PRESS CONFERENCE BY CHAIRMAN OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY CHAIRMAN OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

At a special session of the General Assembly in the year 2000, the world would be examined, after five years, on their efforts to put social concerns at the centre of their economic policies, Ambassador Aurelio Fernandez (Spain), Chairman of the Commission for Social Development, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

He said the Commission was part of that important intergovernmental process, which would conclude with the special session, whose purpose would be to review implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen in 1995. The Commission, working closely with the preparatory committee established for the special session, had been asked to identify areas of the Copenhagen Programme of Action, where further initiatives for the speed implementation of Summit commitments could be adopted by the session. The Ambassador was joined by John Langmore, Director of the United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Ambassador Fernandez said that the thirty-seventh session of the Commission, which would be held from 9 to 19 February, would focus on four major issues: education for all; social services for all; preparations for the International Year for Older Persons; and the review process leading up to the General Assembly special session in the year 2000. Activities during the first week would include a dialogue on education for all involving the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, and the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Federico Mayor. Its basic purpose would be to exchange views on goals and objectives formulated under education for all and determine the special measures needed to improve strategies for achieving those goals.

Following that, the Commission would deal with the priority theme of social services for all, he continued. In doing so, it would pay attention to access to social services of under-served populations and innovation and delivery of financing of basic social services. Two expert ad hoc meetings had been convened in preparation for that discussion, one in New York and the other in Bangkok. Regarding social services of under-served populations, the Commission would look at issues such as: the lack of resources and insufficient priority given to social programmes at different levels; organizational obstacles relating to the participation of the under-served in the planning and provision of services; the lack of flexibility in the mechanisms used to deliver services; the ability to respond quickly enough to serve individual needs; the failure to devise mechanisms to reconcile the interests of providers and users; the simplicity in the information provided about the services available and the accessibility of that information in the languages of those to be served.

With regard to innovations on the delivery and financing of basic social services, he said that the Commission would examine how to organize the services in ways that promoted the empowerment of the recipient, the coordination of various actors responsible for service delivery, and the government's role in providing services. The expected outcome of those discussions was the adoption of a document of agreed conclusions by the end of the first week.

Turning to the International Year of Older Persons, he said that the Commission had been appointed by the United Nations body in charge of the preparations for the celebration of the Year. During the session, delegations would have the opportunity to share experiences and present national plans for activities for the Year, the theme of which was "a society for all ages". Four dimensions identified in that connection -- the situation of older persons, solidarity among generations, ageing of populations, and lifelong approaches -- provided the framework for the discussions. The Commission would also look at different proposals from the Secretary-General on how to approach future activities, particularly the development of research for policy action and the development of a long-term strategy on ageing for the twenty-first century.

Asked about the seriousness of States in the implementation of their Copenhagen commitments, Ambassador Fernandez said that implementation was the main issue, and a major emphasis of the preparatory process and of the special session itself was the review of implementation and the adoption of measures based on that.

Mr. Langmore added that many countries had taken their Copenhagen commitments seriously. For example, he recalled that at the General Assembly two years ago China had announced that, in conformity with a Summit proposal, it had set itself the target of eliminating the worst forms of poverty in its outlying regions by the year 2000, and then described the strategy it had adopted to do that. About 38 countries had adopted time-bound poverty reduction targets as recommended by Copenhagen and another 40-odd had adopted national strategies for poverty reduction. While it was true that some countries did not take their commitment seriously, it could be said that the majority of them did.

Another striking feature was that every international conference for the last few months had had social issues right at the centre of activities, he added. The reason for that was that the financial crisis in Asia had massive damaging social consequences. There was now an enormous debate on what kind of economic and social strategies ought to be adopted in handling such crises.

Elaborating on the Commission's work, Mr. Langmore said that the second week would be interesting since it would, for the first time, provide States with an opportunity to discuss what issues to include on the agenda of the special session. They had already agreed that they did not want to renegotiate Copenhagen words, but did want to agree on additional concrete

Fernandez Press Conference - 3 - 8 February 1999

actions. The difficulty was to decide what major additional proposals could be considered, which were likely to be effective and politically feasible. Among the issues to be discussed were financial market volatility and the social responsibilities of business. In a globalizing world, which to some extent had eroded the powers of government, it was inevitable that business had to increase its social responsibilities.

Also to be discussed were: how to measure development, including the attempt to standardize development indicators; national poverty and employment strategies and targets; social integration; gender equity, focusing on gender mainstreaming and universal access to education for girls; particular problems for Africa, including diversification of industries and HIV/AIDS; and structural adjustment programmes, he said. In addition, the whole approach of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to social development, which was crucial to the present agenda, and how sufficient revenue could be raised to pay for the extension of social services, would be addressed.

Responding to a comment on the increasing social profile of the Bank and the Fund, Mr. Langmore said that it was something that was welcomed wholeheartedly. Circumstance had influenced the thinking of those institutions, and they had now recognized that the analysis done by the United Nations system in the 1980s and 1990s about structural adjustment was right. Economic and social policy had to be effectively integrated at every level in macro-policy and social programmes.

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