COUNCIL, PONDERING REFORM ISSUES, SEES CHANCE OF "NEW CONSENSUS" ON DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN UN-BRETTON WOODS COOPERATION

Press Release
ECOSOC/5922

COUNCIL, PONDERING REFORM ISSUES, SEES CHANCE OF ‘NEW CONSENSUS’ ON DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN UN-BRETTON WOODS COOPERATION

The evolving partnership between the Bretton Woods institutions and the United Nations could lead to a new consensus on a development strategy, the representative of Belarus told the Economic and Social Council this afternoon. The Council, continuing the general segment of its 2000 substantive session, was considering implementation of General Assembly resolutions aimed at promoting greater efficacy of its activities.

Given the success of April’s high-level meeting between the Council and the Bretton Woods institutions, he continued, the new consensus would be based not just on United Nations collaboration with the Bretton Woods institutions, but also on the involvement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The Bretton Woods institutions were crucial actors on the international economic and social stage, the representative of France said, speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated countries. The Council’s cooperation with those institutions was welcome. By working out the financing of development projects, the various institutions would come to know each other and reinforce each other’s work. The World Bank was already directly involved in the development process, he noted.

Also on the Council’s agenda this afternoon were issues of reform. Sarbuland Khan, Director of the Division for Economic and Social Council Support and Coordination of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said that the afternoon’s poorly attended meeting was an example of reform needed in the Council. If there was to be any talk of revitalizing and restructuring, the first responsibility of the Council was to make itself work better as a body. He suggested that an analysis of the Council’s workings during its substantive sessions over the last five years might offer some practical solutions.

The representatives of Nigeria, New Zealand, Norway and Canada also addressed the Council this afternoon.

The Council will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, 25 July, to continue the general segment of its 2000 substantive session with a review of regional cooperation.

Economic and Social Council - 2 - Press Release ECOSOC/5922 37th Meeting (PM) 24 July 2000

Council Work Programme

The Economic and Social Council met this afternoon to continue the general segment of its 2000 substantive session by considering implementation of General Assembly resolutions 50/227 and 52/12B concerning the Assembly’s recommendations to the Council.

The Council had before it two reports of the Secretary-General, one on revitalizing the United Nations and the other on the Council’s functional commissions. A note by the Secretary-General circulates an informal summary of the Council’s high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions on 18 April.

The Secretary-General’s report on restructuring and revitalizing the United Nations in the economic, social and related fields and its cooperation with the Bretton Woods institutions (document E/2000/67) includes a brief account on implementing General Assembly resolutions 50/227 and 52/12B. Both contain recommendations to the Council and the Assembly, particularly its Second (Economic and Financial) and Third (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) Committees. Those recommendations concern issues such as the use of innovative mechanisms, including panel discussions, to achieve coherence and complementarity on thematic issues.

The report also describes actions to implement Economic and Social Council resolutions aimed at increasing the effectiveness of the Council’s functional commissions. It describes steps building on cooperation between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions. Those include a high-level meeting, three events allowing interaction at the intergovernmental level, and a variety of briefings and panel discussions by officials of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for members of the United Nations system. The report makes recommendations for further efforts to achieve cooperation and coordination on economic, social and related issues, including a suggestion that the Council consider extending a partnership to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The Secretary-General’s consolidated report on the work of the Council’s functional commissions (document E/2000/85) gives an overview of the work performed by the nine functional commissions this year, in which all met on a biennial basis for the Commission on Science and Technology for Development. The report also describes the commissions’ handling of selected themes, including an enabling environment, migration, poverty and hunger, human rights and gender, basic social services, sustainable development and HIV/AIDS. It outlines the current modalities for coordination; summarizes proceedings of joint meetings held by the Council’s Bureau and those of its functional commissions; and makes recommendations for further increasing the commissions’ effectiveness.

The informal summary of the Council’s special high-level meeting with the Bretton Woods institutions (18 April) is circulated by a note of the Secretary- General (document E/2000/79). The background of the meeting is described and opening statements are summarized. The dialogue is reported to have centred on general considerations of the world economy, globalization and international trade, as well as on strengthening the global financial system. Development and poverty reduction were also considered, along with the institutional dimensions of collaborative efforts. Concluding remarks concerned further collaboration, as well as reform. Statements

SARBULAND KHAN, Director of the Division for Economic and Social Council Support and Coordination, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, presented the report of the Secretary-General on the restructuring and revitalization of the United Nations in the economic and social fields and the cooperation between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions (document E/2000/67).

He said that one example of what was not working in the Council was the poorly attended meeting room this afternoon. That surely pointed towards the need for improvement. If there was to be any talk of revitalization and restructuring, then the first responsibility of the Council was to itself -- to make it work better as a body.

