PRESS CONFERENCE on Economic and Social Council reform

 

The President of the Economic and Social Council, Ali Hachani (Tunisia) briefed correspondents at Headquarters today for the first time since the General Assembly voted on 20 November to expand the Council’s mandate, in line with the recommendations of the world’s leaders at the 2005 World Summit.

Development, together with peace and security, human rights and reform of the United Nations, was among the core concern of the gathering of global leaders in 2005, where the Economic and Social Council was placed squarely at the centre of efforts to monitor and advance implementation of the United Nations development agenda.  Responding to that call had become an important thrust of the Council’s work for 2006 and beyond, as it scaled up actions to increase the link between the operational activities of the Organization and the Council’s own quest to realize the critical goals of the agreed international development agenda.

According to its expanded mandate, the Council was expected to regularly convene a new Development Cooperation Forum, respond more quickly to humanitarian emergencies and share its experience in helping post-conflict countries with the Peacebuilding Commission.  It would launch an annual ministerial review, together with a new development cooperation forum, during its 2007 high-level segment.  The resolution also sought to bring into sharper focus the linkages between the work of the Peacebuilding Commission and that of the Council’s advisory groups dealing with countries emerging from conflict.

Upon the introduction of the annual report of the Council to the General Assembly on 2 November, Ambassador Hachani had noted that a more substantive and interactive relationship was indeed developing between the Assembly and the Council, which should help to provide meaningful and practical orientation to the international community in implementing the United Nations development agenda.  The key new functions given to the Economic and Social Council must play a central role and enable it to serve as the bridge between policymaking and its implementation in the area of economic and social development, he said he had told Member States.

Addressing correspondents today, he reviewed the Economic and Social Council’s history, recalling that it had conducted a number of activities in accordance with its Charter role.  He praised the Council’s enormous success in tabling ideas, which had become norms in the economic and social cooperation field.  Those had included the concept of official development assistance and the appeal to developed countries to allocate no less than 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) for that purpose, the notion of sustainability of development, and the launching of several international conferences, which had become landmarks in international relations.

Perhaps because of the Economic and Social Council’s success and its duties with respect to its many functional bodies, it eventually became “overtaken” by its activities and, thus, the impression had evolved that the Council was becoming less effective, he acknowledged.  That had led the Council to improve its working methods.  For example, it had devised a new method of organizing its agenda on the basis of segments -– a high-level segment, an operational activities segment, humanitarian and coordination segments, and so forth -– and it had organized several round tables and thematic forums, all of which gave it more impact in the economic and social arenas.

The newest advance, of course, had flowed from the 2005 World Summit, which had recognized development as a main pillar of international relations, he said.  Regarding the Millennium Development Goals, which had dominated many United Nations activities since 2000, the Council had been expected to “give flesh” to their implementation and make them a reality.  The 2005 Summit sought to give the Economic and Social Council new mandates as a principal body of the United Nations for coordination, policy review, policy dialogue and recommendation on issues of economic and social development, as well as for the implementation of the international development goals, agreed at the major United Nations conferences and summits.

He said that the new mandates were a “major departure from the usual way of doing things for ECOSOC”, and, as such, the Council members had been consulting on ways to implement those as quickly as possible and to agree on themes for those major events that would begin next year.  The Council should be able to start next year, not only with a new Bureau, but also with a new way of doing things, a new way of working, for the benefit of the international community and, in particular, developing countries.  He appealed to the media to raise the profile of the Economic and Social Council activities.  After all, development was now considered by Heads of State and Government as one of the three pillars of international relations.

Asked whether the Economic and Social Council was overseeing the United Nations Millennium Project, which the correspondents understood was being folded into the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s poverty group, Mr. Hachani replied that the Economic and Social Council provided coordination for operational activities of the United Nations, including UNDP and all other bodies that reported to the Council or the General Assembly.  The Council was entitled to coordinate all activities within that framework pertaining to the Millennium Development Goals.

Adding to that, the Director of the United Nations Office for Economic and Social Council Support and Coordination, Nikhil Seth, explained there were two processes under way.  One was advocacy, in which the Secretariat itself was playing a role in helping to direct the work of the United Nations in the context of the Goals.  The Economic and Social Council was a platform for policymakers, civil society, the private sector, and the United Nations.  It had a special role in coordinating the role of the United Nations system.  The Project was a Secretariat process for advocacy.

The era of big conferences for development had been put on the back-burner, he said.  More prominence had now been given to the standing bodies of the United Nations.  The annual ministerial review and the Goal’s advocacy platform should involve a broad swathe of actors as development could not be achieved by Governments, alone.  That had been one lesson learned over the years, and how the Economic and Social Council could help promote that partnership for development was one important facet being examined and re-examined.

Mr. Hachani said that the Economic and Social Council was the only Charter body in the United Nations charged with keeping in touch with the non-governmental organizations through its consultative process.  Thanks to that mechanism, there were more than 3,000 non-governmental organizations that enjoyed such status and had contributed to the work, not only of the Council, but of the United Nations in general.  The new mandates given to the Economic and Social Council had reaffirmed the need, not only to keep that contact with the non-governmental organizations, but to strengthen it.  Thus, he expected that the non-governmental organization community, with consultative status, would have a role to play in the policy dialogue to be launched in the annual ministerial-level substantive reviews and so forth.

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For information media • not an official record