ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL TO HOLD 1999 SUBSTANTIVE SESSION IN GENEVA, 5 - 30 JULY
Press Release
ECOSOC/5826
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL TO HOLD 1999 SUBSTANTIVE SESSION IN GENEVA, 5 - 30 JULY
19990629 Background ReleaseThe daunting task of eradicating poverty will be confronted head on by the international community, as the Economic and Social Council convenes its 1999 substantive session in Geneva from 5 to 30 July. The Council is expected to discuss priorities to wage a war against the scourge of poverty, the elimination of which is among the major challenges of the new millennium.
During the session's five segments -- high-level, operational activities, coordination, humanitarian and general segments -- Council members will tackle several facets of the poverty question, including the role of employment and work in poverty eradication, the gender dimension of the poverty issue, poverty eradication and capacity-building, the development of Africa, and disaster- relief assistance.
The theme of the high-level segment, to be held from 5 to 8 July, is "The role of employment and work in poverty eradication: the empowerment and advancement of women". A report of the Secretary-General before the segment states that despite the fact that during the last half century humanity has achieved historically unprecedented economic and social progress, the global challenge of poverty remains. Over 1.5 billion people still live on less than $1 per day, and the number of absolute poor continues to grow.
There are close to 1 billion adults unable to read or write, most of whom are women, the report goes on. Three quarters of a billion people have no access to health services. Malnutrition affects over 800 million people. Many millions lack access to safe water, and many millions more have a life expectancy of less than 40 years. The greatest number of people below the poverty line live in Asia, but the depth of poverty, which measures how far incomes fall below the poverty line, is greater in sub-Saharan Africa than any other region.
Moreover, the face of poverty is changing, says the Secretary-General. In the next century, a poor person is less likely to be a male small-holder in rural Asia and more likely to be an unskilled, low-wage female worker in urban Africa or Latin America. In addition, child labour remains a serious problem
on the poverty agenda today. According to International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates, the number of fully working children between the ages of five and 14 is at least 120 million, or about 250 million if those for whom work is a secondary activity are included. A large number of them work in occupations and industries which are plainly dangerous and hazardous.
Among its recommendations, the report calls for the creation of equitable systems of social protection and safety nets to women and men alike, in particular, for vulnerable and marginalized groups of women workers, such as immigrants and the elderly. "The time has come for a major rethinking of the approach to debt forgiveness, both by international organizations and bilateral donors", the Secretary-General states. That should be done with a view to providing immediate and full relief to the least developed low-income countries with unsustainable debt burdens. The international community should also encourage longer-term capital flows to support development objectives, including by integrating the social dimensions of development into policy objectives in the new international financial architecture.
The Secretary-General also stresses the importance of international labour standards and human rights declarations to inform social policy-making, and recommends a combination of national and international policies to promote a rights-based approach to poverty eradication without introducing new conditionalities or using those standards and norms as a pretext for new protectionism.
Also before the high-level segment is the 1999 World Economic and Social Survey. In its overview of the global economy, it states that after two years of financial turbulence and a marked slowdown in global economic growth, the world economy is in a gradual recovery process. Led by the easing of monetary policy in major developed economies since the autumn of 1998, economic prospects have improved and global financial markets have shown signs of stabilization. Also, financial contagion from the Brazilian currency crisis at the beginning of 1999 was contained, and there has been some restoration of capital flows to a number of emerging markets. There has also been a rebound in the price of oil since early 1999.
In spite of these short-term improvements, economic growth in 1999 remains inadequate and markedly lower than at mid-decade, particularly for the majority of developing and transition economies, the Survey goes on. The outlook for the rest of 1999 and beyond suggests only a minor overall improvement; in a number of cases, the economic situation will continue to deteriorate. In the majority of countries, growth for the foreseeable future will fall far short of what is necessary to effect a substantial improvement in living standards and a reduction in the number of people living in poverty.
According to the Survey, at less than 2 per cent, the growth of world output in 1998 was about half of that in 1997. Growth in all groups of countries
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slowed down, but the setback to the developing countries was greatest. Their average growth of only 1.7 per cent in 1998 was below that of the developed countries for the first time since the 1980s and contrasted markedly with the average growth of 5 per cent or more that they had achieved earlier in the decade.
In contrast with the developing and transition economies, all the developed countries, with the exceptions of Japan and New Zealand, maintained or slightly increased their output in 1998. Growth in the United States exceeded expectations and Japan fell into a severe recession. Both developments had important implications for the world economy at large. The United States functioned as the main, and almost the only, engine of growth in the world economy, while Japan's difficulties dampened prospects elsewhere, but particularly in the East Asia region where economic stimulus was most needed.
The pattern of output growth across nations is widening the disparity between levels of living and personal incomes in the developed countries and those in the rest of the world, the Survey states. Whereas in recent years many of the developed countries were able to take advantage of globalization, the effects on many developing and transition countries have been perverse. The personal tragedy of those thrown out of work and reduced to poverty by the present crises represents a severe setback for development efforts at a broader level, impacting on a much larger number of people.
