ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL HEARS CALL FOR CONVENING OF REGULAR MEETINGS WITH ITS FUNCTIONAL COMMISSIONS TO IMPROVE COORDINATION OF THEIR WORK

Press Release
ECOSOC/5754

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL HEARS CALL FOR CONVENING OF REGULAR MEETINGS WITH ITS FUNCTIONAL COMMISSIONS TO IMPROVE COORDINATION OF THEIR WORK

Consideration of Follow-up of Major UN Conferences Continues

The Economic and Social Council should hold regular meetings with its functional commissions to better coordinate their activities and recommendations. That and other suggestions were made this afternoon as the Council heard from the chairpersons of its functional commissions as it continued its session on the integrated and coordinated follow-up of major United Nations conferences and summits.

Eight chairpersons participated in the Council's panel discussion on their experiences in the follow-up to conferences, and implementing its guidance on strengthening that process.

An annual meeting between the bureaus of the functional commissions and the Council would help to avoid overlap and duplication, said Rogatien Biaou (Benin), Vice-Chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development. The bureaus could alter resolutions which covered the same subjects and expedite action on decisions. Coordinated follow-up should also take place at the regional, sub-regional and national level to make better use of human resources.

It would be appropriate to have an annual meeting between the chairs of the commissions and the bureau of the Council, said Aurelio Fernandez (Spain) Chairman of the Commission for Social Development, who also called for an annual meeting between the Council and its functional commissions. The commissions created very positive results, but their results often went unutilized by the United Nations system. He added that the different commissions knew very little of the work done by other entities and the Council could help that situation by preparing every year a report that contained the main outcomes of the work done by the commissions.

Patricia Flor (Germany), Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women, called for greater interactions between the commissions. Gender mainstreaming was one of the main areas where integration and interaction

Economic and Social Council - 1a - Press Release ECOSOC/5754 7th Meeting (PM) 13 May 1998

between the commissions could make a big difference. There also should be wider dissemination of the activities of the functional commissions.

There was also a need for the work and programmes of the commissions to be harmonized, mutually supportive and have a system of open consultation at all levels to address common barriers, Raj Karim (Malaysia), Chairperson, Commission on Population and Development said. To improve the health of a person, efforts were needed taking into account the total person and its environment, and not only treating symptoms or parts of the body.

Other participants in the panel were: Ross Hynes (Canada), Vice-Chairman, Commission on Human Rights; Z. Al Kayed, Vice-Chairman, Group of Experts on Public Administration and Finance; Carlos M. Jarque (Mexico), Chairman, Statistical Commission; and M. Afsarul Qader (Bangladesh), Chairman, Commission on Human Settlements.

Patrizio Civili, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, also spoke. The panellists were introduced by the Council President, Juan Somavia (Chile).

The Council will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 14 May, to hold a panel discussion with chairpersons of committees of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) and the senior officials of the organizations that chaired the ACC inter-agency task forces.

Council Work Programme

The Economic and Social Council met this afternoon to continue its session on the integrated and coordinated follow-up of major United Nations conferences and summits. It was scheduled to hold a panel discussion with chairpersons of functional commissions on the following theme: "Experience of functional commissions in an integrated/coordinated follow-up to conferences; implementing Economic and Social Council's guidance and strengthening the process".

Panel Discussion

JUAN SOMAVIA (Chile), President of the Economic and Social Council, introduced the first two groups of panellists: Patricia Flor (Germany), Chairperson, Commission on the Status of Women; Ross Hynes (Canada), Vice-Chairman, Commission on Human Rights; Raj Karim (Malaysia), Chairperson, Commission on Population and Development; and Z. Al Kayed, Vice-Chairman, Group of Experts on Public Administration and Finance.

PATRICIA FLOR (Germany), Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women, said gender mainstreaming was important because of the differences that existed between women's and men's lives in today's world. Women's issues and the gender question were a cross-cutting topic. The Council had defined gender mainstreaming as including, among others, a process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action. It was important to ensure an integrated follow-up because the differing conditions of women and men affected how policies were designed. Gender mainstreaming was one of the main areas where integration and interaction between the commissions could make a big difference.

The Commission on the Status of Women was a part of the three-tiered mechanism set up after the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. That mechanism also comprised the Council and the General Assembly. The Commission was the main body charged with discussing and facilitating the essential implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. The Commission was also asked to serve as the preparatory committee for the review of the implementation of the Beijing outcome in the year 2000. The Commission would continue to structure and service the main preparatory body for the review.

