ECOSOC CONSIDERS ITS ROLE IN COORDINATED IMPLEMENTATION OF OUTCOME OF UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCES

ECOSOC CONSIDERS ITS ROLE IN COORDINATED IMPLEMENTATION

OF OUTCOME OF UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCES

Debate Highlights Need for Integrated Follow-up,

Flexibility, Increased Political Will, Regional Cooperation

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 8 July (UN Information Service) -- The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) began this morning its coordination segment, considering its role in the integrated and coordinated implementation of the outcomes of and follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits.

The Vice-President of the Council, Murari Raj Sharma, said the theme of this year’s coordination segment had a particular significance due to the new impetus given to ECOSOC’s work by the General Assembly's Working Group on the same issue.  Increasing the impact of ECOSOC’s work would help advance the achievement of the internationally agreed upon development goals.

The Assistant Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Patrizio Civili, introduced the reports of the Secretary-General on coordination and said that despite progress, policy coordination continued to be a challenge for a system as diverse as the United Nations.

Vice-Chairpersons of the Working Group of the General Assembly on the integrated and coordinated implementation of the outcomes of and follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits, Nana Effah-Appenteng and Jean de Ruyt, also addressed the meeting.

Mr. Effah-Appenteng said the recommendations of the Working Group defined the respective roles of the Assembly, ECOSOC and its functional commissions and aimed to increase the impact of work on implementation of conference commitments.  The recommendations were not an end in themselves -– they must not remain another set of pious declarations cluttering the archives of the United Nations.  Member States must give a practical demonstration of their political will to move the agenda of international development forward.

Mr. de Ruyt added that the Council had a central role to play as a coordinating pool, where governments and other development actors could come together with the United Nations to examine common themes.  Much remained to be done to align the organization with the major goals of development; to ensure that the United Nations worked efficiently; and that its decisions were anchored in reality.

In a brief interactive segment, representatives of Jamaica, Iran and Nigeria asked questions about follow-up mechanisms, the philosophy behind the Working Group’s recommendations and the role of regional commissions, such as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

The Economic and Social Council then began its general debate on coordination, where speakers highlighted its pivotal role in system-wide collaboration and in promoting the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to major United Nations conferences.  The first step in implementation was to enable the Council to fulfil its institutional responsibilities of providing system-wide coordination, oversight and policy guidance, as well as its analytical role in identifying new and emerging issues.  Speakers also stressed the need to maintain a degree of flexibility in the work of ECOSOC, particularly in view of the recommendation to establish a multiyear programme for its work.

Participating in the debate were representatives of Morocco (on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China), Italy (on behalf of the European Union), Russian Federation, United States, Pakistan, India, Republic of Korea, Ukraine, Croatia, Switzerland, China, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, and Chile.

Representatives of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Labour Office also addressed the issue of coordination this morning.

The ECOSOC will reconvene at 3 p.m. to hold a panel discussion on conference implementation -- common goals and common challenges.

Documents

The Economic and Social Council has before it a report on the role of the Economic and Social Council in the integrated and coordinated implementation of the outcomes of and follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits (E/2003/67), which contains suggestions on how the Council can fully use its segments to sustain progress towards internationally agreed goals and to address policy, coordination and operational aspects of common conference themes.  Better preparation for the Council’s work and engaging the United Nations system and other actors more broadly may help to strengthen its impact on the implementation of conference outcomes.  The report also contains suggestions on how the Council can perform its functions in the follow-up to a number of recent conferences and summits, including a number of proposals for enhancing the Council’s dialogue and oversight of the boards of funds and programmes, improving the contribution of functional commissions to conference implementation and developing the role of regional commissions in reviewing and supporting progress towards achieving the internationally agreed goals.  The report also looks at ways to build a closer relationship with the specialized agencies and to foster partnerships and alliances with all stakeholders.

The Council also has before it a comprehensive report of the Statistical Commission on the work related to chapter VI, section E, of its report on its thirty-third session and on basic indicators for the integrated and coordinated follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits at all levels, including the report on indicators on means of implementation (E/2003/83), which provides a technical review and rationalization of sets of indicators, as well as a review of new indicators used in the United Nations system.  The report discusses the effective coordination of statistics in the United Nations system and the strengthening of national statistical capacity; it then offers some points for discussion.  Among other suggestions, these were that the Council may wish to note that a dialogue with international organizations is needed, as indicators have a statistical and political dimension; the arrangements for incorporating indicators for the Millennium Development Goals; that strengthening national statistical capacity is a prerequisite for many countries, particularly developing countries, of meeting the obligation to provide information in support of development indicators; and that the Council together with international organizations and donors should promote the use of statistics to support national policy development and good public administration.