He said the Council should consider asking its Bureau and the Secretariat to make an analysis of how the Council had worked during its substantive sessions over the last five years. That would help establish whether there were practical improvements that could be made which were both feasible and within the competence of the Council itself.

Another issue that needed to be addressed, he said, was the agreed conclusions at the end of each segment. Those conclusions should be discussed and agreed upon in a process that differed from the approach to draft resolutions. If that had been the case, as had been agreed five years ago, there would have been significant improvements to the council’s decisions. But that had not been the case. The agreed conclusions, which were much longer than the drafts, tended to be negotiated in the same way as those texts.

He also asked whether the general segment, as it existed today, was the best way of organizing the Council in terms of its housekeeping.

EMMANUEL LENAIN (France), speaking on behalf of the European Union and Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, said much remained to be done to improve the efficiency of the various bodies concerned. It was desirable that coordination should be strengthened between the Second and Third Committees of the General Assembly.

He urged the Second Committee Bureau to attempt to rationalize that Committee’s work, particularly by reducing the number of items on its agenda and by resorting more to “omnibus” resolutions. It would be worthwhile to examine the possibility of reducing the frequency with which certain items were examined. He was also in favour of organizing a meeting between the Council’s Bureau and the chairpersons of the technical commissions every year. The European Union hoped to follow up the idea of encouraging the participation of specialized non- governmental organizations that did not have observer status at the Council in meetings of technical committees of direct relevance to them.

He supported the Secretary-General’s suggestion of inviting the technical commissions to contribute, where applicable, to preparations for the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries and to the report on the New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s. Such a contribution would also be welcomed in the context of the development financing process.

He said the Bretton Woods institutions were crucial actors on the international economic and social stage, and the European Union welcomed the deepening of the Council’s cooperation with them. He hoped the financing for development process, in which the World Bank had already decided to become very directly involved, would allow the various institutions to come to know each other better and reinforce their wish to work together in the future.

LILIAN ONOH (Nigeria), speaking on behalf of the "Group of 77" developing countries and China, said she attached great importance to the restructuring and revitalization of the United Nations in the economic, social and related field, and to cooperation between the Council and the Bretton Woods institutions. It was in that context that the Group thought it necessary to delay action on the relevant draft resolution.

ALYAKSEI MAZHUKHOU (Belarus) said the information contained in the reports demonstrated the evolutionary process of implementation of the provisions of the resolutions under discussion. He noted the gradually emerging potential for a partner-relationship between the self-reforming Bretton Woods institutions and United Nations agencies.

He believed that cooperation between United Nations and Bretton Woods institutions could be opened up, given the successful conclusion of the high-level event. He was convinced that the creation of favourable internal and external conditions for development should become long-term themes in developing the working programmes of several committees. He emphasized the importance of obtaining a consensus at the United Nations for a new development strategy for the third millennium, with the participation of the Bretton Woods institutions, the WTO and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

GRANT ROBERTSON (New Zealand) said the report of the Secretary-General contained important recommendations it would be useful for the Council to study closely. The unavailability of reports in all languages had, however, prevented the Council from acting on them. The Council also needed to take a closer look at the items on its agenda to see what needed to be there, and the frequency with which some of them needed to be examined.

LINDA LUM (United States) said the recommendations in the report would further rationalize the work of the General Assembly, the Council and its subsidiaries. She emphasized the need for fewer and briefer resolutions, timely completion of Council documents and improved working methods. Those were simple and sound management procedures that would improve the functioning of the Organization.

Her delegation had certain reservations about one of the Secretary-General’s recommendations: that the Council consider how non-governmental organizations without consultative status could take part in sessions of the various commissions. The United States felt that the process should only be extended to those organizations with consultative status.

ROSS HYNES (Canada) said the process of reforms that had engaged the Council over recent years would benefit by a reduction in the number of speeches made during the current stage of deliberations. He suggested that it would be

worthwhile revisiting the idea of organizing the Council’s affairs more in line with the approach of a board of directors, who met more frequently for shorter periods, and when and if necessary. He also encouraged the President and the Bureau to launch a process to review the working methods, as suggested by Mr. Khan earlier in the afternoon.

ARMAN AARDAL (Norway) thanked Mr. Khan for his useful comments and endorsed the need to look into organizing the Council’s affairs. The Council could draw on the experience of revitalization at its high-level session. The added value of that session had been its interactive discussions on the political level. At present, there was an overabundance of set of speeches, without a chance for the necessary interactive dialogue. He endorsed Nigeria's belief that posting the advance unedited version of documents in English only was a serious handicap for those delegates who did not speak the language.

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