PRESS BRIEFING ON WORK OF PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR SPECIAL ASSEMBLY SESSION ON 1995 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT OUTCOME

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON WORK OF PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR SPECIAL ASSEMBLY SESSION ON 1995 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT OUTCOME

There would be no re-negotiation of the Copenhagen Agreement, John Langmore, Director of the Division for Social Policy and Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

Briefing correspondents on the work of the Preparatory Committee for the special session of the General Assembly on the Implementation of the Outcome of the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995), which met at Headquarters from 17-28 May, he said that the purpose of the review conference in June of 2000 would be to evaluate implementation and to decide on additional initiatives.

Implementation would be evaluated as a result of national reports, which governments had to submit by 30 June, he said. The first few had already been received during the current preparatory meeting. A comprehensive Secretary- General's report based on those would be completed and presented to the Commission for Social Development in February next year.

The main purpose of the Preparatory Committee over the past two weeks, he said, had been to decide on additional initiatives to be considered by the special session. While he could not yet give a complete summary of conclusions, since the meeting was still under way and would not finish its work until late in the evening, he said that so far there were 14 additional initiatives. They had been agreed to in negotiations as being on the agenda, but still needed to be confirmed in a plenary session.

Those additional initiatives included: studies of the impact of globalization on social development and the need to make recommendations relating to that; designing guidelines on the role and social responsibilities of the private sector; undertaking social impact assessments of major economic measures; and recommending additional strategies for dealing with poverty, and explicitly asking the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank to assist with that task.

Evaluating progress on achievement of international targets was another proposed initiative, he continued. A number of explicit targets had been set in the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action. A report was requested of the Secretary-General on the extent of achievement of those. Other proposals included work on social protection, employment, institutional arrangements for social integration, and the role of volunteers -- something that Japan was arguing strongly for.

Social Development Briefing - 2 - 28 May 1999

Further, there were additional proposals for the achievement of the centrally important targets relating to education for all and basic health services for all, he said. Very explicit targets about achieving those by the year 2015 had been set at Copenhagen and at other international conferences, and significant progress had been achieved. However, unless strategies were upgraded, those targets would not be achieved. Therefore, there was agreement to request substantial additional work on the kinds of policies and strategies necessary to achieve those goals.

Agreement on further work on the 20/20 Initiative (by which developed and developing country partners are encouraged to allocate, on average, 20 per cent of official development assistance (ODA) and 20 per cent of the national budget, respectively, to basic social programmes), and a study of obstacles to development in Africa, particularly relating to the issue of commodity diversification, were among the other proposals, he said. A number of other issues, some very important ones, were still under negotiation and he was sure some additional agreement would be reached by the end of the day.

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