ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL ADOPTS AGREED CONCLUSIONS

ON INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 10 July (UN Information Service) -- The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted the outcome of its operational activities segment this morning on United Nations activities for international development cooperation, noting that the main problem facing the Organization in launching projects in this area was the reduction of the flow of regular resources.

The Vice-President of ECOSOC, Bernd Niehaus (Costa Rica), reading out the conclusions, said the reduction of resources unfortunately affected the efficiency, the impact and the very function of the United Nations system and its cooperation with developing countries.  The effectiveness of coordination within United Nations system development programmes had been highlighted, but, while many improvements had been made, there was still much to be done.

Patrizio Civili, Assistant Secretary-General of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), said, among other things, that it was pleasing to observe great and growing concern on the part of Member States that the United Nations, through DESA, should maintain and develop its own strong technical cooperation role and an increasingly clear realization of the key part that focused technical cooperation could play in advancing follow-up to United Nations global conferences and the Millennium Summit.  At the current stage, this was the overriding goal of all the work in the economic and social field.

The Council also adopted a consensus resolution requesting the Secretary-General to take into account the views expressed by Member States during the operational activities segment when submitting his report on the topic to the General Assembly.  The resolution also invited him to make recommendations on themes the Council might discuss at its 2002 and 2003 substantive sessions.

And it adopted a decision taking note, among others, of the reports of the Executive Boards of the United Nations Development Programme/United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Food Programme.

Speaking at the morning session were representatives of Japan, Republic of Korea, and the High Committee on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries.

The Council will reconvene in plenary at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 11 July, to begin consideration of its humanitarian segment concerning special economic, humanitarian and disaster relief assistance.

Outcome of Operational Activities Segment

       BERND NIEHAUS (Costa Rica), Vice President of ECOSOC, reading out the conclusions, noted that the main problem facing the United Nations in launching projects in the area of international development cooperation was the reduction of the flow of regular resources, in spite of a recent rise in these resources.  The reduction of resources unfortunately affected the efficiency, the impact and the very functioning of the United Nations system in its cooperation with developing countries.

Since the beginning of the discussion on the operational activities segment, the effectiveness of coordination within the United Nations had been highlighted.  This was illustrated yesterday when there were presentations of the country teams from China and the United Republic of Tanzania.  Whatever improvements were made, there was still much to be done in developing countries with respect to coordination and programming.  The leadership on behalf of national governments was shown yesterday, and it was a crucial aspect in assessing the scope of development.  It should be reiterated that the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) should increase harmonization and coordination between national and international bodies and the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions. 

Other issues had been dealt with in the last few days, as well, including the need to develop national capacities, and the need to have a link between international objectives under the Millennium Declaration and national development objectives.  This had been a high-level debate with strong participation, which showed that the international community and the United Nations were serious about international development.

Resolution and Decision

In a resolution (document E/2001/L.17) on the triennial comprehensive policy review of operations activities for development of the United Nations system, adopted by consensus, the Council requested the Secretary-General, when finalizing his report on the topic for submission to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session, to take into account the views and comments expressed by Member States during the operational activities segment of the Council's 2001 substantive session and to make appropriate recommendations.  It also requested the Secretary-General, when finalizing his report, to provide an analysis of the current state of implementation of General Assembly resolution 53/192 and related resolutions on operational activities and invited him to make recommendations, when finalizing his report, on the possible themes the Council could discuss at its 2002 and 2003 substantive sessions.

In a decision, the Council took note of a number of documents, including the reports of the Executive Boards of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)/United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNESCO), and the World Food Programme (WFP) (documents E/2001/10, E/2001/20, E/2001/34 (Part 1), E/2001/36, E/2001/47, E/2001/L.12, DP/2001/11, and DP/2001/23).

Statements

PATRIZIO CIVILI, Assistant-Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), said DESA was looking at the deliberations of the current segment from three different perspectives -- as the substantive secretariat of the Council; as the United Nations representative in the Administrative Coordinating Council and other inter-agency forums where the preparations and the follow-up to these reviews were pursued; and as a key operational development partner of the funds and programmes and operational agencies of the United Nations at both the global and country levels.