A third report before the Council concerns the implementation of the World Food Summit Plan of Action:  report of the Committee on World Food Security through the FAO Council to the Economic and Social Council (E/2003/87), which highlights its linkages with the coordinated and integrated follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits undertaken by the United Nations system and includes extracts from four Committee on World Food Security documents.  The report concludes that national reports show that countries have policies and programmes in place to implement the World Food Summit Plan of Action.  However, the specific impact of each policy in regards to improving food security and reducing the number of the undernourished is seldom articulated in quantitative terms, making an analysis of the progress difficult.  Only a limited number of countries have succeeded in reducing the number of undernourished.  In a large number of countries, the number of the undernourished has actually been growing.  In their reports, many countries indicate a number of specific problems that affect their capacity to improve food security and reduce the number of people undernourished within the context of the World Food Summit Plan of Action.

Statements

MURARI RAJ SHARMA, Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council, said the theme of this year’s coordination segment –- the role of ECOSOC in the integrated and coordinated implementation of the outcomes of and follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits –- had a particular significance in the light of the new impetus given to the Council’s work by the General Assembly's Working Group on the same issue.  In order to stimulate the deliberations, he had invited the Vice-Chairpersons of the Working Group, Jean de Ruyt of Belgium and Nana Effah-Appenteng of Ghana, for an interactive dialogue session this morning.  It was hoped that through this dialogue, the Council could discuss how to best build on the recommendations of the Working Group.  He added that the draft outcome of the agreed conclusions for the coordination segment had been shaping up well and that he was confident that consultations would lead to a result that would guide ECOSOC to further enhance the role of the Council in follow-up work.  By increasing the impact and engaging power of the work of ECOSOC in the integrated and coordinated follow-up to the conferences and summits, ECOSOC would help advance the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals.

PATRIZIO CIVILI, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, introducing the report of the Secretary-General on the follow-up to conferences, said that the Council had pioneered the concept of the integrated follow-up to conferences, on which the Secretary-General’s report was based.  This concept had been developed by the General Assembly and its Working Group as a political imperative to fully exploit the crucial added value that the Millennium Declaration, followed by Johannesburg and Monterrey, had contributed to the conferences processes, and as a political imperative to move the international community into an implementation mode, with the determination and urgency that the present international situation required.  While policy coordination and integrated action would continue to be an ongoing challenge for a system as diverse as the United Nations system, the inter-agency system had progressed far beyond the time when the main concerns were simply to ensure that duplication should be avoided and that the broad policy directions emerging from the United Nations should take into account agency policy and programme development.  The Millennium Declaration, further reinforced by the outcomes of Monterrey and Johannesburg, had provided a common policy framework to which all its member organizations were fully committed.

The Secretary-General’s report, he said, made recommendations relevant to the job ahead for the Council in developing modalities, not just to implement, but to maximize its contribution to the follow-up to the conclusions of the Working Group.  These included the elaboration by the Council of a multi-year thematic work-programme for its coordination segment; to give further consideration to the interactions between the Council and the United Nations Funds and Programmes in the context of the operational activities segment in ways that would enhance the capacity of the Council to give proactive guidance to the collective contribution of the operational activities managed by the Programmes and Funds towards conference goals; and in the Council’s relationships with both the functional and regional commissions.

Having earlier in the session stated the three conditions he thought necessary for progress in furthering coordination and coherence with the system –- namely, inclusive and participatory decision-making processes, an authoritative, common policy framework and the translation of that framework into meaningful sets of policy guidelines – he said that the first two requirements were now in place and what remained was to ensure the third.  In this process, the Council had a crucial role to play.  It should further consolidate its inclusive and participatory methods of work and deepen the policy guidance that the Council provided to the system.  Furthermore, the Council’s interactions with the organizations of the system could not be confined solely to their secretariats, but should progressively engage the inter-governmental bodies that set the policies of member organizations.