Turning to the good practices that the Commission had found to have worked well in recent years, she stressed coordinating the work programmes of the functional commissions. For example, the Commission on the Status of Women discussed the critical area of concern of women and the environment in 1997 in order to feed the results of that discussion to the Assembly's special session on review and appraisal of the implementation of Agenda 21, the programme of action adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) (Rio de Janeiro, 1992). This year, the Commission had discussed the human rights of women in time to transmit the results to the Commission on Human Rights for the observance of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Commission had also taken up the Council's recommendations on cross-cutting themes, and it had improved interaction between itself and the Council, including a joint bureau meeting, to discuss linkages between the two.

Any failures in the follow-up process should be the starting point for discussions on how to move forward, she said. Two weaknesses were the continued lack of a substantive exchange and weak linkages among the commissions. The Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on the Status of Women regularly approved legislation on the human rights of women, but there was no interaction or structured links between the two bodies. There was also a possible failure in the review of the implementation of the outcome of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), which was scheduled for 1999. The Commission on the Status of Women would discuss women and health before the review, but the Commission's bureau had not yet received any information on the preparation for the review. There was also a lack of interaction with the regional commissions.

Regarding proposals for improving the process, she said there should be personal contact between the bureaus. A paper trail was not enough. The Council's bureau should meet regularly with the bureaus of the commissions to guide the review structure. There also should be wider dissemination of the functional commissions' work.

ROSS HYNES (Canada), Vice-Chairman, Commission on Human Rights, said the United Nations had been addressing the issue of human rights for many years. The human rights business at the United Nations was "pretty old and set in its ways". By 1953, the Commission had developed a long list of agenda items that covered nearly every aspect of human rights imaginable. It demonstrated the exceptional breadth of the United Nations human rights agenda. Human rights issues often came up in the work of other commissions, which made it one of the main cross-cutting issues.

On the positive side, he said the process of follow-up on the World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993) had been facilitated annually by the Commission. There could be improvements in the Commission's relationship with the Economic and Social Council, on which the Commission relied to "rubber stamp" its mandates each year. It had been widely recognized that, since Vienna, the human rights debate had centred on familiar themes, in familiar terms and it often ran up against familiar obstacles. Actions had not kept pace with the discussions that were heard in Vienna for some topics such as the protection of indigenous peoples. There was a need for broadening inter-agency coordination, enhancing engagement of non-governmental organizations, and increasing resources for human rights programmes. Unfortunately, progress in those areas had been slow in some cases or non-existent in others. Much more action remained to be done to fulfil the mandates of Vienna.

In response to several questions, including on the impact of the Council's action on conference follow-up on the Women's Commission's work, Ms. FLOR said she could not judge the implementation of the Council's agreed conclusions because no report on that subject had been issued. That report would first go to the Council. In that particular case, she felt the Commission in charge of the substantive issued should be involved and informed about the agreed conclusions.

Undoubtedly the Secretariat was the core repository of the knowledge about all the areas of concern and activities of the functional commissions and it was in a unique situation to judge where there were overlaps and interactions, she said. A functional commission did not always know what the other commissions were discussing. Bureau members in New York could enjoy an inter-sessional process that complemented the work of the session, and they could also have a continuous close relationship with the Secretariat. She added that bureau members from capitals also were valuable, and the commissions should take advantage of talent wherever it resided.

Responding to follow-up questions, Mr. HYNES said integrating and mainstreaming were two separate aspects in the work of the Human Rights Commission. The Secretary-General's view was to mainstream human rights in the Secretariat proper. There had also been meetings of the human rights specialized agencies, but not much information had been released on what those meetings accomplished. The Commission had agreed that the bureau would conduct a review to consider how to improve the function of its subsidiary bodies.

PATRIZIO CIVILI, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said the Secretariat had an important role to play in integrating the work of the various functional commissions. The recent United Nations reform process had provided the Secretariat with new instruments to better perform its work in that area. The Executive Committee on economic and social affairs would provide an important instrument to pursue coordination of the subsidiary bodies of the Council, and it could be as active as Member States want it to be.

RAJ KARIM (Malaysia), Chairperson, Commission on Population and Development, said mechanisms for decentralization of coordination activities at the regional and country levels needed to be strengthened. That was needed especially with regard to formulating strategies and programmes, strengthening national capacity-building, and facilitating mobilization of resources. Coordination should extend beyond that of international agencies and intergovernmental mechanisms. That was necessary because often at the national level, different ministries' agencies and representatives were responsible for the follow-up of various conferences and commissions.

She said that coordination by regional commissions for the exchange of national experiences and best practices also deserved mention. Being near national policy makers, the regional commissions would be able to respond faster and take the necessary action to support countries in need. Within commissions and countries, there was a need to consider the thematic issues on a broader prospective. While recognizing that each of the commissions would pursue specific areas, their implementation had to be considered within the broader framework of social and economic development. There was also a need for the work and programmes of the commissions to be harmonized, mutually supportive and have a system of open consultation at all levels to address common barriers. To improve the health of a person, efforts needed to take into account the total person and its environment, and not only treat symptoms or parts of the body.

