ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN FOLLOW-UP OF UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCES AND SUMMITS STRESSED BY SPEAKERS IN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

Press Release
ECOSOC/5756

ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN FOLLOW-UP OF UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCES AND SUMMITS STRESSED BY SPEAKERS IN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

Presidents of Executive Boards, Heads of Funds and Programmes Address Panel Discussion

The role of civil society, including non-governmental organizations and business, in the follow-up to United Nations conferences and summits was stressed by several speakers this afternoon as the Economic and Social Council continued its session on the integrated and coordinated follow-up of major United Nations conferences and summits by holding a panel discussion with presidents of Executive Boards and heads of funds and programmes.

Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), noting that all international conferences had recommended the greater participation of civil society at the country level, stressed that such participation was absolutely essential for programme implementation at the international level. The Council should provide guidance on which kinds of relationships and actions must be initiated at the country level in order to meet goals and objectives of conference's outcomes.

While a number of non-governmental organizations had taken part in the conferences, their involvement at the country level had been weak, said Rafeeuddin Ahmed, Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). All stakeholders needed to make greater strides in meeting conference goals.

Greater participation had contributed to make the relationship between civil society and governments less adversarial, said Alan March (Australia), Vice-President of the Executive Board of UNDP/UNFPA. He added that participation in government decision-making and the summit processes had exposed civil society to the working methods of those entities and made their expectations more reasonable.

Also addressing the panel, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, said that conference follow-up

Economic and Social Council - 1a - Press Release ECOSOC/5756 9th Meeting (PM) 14 May 1998

required the continuing commitment by Heads of State to goals and plans of action. Conference outcomes represented policy commitments made at the highest levels, and the nature of those obligations needed to be reaffirmed constantly, she stressed.

The Council had a unique opportunity to assess achievement of global targets, to comment on the success of integration within the United Nations system and to evaluate progress on cross- cutting themes, said Michael Powles (New Zealand), President of the Executive Board of UNICEF, adding that it could be the vehicle for reinvigorating the international development debate.

Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), referring to the issue of violence against women, said no single group could unilaterally have a significant impact on that crisis. Coordination was the key to designing an effective response. She cited the example of 19 Latin American and Caribbean governments which had already endorsed a campaign designed to address that issue. Local governments and communities were involved, and nearly 1,500 radio stations in the region were promoting messages aimed at ending violence against women.

The Council also heard a presentation by Sarah Timpson, Resident Coordinator of United Nations Activities for Development in the Philippines.

The Council will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 15 May, to hold a panel discussion with Executive Secretaries of regional commissions on the "role of regional economic commissions in the integrated/coordinated implementation and follow-up to conferences".

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 presidents of Executive Boards, heads of funds and programmes and the Resident Coordinator in the Philippines on the theme "Coordinated follow-up by funds and programmes and Economic and Social Council guidance to the executive boards".

Panel Discussion

JUAN SOMAVIA (Chile), President of the Economic and Social Council, introduced the first group of panellists: Michael Powles (New Zealand), President of the Executive Board of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); and Alan March (Australia), Vice-President of the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

MICHAEL POWLES (New Zealand), President of the Executive Board of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said the Council had a unique opportunity to assess achievement of global targets, comment on the success of integration within the United Nations system and to evaluate progress on cross-cutting themes. Its initiatives to strengthen ties with the Bretton Woods institutions gave it an opportunity to improve cooperation with other major players in the development field. There should be a focus and priority on the "economic United Nations" equal to that given to the "political United Nations". In order to achieve that goal, the Council must be fully functioning and dynamic. It could not languish as a mere intermediary between the General Assembly and its operative bodies. The Council, in its role of providing guidance, could be the vehicle for high-level dialogue on broad, cross-cutting development themes and thus help to reinvigorate the international development debate.

During a recent meeting of the Executive Boards of UNICEF and UNDP/UNFPA, he said delegations were able to question field representatives on how implementation of the United Nations Development Assistant Framework (UNDAF) was proceeding. The UNDAF had the potential to improve the effectiveness and relevance of United Nations operations. Yet, it was also a learning process for all involved, and it would take time for the benefits to be fully realized. Pilot UNDAFs in two countries had been agreed upon by the World Bank and the United Nations Development Group, which was a welcome step towards close working relations in the field with the Bretton Woods institutions.