NANA EFFAH-APPENTENG, Vice-Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group of the General Assembly on the integrated and coordinated implementation and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social field, said that when the Working Group had been established by the General Assembly, expectations were high.  It had had to develop concrete recommendations to ensure that the United Nations’ work best supported the realization of the goals and objectives of major United Nations conferences and summits.  It had been clear to the Bureau that it needed to focus on a limited number of areas which included organizing better the work of the General Assembly; defining more clearly the respective roles of the Assembly, ECOSOC and its functional commissions; increasing the impact of intergovernmental work on implementation of conference goals and commitments; and defining modalities for the reviews of conferences.  The resulting recommendations had paved the way for improving the work of the General Assembly and of the Second Committee, and their impact on conference implementation.  They had given new impetus to the coordination work of ECOSOC -– such as through advanced planning of its work.  They had also structured the dialogue between the General Assembly and ECOSOC on conference follow-up.

In addition, they had launched a review of the working methods of functional commissions, so that they could better support the implementation of conference outcomes.  They also contained firm principles to guide future conference reviews.  Beyond this, in his view, there was a clear political message in the outcome which reconfirmed the commitment of all countries to ensure a coherent implementation of conference goals and to reorient United Nations intergovernmental goals towards this end.  It also demonstrated that the spirit of cooperation and compromise was alive and well, and that the United Nations could deliver.  He stressed that the recommendations were not an end in themselves and that they must not remain as another set of pious declarations cluttering the archives of the United Nations.  All Member States which had made well-meaning commitments in the various conference outcomes should now give a practical demonstration of their political will to move the agenda of international development forward. 

JEAN DE RUYT, Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United Nationsand Vice-Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group, said that the Council had a central role to play as a coordinating pool, where Governments and other development actors could come together with the United Nations to examine common themes.  For this reason, the Council must implement the recommendations of the General Assembly’s Working Group, the first of which concerned the Council’s work-programme.  The Council should come to agreement on the common themes of conferences in the years to come.  Secondly, the review of working practices of the Council’s functional commissions should be pursued in a sustained manner, following the example of the reform of the work of the Commission on Sustainable Development. 

Thirdly, he said that there should be strengthened links between the Council’s general and high-level segments.  The role of non-governmental organizations and civil society within the work of the Council should be strengthened, and there should be strengthened dialogue between the Council and the organizations of the United Nations system.  And finally, the Working Group had laid a foundation for holding a major meeting of the General Assembly on the follow-up to conferences.  This meeting was of grave political importance and must thus be well prepared.  The Council’s leadership should be mobilized to make this event a success and to expedite the implementation of its engagements.

The Council would continue to think about ways to improve its role in the follow-up to conferences at its next session, he added.  It could continue to and finalize its thoughts on consistency amongst various segments of the Council.  Moreover, much remained to be done to align the organization with the major goals of development for the millennium and to ensure that the United Nations worked efficiently, that its decisions were anchored in reality and that they had a real impact for all development actors.

Interactive Segment

In an interactive segment, one speaker that he was concerned about an approach based on thematic systems in terms of follow-up.  He asked about the mechanism of follow-up and whether there would be a specific mechanism to monitor implementation and be responsible for the follow-up of conferences and summits.  Moreover, did the process allow a focus on the commitments being made and the progress thereof?  He was concerned that in the thematic approach, specific goals and commitments would get lost.  In addition, would the process address the situation of inadequate implementation, he asked, and suggested that action be taken in such circumstances.  Finally, regarding the review process, he asked whether it would entail continuous reviews or whether specific conferences on review would have to be held.

Another speaker raised the new role of United Nations conferences and said he failed to understand the philosophy behind certain conferences; were they part of a reform process or were they just creating new bodies to implement follow-up, he asked.

Finally, one speaker said the issue of integrated and coordinated implementation on a regional level was tremendously important.  With the acceptance of NEPAD as a policy framework, panellists were asked to elaborate on how NEPAD could contribute to implementation.

Responding, Mr. EFFAH-APPENTENG said concerning themes, one of the cardinal points was to respect the thematic continuation of all conferences.  The focus of the Working Group had been the implementation of these themes without creating new mechanisms but by using existing mechanisms.  Taking the case of Monterrey, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) had been asked to work with ECOSOC on implementation.  The Council was the main body responsible for implementation and coordination and needed to look at its working methods in order to forward the goals of international development on the national, regional and international levels.  Concerning NEPAD, he said that it could assist in the implementation of agreed targets and goals. 