She added that many changes had occurred in countries and regions since strategies were suggested at the Cairo Conference. Those disparities, problems and current issues had to be recognized and may result in re-examining some of the priorities, strategies and resource allocation. In terms of population and development, the regional differences between Asia, Africa and Europe and between East and South Asia called for different approaches, strategies and priorities.

Z. AL KAYED, Vice-Chairman of the Group of Experts on Public Administration and Finance, said that at its most recent meetings, the Group had discussed the reconfiguration of the administrative state, which had emerged as an overarching concern and a global need. Influential trends in that regard included globalization, technology and the increasingly diversified and dynamic role of civil society. Those factors changed the way the State and the markets operated. States should reach out to civil society and put to good use what it offered, and that required innovative approaches and a strong State to invest efforts and capital in improving the country's social fabric. It was also important for States to enhance the quality of public administration. At the meeting, the experts took the view that strong markets and strong States were complementary and necessary for economic prosperity and social justice.

He went on to say that the experts had also paid particular attention to the commitments made at the most recent United Nations conferences. Those outcomes constituted a set of imperatives that Member States might need to integrate into their existing programmes. The range of needs in that regard was explored by the experts, and included agriculture, industry, planning, foreign affairs and transportation. The experts felt that the United Nations should act through policy advisory services to assist governments in designating priorities and helping to revise existing programmes of action. Circumstances also called for concerted action by governments. In a number of countries, the process of building a State was far from complete.

A "capacity deficit" was often due to a public institution's failure to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances, he said. The inability to confront the changes caused by globalization undermined the stability of governments. Such circumstances called for new and creative approaches and for urgent capacity-building in all levels of government and civil society. To do so, the experts explored three broad areas of need: management of change; institution-building and reform; and human resources development. The United Nations should address the following policy needs to help governments to implement all their action plans: information, policy analysis, professionalism, regional integration, good governance and administration, and increased public participation. Those areas pointed to the direction to how the United Nations could better meet the requirements of Member States.

In response to a question on coordination between countries and regions, Mr. AL KAYED said there were several similarities between regions and countries; they shared common problems and challenges. Nations should be urged to coordinate expertise and to transfer it to other areas.

One speaker said that there should be some consideration given to changing the working methods of the commissions. Often delegates only gave long, prepared speeches and there was very little active discussion.

Responding to that, Ms. KARIM said the problem of lengthy statements by delegates was discussed in the Commission on Population Development. The Commission decided to avoid long statements by setting a theme for discussion at each session and not encouraging long statements on national efforts throughout the year. In response to a question on cooperation between commissions, she said there should be more consideration given to coordinating work so that one commission could take into account the findings of other commissions.

ROGATIEN BIAOU (Benin), Vice-Chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development, said the Commission's sixth session was its first meeting after the Assembly's nineteenth special session on the implementation of Agenda 21. The work programme of the Commission was coordinated with the mandate of the other technical and functional commissions of the Council. Although the Commission did not directly control the subjects covered by Agenda 21, like poverty, it was interested in the questions solely as they related to the substance of its agenda. During its most recent session, the Commission had based its work on a limited number of questions related to sustainable development, including the supply of drinking water. The Commission had also adopted new working methods, as recommended by the Assembly during the special session.

Well before that special session, the Commission's process was characterized by a large number of innovations, including active inter-sessional meetings, he said. The Commission's meetings involved the active participation and involvement of non-governmental organizations and representatives of civil society. The Commission had organized debates, dialogues and parallel events during its sessions, with the participation of representatives of governments, United Nations organizations, non-governmental organizations and other members of civil society.

At the end of its recent session, the Commission elected a new bureau to allow the new officers to conduct preparatory work for the upcoming session, he said. The organization of a two- day segment held during the Commission's session had marked the first time in the history of the United Nations when representatives of governments, civil society and the private sector had participated in a discussion of industry and the agenda of sustainable development.

Despite the success of the Commission on Sustainable Development, there were several lessons learned to be shared with the Council, he said. He proposed that the summary of the Co- Chairmen on the inter-sessional working groups should be submitted to governments at least six weeks before the start of the session. More time should be given to intergovernmental discussions during the Commission's session. It was essential that regular, well-programmed consultations between the bureau and States be held during the inter-sessional period. One or two meeting should also be held between the bureau and members of civil society.

Regarding the integrated implementation of a coordinated follow-up to United Nations conferences, he said the Council should hold an annual meeting with the bureaus of the functional commissions at the beginning of each year. Such a meeting would help to avoid overlap. The bureaus could alter resolutions which covered the same subjects, and they could expedite the action on decisions to avoid duplication. Coordinated follow-up should also take place at a regional, sub- regional and national level. Such an approach would allow for the better use of human resources.