ALAN MARCH (Australia), Vice-President of the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said that civil society had played an increasingly important role in the process of conferences and summits. Participation in government decision-making and the United Nations summit processes had exposed civil society to the work methods of those entities and that tended to make their expectations more reasonable. Greater participation had also made the relationship between civil society and governments less adversarial.

Addressing the issue of the Organization's funds and programmes' presence in developing countries, he said the universal presence of the United Nations, particularly the UNDP, placed it in a unique position to reach out to all elements of society to provide summit-related policy input. However, funds and programmes were but one way to progress the outcome of summits. There was also a need for broader coordination between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions; in the matrix of bilateral, regional and international assistance efforts; and in the collective capacities of governments.

On the work of the Executive Board, he said it participated in policy adjustment based on the results of major conferences and monitored progress in those policies. In an institutional and process sense, the Boards also had taken decisions and steps to focus on streamlining modalities for delivery of services and on funding projects that reflect the explicit and implicit outcomes of recent summits.

In response to question regarding guidance from the Council to the Executive Boards, Mr. POWLES said the Council had a more substantial role to play in revitalizing debate on main development issues and putting them in the right kind of context in order to give direction to their work. The current trend of cooperation between agencies and programmes should continue to be developed. One of the roles of the Council was to give direction and provide coordination in follow- up to major conferences.

Regarding a consolidated inter-agency report, he wondered if it would be possible to produce such a report, and if it would be profitable to generalize about the funds and programmes. Yet, there was no reason why the specialized agencies could not be involved in a dialogue with the funds and programmes.

Mr. MARCH said it was up to Member States to do something about the content of reports. They should encourage more frank reporting on the actual steps taken and less on processes. Communication was the key to interaction between the boards and other players in an integrated and coordinated conference follow-up. Regarding a consolidated inter-agency report on conference follow-up, he said entering into negotiations between the funds and programmes to write such a report might produce a product that was not entirely useful. Yet, an integrated follow-up to conferences and summits could provide the occasion for joint meetings of executive boards.

Mr. SOMAVIA (Chile), the Council President, then introduced the second group of panellists: Rafeeuddin Ahmed, Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); and Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

RAFEEUDDIN AHMED, Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said the many stakeholders in the conference follow-up process had made important strides in the past few years towards meeting the conference goals. However, much needed to be done in that process. One challenge was continuing to ensure the integration themes in follow-up to conferences. There was a tendency within the system to focus on the vertical follow- up to individual conferences rather than the horizontal follow-up by themes. The Council may wish to stress in its deliberations the effective implementation of multi-conference outcome and themes and encourage the same activity in Executive Boards.

He added that more attention needed to be given to financing for the conference action plans as well as for horizontal cross-cutting follow-up efforts. The additional resources expected for implementation had yet to be fully mobilized. The external environment, characterized by increasing indebtedness for most developing countries and declining official development assistance (ODA) had further constrained implementation of the agreed-upon plans of action. Another challenge was the insufficiency of relevant statistical data, which had emerged as a handicap to the implementation of conference plans of action.

There was also a need for more involvement of civil society at the country level in conference follow-up, he said. While a number of non-governmental organizations had participated in the conferences, their involvement at the country level had been weak. More attention should also be given to mainstreaming gender as a cross-cutting theme in the conference follow-up process.

Dr. NAFIS SADIK, Executive Director of UNFPA, said the normative work had started with lead agencies being responsible for the guidelines which were prepared for the follow-up to conferences. Also, those same agencies were responsible for collecting normative data and evaluation. The UNFPA evaluated what it had done at the operational level and tried to identify problems in applying standards, constraints and what still needed to be done. The relationship between the normative and operative processes were not very well defined, and that was a role for the Council to perform, through thematic discussions or other means.