Mr. DE RUYT said that the mandate had not been to create a separate mechanism, a fact that had made the work of the Working Group more interesting and constructive.  The creation of another mechanism would have duplicated the work done elsewhere.  Through a coordinated and integrated approach to commitments made, as well as coordination between the different approaches, dynamism had been added to the work of ECOSOC and the United Nations as a whole.  

Statements

ABDELLAH BENMELLOUK (Morocco) said that the Council should focus its attention on the implementation of the recommendations of the Working Group.  The new, horizontal thematic approach should provide an instrument for evaluating tangible progress made in the implementation of decisions and evaluating progress made in the achievement of United Nations goals for development.  The Council should also seek to ensure the participation of all subsidiary bodies and other stakeholders in the exercise of assessing progress made in implementing these decisions.  Furthermore, the recommended reform of the working methods of the functional commissions had been meant to focus the work of those bodies on monitoring the implementation of engagements taken by Member States.  Noting that indicators were of crucial importance in this monitoring process, he welcomed the work of the Statistical Committee.

There was urgent need, he said, for developed countries to implement their commitments in the areas of opening markets, debt reduction and cancellation, official development assistance (ODA), technology transfers and investments, and in helping developing countries to achieve economic growth, the eradication of poverty and sustainable development.  Developed countries must also respect their commitments related to financial, monetary and trade policy liberalization.  Moreover, the Council should continue to improve its cooperation and coordination with the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Stressing the importance of interaction among the various components of the United Nations system, he said the United Nations funds and programmes must reflect the outcomes of major United Nations conferences and summits.  Inter-institutional coordination was also of vital importance for integrated and coordinated implementation, in which respect the role of the Chief Executives Board (CEB) and its mechanisms, as well as that of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) were of importance.

PAOLO BRUNI (Italy), speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the Working Group’s debate had clearly shown the broad consensus that existed on ECOSOC’s pivotal role in system-wide collaboration and in promoting integrated, coordinated implementation of and follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits.  The Council was now in a better position to draw on the experiences of recent years.  Many conferences and summits had not only recognized ECOSOC’s important role, but had also mandated it to play a major role.  The Council had been assigned more crucial tasks in light of the policy guidance emanating from the Millennium Summit, the Monterrey Consensus and the outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

To achieve the Millennium Development Goals, as well as the objectives of the other major United Nations conferences and summits, would take sustained political attention, a strong sense of commitment and an unwavering dedication at both the national and international levels.  The European Union believed that the major appointment awaiting it in 2005 would strengthen the common will to focus on implementation based on a comprehensive review of the progress achieved.  In this context, ECOSOC’s contribution would be crucial to the success of the event. 

This segment was the forum where the Council reviewed the implementation of the outcomes of major United Nations conferences and assessed the achievement of conference goals and targets.  In this regard, a multi-year work programme for the coordination segment based on a list of cross-sectoral thematic issues was needed.  The European Union hoped that a productive discussion of these themes would be held as soon as possible.  It was the first step in acting on common willingness to enable ECOSOC to fulfil its institutional responsibilities of providing system-wide coordination, oversight and policy guidance, as well as its analytical role in identifying new and emerging issues.

VASSILY NEBENZIA (Russian Federation) said that the major conferences and summits of the last 10 years had given great impetus for solving the world’s major problems and issues.  The proposed new format for the Council’s work had been set out in the relevant General Assembly resolution, however, any proposals to change the current format of the Council’s work needed to be convincingly born out in terms of added value from those changes.  The Russian Federation felt that any changes in the substantive role of the Council were perfectly achievable in terms of the existing format.  Acknowledging that there was a need to streamline the discussion of issues during the general discussion segment, he suggested the transfer of consideration of those issues best considered by the General Assembly to that body.

While there was a need for increasing the length of the segment, he said that it should not come at the expense of other segments.  The Russian Federation supported, in theory, the recommendation to strengthen the role of the functional bodies in monitoring capacities.  Moreover, in strengthening the role of civil society in its work, the Council should operate within the scope of relevant rules and procedures. 

