SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES EFFORTS TO MINIMIZE UNCERTAINTIES OF GLOBALIZATION IN ADDRESS TO ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
Press Release
SG/SM/6885
SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES EFFORTS TO MINIMIZE UNCERTAINTIES OF GLOBALIZATION IN ADDRESS TO ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
19990203 Following is the address of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Organizational Session of the Economic and Social Council in New York on 3 February:It is customary on this occasion to congratulate the newly elected President and members of the Bureau. But this occasion calls for more. It calls for recognition of a year of achievements by the Economic and Social Council under the vigorous and visionary leadership of Ambassador Somavia. It calls for celebration that somebody of your skills and resolve, Mr. President, will ensure the continuing transformation of this important body.
The Council begins its work this year as we keep pace the an ever more globalizing world. Globalization draws us together. It expands markets and opens the world. But globalization also compounds risks and uncertainties. One of the great challenges of our time is to manage and minimize these risks and uncertainties. The United Nations system and this Council should make a constructive contribution to the international effort to meet this global challenge.
The Council and the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) are both undergoing a transformation that will help us prepare the system for this task. The dialogue which was initiated last year between the Council and myself, in my capacity as the Chairman of the ACC, has therefore acquired even greater significance this year.
Over the past year, the Council has turned a new page. Increasingly, it is beginning truly to function as a Council. This has been evident in the number of major initiatives successfully undertaken by the Council last year: the high-level dialogue with the Bretton Woods institutions in April which you, Mr. President, chaired so ably; the special session to promote a coordinated and integrated United Nations response to global conferences, taking in all parts of the system and civil society; the review and streamlining of a number of the subsidiary bodies; a series of joint Bureau meetings to ensure greater complementarity and harmony in what has come to be called the "ECOSOC system"; and finally, greatly enhanced effectiveness and efficiency of Council meetings through improved working methods, leading for
the first time last year to the adoption of a Ministerial Communique on the theme of "market access".
This rejuvenation of the Council has been parallelled and encouraged by a new spirit of motivation and a growing culture of consultation and cooperation in the ACC.
These trends reflect our shared realization that to make progress towards the goals of peace and development, the inter-governmental and inter- agency components of the system must move in tandem. Coordination implies more than decisions and directives; it implies continuous dialogue and engagement among all partners. As Chairman of the ACC, I have made it my priority to promote that success. Today, I reaffirm my commitment to working with you, Mr. President, and with the Council towards that end.
In my address to the Council last year, I stressed the importance of taking full advantage of the ACC's potential. The ACC has since moved in a determined fashion to realize some of this potential. A main focus of ACC discussion last autumn was a policy review of the implications of the global financial crisis and the response of the United Nations system. With the full involvement of the heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the ACC members committed themselves to joint action. Among other things, they issued an urgent call for immediate help to those suffering acute hardship. They also pledged to work together to help countries carrying out the necessary structural and institutional reforms and building basic social services and safety nets.
The work of the ACC during 1998 demonstrates how the system can come together and interact constructively with the Council on global issues and priorities which cut across functional and institutional responsibilities. The issues addressed during the past year include: poverty eradication; human rights; gender equality; population; international drug abuse control; natural disaster reduction; and peace-building. The ACC has sought to mobilize a system-wide response by: adopting joint statements; activating its inter- agency machinery; and promoting collaboration at the country-level through the Resident Coordinator system. It also focused on ways to develop the system's response to my report on "The Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa". The outcome of its deliberations should assist the Council's own consideration of the topic at its coordination segment on development in Africa and help advance the holistic approach advocated in my report.
In 1998, the ACC continued its wide-ranging exchanges on the reform processes underway in the system. Clearly, the reform of ACC itself is an integral part of the overall reform of the United Nations family. The ACC members have committed themselves to making the Committee an centrepiece of a
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more united and effective system. To this end, a number of steps and decisions have been taken over the past year.
First, as a follow-up to my reform programme, I established the Office for Inter-Agency affairs. Its main functions are to provide dedicated support to the ACC and its subsidiary bodies and to promote the exchange of information among the organizations of the system. The Office will also help reinforce links between the ACC and the Economic and Social Council, and the governing bodies of the system.
Second, as all parts of the system are increasingly focusing on strategic planning, there is agreement among ACC heads that this should also become a focus of the ACC as a whole in order to help the system look forward in a united and coherent manner. This will be facilitated by consultative mechanisms involving groups of executive heads, and a dedicated information system linking all executive heads.
Third, the system's links with civil society are growing stronger.
As the Council begins another year of work, the intergovernmental and inter-agency wheels of the system are running more smoothly, and increasingly in tandem. I am pleased that you, Mr. President, have launched an initiative, ahead of the high-level segment, for a series of panel discussions around the goal of poverty eradication. Your initial contacts with the President of the Security Council on how to build links between your two principal organs, as envisaged in Article 65 of the Charter, are also encouraging.
As I said in my address to the Davos World Economic Forum on Sunday, globalization is a fact of life. Our challenge now is to create a globalized world with a human face. We cannot afford to be complacent. We must build on our progress and make the Council an ever more effective body in meeting the Charter goals of promoting social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom. In that endeavour, you have my full support and cooperation.
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