Work at the country level must be viewed in the context of the resident coordinator system, she said, which had to be clearly defined. There should also be agreement on how to dialogue with the government and fitting programmes into the country. A United Nations system decision on goals should be made, and it should use that agreement to further a policy dialogue. It was also vital to have guidance from the Council on which kinds of relationships and actions must be initiated at the country level in order to meet goals and objectives. There was also a need to better develop training programmes. It was important to realize that some Resident Coordinator offices were successful in training and some were not, and lessons learned from both sets of experiences should be recorded and studied.

It was critical to use Country Strategy Notes (CSN) and the UNDAF to address conference follow-up on a systematic basis, she said. Those were broad and comprehensive strategies and frameworks. They offered ideal opportunities to focus on integrated and coordinated follow-up to conferences. The UNDAF process, as well as guidelines from task forces, should be utilized in the implementation of follow-up to conferences and in helping countries achieve their own development goals. All international conferences had recommended the greater participation of civil society at the country level. The groups in that sector were absolutely essential at both the country level and the international level.

CAROL BELLAMY, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said the lessons derived from the mid-decade review of the 1990 World Summit for Children offered an important precedent for achieving the goals of all conferences. That review found that there was a need for the continuing commitment by Heads of State and other senior officials to the established goals and Plan of Action. Conference outcomes represented policy commitments made at the highest levels and the nature of that obligation needed to be reaffirmed constantly. Also, the international global agenda needed to be replicated at all levels. The Children's Summit was able to influence policy-making and planning in favour of children because it was a decentralized process and it generated a widespread commitment to the goals.

She added that monitoring of progress and results at the national level made it possible to develop a global monitoring system of the situation of children. That allowed the assessment of trends, the measurement of progress, and the identification of areas requiring special action. Country-level action was backed by effective support and consistent policy guidance from Headquarters and by the timely sharing of information, lessons learned and best practices. There had also been development of a process for periodic reporting on progress through the publication by UNICEF of "The Progress of Nations" and the submission of an annual report on follow-up to the Children's Summit. Those materials allowed for the widespread dissemination of results.

Mr. SOMAVIA (Chile), the Council President, said that before opening the floor for statements by representatives, the Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) would make a statement.

NOELEEN HEYZER, Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), said the work of UNIFEM in promoting women's empowerment and gender equality had benefited enormously from increased attention to the value of coordination and from the principles guiding United Nations reform. For UNIFEM, the coordination was more than information sharing. Coordination meant stronger links between the policy and norm setting activities and counterpart operational activities to promote gender mainstreaming and gender equality. There should also be true synergy between United Nations agencies, where each brought their comparative advantage and diverse constituencies to the work of achieving gender equality. In addition, coordination required an accessible and growing knowledge base among United Nations agencies and their non- governmental organization partners on effective strategies for supporting women's empowerment.

Regarding violence against women, she said no single group could unilaterally have a significant impact on that crisis. Coordination was the key to designing an effective response. Nineteen Latin American and Caribbean governments had already endorsed a campaign designed to address the issue of violence against women. Local governments and communities were involved, and nearly 1,500 radio stations in the region were promoting messages aimed at ending violence against women. The UNIFEM-administered trust fund was another mechanism in the same field. The Trust Fund had provided nearly $2.2 million in grants to 74 organizations in more than 45 countries. Strategies supported reflected fulfilment of recommendations made by a number of world conferences to raise public awareness.

Responding to question on the role of the Council, Dr. SADIK said the Council should not be "rubber stamping" the results of the commissions. It could be important in identifying major issues coming out of the commissions and in identifying areas that could be further investigated by the commissions. That would also help coordinate work among the commissions. On a question regarding financial resources for follow-up activities, she said that UNFPA did supply resources to integrated and joint programmes. In response to a question on normative and operational relationships, she said UNFPA had established two executive committees on the topic and a working group had been set up to identify issues related to that; however little progress had been made in those bodies so far.

Mr. AHMED, responding to a question on incorporating follow-up in agency mandates, said UNDP had included follow-up activities in its mandate. In accordance with that, UNDP and other specialized agencies had contributed greatly to coordinated follow-up efforts. Responding to questions on the role of the Council, he said it could play a key role in promoting follow-up on major themes and encouraging further work on them. On a question regarding financial resources, he said UNDAF could be a vehicle for mobilizing such resources.