SICHAN SIV (United States) said the international community had developed both an intellectual framework and a set of concrete goals for eradicating poverty and achieving development.  It was a significant success for Governments to be working together towards this vision, which was based on the shared commitment to enhanced partnership and to the idea that each country had primary responsibility for its own economic development.  The Council must ensure that the United Nations system worked in harmony to implement the conclusions agreed at the political level in the respective United Nations conferences and summits.  Rather than rehashing the debates leading to the conference outcomes, ECOSOC needed to provide its subsidiary bodies and the United Nations programmes, funds and specialized agencies with practical guidance on how to achieve the goals of the Millennium Declaration, Monterrey and Johannesburg.  With a properly focused programme of work, the Council could effectively serve its role in the realization of the conference outcomes. 

AIZAZ CHAUDHRY (Pakistan) said that the Council should start implementing the decisions of the Working Group which had been adopted by the General Assembly.   In this segment of ECOSOC's work, the Council would initiate steps to operationalize the decisions of the Working Group pertaining to the role of the Council, its functional commissions and other subsidiary bodies.  Pakistan was pleased to see the Council being given primary responsibility to act as the central forum for system-wide coordination and annual review and assessment of the progress in the implementation of the conference outcomes. 

For the most optimal results, the substantive review process should be carried out by functional commissions, whose work should be analytical and should highlight the key coordination issues related to the theme of the coordination segment.  Noting that the theme of future high-level segments would be related to the theme of the coordination segment, he said this augured well for increased synergy and effective follow-up.  Monitoring the implementation of commitments should be across the board and based on internationally agreed indicators.  Moreover, there was a need to simplify and harmonize the reporting mechanisms of national governments.

A. GOPINATHAN (India) said the issue of follow-up to conferences was addressed in the coordination segment by the establishment of a multiyear programme of work for the consideration of identified cross-sectoral thematic issues.  This methodology would be useful as it would provide an integrated and coordinated approach with regard to common and overarching conference goals.  India would also be willing, once the multi-year programme of work had been drawn up, to consider the Secretary-General’s suggestion of designating lead organizations for each theme.  This was a segment to which developing countries attached importance and it served a purpose which could not be subsumed under the issue of conference follow-up.  The high-level segment, similarly, provided an opportunity to consider issues of contemporary interest.  These issues might or might not, as was the case this year, be related to conference follow-up.  A rigid linkage between the themes of the high-level and coordination segments, along with the establishment of a multiyear programme of work for the coordination segment, prevented the flexibility needed for consideration of issues of contemporary interest in the high-level segment.

OH HYUN-JOO (Republic of Korea) said that the resolution on conference follow-up should become a valuable source of reference for the work of the Council, as well as the Second and Third Committees of the General Assembly.  Among the important points made were the need for the Economic and Social Council to play a central role in promoting a coordinated follow-up to the major United Nations conferences and summits; the emphasis placed upon the need for greater thematic unity between the high-level and coordination segments of the substantive session; and the proposal to adopt a multi-year programme, which would provide consistent direction, predictability and transparency to the Council’s work in coming years and further enhance the significance of cross-sectoral themes.

The functional commissions of the Council, she added, should have primary responsibility for the follow-up and review of the major conferences and summits, as such follow-ups related to each commission’s specific directives.  Supporting the call for the functional commissions to enhance their role as forums for expert-review and follow-up throughout the implementation process, she urged the functional commissions to include the results of this follow-up and implementation in their reports to the Council.  Among the tasks presented by this year’s coordination segment were the need to select themes for next year’s high-level and coordination segments, and to formulate a multi-year work programme for the coordination segment in a way that would be complementary to the cross-sectoral themes selected.

VALERIY KUCHINSKY (Ukraine) said the resolution had established a clear framework on how the United Nations, the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council could further the work on agreed commitments and goals in the development progress.  He supported the establishment of a multiyear work programme.  However, it was pivotal to maintain a degree of flexibility in the work of the Economic and Social Council.  In view of its cross-cutting nature, gender mainstreaming must also be an integral part of the discussion on integrated and coordinated conference follow-up.  Ukraine was fully supportive of the idea to ensure greater thematic unity in the work of the substantive session. Greater focus needed to be given to integrating humanitarian issues into the agenda of the substantive session.  Of particular importance was the proposal to enhance synergy and linkages between operational activities, coordination and humanitarian affairs segment.  It would be consistent if one were to ensure smooth transition from relief to reconstruction and development.  He also stressed the need to strengthen the role of the Council in exercising oversight over the conference follow-up by the United Nations system and to provide clear and meaningful guidance.  A key element in the reform of the Council must be enhancing its coordinating, oversight and management with regard to its subsidiary machinery. 

