ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL SHOULD MAKE FURTHER EFFORTS TO IMPROVE WORKING METHODS, SECOND COMMITTEE IS TOLD

10 November 1998

Press Release
GA/EF/2849

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL SHOULD MAKE FURTHER EFFORTS TO IMPROVE WORKING METHODS, SECOND COMMITTEE IS TOLD

19981110 Importance of Council Stressed and Progress Recognized, But Speakers Call for Elimination of Remaining Deficiencies

While the Economic and Social Council had enhanced its role in the United Nations system, it should take further efforts to focus and strengthen its working methods, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) was told this afternoon as it considered the report of the Council.

The representative of Ukraine said the Council had made considerable progress in the implementation of reform proposals of the General Assembly and of the Secretary-General. However its "general segment" was still overloaded with the questions of minor importance, and deliberations on some of those questions took a considerable amount of time and did not help produce meaningful decisions.

There was still much to be desired in the Council's work, said the representative of China. A major deficiency was in its tendency to engage in pro forma reviews of the reports submitted by its subsidiary bodies, and a lack of deep analysis or substantive guidance. Moreover, the last few sessions had also shown a failure to circulate the relevant documents in the time and in the languages required.

A number of delegations stressed the importance of the Economic and Social Council's joint meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions. The representative of Iran said the presence of the many ministers and other high- level officials from north and south indicated the importance of that meeting and the crucial role that the United Nations could play in the economic and financial fields.

Sarbuland Khan, Director for Economic and Social Council Support and Coordination, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, made a concluding statement.

Statements were also made by the representatives of: Pakistan, Russian Federation, Czech Republic, Belarus, Romania, Viet Nam, Vanuatu, and Croatia.

The Committee meets again at 11 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday, 11 November) for a panel discussion on follow-up to the World Summit for Social Development.

Committee Work Programme

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this afternoon to consider the report of the Economic and Social Council. (For background information see Press Release GA/EF/2848 issued Friday.)

AHMAD KAMAL (Pakistan) said the working group on informatics had identified areas for improvement and set out to strengthen the capacities of the United Nations information systems in the areas of connectivity, training and unhindered access to United Nations data bases. In addition, the working group set out to provide connectivity between the Optical Disk System and the Internet, to improve United Nations web pages, and to launch Internet access within the United Nations building, as well as utilizing video conferencing facilities and addressing the "Y2K" problem.

He added that there was a widely-shared need for the development of an effective information management strategy, and the creation of a single focal point for information management in the United Nations system. The question was raised as to the possibility of creating of a chief information officer for the United Nations Secretariat.

VASILY NEBENZYA (Russian Federation) said there was a need to reassess the work of the Economic and Social Council in light of progress made in 1998. The Council's work this year was highlighted by the joint high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions and by the May special session. Although there were more questions than answers at that session, such a meeting should become a constant feature of the Council. There was great demand for more coordination activities by the United Nations system, and the Council should respond to that demand. The Council had shown that it could address the core questions without duplicating the work of other bodies. The Triennial Review of Operational Activities should reflect the importance of the work of the Council. There was a need to pay tribute to the work of the Council's bureau for enhancing the role of the Council, as well as the work of the United Nations on economic and social issues.

BAI YONGJIE (China) said the Economic and Social Council had increased deliberations on major current international economic and social development issues. This was a positive trend. With the accelerated development of economic globalization, and continuous changes in international economic relations, the Council must keep abreast of the situation, and study its new features from an overall macro-perspective.

She said there was still much to be desired in the Council's work. A major deficiency was in its tendency to engage in pro forma reviews of the reports submitted by the subordinate organs, and a lack of deep analysis or substantive guidance. Moreover, the last few sessions had also shown a failure to circulate the relevant documents in the time and in the languages required. Her country hoped that the Secretariat would seriously study the issue, and put forth proposals for its resolution so as to improve its work.

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VOLODYMYR RESHETNYAK (Ukraine) said the Economic and Social Council had made considerable progress in the implementation of reform proposals of the General Assembly and of the Secretary-General. Moreover, the session itself had contributed to the reform process by adopting an important resolution on further measures for the restructuring and revitalization of the United Nations system in the economic, social and related fields. However, the Council's general segment was still overloaded with questions of minor importance. Deliberations on some of those questions took a considerable amount of time and did not help produce meaningful decisions. In order to increase the effectiveness of that segment, and to avoid duplication of its work with the work of the Second and Third Committees, further measures should be undertaken to streamline the Council's agenda.

JANA SIMONOVA (Czech Republic) said the Economic and Social Council had made major steps towards articulating and carrying out its guidance and management functions vis-à-vis its subsidiary bodies. However, even greater effort was obviously needed in order to overcome the relative isolation of those bodies from each other. Of particular importance were those initiatives of the Council which dealt with integrated, multifaceted and systematic problems. The latest developments in the world economy reconfirmed that a global forum for addressing core multi-disciplinary problems was currently needed, even more urgently than in the past. In that regard, her delegation supported the growing role of the Council in providing a global forum for multi-sectoral dialogue that enabled new ideas, new proposals and new initiatives to be disseminated on a systematic and continuous basis.