Responding to questions on dissemination of information on follow-up, Ms. BELLAMY said UNICEF was continually looking for ways to improve in that area. Recommendations and other outputs were circulated through regional management teams in the form of reports and other materials. The UNICEF was also involved in leadership training and a portion of that training was devoted to follow-up activities. In further coordination efforts, UNIFEM and UNICEF had also worked together on the production of a report on the status of women and girls.

Responding to a question on coordination between United Nations funds and programmes and the specialized agencies, she said there had been widespread cooperation at the country-level. There had also been coordinated efforts with the World Bank, where there had been an important convergence of support for various policies, and it was refreshing to see the World Bank advocating similar programmes and approaches as UNICEF. On communications between the executive committees and the specialized agencies, she said there had not been sufficient communication in that regard.

Also taking part in the exchange of views was PATRIZIO CIVILI, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

On communications between the executive committees and the specialized agencies, he said improvements were needed in that area. However, over the last few months, the executive committees had established a working group to address the issue of communications and progress had been made on that topic. In response to a question on the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) addressing the problem of financial resources, he said the ACC had discussed resources in nearly all its reports on projects. The ACC addressed the issue of what financial resources were needed to bring about the achievement of common goals and maximize effectiveness of joint initiatives.

Presentation by Resident Coordinator in Philippines

SARAH TIMPSON, Resident Coordinator, United Nations Activities for Development in the Philippines, said that country was a unique case because it was an active participant in most conferences and took its responsibilities seriously. In response to those summits, the Philippines had taken the following actions: adopted an extensive plan of action for children; developed its own national Agenda 21; produced a plan for gender responsive development; and formulated a population management plan.

The Government had also developed a Country Strategy Note (CSN), which was the starting point for the United Nations system support to the follow-up to global conferences, she said. The CSN comprised many of the core themes discussed at those conferences, including: human development, environment, sustainable development, good governance, equity and macroeconomic reform. The CSN was also a reference point for the substantive contribution by five inter-agency field level theme groups: environment and sustainable development; basic social services; empowerment of women; sustainable livelihoods; and the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Those field-level committees served as, among others, focal points for information sharing to improve programming and opportunities for prioritizing areas of common action.

She used the example of the World Summit for Social Development to illustrate the process of translating global commitments to national plans. In preparation for the Summit, several initiatives had been undertaken by the Government and civil society with the support of United Nations agencies, which funded national dialogue meetings and preparation of position papers. After the summit, workshops, supported by United Nations agencies, set the stage for an official follow-up mechanism for developing national programmes for monitoring.

There were several important complementary activities that served as building blocks for the UNDAF in the Philippines she said. Those included: field-level committees and inter-agency task forces; the participation of United Nations agencies in reviews of each other's programmes; United Nations system collaboration in support of the national response to HIV/AIDS; and an expanded partnership that provided a basis for the UNDAF process. Non-governmental organizations were also extremely active and strong allies in forming constituencies in favour of action.

Responding to questions on the needs of countries in post-conflict situations, Ms. TIMPSON said the Philippines was a good example of the agencies of the United Nations system working together. It took the initiative and met with members of both sides and moved as one entity. Donors did have pockets of funds for post-conflict emergency situations. Some 11 governments had supported United Nations system activities in the Philippines in that regard.

Regarding constraints on the follow-up process, she cited differences among agencies, including: different levels of decentralization and decision-making, administrative procedures and funding mechanisms. In the Philippines, all of the indicators were not in place to complete a full situation analysis. There had been no baseline data to judge changes from a pre-conference situation. It was also extremely important to identify barriers and

facilitate the coordination of agencies. The United Nations Development Group could be a key player in eliminating barriers.

Concerning encouraging the involvement of civil society, she said it was important to establish an environment where a dialogue between the Government and non-governmental organizations could flourish. Elements of civil society could be brought into technical discussions and then later consulted on more overtly political issues.

In response to several questions about harmonizing funding agencies' programme cycles, Mr. AHMED said harmonization had always been a priority for the UNDP. Sometimes it had extended fifth-cycle programmes for a year or two so that there could be greater harmonization. The UNDAF process would force all funds and programmes to have harmonizing components.

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