Mr. Civili said the analytical, normative and policy coordination work of the United Nations and of DESA was obviously the most visible to delegations, since it was that work that supported intergovernmental debates in this Council and other forums.  It was pleasing to observe great and growing concern and sensitivity on the part of Member States that the United Nations, through DESA, should maintain and develop its own strong technical cooperation role, and an increasingly clear realization of the key part that focused technical cooperation could play in advancing the follow-up to the global conferences and the Millennium Summit that was, at the current stage, the overriding goal of all the work in the economic and social field.

He said the merger of data-gathering-and-analysis capabilities, policy coordination and intergovernmental support responsibilities, and technical cooperation capacities into DESA was a central element of the Secretary-General's reform programme three-and-a-half years ago.  It had served to strengthen -- and was continuing to enrich -- the content and depth of all aspects of its work and, hopefully, the quality of the services provided to Member States.

The Department of Economic and Social Affairs, he said, had spearheaded the preparations for the World Summit for Social Development, and for the United Nations Conferences on Women and Gender Equality, Population and Development, and Environment and Development, among others, and was helping to guide their follow-up.  Currently, DESA was preparing the World Summit for Sustainable Development and the Conference on Financing for Development, both to be held in 2002, and both highly relevant to the policy and resource issues that were occupying the current segment of the Council.

He said the operational activities of DESA were all, from different perspectives, relevant to the follow-up to the outcomes of these conferences at the country level, and were being focused and reoriented to contribute to their coherent and integrated implementation in pursuit of the over-arching goals set by the Millennium Declaration.

Mr. Civili added that the forces of globalization, and, in particular, the revolution in information and communications technology (ICT), had introduced new means to accelerate progress.  The forces, at the same time, had tended to widen skills and capacity gaps within countries and among developing countries and industrial nations.  Helping countries redress these trends and seize the new

opportunities for rapid and sustained progress that globalization offered was, basically, what lay at the heart of the innovations that DESA was endeavouring to impart to its technical cooperation programme.  This involved new programme development in a number of areas, as well as a host of management measures, all of which could be subsumed under two simple headings -- a new effort to ensure that the Department was fully exploiting the new technologies in delivering its technical cooperation; and a strengthening of interactions among all the technical cooperation fields it covered, so as to help generate mutually reinforcing responses to the complex challenges of globalization.

KENJI HIRATA (Japan) said his country believed that South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation were among the most effective means for promoting development.  They allowed technology and know-how to be shared between developing countries of similar backgrounds.  For some years, Japan had supported this kind of cooperation through the donation of substantial funds to the DESA programmes and through direct aid.  It had supported the Asia-Africa Business Forum, whose first meeting had been held in 1999.  The second forum would be held this month in South Africa with Japanese financial assistance of $1.5 million.  Japan also had helped to develop and disseminate new varieties of rice to enhance opportunities for small-scale African farmers who were most removed from the "green revolution".

Japan recognized and approved of the active involvement of developing countries in South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation, and would continue to play an active role in this field and to continue to support United Nations activities in this area.

CHA YOUNG-CHEOL (Republic of Korea) said that during the past few years there had been an increase in South-South cooperation.  The revolution in information technology had altered international cooperation.  The Republic of Korea recognized the importance of human capital, and had signed science and technology agreements with 20 developing countries.  Further, in February 2000, the Republic of Korea had hosted a forum in Seoul on South-South cooperation. 

SAFIATOU BA-N' DAW, of the High-Level Committee on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, said the Committee's recent meeting and the resulting report documented the rich results that could be obtained from South-South cooperation.  A significantly increased number of developing countries were designing, managing and implementing technical cooperation among developing countries/economic cooperation among developing countries initiatives.  There was consensus that the countries of the South possessed a vast reservoir of resources, including experience, technological capacity, and knowledge, that could be mobilized for helping themselves and other developing countries to realize the development goals set by the Millennium Summit.

Such strategies were perhaps more viable and effective than others devised to help developing countries enter the global economy; they also were a useful training ground for countries to educate themselves and prepare themselves before taking on more complex global economic endeavours.  Governance, capacity-building, health, education, environment, science and technology and trade and investment were fields that especially lent themselves to South-South cooperation.  Increased financial support for these endeavours from developed countries could help advance this effective method of development cooperation.