'AGENDA FOR DEVELOPMENT' PUBLISHED BY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INFORMATION
Press Release
DEV/2173
PI/1037
'AGENDA FOR DEVELOPMENT' PUBLISHED BY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INFORMATION
19971105 The adoption by the General Assembly of the "Agenda for Development" was "one of the most far-reaching agreements on the central issue of development ever attained by the international community", United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in his foreword to the Department of Public Information's edition of the Agenda for Development, which has been released today.Drawing on the results of the major United Nations conferences held during the 1990s, the Agenda provides a comprehensive framework for international cooperation on development based on partnerships rather than competing interests, the Secretary-General says. It addresses not only the familiar components of development, such as economic growth, trade, finance, science and technology, poverty eradication, employment and human resources development, but also places new emphasis on the role of democracy, human rights, popular participation, good governance and the empowerment of women.
It differs from previous agreements on development in its recognition of the need for strengthened institutional cooperation and the enhanced role in development efforts that it envisions for the United Nations system. "Its call for innovative approaches ... and for dialogue with all actors, public and private, is already reflected in the wide-ranging reforms" of the Organization, the Secretary-General says.
The Agenda for Development was the result of more than four years of extensive deliberations by Member States and the secretariats of the United Nations system. The final document is the product of a working group of the General Assembly established in December 1994. The Agenda for Development was adopted by a special meeting of the General Assembly on 20 June 1997.
The publication is available as Agenda for Development, DPI/1935 (October 1997); United Nations Sales Number E.98.1.3.
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