council is contained in document A/1997/100.

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Officers, Membership

The Officers of the Council for 1997 are: Vladimir Galuska (Czech Republic), President; Daniel Abibi (Congo), Anwarul Chowdhury (Bangladesh), Gerhard Walter Henze (Germany) and Juan Somavía (Chile), Vice-Presidents.

The 54 members of the Council for 1997 are Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Czech Republic, Djibouti, El Salvador, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Guyana, Iceland, India, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Philippines, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States and Zambia.

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