This overview of the global socio-economic situation will be considered when the Council holds its traditional policy dialogue with heads of multilateral financial and trade institutions of the United Nations system on important developments in the world economy and international cooperation on the first day of the high-level segment.
On Tuesday, 6 July, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., a ceremony will be held to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Executive Director of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Carol Bellamy and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson will address the meeting.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most complete statement of children's rights ever made and the first to give these rights the force of international law. It is the most widely accepted human rights instrument ever, with 191 States having ratified or acceded to it. Only the United States and Somalia have not ratified the treaty.
For the first time, five panel meetings were planned in connection with the Council's high-level segment. The panels focused on pressing and complex issues outside the formal intergovernmental negotiating structure in preparation for the deliberations. The first three panels were held in March, April and May in New York and dealt with gender equality and eradicating
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poverty, food security, basic infrastructure and natural resources, and access to fundamental social services.
The fourth panel, to be moderated by Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai, will be held on 4 July at the ILO International Training Centre in Turin, Italy, and will focus on the role of training in promoting access to work. The event is co-sponsored by the City of Turin and the ILO Training Centre. The panellists will include: Professor Fan Gang, Director of the National Economic Research Institute of China; Professor Sanjaya Lall, Fellow at Green College, Oxford; Mervat Tallawy, Minister of Insurance and Social Affairs of Egypt; and Professor Gianni Vattimo, Department of Philosophy, University of Turin. The Council's visit to Turin, on 3 and 4 July, will include a seminar on urban settlements, organized by the Municipality of Turin.
The fifth panel will be held on 6 July at the United Nations Office at Geneva, and will focus on "National policies and international cooperation for employment-oriented growth: impact on poverty reduction and gender equality". The event is being co-sponsored by the ILO, and its Director-General, Juan Somavía, will be the moderator.
The panellists will be: Anne Marie Lizin, independent expert of the Commission on Human Rights on extreme poverty; Sodov Onon, Director of the Poverty Alleviation Programme, Office of the National Poverty Alleviation Programme of Mongolia; Dariusz Rosati, member of the Monetary Policy Council of the National Bank of Poland; and Professor T.N. Srinivasan, Chairman of the Department of Economics at Yale University. The lead discussants will be Stephen Pursey, Director of the Employment and International Labour Standards, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions; and Louka T. Katseli, Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Athens.
In another innovation this year, the high-level segment will be broadcast live on the Internet. Statements will be posted on the Internet simultaneously with their delivery at the following address:
Already available on the Internet are general information and reports before the session, which can be found on the Council's Web site:
http//www.un.org/esa/coordination/ecosoc
The Council's segment on operational activities of the United Nations for international development cooperation will be held from 8 to 13 July. The high-level meeting of that segment will be devoted to the consideration of the theme: "Poverty eradication and capacity-building". The informal dialogue with heads of United Nations funds and programmes will be held on 9 July, and on 12 July Council members will have a dialogue with country teams.
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A report of the Secretary-General before the segment states that the operational activities of the United Nations are continuing to undergo significant reforms. Many of those reforms can be incorporated into country- level responsibilities within existing resources. However, in a number of cases, the introduction of new initiatives, new ways of conducting activities and increasing coordination represent a significant additional workload. Moreover, they take place in a context of declining or stagnant resources with unfortunate consequences on projects and programmes. Addressing that situation must be a priority, the report stresses.
The humanitarian affairs segment, from 13 to 15 July, will focus on "International cooperation and coordinated responses to the humanitarian emergencies, in particular, in the transition from relief to rehabilitation, reconstruction and development". The first day of the segment will be devoted to panel discussions on natural disasters, which is expected to include debate on lessons learned from Hurricane Mitch and complex emergencies. Speakers will be selected among resident and/or humanitarian coordinators of countries affected by disasters. On the second day, a panel will be held with executive heads of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) agencies on the theme of the segment.
Among reports of the Secretary -General before the segment is one addressing progress made in the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts for those countries hit by hurricanes Mitch and Georges.
The theme to be discussed by the coordination segment, from 16 to 20 July, is "Development of Africa: implementation and coordinated follow-up by the United Nations system of initiatives on African development".
A report of the Secretary -General on the topic contains a number of recommendations to improve coordination and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Among those suggestions, it asks that the Council consider how the array of priorities for African development, defined in different contexts, can be ranked in order to help harmonize the various initiatives on Africa.
The Secretary-General also recommends that the Council request the United Nations system, Bretton Woods institutions and others to collaborate with the government of each African country in order to ensure consistency of the various coordination mechanisms, avoiding duplication and simplifying them. He also suggests that the United Nations organize consultations to be attended by representatives of donor countries and the host country in order to discuss common priorities. Such meetings could be used to encourage donor agencies to streamline their respective development activities and bring them closer to those of the United Nations.
The general segment, which starts on 21 July, will primarily focus on economic and environmental questions and social and human rights questions.