MOHAMMED ALI ZARIE ZARE (Iran) said the Economic and Social Council successfully took new initiatives to serve as a forum for dialogue, in particular, through convening the first-ever special high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions back in April to discuss the Asian financial crisis. The presence of many ministers and other high-level officials from north and south, and from different fields of finance, treasury and development cooperation, indicated the importance of this meeting and the crucial role that the United Nations could play in the economic and financial fields. In fact, the discussions in that meeting explicitly manifested the capabilities of the United Nations system to consider the new multi- dimensional global challenges in their entirety and to search for comprehensive solutions to address and manage these challenges and crises -- a role that had been eroding for quite some time.

He added that the agreed conclusion of the humanitarian affairs segment of Economic and Social Council annual meeting provided the necessary guideline for the respective bodies of the United Nations system and Member States to increase efficiency and impact.

ALYAKSANDR SYCHOU (Belarus) said that for the first time in many years the Economic and Social Council made efforts to go beyond the ordinary framework. It had transformed its activities and made a feasible contribution

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to the solution of acute global economic and social problems. It seemed to be extremely important that the Council played a key role in strengthening and expanding the United Nations operational activities. Unfortunately, there were increasing financial difficulties experienced by the majority of operational funds and programmes caused by a reduction of the financial resources provided by donors. In those conditions, the Council should promote the accumulation of additional financial resources for development activities, taking into account practical requirements of the present day. It should also give further consideration to strengthening the coordination between various funds and programmes as well as revitalizing their activities in the field.

ALEXANDRU NICULESCU (Romania) said the work of the Economic and Social Council in previous years had been characterized by a continuous effort to identify ways and means to promote better coordination, to support the implementation of programmes of action adopted by the major United Nations conferences held after 1990, to offer a framework for comprehensive dialogue with Bretton Woods institutions, to continue towards the reform of the United Nations system and to use innovative means for dialogue and interaction. Thus, it was proven that the Economic and Social Council could offer an adequate framework for forging a coherent vision and common perception on issues relevant to the ongoing globalization process.

He referred to the high-level dialogue with the participation of the executive heads of the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO). It had confirmed the interest of Member States to use the Economic and Social Council as a forum to debate priorities of the moment for their countries, challenges posed by globalization and modalities of enhancing international cooperation.

LAI XUAN CHIEU (Viet Nam) said that for developing countries operational activities for development were of vital importance, constituting a significant contribution to the capacity-building of those countries. However, the issue of ever-dwindling official development assistance (ODA) was a major stumbling block, and it must be resolved. The Council should reflect that concern in its recommendations and stress the importance and need for mobilizing additional resources for developing countries as well as reaching the agreed ODA targets. What the Council had achieved was very promising; however it should not become complacent. There was still much to be done to strengthen its work, and to enhance the all-important role given to it by the United Nations Charter. To achieve that end, the Council needed concerted and sustained efforts as well as coordination and cooperation from all bodies of the United Nations system as well as from national Governments.

JEAN RAVOU-AKII (Vanuatu) thanked the President of the Economic and Social Council, Juan Samovia, for his work in making the Council increasingly more relevant in the United Nations system. One of the Council's subsidiary committees, the Committee on Development Policy, was positioned to make an important contribution to United Nations efforts in the field of development.

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Its work should spark direct dialogue between policy-making authorities of countries and Committee members.

IVAN SIMONOVIC (Croatia) said that in the light of the present global economic and social climate -- and consistent with General Assembly resolution 50/227 on measures for the restructuring and revitalization of the United Nations in the economic, social and related fields -- the work of the Economic and Social Council had been particularly useful to Member States. The Council could continue to play a significant role by concentrating its efforts on the identification of areas within its mandate that required the particular attention of Member States, and coordination of its subsidiary bodies and functional commissions. Moreover, the Council should help coordinate the institutions within the United Nations system, with the goal of providing policy direction and advice to Member States.

He said that the introduction of a humanitarian affairs segment into this year's annual session was consistent with his country's view of the development of the coordinating role of the Council. The capacity of the United Nations to respond efficiently to crisis situations could only be enhanced through a multi-disciplinary approach. On the issue of reform, he said, his country appreciated the steps that had been taken and the results which were achieved. The review of regional commissions was a useful exercise for consolidating United Nations activities in the economic and social fields.

In a concluding statement, SARBULAND KHAN, Director of the Economic and Social Council Support and Coordination, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said today's Second Committee debate produced an important and forward-looking assessment of the Council's work. A number of ideas had been put forward for further improvement of the Council, and the job of the Secretariat was to ensure that those suggestions were not lost.

On the question of how the report of the Council was addressed by the Assembly, he said one possibility would be for the bureau of the Second Committee to meet with the Council's bureau to see how the report could be brought to the Assembly in a more structured way. On the general segment of the Council, most delegations shared the view that the organization of the agenda needed to be focused on how the functional commissions could be strengthened, and how to avoid duplication of work.

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