AURELIO FERNANDEZ (Spain), Chairman, Commission for Social Development, said his Commission had considered the issue of eliminating long statements made during its sessions. That had been discouraged by introducing specific topics, decreasing the amount of time for general speeches. For better coordination of the Social Summit objectives, it was important to place in the middle of the agenda the core issues of the conference such as poverty alleviation, world strategies for macroeconomic policies and financing local development efforts. Indicators were essential in monitoring implementation of the conference goals and more efforts were needed to developing more of them that addressed crucial world issues.

On enhancing coordination with the Council, he said the time to coordinate was when the different commissions began planning for the following year. It would be appropriate to have an annual meeting between the chairs of the commissions and the bureau of the Economic and Social Council. The functional commissions of the Council were areas where political standards were created and global ideas were formulated. The results of the commissions were very important, but their results often went unutilized by the United Nations system. Commissions, for example, had made very important mandates regarding disabled people and violence against women, which had not be acted upon by other bodies.

The different commissions knew very little of the work done by other entities, he added. The Council could help that situation by preparing every year a report that contained the principle outcomes of the work done by the commissions. Also, the commissions needed to schedule their sessions far enough apart so their results could be disseminated to other commissions. There was a need for greater efforts to make better use of the results of the work by the functional commissions.

CARLOS M. JARQUE (Mexico), Chairman, Statistical Commission, said his Commission had witnessed a number of changes over the five decades since it was instituted. The world population had more than doubled, the world had moved from a perception where natural resources were plentiful to where they were limited, and knowledge dissemination had also increased greatly. Despite modest budgets, the Commission had made important contributions to the world. The Commission had provided information and support for summit meetings and conferences, which required such information for their work.

The Commission had also adopted the body of indicators which were essential to the follow- up to and monitoring of different programmes of action, he said. It had adopted a handbook on the collection of census data. All countries should conduct a census in a standardized way, to make that information comparable. On ways to promote coordination on follow-up to the conferences, he suggested that there be more frequent meetings between the members of different commissions and the Council. The Statistical Commission could hold its sessions every year instead of every two years to adopt specific recommendations that could apply to the current work of the Organization.

M. AFSARUL QADER (Bangladesh), Chairman of the Commission on Human Settlements, said the Commission had not received any guidance from the Council on implementing an integrated and coordinated follow-up to recent conferences. The Council gave detailed and clear guidelines for the implementation of other conferences, and it had issued clear directives to the governing bodies regarding the plans of action of the conferences on population and development, sustainable development and women's empowerment. Also, the Council had not made any substantive comments during the first three sessions of the preparatory committee for the conference. Yet, the General Assembly had adopted several resolution on the implementation of the Habitat Agenda, which was adopted by the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) with specific directives, including some addressed to the Council. However, the Council had not initiated any actions as requested in those Assembly resolutions.

He said the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements had forged collaborative arrangements with other agencies, funds and programmes, in order to develop guidelines for the resident coordinator system on the implementation of the Habitat Agenda at the country level. Those guidelines were distributed to all resident coordinator's offices.

In the next few years, more than half of the world's population would be living in cities, and the work of the Commission would take on a new significance in coordinating the efforts of the United Nations system in the area of human settlements, he said. The Commission hoped that during its forthcoming session it would be informed about what the Council was doing to implement the provisions of the various Assembly resolutions relevant to it. The Commission was hopeful that the Council would fulfil its coordinating role in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and in the strengthening of its mandate. The follow-up to Habitat II should be treated along similar lines as the other United Nations conferences.

Regarding a question about the interaction between the Commission on Social Development and the Commission on Sustainable Development, Mr. BIAOU said the Commission on Sustainable Development did not only emphasize the ecological or developmental dimensions. In 1996, the Commission had placed special emphasis on the elimination of poverty, which was an aspect of the social dimension of sustainable development. It was important to ensure that the results of one commission could be beneficial to the others. That issue should be the subject of more analysis and consideration beyond the legal aspect. The utilization of the results of one Commission by another would facilitate the understanding of what was being achieved by other parties, including civil society.

In response to the same question, Mr. FERNANDEZ said there should be much broader interaction between the two commissions. So far, there was no mechanism that allowed one commission to access the work of the other

commissions. That kind of integration had to be accomplished by their bureaus.

Concerning emergent issues, Mr. JARQUE said they were important to the work of the Statistical Commission, but it took time to identify objectives and set up an information system.

In response to the question about interaction between functional commissions, Mr. QADER said the Commission on Human Settlements was somewhat disadvantaged being based in Nairobi. The Secretary-General's report stated that a measure of interaction among the bureaus of New York- based functional commissions had recently been initiated. There should be no selectivity in that kind of exercise, which should include all the functional commissions.

PATRIZIO CIVILI, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said with political will there could be a way for one commission to make use of the resolutions and decisions of another.

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