IMELDA HENKIN, of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said that she was convinced by the accumulated wisdom of the outcomes of international conferences and the experience of United Nations agencies that the greatest value of United Nations activities would come from coordinated operations at the field level.  The UNFPA, therefore, followed with keen interest and contributed to efforts within the Council and the General Assembly to promote an integrated follow-up to conferences.  The General Assembly resolution under discussion provided the basis for taking previous Council decisions to enhance coordinated follow-up processes.  Suggestions such as the review and assessment through cross-sectoral approaches and multiyear programmes of work had the capacity to capture all critical elements flowing through outcomes of conferences.  Moreover, the Executive Boards and functional commissions would play a critical role in developing these cross-sectoral themes.  The UNFPA believed that joint sessions of the executive boards of the UNFPA, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Food Programme (WFP), and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)should be used to identify crosscutting conference issues vital for the realization of Millennium Development Goals.  The UNFPA was working closely with its other development partners to ensure that poverty reduction strategies were incorporated into national strategies in terms of internationally agreed development goals. 

GORDAN MARKOTIC (Croatia) said that one must make proper use of the recommendations of the Working Group as a basis for continued efforts in strengthening the Council’s role as the central mechanism for system-wide coordination.  The ECOSOC would thus be able to further promote the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences in the economic, social and related fields.  However, it was necessary to agree on whether there was enough political will to start making progress during this year’s segment about a mult-iyear work programme.  It must be flexible enough to allow it to take up major economic and social issues if and when the need arose in order to further allow the Council to focus on thematic approaches, not only during its coordination segment, but also to extend it to its other segments.  In Croatia’s view, the Council must continue to work with the organizations of the United Nations system, including financial and trade institutions, thus increasing collaboration and cooperation in implementation of the goals of major United Nations conferences and summits, using fully its high-level, operational, coordination, humanitarian and general segments.  The importance of the coordination segment was stressed, as well as the role of regional commissions in country-level implementation.

J.M BOULGARIS (Switzerland) said that, although the United Nations Charter had given the Economic and Social Council a central role in the economic and social areas, in recent years the Council had lost some of its profile and impact on the work of the United Nations.  In this respect, he welcomed the General Assembly resolution which gave the Council a central role in the follow-up to conferences.  Also welcome was the establishment of a multiyear work-programme for the Council.  Yet this new procedure should not prevent the Council from adapting to rapid changes in the economic area.  Considerable efforts still needed to be made in ensuring that the various functional commissions worked in a coordinated manner among themselves; thus, Switzerland favoured the publication of one unified report on the follow-up to conferences with its chapters shaped by themes.

It would not be possible to analyse and reform the working methods of the Council without analysing and reforming the agendas of its subsidiary organs, as well as of the Second and Third Committees.  Better coherence and coordination were necessary, he said, for them to fulfil their mandates efficiently.  Finally, while the United Nations should continue its work aimed at reinstalling the Council at the centre of economic and social affairs, Switzerland was prepared to commit itself to the United Nations through the Council in terms of ensuring its participation in the implementation and follow-up to the outcomes of major conferences and summits.

JOHN LANGMORE, of the International Labour Office, said the number of conferences and summits held recently had not only broken records for the participation of heads of States, but had also broken records because of the aspirations and goals they were committed to.  The implementation of these commitments and goals must be a priority for ECOSOC.  The effectiveness of the Council could be increased by adding a segment on the state of the global economy, he said.  Such a debate, if focused and cohesive, would be appropriate.  The Council must also discuss additional crucial and contemporary issues, such as the additional resources required for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and the social dimensions of globalization.  The World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, under the aegis of the International Labour Office, would be meeting at the end of this year and might be able to provide a basis for such a discussion.  The ECOSOC could also have short and focused meetings during the year on issues of importance to it.  These suggestions could contribute to the process of the revitalization of ECOSOC already under way.