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It will begin with the Council's consideration of regional cooperation. Under that item, the Council will have before it a report of Executive Secretaries of the regional commissions on reform measures, including recommendations. Summaries of 1998/1999 surveys on the economic and social situations of Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean will also be available.
The Council will then take up several reports under its consideration of integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits, including a report suggesting modalities for a review by the Council in 2000 of progress made within the United Nations system on coordinated conference follow-up as a possible contribution to the Millennium Assembly.
Under the item on coordination, programme and other questions, there will be the annual overview report of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) for 1998 and the report of the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC). In that regard, the Council will also have before it relevant sections of the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2000-2001.
Further, a report of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on a long-term programme of support for Haiti will be considered during that segment. Created by Council resolution 1999/4 of 7 May -- in which the Economic and Social Council took note of paragraph 8 of Security Council resolution 1212 (1998) inviting it to contribute to elaborate a long-term programme of support for Haiti -- that Advisory Group is made up of five members of the Council designated by the President. It was requested to submit to the Council recommendations on how to ensure international assistance for development in Haiti is adequate, coherent, well-coordinated and effective.
As stated by the Council President, Francesco Paolo Fulci (Italy), at a Headquarters press conference in April, for the first time the Security Council had asked the Economic and Social Council to do something concrete in the rehabilitation of a country -- Haiti. There were already a number of plans for Haiti's rehabilitation from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. He then said he planned to suggest the creation of the Group, consisting of five ambassadors who would be willing to roll up their sleeves and work seriously, with the support of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, to study all the plans that already exist.
Their task would be to see if there were duplications in the existing documents and to create a document that, if approved by the Economic and Social Council, would then be submitted to the Security Council, he added. In that way, for the first time, the Economic and Social Council would be complying with Article 65 of the United Nations Charter, described by the Secretary-General as a dormant article, since it had never been applied in the
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Organization's 53-year existence. Article 65 states that the Economic and Social Council may furnish information to the Security Council and shall assist the Security Council upon its request.
Under economic and environmental questions, the Council will have before it a report of the Secretary-General on cooperation between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions, which is also a major priority of Mr. Fulci in his efforts to bring the Council back to its original role -- which was precisely to coordinate cooperation between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions. As he stated in the above-mentioned press conference, which was held on 28 April -- the eve of the Council's second special high- level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions -- solid cooperation with the international financial institutions was essential for making the Economic and Social Council truly action and results-oriented.
In a report under the topic, the Secretary-General states that the interaction between the Bretton Woods institutions and the United Nations at all levels has been exceptionally fruitful. The forging of closer collaboration among the three institutions is increasingly being reflected by the undertaking of joint collaborative initiatives and acting on key common concerns. There has been a marked recognition by executive heads that the system is addressing system-wide issues of concern with a higher degree of coherence and coordination.
Challenges remain, however, the report goes on. These concern in particular the relationship between the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and the World Bank's Comprehensive Development Framework, but also making the efforts towards increased interaction between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions more reciprocal. Still, it is likely that increased collaboration and cooperation will continue in the near future. Member States can contribute to that process immeasurably by better coordination of their individual positions at the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions,
Other items in the general segment include: implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples by the specialized agencies and the international institutions associated with the United Nations; economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the occupied territory, including Jerusalem, and the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan; and the implementation of General Assembly resolutions 50/227 and 52/12B, which concern revitalization of the United Nations in the economic, social and related fields.
On that last topic, a Secretary-General's report provides a number of recommendations for consideration by the Council as well as the General Assembly, including that the Council may wish to ask the bureaus of the functional commissions to ensure regular exchange of information on their work programmes, including a more systematic transmission of documentation. He
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adds that consideration could also be given to having a standing item on the Council's agenda on the review of the work of the functional commissions, under which the Council could harmonize and coordinate their work programmes.
Under social and human rights questions, the Council will consider several reports relating to the advancement of women, including a Secretary- General's report on the follow-up to and implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. As part of its consideration of social development, it will consider a report on effective ways and means for achieving the goal of education for all. A report containing proposals on the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia will also be taken up.
In addition, the Council will take action on several reports of its functional commissions and subsidiary bodies, including reports of the Commission on Human Rights, Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the Commission on Sustainable Development. Further, it will take up the reports of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations.
The annotated provisional agenda for the 1999 substantive session is contained in documents E/1999/100 and Add.l. The organization of work and status of documentation for the session are contained in documents E/1999/L.16 and E/1999/L.17, respectively. Those documents were adopted on 23 June at Headquarters, when the Council held the first meeting of its substantive session.
Officers, Membership
Francesco Paolo Fulci (Italy) is the President of the Economic and Social Council. Makarim Wibisono (Indonesia), Percy Metsing Mangoaela (Lesotho), Alfonso Valdivieso (Colombia) and Alyaksandr Sychov (Belarus) are Vice-Presidents.
The Council has 54 members, elected for three-year terms by the General Assembly. In 1999, the Council is composed of the following States: Algeria, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Cuba, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, El Salvador, France, Gambia, Germany, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Spain, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Viet Nam and Zambia.
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