Commission for Social Development

Forty-first Session

9^th Meeting (AM)

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION NOMINATES FOUR MEMBERS

TO RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Commission Also Hears Introduction of Draft Work

Programme for 2004-2005 and Four Draft Resolutions

The Commission for Social Development nominated four members to the Board of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) this morning, as it met to consider the work of that body as well as other matters.

Subject to confirmation by the Economic and Social Council, the Commission decided to nominate Elizabeth Jelin, Yakin Ertürk, Marina Pavlova-Silvanskaya and Salma Sobhan to replace three members whose terms of office expired this year, and one member who had resigned from the UNRISD Board.

Explaining the work and focus of the Institute over the last two years, its Director, Thandika Mkandawire, said UNRISD served as a conduit of knowledge from sites where it was generated to sites where it might be used.  He stressed the importance of increased attention on social justice, poverty eradication and democracy within development debates and agendas, and elaborated on UNRISD’s

five-pronged research themes.  For the period 2000-2005, its research programmes were structured around social policy and development; technology, business and society; civil society and social movements; democracy, governance and human rights; and identities, conflict and cohesion. 

The longevity of UNRISD was in large part due to its power to “convene” and bring together diverse groups of people from all countries and from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, in a forum where social development could be debated, he continued.  Even though accessibility and utility of researchers to

policy-makers was a concern to all policy-oriented research institutions, UNRISD would continue to remain relevant to a wide range of social actors as it carried out research on the social development challenges facing the world. 

At the outset of today’s meeting, the Director of the Division for Social Policy and Development, Johan Schölvinck, briefed the Commission on the Division’s draft programme of work for the 2004-2005 biennium.  The draft programme of work, which was more open, efficient and creative than in the past, reflected a congruence with the format of the medium-term plan and focused on issues such as poverty, unemployment, ageing, persons in situations of conflict, people with disabilities, families, youth and indigenous issues.  The Division assisted governments and civil society with information, the monitoring of trends and emerging issues, as well as providing technical cooperation to contribute to an enabling environment for social development.  Major documents guiding the

Division’s work included the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action, the outcome of the Assembly’s twenty-fourth special session on social development, the Millennium Declaration and the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing 2002. 

The Division had also been entrusted with the additional responsibility, he continued, to provide meeting servicing and substantive support to the work of the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues and the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities.  Following the reorganization of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, resources for technical cooperation activities had been divided between two subprogrammes, namely subprogramme 3 (Social policy and development) and subprogramme 8 (Public administration, finance and development).  Also, the Division’s publications programme had been critically assessed to ensure that its outreach efforts were enhanced through quality, timely dissemination of information online, supplemented by a print-on-demand capability. 

Also this morning, the Commission heard the introduction of several draft resolutions, which it was expected to act upon tomorrow. 

The representative of Portugal introduced a draft resolution on policies and programmes involving youth (document E/CN.5/2003/L.4).  Morocco’s representative, on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, introduced a draft resolution on national and international cooperation for social development:  implementation of the social objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (document E/CN.5/2003/L.6).  Draft resolution E/CN.5/2003/L.5, entitled “Comprehensive and integral international convention to promote and protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities”, was introduced by the representative of Mexico, and draft resolution E/CN.5/2003/L.8, on preparations for the observance of the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family in 2004, was introduced by the representative of Benin.

The Commission will meet again tomorrow, 21 February, to conclude its work for the forty-first session.

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