TINGRONG GONG (China) said that since the 1990s, in order to strengthen international cooperation and to promote the comprehensive and balanced development of States, the United Nations had held a series of meetings whereby the processes for accomplishing these goals were laid out.  Now, the General Assembly had set forth in its resolution the focus, roles and targets of United Nations agencies in achieving the outcomes of United Nations conferences and summits.  The role of the Economic and Social Council, as the most important coordinating mechanism of the United Nations, should play a major role in the coordination of follow-up actions and should hold consultations in regard of its main themes and come up with a multi-year work programme by 2004.  The Council should also continue to push for the solution of the questions of gravest concern for developing countries.  In conjunction with the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization, it should promote continuity and consistency of international policies for development cooperation. 

HUSNIYYA MAMADOVA (Azerbaijan) said Azerbaijan agreed with the Secretary-General in his report, when he recognized the improvements in working methods of and progress achieved by the Council in facilitating integrated and coordinated follow-up to major United Nations conferences and summits.  However, he had also pointed to the necessity of focusing on implementation and better involvement of national and other relevant stakeholders.  There was a need to ensure an integrated approach through thematic reviews.  Enhancement of a greater convergence in selecting thematic areas for the high-level segment and focus on greater thematic unity must be a priority.  Azerbaijan recognized the Millennium Summit, Monterrey and Johannesburg, as the bedrock of the international agenda for development and unlined their special relevance in outlining the key role of the Council in terms of follow-up.  Concurrently, Azerbaijan acknowledged that a primary responsibility lay with Governments and the importance of support supplementing the national efforts.  The Council with its special responsibilities in the field of coordination of the United Nations and its subsidiary bodies was an appropriate framework to secure such support. 

ESTI ANDAYANI (Indonesia) said that the Economic and Social Council was to play a crucial role in the three-tiered system for follow-up and review of the major international conferences and summits.  Its challenge was to ensure that the outcomes of major United Nations conferences and summits were interlinked and collectively contributed to an integrated framework for the implementation of development goals.  At the same time, it was imperative to sharpen the role of its respective functional commissions and subsidiary organs so as to improve their impact on development objectives at all levels.  The Council would also play an important role in establishing a coherent framework for the functional commissions and specialized agencies, including those under the United Nations system, the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization, for the achievement of development goals such as eradicating poverty, promoting food security and enhancing sustainable development. 

The General Assembly’s resolution, she noted, requested that the Council’s reviews and assessments should focus on a common theme each year.  Moreover, the Council should adopt a multiyear work-programme, and should invite the functional commissions and other relevant follow-up mechanisms to contribute from their specific perspectives. 

JOSE RAMON LORENZO (Mexico) said he welcomed the General Assembly resolution concerning the coordinated and integrated implementation of United Nations conferences and summits.  The General Assembly had, through this resolution, reaffirmed the role of ECOSOC in the international development agenda.  Specific roles and tasks had been given to ECOSOC, including the establishment of a multiyear programme.  It was hoped that the Council would begin working on these tasks as soon as possible.  Mexico believed that the issue of coordination should be linked to the high-level segment.  The importance of looking at indicators was stressed since it would allow the assessment of progress made in the implementation of conferences and summits.  In this context, it would be particularly important to look at development indicators.  The role that could be played by regional commissions in implementation was also underlined.

THORALF STENVOLD (Norway) said that the Economic and Social Council did have an important role to play in the follow-up to major international conferences and summits, and that it was important to remember that although the institutions and processes involved in this follow-up would take on their own dynamics, the ultimate goal remained a common one –- development and poverty alleviation.  Agreeing that the Council should not rehash the debates that had led up to the conferences and summits, but be mutually supportive, he said that of particular importance was the more systematic mobilization of the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization, as finance and trade were evermore important for the achievement of development goals.  Also, as coherence started at home, fundamentally, the effectiveness of the Council was up to its members.

CLAUDIO ROJAS (Chile) said that this was an opportunity to recognize the important work undertaken by the Working Group in its adoption of its resolution on coordinated and integrated implementation to United Nations conferences and summits.  This was an excellent basis to form ECOSOC’s work and that of its functional commissions.  In this connection, indicators must be used for purposes of implementation, he said.  The Council must begin to think of how it would approach its new responsibilities.  It was important to stress the pragmatic spirit of the Working Group making a consensus possible.  Chile also fully endorsed the report of the Secretary-General on coordination and the interesting ideas expressed therein.  It was time to look at policy considerations in order to ensure ECOSOC’s integrated coordination in its dues.  Concerning national implementation, he stressed the importance of regional frameworks and cooperation.

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